Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union since the mid-1920s, dies near Moscow, opening the way to de-Stalinisation under Khrushchev.
James Watson and Francis Crick publish the double-helix model of DNA in Nature, drawing in part on Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction data.
The Geneva Conference ends the First Indochina War, temporarily partitioning Vietnam at the 17th parallel pending elections planned for 1956.
A nationwide uprising against Hungary's Soviet-backed government is crushed by Soviet forces.
France establishes the State of Vietnam within the French Union, with former emperor Bảo Đại as head of state.
Twelve North American and Western European countries sign the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, creating the NATO collective defence alliance.
The Federal Republic of Germany is founded in the Western occupation zones, followed by the German Democratic Republic in the Soviet zone.