1950s

Encyclopedia : 1 : 19 : 195 : 1950s

The 1950s were the decade that traditionally speaking, spanned the years 1950 through 1959.

Events and trends

This map shows two essential global spheres during the Cold War in 1959. Consult the legend on the map for more details.

The 1950s in the United States of America were marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the baby boom from returning GIs who went to college under the G.I. Bill and settled in suburban America. Most of the internal conflicts that had developed in earlier decades like women's rights, civil rights, imperialism, and war were relatively suppressed or neglected during this time as a world returning from the brink hoped to see a more consistent way of life as opposed to liberalism and radicalism of the 1930s and 1940s. The effect of suppressing social problems in the 50s would have a significant impact on the rest of the twentieth century.

The 1950s were also marked with a rapid rise in conflict with the United States and the Soviet Union that would heighten the Cold War to an unprecedented level which would include the Arms Race, Space Race, McCarthyism, and Korean War. Stalin's death in 1953 left an enormous impact in Eastern Europe that forced the Soviet Union to create more liberal policies internally and externally. The rise of Suburbia as well as the growing conflict with the East are the two generally accepted reasons for the conservative domination of this decade.

Science

• Urey-Miller experiment shows that under simulated conditions resembling those thought to have existed shortly after Earth first created, many of the basic organic molecules that form the building blocks of modern life are able to spontaneously form
• Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the helical structure of DNA at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge
• Bruce Heezen discovers the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
• Polio vaccine in 1955.
• The first organ transplants are done in Boston and Paris in 1954.

Technology

• Sputnik I launched

War, peace, and politics

• Korean War
• Cold War, a geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States.
• Red Scare, McCarthy Hearings
• Suez Crisis
• European Common Market founded.
• Warsaw pact founded.
• Most above ground nuclear test explosions happened during this decade.
• The United States CIA orchestrated the overthrow of the Guatemalan government.
• Hungarian revolution of 1956 brutally suppressed by Soviet Union's troops.
• Fidel Castro gains power in Cuba.
• Mahmoud Abbas becomes involved in Palestinian politics in Qatar.
• Decolonization: Algeria, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
• Early history of the People's Republic of China, of the state of Israel, and of the Indonesian state.

Economics

• "Economic miracle" in West Germany and Italy.

Literature and arts

• William Golding publishes Lord of the Flies
• The bebop era of jazz hits its peak.

Culture, religion

• Traditional pop music reaches its climax; early rock and roll music (with Elvis Presley in the lead) was embraced by teenagers/youth culture while generally dismissed or condemned by older generations.
• Popular television programs in the U.S. include Texaco Star Theater, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, I Love Lucy, The $64,000 Question, and Gunsmoke.
• Brylcreem and other hair tonics have a period of popularity
• Television replaces radio as the dominant mass medium in industrialized countries.
• In the West, the generation traumatized by the Great Depression and World War II creates a culture with emphasis on normality and calm conformity.
• Juvenile delinquency said to be at unprecedented epidemic proportions in USA, though some see this era as relatively low in crime compared to today.
• Continuing poverty in some regions during recessions later on in this decade.
• Fairly high rates of unionization, government social spending, taxes, and the like in the U.S. and European countries. Mostly liberal or moderate Western governments, though communism/Cold War play a role in reaction to, and within, domestic politics.
• Beatnik culture/The Beat Generation
• Optimistic visions of semi-Utopian technological future including such devices as the flying car.
• The Day the Earth Stood Still hits movie theaters.
• Along with the appearance of the sentence Kilroy was here across the United States, graffiti as an art form develops, especially among urban African Americans; graffiti eventually becomes one of the four elements of hip hop culture
• Considerable racial tension with military and schools desegregation in the US, though controversy never truly erupts until later on in the 1960s.
• The Catcher in the Rye
• The Twilight Zone premiers as the first major science-fiction show.
• Rise of evangelical Christianity including Youth for Christ (1943); the National Association of Evangelicals, the American Council of Christian Churches, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (1950), and the Campus Crusade for Christ (1951). Christianity Today was first published in 1956. 1956 also marked the beginning of Bethany Fellowship, a small press that would grow to be a leading evangelical press.
• Carl Stuart Hamblen religious radio broadcaster.

Others

• Wartime rationing ends in the United Kingdom.

People

World leaders

• Emperor Haile Selassie (Ethiopia)
• Prime Minister Robert Menzies (Australia)
• Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent (Canada)
• Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (Canada)
• Chairman Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China)
• President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China on Taiwan)
• President Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt)
• President Vincent Auriol (France)
• President Rene Coty (France)
• President Charles de Gaulle (France)
• Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
• Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)
• Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
• Pope Pius XII
• Pope John XXIII
• Taoiseach John A. Costello (Ireland)
• Taoiseach Eamon de Valera (Ireland)
• Taoiseach Sean Lemass (Ireland)
• Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
• Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet Union)
• President Celal Bayar (Turkey)
• Prime Minister Adnan Menderes (Turkey)
• King George VI (United Kingdom)
• Queen Elizabeth II (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister George Borg Olivier (Malta)
• President Harry S. Truman (United States)
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States)
• Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (West Germany)
• President Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)

Entertainers

• Desi Arnaz
• Carl Perkins
• Abbott and Costello
• Paul Anka
• Lucille Ball
• Jack Benny
• Chuck Berry
• Humphrey Bogart
• Pat Boone
• Marlon Brando
• Maria Callas
• June Carter
• Johnny Cash
• Tony Curtis
• Dalida
• James Dean
• Sandra Dee
• Bo Diddley
• Margot Fonteyn
• Ava Gardner
• Judy Garland
• The Goons
• Cary Grant
• Tony Hancock
• Thelonious Monk
• Audrey Hepburn
• Charlton Heston
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Dizzy Gillespie
• Buddy Holly
• Grace Kelly
• Ernie Kovacs
• Mario Lanza
• Jerry Lewis
• Miles Davis
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• Dean Martin
• Groucho Marx
• Marilyn Monroe
• Paul Newman
• Laurence Olivier
• Charlie Parker
• Elvis Presley
• Lionel Hampton
• George Reeves
• Debbie Reynolds
• Little Richard
• Jimmie Rodgers
• James Stewart
• Art Pepper
• Gale Storm
• Jacques Tati
• Elizabeth Taylor
• John Wayne
• Jack Webb
• Ed Wynn

Sports figures

• Alberto Ascari (Italian racing driver)
• Roger Bannister (English track and field athlete)
• Yogi Berra (American baseball player)
• Maureen Connolly (American tennis player)
• Colin Cowdrey (England cricketer)
• Juan Manuel Fangio (Argentinian racing driver)
• Neil Harvey (Australian cricketer)
• Gordie Howe (Canadian ice hockey player)
• Len Hutton (England cricketer)
• Mickey Mantle (American baseball player)
• Rocky Marciano (American boxer)
• Stanley Matthews (English soccer player)
• Willie Mays (American baseball player)
• Ferenc Puskás (Hungarian soccer player)
• Maurice Richard (Canadian ice hockey player)
• Sugar Ray Robinson (American boxer)
• Bill Russell (American basketball player)
• Gary Sobers (West Indies cricketer)
• Brian Statham (England cricketer)
• Frank Tyson (England cricketer)
• Frank Worrell (West Indies cricketer)
• Lev Yashin (Russian soccer player)
• Jackie Robinson (American baseball player)
• Jonas Lintermans (Belgian basketball player)
• Raul Castillo (English track and field athlete)
• Stephen Alvarado (Canadian ice hockey player)
• Pelé (Brazilian soccer player)

See also

• United States in the 1950s
• List of rock and roll albums in the 1950s

External links

• [WWW-VL: 1950s History]
• [The 1950s Week-By-Week includes news, trends & pop culture]
• [Pop Culture Madness 50s Music Lists]
• [Top 40 music of the '50s]

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