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Jakes Chapter 27 timeline
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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 — to a limited audience. Television was still in its infancy: There were only about 44,000 TV sets in U.S. homes, concentrated in a few cities, compared with some 40 million radios. (Five days earlier 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.
Another computer development spurred by the war was the Electronic in 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
In the 1950s, Americans, who had drifted away from religion in earlier years, flocked back to their churches and synagogues. The renewed interest in religion was a response in part to the Cold War struggle against “godless communism.” Some looked to religion to find hope in the face of the threat of nuclear war. Evidence of the newfound commitment to religion was abundant. In 1954, Congress added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance -
The first nuclear power plant in the U.S. goes online at Shippingport, Pa.
"The world’s first full-scale atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses." Though the British Magnox reactor at Calder Hall was first connected to the grid on 27 August 1956. It also produced plutonium for military uses was located near the present-day Beaver Valley Nuclear Generating Station on the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, USA, about 25 miles (40 km) from Pittsburgh. -
NASA is established
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, as described in the previous chapter, many Americans grew concerned that the United States was losing its competitive edge. Others feared a nuclear attack would soon follow. In 1958, the United States government responded by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as an independent agency for space exploration.
