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Cold War Starts
The Allies were afraid of the leadership of Stalin and the spread of communism. Became a stalemate between the two biggest countries. -
Truman Doctine
President Harry S. Truman asked Congress $400 million in military and economic assistance for Turkey and Greece. -
India and Pakistan Independence
With the British ending their 200 year old ruling that made the two countries finally become independent. -
Mahatma Gandhi assassinated in India
Gandi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse who was sentenced to death for the killing -
Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia.
Soviet Union went into Czechoslovakia and seized power. The soviets then ruled them without mercy. -
U.S. Congress ratifies Marshall Plan, approving $17 billion in European aid.
The Marshall Plan pretty much gave 17 billion dollars to help Europe after WW2. -
Jan 5 US President Harry Truman labels his administration the "Fair Deal"
In July 1948 he banned racial discrimination in federal government hiring practices and ordered an end to segregation in the military. The minimum wage had risen, and social security programs had expanded. A housing program brought some gains but left many needs unmet. -
Jan 25 1st Israeli election won by David Ben-Gurion's Mapai party.
On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. ... Following the war, Ben-Gurion served as Israel's first Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. -
Apr 4 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) treaty signed in Washington, D.C.
The following twelve states signed the treaty and thus became the founding members of NATO. The following leaders signed the agreement as plenipotentiaries of their countries in Washington, D.C.: Belgium – Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak and Ambassador Baron Robert Silvercruys. -
Senator Joseph McCarthy gains power, and McCarthyism
Hundreds of Communists and others were prosecuted under this law between 1941 and 1957. Eleven leaders of the Communist Party were convicted under the Smith Act in 1949 in the Foley Square trial. Ten defendants were given sentences of five years and the eleventh was sentenced to three years. -
The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, is first published
Peanuts, long-running comic strip drawn and authored by Charles Schulz. First published in 1947 under the name Li'l Folks, the strip, renamed Peanuts in 1950, featured a cast of children led by Charlie Brown, Schulz's alter ego in the strip. -
Korean War begins
The Korean War (1950-1953) began when the North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded non-Communist South Korea. As Kim Il-sung's North Korean army, armed with Soviet tanks, quickly overran South Korea, the United States came to South Korea's aid. -
22nd Amendment, establishing term limits for President.
Passed by Congress in 1947, and ratified by the states on February 27, 1951, the Twenty-Second Amendment limits an elected president to two terms in office, a total of eight years. However, it is possible for an individual to serve up to ten years as president. -
General Douglas MacArthur fired by President Truman for comments about using nuclear weapons on China
On 11 April 1951, U.S. President Harry S. Truman relieved General of the Army Douglas .... Truman publicly denied that he was considering the use of nuclear weapons in .... When asked by the President about the odds of Soviet or Chinese .... made similar remarks in press statements on 13 February and 7 March 1951. -
Mutual Security Act
The Mutual Security Act of 1951 launched a major American foreign aid program, 1951–61, of grants to numerous countries. It largely replaced the Marshall Plan. The main goal was to help poor countries develop and to contain the spread of communism. It was a signed on October 10, 1951 by President Harry S. Truman. -
ANZUS Treaty enters into force
29 April 1952. Signed by Australia, New Zealand and the United States, the ANZUS treaty recognised that an armed attack in the Pacific area on one member would endanger the peace and safety of the others. The signatories pledged to 'act to meet the common danger'. -
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952
The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act) The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 upheld the national origins quota system established by the Immigration Act of 1924, reinforcing this controversial system of immigrant selection. -
United States presidential election, 1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president, Richard Nixon elected vice president
The 1952 United States presidential election was the 42nd quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1952. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won a landslide victory over Democrat Adlai Stevenson, ending a string of Democratic Party wins that stretched back to 1932. -
Eisenhower becomes the 34th President and Nixon Vice President
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was an American army general and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. ... He became the first Republican to win since Herbert Hoover in 1928. ...... Vice President Nixon himself also received concern from White House physician Major General ... -
Shah of Iran returns to power in CIA-orchestrated coup known as Operation Ajax
The 1953 Iranian coup d'état, known in Iran as the 28 Mordad coup d'état (Persian: کودتای ۲۸ .... Reza Shah attempted to attenuate the power of the colonial forces in Iran, and ... and much of Reza Shah's authoritarian policies were rolled back. ..... Operation Ajax's formal leader was senior CIA officer Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., ... -
Rosenbergs executed
On this day in 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. ... The Rosenbergs were the first U.S. citizens to be convicted and executed for espionage during ... -
Joseph McCarthy discredited in Army-McCarthy hearings
The Army–McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations (April–June 1954) to investigate conflicting accusations between the United States Army and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. -
The Tournament of Roses Parade becomes the first event nationally televised in color
This was the first ever national west coast – to east coast colorcast using the newly ... distributors for the Rose Parade and each location had a full house for the event. ... The Tournament of Roses parade had the largest audience thus far, probably several thousand persons to see color TV at one time. -
Detonation of "Bravo", a 15 megaton Hydrogen bomb on Bikini Atoll. 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki weapons, it vapourised three islands, displaced the islanders and caused long lasting contamination.
The nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll program was a series of 23 nuclear devices detonated by the ... Scientists miscalculated and the 15 megaton (Mt) nuclear explosion far ... and was about 1,000 times more powerful than each of the atomic bombs ... the nuclear testing program and their displacement from their home island. -
AFL and CIO merge in America's largest labor union federation
American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations: American ... labour unions formed in 1955 by the merger of the AFL (founded 1886), which ... Republic, Inland, and Youngstown), and other big industrial corporations that ... Three years later, in 1955, the AFL and the CIO merged, with George Meany, ... -
Ray Kroc opens a McDonald's fast food restaurant and, after purchasing the franchise from its original owners, oversees its national (and later, worldwide) expansion
Raymond Albert "Ray" Kroc (October 5, 1902 – January 14, 1984) was an American fast-food tycoon. He joined the California company McDonald's in 1954, after the McDonald brothers had franchised 6 locations out from their original ... In 1955, Kroc opened the first McDonald's franchised under his partnership with the ... -
Rosa Parks remains seated on a bus, the incident which evolves into the Montgomery bus boycott
- The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil-rights protest during which African ... ride city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregated seating. ... In 1955, African Americans were still required by a Montgomery, ... Nine months before Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat, 15-year-old ...
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President Eisenhower secures passages of Interstate Highway Act, which will construct 41,000 miles (66,000 km) of the Interstate Highway System over a 20-year period
- The bill created a 41000-mile “National System of Interstate and. ... On June 29, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. ... and Defense Highways” that would, according to Eisenhower, eliminate ... For all of these reasons, the 1956 law declared that the construction ...
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The U.S. refuses to provide military support the Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (Hungarian: 1956-os forradalom), or the Hungarian ... In 1941, the Hungarian military participated in the occupation of Yugoslavia .... by 1956, a fundamental tension had appeared in U.S. policy towards Hungary ... would turn on another uprising as they had in Poland, providing a source of ... -
Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.
September 9, 1956: Elvis stuns TV viewers with his first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sixty million Americans watched either spellbound or shocked as a gyrating Elvis Presley made a sensational debut on the country's most popular programme, the Ed Sullivan Show.Aug 15, 2018 -
President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon begin second terms
On the morning of April 16, 1956, Vice President Richard Nixon served notice ... As the Cold War began to heat up in Europe and Asia, the American public ..... his second term, and after Eisenhower suffered a stroke in 1957 he decided that it ... -
Soviets launch Sputnik; "space race" begins
On October 4, 1957, a Soviet R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile launched Sputnik (Russian for “traveler”), the world's first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth's orbit. -
Civil Rights Act of 1957, primarily a voting rights bill, becomes the first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress since Reconstruction
On September 9, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Originally proposed by Attorney General Herbert Brownell, the Act marked the first occasion since Reconstruction that the federal government undertook significant legislative action to protect civil rights. -
Jack Kilby invents the integrated circuit
It was a relatively simple device that Jack Kilby showed to a handful of ... In July 1958, when most employees left for the traditional two-week vacation period, ... to form a complete circuit," Kilby wrote in a 1976 article titled "Invention of the IC.". -
NASA formed as the U.S. begins ramping up efforts to explore space
- On November 3, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik II,which carrieda dog named Laika. In December, America attempted to launch a satellite of its own, called Vanguard, but it exploded shortly after takeoff. On January 31, 1958, things went better with Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite to successfully orbit the earth.
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affluent Society written by John Galbraith
Author, John Kenneth Galbraith. Country, United States. Language, English. Subject, Economics. Genre, Non-fiction. Publisher, Houghton Mifflin. Publication date. 1958. Media type, Print. The Affluent Society is a 1958 (4th edition revised 1984) book by Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith. -
The NBC western Bonanza becomes the first drama to be broadcast in color
NBC kept it because Bonanza was one of the first series to be filmed and broadcast in color, including scenes of picturesque Lake Tahoe, Nevada. -
Landrum–Griffin Act, a labor law that regulates labor unions' internal affairs and their officials' relationships with employers, becomes law
The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (also "LMRDA" or the "Landrum–Griffin Act"), is a US labor law that regulates labor unions' internal affairs and their officials' relationships with employers. -
Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th U.S. states; to date, they are the final two states admitted to the union.
Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states of the USA only after world war two. What was their sovereign status before that? ALASKA was a Russian colony from 1744 until the USA bought it in 1867 for $7,200,000. It was made a state in 1959. -
Author Harper Lee publishes "To Kill A Mockingbird"
When the novel was finally ready, the author opted to use the name "Harper Lee", rather than risk having her first name Nelle be misidentified as "Nellie". Published July 11, 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate bestseller and won great critical acclaim, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. -
Civil Rights Act of 1960, establishing federal inspection of local voter registration polls and penalties for those attempting to obstruct someone's attempt to register to vote or actually vote
The Civil Rights Act of 1960 is a United States federal law that established federal inspection of local voter registration polls and introduced penalties for anyone who obstructed someone's attempt to register to vote. ... The Senate's Judiciary Committee also faced attempts to dislodge the bill. Southern Democrats had long ... -
John Fitzgerald Kennedy defeats Vice President
In 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon squared off in the first televised ... The Kennedy-Nixon debates not only had. ... The U.S. presidential election of 1960 came at a decisive time in American history. ... Dwight D. Eisenhower to name some of his vice president's contributions. .... Richard M. Nixon. -
John F. Kennedy becomes the 35th President, Johnson, Vice President.
On November 22, 1961, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon Johnson automatically assumed the presidency upon Kennedy's death. -
Peace Corps established.
The program was established by Executive Order 10924, issued by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961 and authorized by Congress on September 21, 1961 with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Pub.L. 87–293). -
23rd Amendment, which grants electors to the District of Columbia
The Twenty-third Amendment (Amendment XXIII) to the United States Constitution extends the right to vote in presidential elections to citizens residing in the District of Columbia. The amendment grants the district electors in the Electoral College as ... As the District of Columbia is not a state, it was not entitled to any electors ...
