• Visits USA and Britain twice - on the first trip he met with US President Truman before arriving in Britain on 23 May to ...

"explain to the British why import quotas had been imposed and what that meant to the larger Commonwealth community ... He met delegations, conferred with trade officials and bankers and - above all - addressed meetings of manufacturers and their tradesmen."
A W Martin, Robert Menzies: A Life. Vol 2 1944-1978, 1999 p 206.

• June 4: Admission to the Freedom of the City of London.
• November 21: Returns to Britain to attend the London Economic Conference and British Cabinet meeting with seven participating Commonwealth countries. Returns home via the USA and an informal meeting with US President Elect Eisenhower.

• Billy Hughes dies after 58 years continuous service in state and federal parliaments. He had been Prime Minister during and immediately after World War I.
• King George VI dies on 6 February.
• Discovery of high grade uranium ore.
• Government announces the two airlines policy.
• The Melbourne Argus is the first newspaper in the world to publish colour pictures.
• Ian Craig, at 17, becomes the youngest cricketer to play for Australia.

• King George VI dies on 6 February. Queen Elizabeth II ascends to the throne and is crowned on 2 June 1953.

"When a sovereign dies, or abdicates, a successor is immediately decided according to rules which were laid down at the end of the seventeenth century."
Extract from the Royal website

• ANZUS Pact comes into force on 29 April.
• Greece and Turkey join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
• First production of the contraceptive pill.