Famous Weddings & Divorces in 1953

Jan 15 Cricketer Richie Benaud (22) weds Marcia Lavender at the Wesley Church in Sydney, Australia

Feb 14 Actress Agnes Moorehead (52) weds actor & film director Robert Gist (35)

Apr 6 MLB baseball player Ernie Banks (22) weds Mollye Louise

Apr 9 Biologist Alexander Fleming (71) weds doctor Amalia Koutsouri-Vourekas (41)

Apr 15 Ice hockey player Gordie Howe (25) weds sports agent Colleen Joffa (20) at Calvary Presbyterian Church

Jun 15 Sci-Fi author Arthur C. Clarke (35) weds Marilyn Torgenson in New York

Jun 18 Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. (24) weds fellow activist and singer Coretta Scott (26) on the lawn of her parent’s home in Marion, Alabama; ceremony officiated by his father

Jun 19 Singer James Brown (20) weds Velma Warren at Trinity CME Church in Toccoa, Georgia; divorce in 1969

Jul 6 English "James Bond" actor Roger Moore (25) weds second wife Welsh singer Dorothy Squires (38) in Jersey City, New Jersey; divorce in 1968

Jul 13 Academy award-winning Puerto Rican actor José Ferrer (41) weds American singer and actress Rosemary Clooney (25) in Durant, Oklahoma; divorce in 1961, and remarry in 1964

Aug 6 NHL goaltender Terry Sawchuk (23) weds Patricia Ann Morey

Aug 30 Future NYC mayor David Dinkins marries Joyce Burrows in NYC

Sep 3 New Zealand Explorer Edmund Hillary (34) weds Louise Mary Rose

Sep 8 American movie actress Lana Turner (32) weds 4th husband, "Tarzan of the Apes" actor Lex Barker (34); divorce in 1957

Sep 24 American "Gilda" actress Rita Hayworth (34) weds Argentine singer Dick Haymes (35) at The Sands Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas; divorce in 1955

Sep 25 Russian student and future statesman Mikhail Gorbachev (22) weds fellow student Raisa Maximovna (21) at a Komsomol wedding ceremony, until her death

Sep 29 US Senator Joseph McCarthy (43) weds researcher Jean Kerr at St. Matthews Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

Oct 3 American MLB player and future HOF manager Sparky Anderson (19) weds childhood sweetheart Carol Valle (18), until his death in 2010

Oct 6 MLB baseball player Hank Aaron (19) weds Barbara Lucas (divorced 1971)

Oct 26 Tennis champion Tony Trabert (23) weds beauty queen Shauna Wood at the Salt Lake Country Club in Salt Lake City, Utah

Dec 8 Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker (58) weds second wife Olive Palmer (51) at Park Road Baptist Church in Toronto, Canada

Dec 9 Entertainer Milton Berle (45) marries for the third time Ruth Cosgrove (32)

Dec 27 Broadcasting pioneer Roone Arledge (22) weds Joan Heise at St. Frances de Chantal Parish in Wantagh, New York

Jul 7 Actor José Ferrer divorces dancer and actress Phyllis Hill after 5 years of marriage

Aug 28 American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald (36) divorces American jazz bassist Ray Brown (27) after 6 years of marriage