Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers (premier) from 1958 to 1964. As leader, he stunned the communist world by denouncing his predecessor Joseph Stalin and launching a campaign of de-Stalinization, and presided over the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). From 1924 until the country's dissolution in 1991, the officeholder was the recognized leader of the Soviet Union. Prior to Joseph Stalin's accession, the position was not viewed as an important role in Vladimir Lenin's government and previous occupants had been responsible for technical rather than political decisions.