1950 ~ 1951 ~ 1952 ~ 1953 ~ 1954 ~ 1955 ~ 1956 ~ 1957 ~ 1958 ~ 1959


			A TIMELINE FOR THE DECADE OF THE FIFTIES

1950
President Truman orders the AEC to develop the hydrogen bomb.
Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox becomes the highest paid
     baseball player at $125,000 a year.
The FBI issues its first list of Ten Most Wanted Criminals.
U.S. Postmaster General cuts mail delivery from twice to once a day.
First human kidney transplant performed (49 year old woman in Chicago)
North Korea invades South Korea. U.N. forces under General Douglas MacArthur
     join South Korea in the war.
Betty Crocker's picture cook book issued.
Smokey the Bear becomes living symbol of the U.S. Forest Service.
Charles M. Schulz's comic strip "Peanuts" debuted in eight newspapers.
New TV shows: Jack Benny, What's My Line, You Bet Your Life (Grocho) and
     Sid Ceasar's "Your Show of Shows".
New products:  Miss Clairol Hair Coloring, Minute Rice, Diners Club credit card,
      the Xerox copy machine.
Best Picture:  "All About Eve"
Best Actor:  Jose Ferrer in "Cyrano deBererac"
Best Actress:  Judy Holiday in "Born Yesterday"


1951
Joe Dimaggo retired (life time batting average of .325)
The 22nd amendment to the Constitution, limiting the presidency to two terms,
     was adopted.
Margaret Sanger, pioneer of birth control, urges development of oral 
     contraceptive.
General Douglas MacArthur was forced into retirement after 52 years and
     made that famous quote "Old soldiers never die, they…….."
The average cost of four years of college was now $1,800.
Sugar Ray Robinson beat Jake LaMotta for the middleweight boxing title.
UNIVAC - First general purpose electronic computer was dedicated at the
     Census Bureau in Philadelphia.
AT & T became the first corporation with over one million stockholders.
CBS introduces color television (a program hosted by Ed Sullivan and
      Arthur Godfrey.
Fluoridation in the water supply for the fight against tooth decay.
Lacosta first put the alligator symbol on tennis shirts.
Tupperware parties
New in print: Herman Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny" and J.D. Salinger's 
      "The Catcher in the Rye" 
New TV shows: Red Skelton Show, I Love Lucy and Edward R. Murrow's
      See It Now
New products: power steering (Chrysler), surgarless chewing gum and 
      Tropicana products
Best Picture:  "An American in Paris"
Best Actor:  Humphrey Bogart in "The African Queen"
Best Actress: Vivin Leigh in "A Streetcar Named Desire"


1952
First commercial jet passenger service (British Overseas Airways)
The U.S. successfully tests the hydrogen bomb (Marshall Islands atoll)
The price of a postcard doubled to two cents.
First 3-D feature length movie shown ("Bwana Devil")
Dwight Eisenhower elected president (over Adlai Stevenson).
Army vet George Jorgensen travels to Sweden for first sex change operation
      in medical history. He returns as Christine.
New in print: "Mad" comic books 
New TV shows: The Jackie Gleason Show, The Today Show, Dragnet, The
      Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
New products: Kellog's Frosted Flakes & Sugar Smacks, paint-by-number kits,
      small Sony transistor radios (pocket size)
Best Picture: "The Greatest Show on Earth"
Best Actor: Gary Cooper in "High Noon"
Best Actress: Shirley Booth in "Come Back, Little Sheba"


1953
Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin (since 1928) dies at the age of 72.
Ernest Hemingway wins Pulitzer Prize for fiction for "The Old Man and The Sea".
Edmund Hillary climbs Mt. Everest (29,000 feet above sea level).
Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of England succeeding King George VI (father).
The Rosenbergs are executed at Sing Sing Prison (famous espionage case).
Ben Hogan became the first golfer to sweep the U.S. Open, the Masters and
     British Open in a single year.
John Kennedy marries former newspaper photographer Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.
New York Yankees become first team in baseball history to win five 
     consecutive World Series.
An armistice ending the Korean War is signed at Panmunjom.
New in print: Playboy magazine, TV Guide, Alfred Kinsey's "Sexual Behavior
     in the Human Female".
New TV shows: The Loretta Young Show, The Danny Thomas Show, The Life of 
     Riley, You Are There and Name That Tune.
New products: Corvette sports car (Chevy), instant ice tea (White Rose)
Best Picture: "From Here to Eternity"
Best Actor: William Holden in "Stalag 17"
Best Actress: Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday"


1954
U.S. Navy launches first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus
Joe DiMaggio and movie star Marilyn Monroe marry (9 months later divorced).
Mass inoculation of children against polio begins (Salk vaccine)
The Army - McCarthy TV broadcast hearings
Roger Bannister breaks the 4 minute mile barrier in track (3:59:04).
Communist troops force the French out of Vietnam (their colony for 87 years).
A Gallop poll shows that a family of four can live on $60 a week.
Historic Supreme Court decision: Separate but equal facilities are inherently
     unequal (Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas).
Ike signs legislation to add "under God" in Pledge of Allegiance.
Elvis releases first commercial recording - "That's All Right" and "Bluemoon
     of Kentucky" on Sun Records.
The Miss America pagant is first televised (Lee Ann Merriwether,19, is winner).
The silicon transitor is developed by Texas Instruments.
The Tobacco Industry Research Committee issues a report stating there is "no
     proof..that cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer".
The number of millionaires in the U.S. is reported to be 154.
New in print: Sports Illustrated
New products: Swanson frozen TV dinners, Matchbox miniature cars and
     Con-Tact paper
New on TV: The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin, Ceasar's Hour, Father Knows Best,
     Lassie, Tonight Show (Steve Allen), Disneyland
Best Picture: "On the Waterfront"
Best Actor: Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront"
Best Actress: Grace Kelly in "The Country Girl"


1955
The first McDonald's restaurant  opens in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Disc jockey Alan Freed hosts the first Rock ‘n Roll Party in New York featuring
     Fats Domino, The Drifters and the Moonglows.
Walt Disney opens Disneyland, the new $17 million amusement and 
     entertainment park in Anaheim, California.    
The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Yankees to win their first 
     World Series ever.
Ann Landers launches her advice column in the Chicago Sun-Times (her real
     name is Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer).
New in print: Sloan Wilson's "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit".
New TV shows: Alfred Hitchock Presents, Gunsmoke, The Honeymooners,
     The Lawrence Welk Show, The $64,000 Question, The Mickey Mouse Club
New products: Play-Doh modeling compound, Ford's Thunderbird, coonskin
     caps and other Davy Crockett-inspired merchandise for kids.
Best Picture: "Marty"
Best Actor:  Ernest Borguine in "Marty"
Best Actress: Anna Magnani in  "The Rose Tattoo"


1956
Tenley Albright becomes the first American woman to win a gold medal in
     figure skating at the Winter Olympics in Italy.
The Supreme Court extends the 1954 "Brown v. Board" decision and bans
     segregation in all public institutions of higher learning.
Movie star Grace Kelly abandons her career to wed Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
Congress authorized the construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways.
The Italian liner Andrea Doria sinks off Nantucket after colliding with the Swedish
     liner Stockholm and 57 die.
"In God we trust" becomes the motto of the U.S. and is added to new coins 
     and currency.
Dwight Eisenhower is re-elected President of the U.S.
Floyd Patterson (21) knocks out Archie Moore (42) to become the youngest 
      heavyweight champion in the history of boxing.
Segregation in public transportation is declared unconstitutional by 
      the Supreme Court.
New in print: Grace Metalious's "Peyton Place"
New TV shows: Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show,
      Playhouse 90 and The Nat King Cole Show
New products: Comet cleanser, Crest toothpaste, Raid insecticide, Pampers
      disposable diapers, Burger King restaurant, Midas Muffler shops
Best Picture: "Around the World in 80 Days"
Best Actor: Yul Brynner in "The King and I"
Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman in "Anastasia"


1957
Civil Rights Commission established by Congress; Little Rock, Arkansas 
     incident - troops sent to protect nine black students seeking to attend 
     the all-white Central High School.
Tennis player Althea Gibson becomes the first black athlete to win 
     at Wimbledon.
The Soviets launch the first man-made satellite, Sputnik I, into earth orbit.
Their second satellite, Sputnik II, is launched carrying the first living
     creature in space (a dog named Laika).
After 38 years, Collier's magazine publishes its final issue.
New in print: Dr. Seuss's "The Cat in the Hat"
New TV shows: Have Gun Will Travel, American Bandstand with Dick Clark,
    Leave It To Beaver, Maverick, Perry Mason, The Price is Right, Wagon Train
New products: pink plastic flamingos, Wham-O's Pluto Platter (Frisbee), 
    Ford Motors' Edsel
Best Picture: "The Bridge on the River Kwai"
Best Actor: Alec Guinness in "The Bridge on the River Kwai"
Best Actress: Joanne Woodward in "The Three Faces of Eve"


1958
The U.S. launches its first satellite, Explorer I, into earth orbit.
Roy Campanella of the Brooklyn Dodgers, major league's first black catcher
     and 3-time most valuable player, is paralyzed from the neck down in a car 
     crash.
Nikita Khrushchev ousts Bulganin and assumes leadership of the Soviet Union.
National Airlines inaugurates the first regular domestic jet service with flights
     between New York City and Miami.
Van Cliburn becomes first American to win the prestigious International 
     Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow.
NASA is established to direct nonmilitary space activities.
Pope John XXII succeeds Pope Pius XII following his death at the age of 82.
The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) is established to control civilian and
      military air traffic.
New in print: John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Affluent Society"; Truman Capote's
      "Breakfast at Tiffany's"
New TV shows: The Donna Reed Show, The Gary Moore Show, Peter Gunn, 
       77 Sunset Strip
New products: Sweet ‘n Low, American Express credit card, Bic pen, Wham-O's 
       Hula Hoop, the first Pizza Hut
Best Picture: "Gigi"
Best Actor: David Niven in "Separate Tables"
Best Actress: Susan Hayward in "I Want to Live"


1959
Fidel Castro overthrows Cuban Dictator Batista on New Year's Day.
Buddy Holly ("That'll Be the Day"), Ritchie Valens ("LaBamba") and the Big 
     Bopper a.k.a. J.P. Richardson ("Chantilly Lace") die when their tour plane
     crashes near Clear Lake, Iowa.
Alaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th states to enter the Union.
Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev argue about capitalism and communism
      in their famous "kitchen debate" in Moscow.
Berry Gordy Jr. founds Tamla Records, later to become Motown Records.
The Guggenheim Museum of art designed by Frank Lloyd Wright opens in NYC.
NASA names the first astronauts (Schirra, Slayton, Glenn, Carpenter, Shepard,
     Grissom and Cooper).      
New in print: Philip Roth's "Goodbye Columbus; James Mitchner's "Hawaii"
New TV shows: Bat Masterson, Bonanza, Dennis the Menace, The Twilight Zone
     and The Untouchables
New products: Mattel's Barbie doll, Metracal diet drink, General Mills' Frosty Os
     and pantyhose stockings
Best Picture: "Ben-Hur"
Best Actor: Charlton Heston in "Ben-Hur"
Best Actress: Simone Signoret in "Room at the Top"