CHAPTER 27, THE POSTWAR YEARS AT HOME by: Sienna Mangis

By sienna.mangis1017

  • • Harry Truman becomes the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House.

    • Harry Truman becomes the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House.
    On this day in 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised presidential address from the White House. ... a White House telecast to the nation, he was not the first president to appear on television. ... In 1948, Truman also became the first presidential candidate to air a paid political ad on TV.

  • • Transistor is invented, spurring growth in computers and electronics.

    • Transistor is invented, spurring growth in computers and electronics.
    Another computer development spurred by the war was the Electronic ... By 1948, the invention of the transistor greatly changed the computer's development.

  • • President Eisenhower and Congress add the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.

    • President Eisenhower and Congress add the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
    In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy's daughter objected to this alteration. Today it reads:
    "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.

    • Polio vaccine announced to the world by Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis.
    Until 1955, when the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered the most frightening public health problem of the post-war United States. Annual epidemics were increasingly devastating. The 1952 epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis,

  • • The first nuclear power plant in the U.S. goes online at Shippingport, Pa.

    • The first nuclear power plant in the U.S. goes online at Shippingport, Pa.
    breeder reactor at Shippingport, Pennsylvania — the first in the United States — goes to full power on the anniversary of Chicago Pile-1. An experimental breeder reactor devised by Chicago Pile-1 veteran Walter Zinn had created the first nuclear-generated electricity in 1951. President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke ground for the first commercial plant, to be operated by Pittsburgh's Duquesne Light Company, in 1954.

  • NASA is established.

    NASA is established.
    NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The agency became operational on October 1, 1958.[9][10] U.S. space exploration efforts have since been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpo