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The Postwar Years at Home
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Harry Truman becomes the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised presidential address from the White House. There were only about 44,000 TV sets in U.S. homes, and also 40 million radios. Five days earlier people saw the first telecast of a World Series game, pitting the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers. -
Transistor is invented, spurring growth in computers and electronics
The first transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories in 1947. Although video was possible with vacuum tube equipment, as was the case with the Ampex VRX-1000, without the transistor video products would never have gotten very small. This was a significant change for the United States. -
President Eisenhower and Congress add the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance
In 1954, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," creating the pledge we say today. Bellamy's daughter objected to this alteration. The updated version now states: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." -
Polio vaccine announced to the world by Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis
The field trial set up to test the Salk vaccine was very important because it gave us a polio vaccine. Over 1,800,000 school children took part in the trial. When news of the vaccine's success was made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was hailed as a "miracle worker", and the day "almost became a national holiday." -
The first nuclear power plant in the U.S. goes online at Shippingport, Pa
The Shippingport Atomic Power Station, It produced plutonium for military uses. It was located near the present-day Beaver Valley Nuclear Generating Station on the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, USA, about 25 miles from Pittsburgh. -
NASA is established!
It may well be said that NASA has become the world's first agent for exploration, carrying on in "the new ocean" of outer space a long tradition of expanding the physical and mental boundaries of humanity. Fifty years ago, however the agency that pushed the frontiers of aeronautics, took us to the moon.The driving force, of course, was the launch of Sputnik on Oct. 4, 1957, followed by its even weightier successors.
