September 1957

[September 1], 1957 (Sunday)

• Apparently because a stopcock in the brake line was accidentally bumped by a coupler, the brakes failed on a heavily loaded 12-car church excursion train returning from Montego Bay to Kingston, British Jamaica. The crew failed to detect and act on the problem until the train ran away and derailed on a curve at Kendal. Five cars rolled into a ditch and two became wedged in a narrow cutting; 179 people were killed, and hundreds injured.
• Born: Gloria Estefan, Cuban-born American singer; in Havana
• Died: Dennis Brain, 36, English French horn player, died in a traffic collision.

[September 2], 1957 (Monday)

• Died: Bobby Myers, 30, American NASCAR driver, was killed in a race crash during the Southern 500 in Darlington, South Carolina.

[September 4], 1957 (Wednesday)

• Died: Hermann Kastner, 70, East German politician and defector, died of a heart attack aboard a train in Munich, West Germany.

[September 5], 1957 (Thursday)

• During the Cuban Revolution, Fulgencio Batista’s forces bombed anti-government riots in Cienfuegos.
• The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Security Council Resolution 125, recommending to the General Assembly that the Federation of Malaya be admitted to the United Nations.

[September 6], 1957 (Friday)

• Born: José Sócrates, 117th Prime Minister of Portugal; in Vilar de Maçada, Alijó

[September 7], 1957 (Saturday)

• Approaching a section where one track was closed for construction, a train from Paris to Nîmes failed to slow for the crossover at Nozières-Brignon station, and reached it at instead of. The locomotive derailed and breached a culvert under the track, which stopped it suddenly, worsening the pileup of cars. 27 people were killed and 134 injured, 30 seriously.
• In New Orleans, Louisiana, television station WWL-TV went on the air for the first time.
• Marilyn Van Derbur won the Miss America 1958 pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
• Born:
• *Stewart Finlay-McLennan, Australian actor; in Broken Hill, New South Wales
• *José Luis Gaitán, Argentine footballer; in Rosario
• *Lynbert Johnson, American professional basketball player; in New York City
• *Anders Jormin, Swedish bassist and composer; in Stockholm
• *Ewa Kasprzyk, Polish athlete; in Poznań
• *Corporal Kirchner, United States Army paratrooper and professional wrestler; in Chicago
• *John McInerney, British-German singer-songwriter ; in Liverpool
• *Iskra Mihaylova, Bulgarian politician and Member of the European Parliament; in Sofia
• *Nasser Mohammadkhani, Iranian footballer; in Tehran
• *J. Smith-Cameron, American actress; in Louisville, Kentucky
• *Jermaine Stewart, American R&B singer; in Columbus, Ohio
• Died: Manlio Rho, 56, Italian painter

[September 8], 1957 (Sunday)

• Born:
• *Joe Bocan, Canadian pop singer and actress; in Montreal
• *Walt Easley, professional American football fullback; in Charleston, West Virginia
• *Ricardo Montaner, Argentine-born Venezuelan singer; in Valentín Alsina, Buenos Aires
• *Heather Thomas, American actress ; in Greenwich, Connecticut

[September 9], 1957 (Monday)

• U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law, establishing the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
• Died: Muhammad al-Muqri, 103, former Grand Vizier of French Morocco

[September 10], 1957 (Tuesday)

• Shortly after midnight, a bomb exploded at Hattie Cotton Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee, which had admitted its first African-American student the previous day, severely damaging one wing of the building.
• William C. Beall, chief photographer for The Washington Daily News, took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Faith and Confidence at a parade in Chinatown, Washington, D.C.
• Born: Murat Zyazikov, Russian politician, President of Ingushetia, Ambassador of Russia to Cyprus, in Osh, Kyrgyz SSR, Soviet Union
• Died: Walter A. Lynch, 63, American lawyer and politician, former member of the United States House of Representatives from New York

[September 11], 1957 (Wednesday)

• Born: Preben Elkjær, Danish footballer; in Copenhagen

[September 12], 1957 (Thursday)

• Born:
• *Jan Egeland, Norwegian politician, diplomat and humanitarian; in Stavanger, Rogaland
• *Kadim Al Sahir, Iraqi singer; in Mosul
• *Rachel Ward, English-Australian actress; in Cornwell, Oxfordshire
• *Hans Zimmer, German film score composer; in Frankfurt, West Germany
• Died: Clendenin J. Ryan, 52, American businessman and magazine publisher, shot himself to death.

[September 13], 1957 (Friday)

• Born:
• *Cesare Bocci, Italian actor; in Camerino
• *Mal Donaghy, Northern Irish footballer; in Belfast
• *Bongbong Marcos, 17th President of the Philippines; in Santa Mesa, Manila

[September 16], 1957 (Monday)

• Born: David McCreery, Irish footballer; in Belfast
• Died: Qi Baishi, 93, Chinese painter

[September 17], 1957 (Tuesday)

• Born: Wayne White, American painter and puppeteer

[September 18], 1957 (Wednesday)

• Born: Mark Wells, American professional and Olympic champion ice hockey player; in St. Clair Shores, Michigan
• Died: Sir Galba, 38, Grenada-born calypsonian, died by suicide after stabbing his girlfriend.

[September 19], 1957 (Thursday)

• Born:
• *Mark Acheson, Canadian film, television and voice actor; in Edmonton, Alberta
• *Chris Roupas, Greek-American basketball player; in York, Pennsylvania

[September 20], 1957 (Friday)

• American boxer Archie Moore retained the world light-heavyweight title with a seventh-round knockout of Tony Anthony in Los Angeles.
• Born: Sabine Christiansen, German journalist and television presenter; in Preetz, Schleswig-Holstein, West Germany
• Died:
• *Jean Sibelius, 91, Finnish composer, died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
• *Merrill Moore, 54, American poet and psychiatrist, died of cancer.

[September 21], 1957 (Saturday)

• King Haakon VII of Norway died of a respiratory ailment at the age of 85. His 54-year-old son, Olav V, succeeded him as King.
• The German sailing ship Pamir sank off the Azores in a hurricane. Of the 86 men aboard, 80 died either in the sinking or over the next three days before the survivors were rescued.
• Born:
• *Ethan Coen, American film director, producer, screenwriter and editor, brother of Joel Coen; in St. Louis Park, Minnesota
• *Kevin Rudd, 26th Prime Minister of Australia; in Nambour, Queensland
• Died: Norma Giménez, 27, Argentine stage and film actress, committed suicide by throwing herself under a train.

[September 22], 1957 (Sunday)

• Born:
• *Nick Cave, Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter and actor; in Warracknabeal, Victoria
• *Mark Johnson, American college and Olympic ice hockey coach and college, professional and Olympic champion ice hockey player; in Minneapolis
• *Dalia Reyes Barrios, Venezuelan art collector; in Maracaibo
• Died: Toyoda Soemu, 72, Japanese admiral

[September 23], 1957 (Monday)

• Born: Rosalind Chao, American actress known for M*A*S*H, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; in Los Angeles

[September 24], 1957 (Tuesday)

• Camp Nou, home stadium of FC Barcelona, officially opened in Barcelona, Spain.

[September 25], 1957 (Wednesday)

• The second Atlas launch vehicle was destroyed in a launching attempt at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

[September 26], 1957 (Thursday)

• West Side Story, a new musical by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway in New York City.
• Born: Luigi De Canio, Italian footballer and football manager; in Matera

[September 27], 1957 (Friday)

• Born: Peter Sellars, American theatre director; in Pittsburgh

[September 29], 1957 (Sunday)

• The Kyshtym disaster occurred at the Mayak nuclear reprocessing plant in Russia.
• In British Nigeria, a 16-car train from Lagos to Kano was being driven carefully because of possible track damage from heavy rain, but when a culvert became blocked, the water rose rapidly and the driver was caught unaware by the resulting washout, about south of Ibadan. Seven cars derailed; early reports indicated 300 people missing, but it turned out that many of them walked away. However, 66 were killed and 122 injured.
• At Montgomery, Pakistan, a Karachi-bound express passenger train collided at full speed with a stationary oil-tanker train before midnight. 300 people were killed and 150 injured by the accident.
• Born: Andrew Dice Clay, American comedian; in Brooklyn, New York City
• Died: Manuel Briones, 64, Filipino lawyer, judge and politician

[September 30], 1957 (Monday)

• The funeral of composer Jean Sibelius was held in Helsinki.
• Born: Fran Drescher, American actress; in Flushing, Queens, New York City
• Died: David Frederick Wallace, 57, American architect, brother of former First Lady of the United States Bess Truman, died of kidney disease.