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Baby Boom
3, 4, 5, children in familes now when before there was usually one or two. Served as a greater stimulant to the consumer goods industries. -
Truman Orders end to segregation in armed forces
The navy and air force quickly complied with Truman's desegregation rules but the army resisted until the personnel needs of the Korean War finally overccame the militarys objections. -
Minimum Wage Increases
Minimum wage raised from 40 to 75 cents an hour. Workers labored fewer than 40 hours a week and didn't work on Saturdays. They enjoyed two-week paid vacations a year. -
Producing lines caught up with demand
Americans bought more than six million cars and the gross national product reached $318 billion. (Fifty percent higher than in 1940) Producing lines could finally catch up to the demand and supply the public -
I love Lucy becomes popular
One of the most popular tv shows which was a situation comedy featuring the real-life husband and wife team of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz portraying the fictional couple Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Millions of people sat down to watch their television sets on Monday night. -
The Lonely Crowd
Written by the most influential social critic of the 1950s, Davhe book set the tone for tentellectual commentary about suburbia for the rest of the decade. He described the shift from the "inner-directed" Americans of the past who had relied on traditional values as self-denial and frugality to "other-directed" Americans of the consumer society. -
William Levitt built Levittown
Levitt built 17,000 homes and it was also known as Fertility Valley. It symbolized the most significant social trend of the postward era. -
McDonalds chooses golden arches design
McDonald's chose it's famous golden archway design for it's hamburger shops. It assisted in their advertising and everyone today knows McDonalds because of that design -
Brown vs BOE of Topeka
Supreme Court reversed the Plessy v Ferguson decision that established the "separate but equal" doctrine. The Brown decision found segregation in schools unequal and initiated a long and difficult effort to integrate the nations public schools -
Mongomery Bus Boycott
African Americans begin the boycott sparked by Rosa Parks arrest from refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. Blacks chose not to ride the buses and so the companies lost money -
Highway Act passed
Funds for more than 41,000 mile interstate highway system consisting off multilane divided expressways that would connect the nations major cities. Accomplishment of Eisenhower administration and pleased the trucking industry, automobile clubs, organized labor, farmers, and state highway officials -
Eisenhower wins election
His years marked political moderation. He was able to balance the bdget in only three of his eight years in office. He also maintained the New Deal legacy and won the landslide election in 1957 -
Rosa Parks Arrested
Rosa parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bu. The event led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. -
Formation of the SCLC
Martin Luther King Jr joined together with sixty other ministers and religious leaders to divide the crusade against segregation. He traveled around the world preaching nonviolent protests. -
Russians Launch Sputnik
The Russians launched the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth. This forced Eisenhower to increase defense spending and accelerate America's space program, NASA. -
Charles Van Doren confesses to cheating on tv quiz show
The Columbia University professor confessed he had been given the answers in advance to win $129,000 in Twenty-One. This caused three networks to drop all big-prize quiz programs. They replaced them with comedy, action, and adventure shows. -
Growth
Suburbs grew by 46% by 1960. 60,000,000 people,1/3 nation lived in suburban rings. -
African American College Students stage Sit Ins
African American students state sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina. Four blacks sat down at a dime store lunch counter and refused to move after being denied service. Led to other sit-ins in the South. -
America's Optimistic
In 1960, America was more optimistic than in 1950. Fear of economic depression waned but the fear of the cold war remained. There was a growing recognition of impatibility of racial injustice with American ideas. -
Civil Rights Act Passes
Signed July 2 by President Lyndon Johnson. The act prohibited discrimination in public places such as schools, pools, and theaters. It made employment discrimination illegal along with creating an Equal Opportunity Commission to lessen racial discrimination in employment.
