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U.S. government orders all public schools to be intergrated
The Massachusetts Supreme Court rules that segregated schools are permissible under the state's constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court will later use this case to support the "separate but equal" doctrine. -
Korean War
On June 25, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army went across the 38th parallel, the boundary. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. -
Rosenberg’s espionage trial
Julius Rosenberg was arrested in July 1950, a couple weeks after the Korean War began. He was executed, along with his wife on June 19, 1953, a few weeks before it ended. With the legal charge of which the Rosenbergs were convicted was Conspiracy to Commit Espionage. But in a real sense they were held accountable for giving the so-called secret of the atomic bomb to the USSR. -
Containment policy of communism
Containment was a United States policy using numerous strategies to prevent the spread of communism abroad. A component of the Cold War, this policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet Union to enlarge its communist sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, and Vietnam. -
Polio vaccines begin
Polio struck in the warm summer months, sweeping through towns in epidemics every few years. Though most people recovered quickly from polio, some suffered temporary or permanent paralysis and even death. Many polio survivors were disabled for life. IPV is given as an injection in the leg or arm, depending on the patient's age. Polio vaccine may be given at the same time as other vaccines. Most people should get polio vaccine when they are children. -
McCarthy Congressional hearings looking for communists
The Army McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between April 1954 and June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy. -
McDonald’s company founded by Ray Kroc
Kroc worked as a salesman for 17 years after World War I, before becoming involved with McDonald’s in the 1950s. Kroc purchased the restaurant company in 1961, placing automation and strict standards that helped make McDonald’s the world’s largest restaurant franchise before his death in 1984, at the age of 81. -
1950 US Census
The 1950 census included the continental United States, the territories of Alaska and Hawaii, American Samoa, the Canal Zone, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States, and some of the smaller island territories. Americans abroad were counted for the first time in 1950. -
First Hydrogen bomb tests
Ivy Mike was the codename given to the first test of a full-scale thermonuclear device. It was detonated on November 1, 1952 by the United States on the island of Elugelab in Enewetak Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean, as part of Operation Ivy. -
Presidential Election of 1952
United States presidential election of 1952, American presidential election held on November 4, 1952, in which Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower easily defeated Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson -
CIA assists overthrow of government in Iran 1954
The Iranian military, with the support and financial assistance of the United States government, overthrows the government of Premier Mohammed Mosaddeq and reinstates the Shah of Iran. -
Brown V. The Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. -
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat
By refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus Rosa Parks helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States. The leaders of the black community organized a bus boycott that began the day Parks was convicted of violating the segregation laws. -
Disneyland opens
Disneyland, Walt Disney’s metropolis fantasy opens on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. -
Presidential Election of 1956
The popular incumbent President, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, successfully ran for re-election. The election was a re-match of 1952, as Eisenhower's opponent in 1956 was Adlai Stevenson, a former Illinois governor, whom Eisenhower had defeated four years earlier. -
Southern Congressmen resist desegregation with Southern Manifesto
19 Senators and 77 members of the House of Representatives signed the "Southern Manifesto," a resolution condemning the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. -
Federal Aid-Highway Act
The Federal-Aid Highway Act, known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, was enacted on June 29, 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law. With authorization of US$25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System over a 10-year period, it was the largest public works project in American history through that time. -
National Guard called to Little Rock, Arkansas Central High School
On 4 September 1957, the first day of school at Central High, a white mob gathered in front of the school, and Governor Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the black students from entering. -
U.S. government agrees to train Vietnamese soldiers in Vietnam
Following a meeting between President John F. Kennedy and South Vietnam envoy Nguyen Dinh Thuan, an agreement is reached for direct training and combat supervision of Vietnamese troops by U.S. instructors. South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem had earlier asked Kennedy to send additional U.S. troops to train the South Vietnamese Army. -
Hawaii becomes a state
August 21 1959 -
Alaska becomes a state
January 3rd 1959 -
U.S. recognizes Fidel Castro as leader of Cuba
Just six days after the fall of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in Cuba, U.S. officials recognize the new provisional government of the island nation -
Jimmy Hoffa arrested by FBI
In 1964, Hoffa was convicted of misappropriating $1.7 million in union pension fund
