1949: Harry Truman: Truman sworn in, dropped atomic bomb, began NATO. Doris Day: popular singer/actress, star of Doris Day Show (1969-1973), famous movies: Tha Pajama Game (1957) and Pillow Talk (1959). Red China: fighting between Communist and Kuomintang troops. Kuomintang troops collapsed and retreated to Taiwan. China becomes Communist. Johnnie Ray: a singer who cried when he sang, sang "Singing in the Rain". South Pacific: musical about wartime romance of American nurse and French plantation owner. Walter Winchell: gossip columnist known for aggressive style and tremendous use of slang. Joe DiMaggio: New York Yankee outfielder, longest hitting streak in Major Leagues. Inducted into Hall of Fame in 1955, and married Marilyn Monroe in 1954. 1950: Joe McCarthy: Senator. Made speech on Feb. 22 about a list he had with the names of 205 Communist members. Became an anti-communism figure. Richard Nixon: pushed congressional investigation of Hiss affair. Won election in 1946 by suggesting his opponent, Voorhis, had Communist support. Studebaker: world's largest wagon and carriage maker. Merged into Studebaker-Packard Corp. Television: television craze. Talk about a nation of morons. Average child: 26 hours of TV per week. North Korea: Chinese army marches into N. Korea, Dec. 5, Communist half of Korea. South Korea: US Army helped at Inchon, Sep. 15, and Democratic half of Korea Marilyn Monroe: signed contract with Fox studios, actress 1951: Rosenbergs: sentenced to death by electric char for selling atomic secrets to Soviet government H-bomb: detonates H-bomb on Marshall Islands, equal to several million tons of TNT. Sugar Ray: boxer, wins middleweight title, beating Jake LaMotta in 13th round Panmunjom: truce forced in Panmunjom, Korea. UN and N. Korea announced truce along battle line across width of Korean peninsula. If fail to settle other issues still disputed, truce expires in one month. Brando: American actor, famous as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. The King and I: at St. James Theater. Musical based on Landon's novel Anna and the King of Siam. The Catcher in the Rye: best-selling book by J.D. Salinger. Story of 16 year old Jolden Caulfield. Famous saying: "That kills me," said Holden. 1952: Eisenhower: resigned from army, nominated president by Republicans. Vaccine: Microbiologist, Salk, discovers vaccine for Polio. England's got a new Queen: Elizabeth II ascended to throne on death of father, George VI Marciano: boxer who won heavyweight championship, defended it 6 times. Liberace: American pianist, rememberd for virtuosity and flamboyant style. Santayana goodbye: Spanish-American philosopher and writer died We didn't start the fire It was always burning Since the world's been turning We didn't start the fire No we didn't light it But we tried to fight it 1953: Joseph Stalin: death of successor of Lenin, age of 73, Soviet politician, premier of USSR. Malenkov: successor of Stalin until 1958, was aide of Stalin, expelled from Communist party in 1961. Nasser: Egyptian army officer, political leader, led coup against King Farouk of Egypt. Became premier in 1954, and president in 1956. Prokofiev: death of Russian composer who's famous for Peter and the Wolf, a symphonic fairy tale. Rockefeller: undersecretary of health, education, and welfare. Between 1958 and 1970, governor of New York State. In 1974, sworn in as vice president. Campanella: African American baseball catcher for Brooklyn Dodgers. Led the National League in RBI's. Paralyzed in car accident in 1958, entered Hall of Fame in 1969. Communist Bloc: countries part of the USSR during the Cold War. 1954: Roy Cohn: Joe McCarthy's assistant during the Communist scare. Juan Peron: Argentine soldier and president. Second wife, Evita, popular for charitable works. Toscanini: retirement of former conductor of NBC Symphony. Dacron: synthetic material used to replace normal body tissue, discovered. Dien Bien Phu Falls: Vietnam occupied by French until fall of French Garrison at Dien Bien Phu. Rock Around the Clock: influential rock song written by Clifton with his band, the Comets. 1955: Einstein: death of German/American theoretical physicist. Won Nobel Prize in 1921. James Dean: American actor, famous for movies, East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause. Died in automobile accident. Brooklyn's got a winning team: Brooklyn Dodgers win first World Series, defeating New York Yankees. Davy Crockett: Frontiersman under President Jackson. Died at Alamo in 1936. Walt Disney's weekly show became fad among kids in 1950's. Peter Pan: Disney's full length animated movie in theaters. Elvis Presley: rose to stardom, American singer, hits include Heartbreak Hotel and Don't Be Creul. Disneyland: opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California. 1956: Bardot: French actress, known film, And God Created Woman. Budapest: capital of Hungary. Center of unsuccessful uprising against the Communist government. Alabama: University of Alabama expelled first black student, Autherine Lucy March, Rosa Parks tried to sit in the front of a bus. Khruschev: Soviet politician. Denounced Stalin and thwarted the Hungarian Revolution. Peyton Place: movie about lives behind closed doors in New England. Director Mark Robson. Trouble in the Suez: Israel and Egypt dispute over land near Suez Canal. 1957: Little Rock: Jeering crowds try to prevent 9 black students from entering Bentral High School. President Eisenhower sends in federal troops. Pasternak: Russian poet, novelist, and translator. Doctor Zhivago denied publication in USSR, first published in Italy. Mickey Mantle: 2nd time named American League's Most Valuable Player. Kerouac: American writer. Autobiographical book, On the Road, published. Sputnik: series of Soviet satellites launghed into space. Chou En-Lai: Prime Minister of People's Republic of China. Bridge on the River Kwai: movie with Sir Alec Guinness, director, David Lean. 1958: Lebanon: torn by riots provoked by United Arab Republic. Charles de Gualle: named Premier of France. California baseball: New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers move to California. Starkweather: Starkweather is "mad dog" killer, kills 11 people. Children of Thalidomide: drug to compat nausea during pregnancy. Caused babies to be born deformed. Homicide: a daughter is killed by mother's boyfriend in self-defense. 1959: Buddy Holly: dies in airplane crash after flying into snowstorm. Ben Hur: Oscar winning movie based on Classic novel. Space Monkey: Sam, rhesus monkey, launched into space. Mafia: secret terrorist organization. Hula Hoops: big hula-hoop boom. Castro: Cuban revolutionary leader, extablished a socialist state. Edsel is a no go: Edsel car, too advanced for its time, flops. 1960: U-2: CIA spy plane shot down when flying over Soviet Union. Syngman Rhee: dictatorial rule of S. Korea ended. Payola: record companies paid money to have DJ's play their songs. Kennedy: became youngest man elected to presidency. Chubby Checker: created dance craze, "The Twist" Psycho: release of Alfred Hitchcock film Belgians in the Congo: 1961: Hemingway: American writer, died, famous for Old Man & Sea, and Nobel Prize. Eichmann: German Nazi official hanged. Stranger in a Strange Land: Dylan: Berlin: wall divide East and West Berlin erected. Bay of Pigs Invasion: unsuccessful invasion of Cuba. 1962: Lawrence of Arabia: movie directed by David Lean released British Beatlemania: British pop group gained international fame. Ole Miss: admitted black students with big protests John Glenn: astronaut, politician, Feb. 20, first man to orbit Earth. Liston beats Patterson: boxers, Liston knocks Patterson out in first round. 1963: Pope Paul: noted for easing regulations and interfaith marriages, became Pope. Malcolm X: joined U.S. Black Muslim leader Elijah Mohammed following release from prison, educated himself in prison, adopted the new fait, changed name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X and became sect's first "national minister". British Politician Sex: war minister John Profumo resigned after affair with Christine Keeler was made public. Keeler also mistress of Soviet naval attache, was a cold war scandal. JFK blown away: assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22. What else do I have to say? 1964-1989: Birth control: introduced in 1964, caused moral controversies, making it possible to have sex for pleasure rather than reproduction. Ho Chi-Minh: real name, Nguyen Tat Thanh, Vietnam Communist leader and against French Colonial rule, finally defeated them in Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, Saigon renamed Ho Chi Minh City in 1975. Richard Nixon back again: after being defeated by John F. Kennedy in 1960, returned to try for presidency in 1968, faced Vietnam War during presidency and resigned in 1974 after Watergate cover-up was made public. Moonshot: Surveyor probes were first U.S. spacecraft to land on the Moon. Apollo 11, first humans to walk on the moon - Edwin Aldrin, Jr., Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins. Woodstock: concert held in 1969, mostly rebellious hippies participated, found their one effective outlet for ideas was music. Watergate: Watergate scandal forced Presiden Nixon to resign in 1974. Punk Rock: baby boomers rebelled agains adults with Rock n' Roll in 50's, started punk rock in early 70's. Begin: Menachem Wolfovitch Begin, Prime minister of Israel 1977-1983, Nobel Peace Prize winner 1978 Reagan: 40th president of U.S. in 1981, political career based on his charm and a conservative following that lacked effective leadership. Palestine: Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, President of Arab Republic of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, met with Jimmy Carter at Camp David in 1978 to discuss framework for pease in the Middle East. Terror on the Airlines: many hijackings and explosions took place during the 80's. Ayatollah's in Iran: Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi had a secret police that abused human rights, when declared martial law in 1977, bloody confrontation between police and Muslims, Muslims called for abdication, tried to pacify them by granting amnesty to opposition leaders, including Muslim leader Ayatolla Khomeini, Shah fled to Morocco in 1979, while Ayatollah took over Teheran, capital of Iran. Russians in Afghanistan: 1978 - Noor Taraki attempted Marxist state with help of Soviets - Muslim opposition, resulted in war -ended in 1989 when Soviets forced out of country. Wheel of Fortune: aired in 1975, original hosts were Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford. Sally Ride: first woman in space. Heavy Metal: defined as a form of musical expression that became popular in the 1980's. Suicide: from 1970's to 1980's, number of suicides, especially young people, increased. Foreign debts: United States, under President Reagan's Reganomics, ran up trillions of dollars in National Debt. Homeless vets: due to state of economy and high unemployment rate, Vietnam vets forced onto the streets. AIDS: STD that reached headlines in the 1980's because it was fatal and there was no cure for it. Crack: powerful nervous system stimulant, drug that was a big issue and made headlines. (Cocaine) Bernie Goetz: attacked in a New York subway, opened fire, shot 4 people, could not prove it was self-defense, had to pay large sums of money, many thought was a rascist action. Hypodermics on the Shore: drug abuse increased in 1970's, especially heroin, which used needles, needles discarded in water ways, causing them to be washed up on shore. China's under Martial Law: students camped out in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, army troops crushed protests. Rock and Roller Cola Wars: Coca-Cola and Pepsi launched TV ads against each other, lull in the Cola Wars when Pepsico spun off its fast-food restaurants. I can't take it anymore!
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