Vintage illustration of a mother and father with their son, watching a Western television show on their new console TV, 1950. Screen print. (Illustration by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)
1950
- First Modern Credit Card Introduced
- First Organ Transplant
- First “Peanuts” Cartoon Strip
- Korean War Begins
- Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt
- U.S. President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb
William Golden, CBS logo, 1951
1951
- Color TV Introduced
- “I Love Lucy” debut on October 15, 1951
- South Africans Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race
- Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending WWII
- Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister of Great Britain
1952
- Car Seat Belts Introduced
- The Great Smog of 1952
- Jacques Cousteau Discovers Ancient Greek Ship
- Polio Vaccine Created
- Princess Elizabeth Becomes Queen at Age 25
1953
- DNA Discovered
- First Playboy Magazine
- Hillary and Norgay Climb Mt. Everest
- Joseph Stalin Dies
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Executed for Espionage
Herbert Bayer, CCA Great Ideas of Western Man Campaign, Walter Paepcke and Mortimer Adler, 1954
1954
- Britain Sponsors an Expedition to Search for the Abominable Snowman
- First Atomic Submarine Launched
- Braves Hammerin’ Hank Aaron homers in his 1st exhibition game, 1st of 755
- Jonas Salk’s Polio Vaccine Given to Children in Massive Trial, 1st mass inoculation against polio with Salk vaccine (Pittsburgh)
- Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer
- Bell labs announces the 1st solar battery made from silicon. It has about 6% efficiency.
- Roger Bannister of Britain breaks 4 minute mile (3:59:4) at Iffley Road,Oxford
- “Sports Illustrated” magazine begins publishing
- French surrender to Vietminh after 55-day siege at Dien Bien Phu
- US, Great Britain & France reject Russian membership of NATO
- Iwo Jima Memorial (servicemen raising US flag) dedicated in Arlington
- Elvis Presley pays $4 to a Memphis studio & records his 1st two songs, “Casual Love” & “I’ll Never Stand in Your Way”
- Bill Haley & Comets records “Rock Around Clock”
- Joe Turner releases “Shake, Rattle & Roll”
- WINS NYC begins playing rock n roll with Alan Freed Show
- Tonight Show premieres on NBC with host Steve Allen
- First shopping mall opened in Southfield, Michigan
- 1st typesetting machine (photo engraving) used, Quincy Mass
- Texas Instruments Inc. announces the first transistor radio
- Publication of “Fellowship of the Ring” 1st volume and “Two Towers”, 2nd volume of “Lord of the Rings”of “Lord of the Rings” by J. R. R. Tolkien
- US explodes Castle Bravo, 15 megaton hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll – most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the US
- Military rule in Egypt; 318 Muslim Brotherhood members arrested
- The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.
- USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, launched on the Thames, Connecticut.
- B-52A bomber made its maiden flight
- IBM announces vacuum tube “electronic” brain that could perform 10 million operations an hour
- US Supreme Court unanimously rules on Brown v Topeka Board of Education reversed 1896 “separate but equal” Plessy v Ferguson decision
- Albert Schweitzer receives Nobel Peace Prize
- President Eisenhower reports detonation of 1st H-bomb (done in 1952)
- Eisenhower warns against US intervention in Vietnam, in news conference is first to voice fear of a “domino-effect” of communism in Indo-China
- Ho Chi Minh enters Hanoi after withdrawal of French troops
- President Eisenhower offers aid to South Vietnam pres Ngo Dinh Diem
- President Eisenhower put forward a plan for an interstate highway system
- Ground breaking begins on Disneyland
- Walt Disney’s 1st television program, “Disneyland”, premieres on ABC
- Eisenhower signs Communist Control Act, outlawing the Communist Party, at height of McCarthyism
- Segregation Ruled Illegal in U.S.
Saul Bass, movie credits for The Man With the Golden Arm, 1955
1955
Paul Rand, IBM, 1956
1956
- Elvis Gyrates on Ed Sullivan’s Show
- Grace Kelly Marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
- Hungarian Revolution
- Khrushchev Denounces Stalin
- Suez Crisis
- T.V. Remote Control Invented
- Velcro Introduced
1957
- Dr. Seuss Publishes The Cat in the Hat
- European Economic Community Established
- Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age
- Laika Becomes the First Living Animal to Enter Orbit
1958
- American Bobby Fischer Becomes Youngest Chess Grandmaster
- Boris Pasternak Refuses Nobel Prize
- Chinese Leader Mao Zedong Launches the “Great Leap Forward”
- Hope Diamond Is Donated to the Smithsonian
- Hula Hoops Become Popular
- LEGO Toy Bricks First Introduced
- NASA Founded
- Peace Symbol Created
1959
- Castro Becomes Dictator of Cuba
- International Treaty Makes Antarctica Scientific Preserve
- Kitchen Debate Between Nixon and Khrushchev
- The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway
- U.S. Quiz Shows Found to be Fixed