Challenge Cup: Huddersfield hoping to end long wait

England regained the Ashes, Britain’s Jim Peters set a world marathon record of 2hrs 18mins 34.8secs in Finland and Rocky Marciano knocked out former champion Jersey Joe Walcott to successfully defend his world heavyweight crown.

Death of Stalin but long live the Queen

The United States and North Korea signed an armistice ending the Korean War, which was among the most destructive conflicts of the modern era with approximately three million war fatalities and a larger proportional civilian death toll than World War II or Vietnam.

Josef Stalin died in 1953, bringing to an end a 25-year dictatorship of the Soviet Union, while closer to home, on June 2, Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey, acceding to the throne at the age of 25 following the death of her father, George VI, in February 1952.

The one-day ceremony took 14 months of preparation and was estimated to have cost £1.57million.

Hilary conquers Everest

Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest when they reached the highest point on Earth – 29.035ft – at 11:30 am on May 29.

First attempted in 1921, Everest had repulsed at least 10 major expeditions and two lunatic solo attempts before the 1953 British expedition finally succeeded under the military-style leadership of Sir John Hunt.

A total of 350 porters and 20 Sherpas carried tons of supplies to support a vanguard of only 10 climbers, with 33-year-old beekeeper Hillary succeeding in his fourth Himalayan expedition, alongside the vastly experienced Tenzing, who had taken part in six previous attempts on the mountain dating back to 1935.

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