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Period: to
Postwar Economy
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GI Bill of Rights
This bill gave people low-interest morgages to purchase new homes and provided them with educational stipends for college or graduate schools. This helped move people in suburbs. -
Employment Act of 1946
This act of legislation enacted by the United States Congress charged the government and gave them the responsibility of maintaining a high employment level of labor and price stability. This kept the ecnomy stable and going strong. -
Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
This United States federal law restricted the activities and power of labor unions. The provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act sought to protect the social and economic well-being of American workers from union corruption and unfair practices. This was attempted by restoring many employer rights and maintaining a balance of collective bargaining power. -
The First Transistor
Scientists at Bell Telephone labratories invented the first transistor, a tiny circut device that amplifies, controls and generates electrocal signals. The transistor could be used in radios, computers and other electrical devices. -
22ns Amendment
This amendment ensures that no person can be elected to more than two four-year terms as President of the United States. The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, was passed in reaction to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office. -
Cure for Polio
Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis conducted a successful field test of a vaccine to prevent one of the most feared diseases - poliomyelities. Before the vaccine, this disease had killed or disabled more than 20,000 children in the US everyday. -
Expanding Middle Class
By 1955, nearly 33 percent of the total labor force in the US was unionized. Postwar prosperity also brought blue-collar workers into the exapanding middle class. Their wages and working conditions improved. -
TV Expansion
In 1955, the average American family watched televison four to five hours a day. Televison became a powerful new medium for advertisers, allowing them to reach millions of viewers. -
1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act
This provided $25 billion to build an interstate highway system more than 40,000 miles long. The project provided a national web of new roads and theoretically allowed for the evacuation of major cities in the even of nuclear attack. -
Admission of Alaska and Hawaii
The admiion of Alaska and Hawaii into the US in 1959 extended the physial boundaries of the United States, adding considerably to the US influence throughout the Pacific. Alska wa the 49th state on Janurary 3rd and Hawaii became the 50th of August 21st.
