Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago is published.

Alain Robbe-Grillet's novel La Jalousie ( Jealousy) is published.

Claude Simon's novel Le Vent (The Wind) is published.

Mordecai Richler's novels A Choice of Enemies and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz are published.

Octavio Paz's novel Piedra de Sol is published.

Ingmar Bergman's film Wild Strawberries premieres.

Federico Fellini's film Nights of Cabiria premieres.

Satyajit Ray's film Aprajito premieres.

David Lean's film Bridge on the River Kwai, with William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa, premieres.

Akira Kurosawa's film Throne of Blood premieres.

The chemise is introduced at the late-summer Paris and Rome couturiere showings.

Italy develops the antibiotic rifampian, which is used to cure patients of tuberculosis.

In Germany nitrite poisoning from meat causes a scandal. German butchers have been using sodium nitrate to make meat look fresh, exposing consumers to methemoglobinemia, a reduction of blood hemoglobin by intestinal bacteria...