last person to be executed in New Zealand, Walter James Bolton, is hanged at Mount Eden Prison for poisoning his wife. February 23 – The founding congress of the Senegalese Popular Bloc opens in Dakar. March March 1 U Nu becomes Prime Minister of Burma. Arturo Lezama becomes President of the National Council of Government of Uruguay. Sud Aviation forms, from a merger between SNCASE (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Est) and SNCASO (Société Nationale de Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud Ouest). March 3 – Net als toen, sung by Corry Brokken (music by Guus Jansen, lyrics by Willy van Hemert), wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 (held at Frankfurt), for the Netherlands. March 6 United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent nation of Ghana. Zodi Ikhia founds the Nigerien Democratic Front (FDN) in Niger. March 8 – Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal. March 14 – President Sukarno declares martial law in Indonesia. March 17 – 1957 Cebu Douglas C-47 crash: Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others are killed in a plane crash. March 20 – The French news magazine L'Express reveals that the French army tortures Algerian prisoners. March 25 – The Treaty of Rome (Patto di Roma) establishes the European Economic Community (EEC; predecessor of the European Union) between Italy, France, West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. March 27 – The 29th Academy Awards Ceremony is held in Hollywood. Around the World in 80 Days wins Best Picture. April April – IBM sells the first compiler for the Fortran scientific programming language. April 1 – The first new conscripts join the Bundeswehr. April 5 – The Communist Party of India wins the elections in Kerala, making E. M. S. Namboodiripad its first chief minister. April 9 – Egypt reopens the Suez Canal to all shipping. April 12 – The United Kingdom announces that Singapore will gain self-rule on January 1, 1958. April 15 The Distant Early Warning Line is handed over by contractors to the U.S. and Canadian military. White Rock secedes from Surrey, British Columbia, following a referendum. April 17 – Suspected English serial killer Dr. John Bodkin Adams is found not guilty of murder, at the Old Bailey. April 24 – 25 – The 1957 Fethiye earthquakes occur, on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. April 30 – An annular solar eclipse was a non-central annular solar eclipse, that does