1953 in Singapore


The following lists events that happened during 1953 in Colony of Singapore.

Incumbents

Events

January

  • 18 January
  • * One of three main water supply pipes near MacPherson-Aljunied Road junction burst, leaving 70,000 people without water.
  • * Singapore experienced power outage for one hour when St. James Power Station broke down.
  • 30 January – 450 attendants at Woodbridge Mental Hospital staged a strike, initially leaving 1,758 patients to the care of 30 nurses, the doctors and three volunteers. The strike ended on 5 February 1953, after negotiation between union leaders and Governor of Singapore Sir John Fearns Nicoll.

February

April

May

  • 2 May – BOAC Flight 783, a Comet jetliner flying from Singapore to London, crashed near Calcutta, India after encountering bad weather, killing all forty-three passengers onboard.
  • 10 May – The City Council announced that it is banning smoking in buses.
  • 11 May
  • * Parts of Singapore were without electricity for up to three hours in the evening due to a technical fault at Pasir Panjang Power Station and subsequent overloading at St James Power Station.
  • * The Governments of Singapore and British Malaya appointed a joint committee, headed by Commissioner-General Malcolm MacDonald, to make recommendations for unification.
  • 14 May – The Royal Navy exploded 50 tons of bombs in the waters near Pulau Tekong. The explosives were dumped into the sea by the surrendering Japanese army in August 1945.
  • 19 May – The Government announced that government officers can voluntarily retire at the age of 45.
  • 25 May – The Singapore Customs Department seized 1.5 tons of opium hidden in a lorry around the Orchard Road area.
  • 27 May – A postman was sentenced to 18 months' jail after hundreds of undelivered letters and thousands of foreign stamps were found in his home.
  • 30 May – 6 June: Singapore celebrated the coronation of Elizabeth II with a week of festivities.

June

  • 7 June – A fire destroyed a block of shops and apartments in New Bridge Road, leaving 40 people homeless.
  • 8 June – The 1,546-seat Odeon Theatre opened on North Bridge Road.
  • 9 June
  • * The Government said that as a measure to curb the spread of rabies, 7,397 dogs have been vaccinated and 1,051 stray dogs have been shot since May.
  • * The Government announced that the 1951 limitation of building above 50,000 Malayan dollars will not be renewed.
  • 12 June – The Government announced that it plans to introduce modern prison reform in the colony. The planned measures include segregating inmates by the length of their sentences and setting up discharge camps for inmates with less than 3 months of sentence left.
  • 15 June – The electoral roll for the Colony's Legislative Council and City Council closed with just over 74,000 voters.
  • 16 June
  • * The Legislative Council approved the principle of extending the residential qualification of city councillors from three to seven years.
  • * The Government announced that it is adopting a new pay structure for its 16,000 workers according to recommendations from the Ritson Report.
  • 19 June – The City Council announced that it will ban fresh meat hawker on the streets from 1954, affecting about 1,000 hawkers.
  • 20 June – Singapore Association for the Blind announced that, with a badge, blind people can now travel free on buses operated by eight Chinese companies.
  • 25 June
  • * Malaysian Chinese Association announced that it will end all welfare and social programs due to the Government's ban on lottery organized by political organization.
  • * Singapore Rural Board agreed to license private markets in rural area due to a lack of government markets.
  • 29 June – The City Council published its administration report for 1952.
  • 30 June – The City Council announced that Taximeter will be compulsory for all taxis starting from 1954.

July

  • 1 July – K. M. Byrne was charged with two charges of gross insubordination and breaking the General Order for deriding the incompetence of his expatriate colleagues during his campaign against a new family allowance given to expatriates but not local civil servants. On 22 July, he was found not guilty and got off with a reprimand.
  • 3 July – The Pasir Panjang Power Station was officially opened by Governor Sir John Fearns Nicoll.
  • 6 July – Beatty Secondary School was officially opened.
  • 7 July – A fire destroyed a row of six two-storey houses in New Market Road and rendered 50 people homeless.
  • 16 July – A fire destroyed a shanty town in Geylang area, rendering 4,000 people homeless.
  • 20 July – The Custom seized two thousand pounds of opium near the junction of Kallang Road and Mountbatten after a car chase with a lorry.
  • 21 July – The Governor, Sir John Fearns Nicoll, appointed a nine-man commission headed by Sir George William Rendel to review the constitution of the Colony.
  • 25 July – The City Council's building committee announces that unauthorised newly-built houses will get neither water nor light.
  • 28 July
  • * A Royal Air Force transport plane from Singapore crashed near Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong. One Chinese farmer near the crash site was killed. There were no casualties among the crew and the passengers.
  • * The Singapore UMNO leaders were announced.

September

December

  • 8 December – The colonial government issued a white paper titled Chinese Schools Bilingual Education and Increased Aid, proposing the introduction of bilingual education in Chinese schools in exchange for increased financial aid. The white paper was met with criticism from many Chinese schools.

Births

Dates unknown

Deaths