Timeline of the 1950s | 1950sdecadeproject

1950:

1951:

South Africans forced to carry ID cards identifying race
Truman sings peace treaty with Japan, Offically ending World War II
Winston Churchill again prime minister of Great Britain
Julius and Ethel Rosenburg were found guilty of conspiracy of wartime espionage
The United States, Australia, and New Zealand sign a mutual secruity pact, the ANZUS Treaty
President Truman's speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco

1952:

The great smog of 1952
Princess Elizabeth becomes queen at age 25
Polio vaccine created
U.S. explodes first hydrogen bomb
Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected president
President Truman authorizes the seizure of United States steel mills in order to avert a strike
President-Elect Dwight D. Eisenhower travels to Korea to try and end the conflict

1953:

Joesph Stalin Dies
Julius and Ethel Rosenburg Executed for Espionage
Participants in Korean War agree on Cease-Fire
The United States CIA assists in the overthtrow of the government in Iran, and retains the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to the throne
The Cold War continues in earnest when President Dwight D. Esienhower approves a top secret document stating that the U.S. nuclear arsenal must be expanded to combat the communist threat around the world.
The description of a double helix DNA molecule is published by British physicist Francis Crick and American scientist James D. Waston.

1954:

The first atomic submarine is launched
Brown v. Board of Educaiton in Topeka, Kansas.
Montogomery bus boycott.
Segregation ruleed illegal in the United States.
Senator Josephy McCarthy alleged communist involvement in the U.S. army.
The French are defeated in Vietnam.
In Bangkok, Thailand, New Zealand, France, the Philippines, agreeing to franchise the idea of Dick adn Mac McDonald, who had started the first McDonald's restaurant in 1940 and had eight restaurants.

1955:

Emmett Till is murdered which became a big scandal for the Civil Rights Movement.
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus.
Warsaw Pact signed.
The United States government agrees to train South Vietnamese troops.
The Supreme Court of the United States orders that all public schools be integrated with deliverate speed.
The two largest American labor unions, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, merge to form the AFL-CIO.
Disneyland is created.

1956:

Hungarian Revolution.
Khrushchev Denounces Stalin.
Suez Crisis.
Eisenhower is reelected president.
Federal Highway Act of 1956.
Congressman from Southern states call for massive resistance, the Southern Manifesto, to the Supreme Court ruling on desegregation.
The first transatlantic telephone cable began operation.

1957:

European Economic Community is established.
Soviet Satellite Sputnik launched the Space Race of the Cold War.
Laika becomes the first living animal to enter orbit.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrest lab leader Jimmy Hoffa under a bribery charge.
U.S. Congress approves th first civil rights bill since reconstruciton with additional protection of voting rights.
National Guard called to duty by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus to bar nine black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. This issued became known as Little Rock Nine, when nine African American students try to attend an all-white school

1958:

Chinese leader Mao Zedong launches the "Great Leap Forward".
NASA founded
Hoope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian.
Explorer 1, the first U.S. space satellite, is launched by the Army at Cape Canaveral.
The first major world's fair since the end of World War II opens in Brussels, Belgium and evokes a Cold War debate between the pavilions of the Soviet Union and the United States.
The Lituya Bay, Alaska earthquake registers 7.5 on the Richter scale, producing a landslide that caused a mega-tsunami with a 520 meter high wave.
Jet airline passenger service is inaugurated in the United States by National Airlines with a flight between New York City and Miami, Florida.

1959:

Castro becomes dictator of Cuba.
International Treaty makes Antarctica scientific preserve.
Kitchen Debate between Nixon and Khrushchev.
Alaska is admitted to the United States as the 49th state to be followed on August 21st by Hawaii.
The Daytona 500 stock car race is run for the first time with Lee Petty taking the first checkered flag.
The St. Lawrence Seaway is opened along the Canadian and United States borders, allowing increaded ship traffic between Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes.
President Dwight D. Esienhower hosts Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev at his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the first visit of any Soviet leader to the United States.

The 1950s