At 25, a Queen (Feb. 6): Britain's Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, are in Kenya on the first week of what is intended to be a five-month goodwill tour of East Africa. As Elizabeth sleeps, her father, King George VI, dies peacefully of advanced lung cancer and heart disease. Unaware that the crown has passed to her during the night, Elizabeth sets out at dawn to fish for trout. Not until lunchtime does the news reach the angling party. Now this 25-year-old woman, who until now has led a carefree life, is queen.

Step Lightly (Feb. 29): New York City installs the first electric "don't walk" signs in Times Square. Most pedestrians heed their warnings.

Helping Heart (March 8): A mechanical heart is placed for the first time in a human by surgeons at the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia. The patient dies 81 hours later.

Island of Depravity (March 10): Cuban dictator Gen. Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar regains power in a military coup. Under Batista, Cuba becomes a rum-soaked "island of sin," a playground for casino-owning gangsters and American high rollers.

Paying for Their Crimes (Sept. 10): Representatives of the German and Israeli governments sign an agreement that awards close to a billion dollars in reparations for Nazi crimes against the Jewish people.

Checkers Speech (Sept. 23): Presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower's running mate, Richard Nixon, responds to reports that he personally benefited from a political slush fund. As 60 million Americans watch on TV, Nixon denies using the fund for personal benefit. But he adds: "I did get something, a gift after the nomination. It was a little cocker spaniel dog, black and white, spotted. Our little girl Tricia -- the 6-year-old -- named it Checkers. The kids, like all kids, love the dog. Regardless of what they say about it, we are going to keep it." It is a masterful piece of manipulation. Viewers cry, letters of support pour in and Nixon rides Ike's coattails into the vice presidency.

Welcome to the Club (Oct. 3): Britain joins the United States and Soviet Union as a nuclear power. The Brits carry out their first successful atomic weapons in northwest Australia.

Big Blow Up (Nov. 1): The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission explodes the first hydrogen, or nuclear-fusion, bomb, at the Eniwetok proving grounds in the Pacific Ocean.

Coming Out (Dec. 15): A scrawny, blond ex-GI named George Jorgenson returns from Denmark as a tall blonde named Christine. While he is not the first transsexual, he is the first to go public.