The 1950s Interactive Timeline

The 1950s

A year-by-year look at major events from the decade.
 1950

  • First modern credit card is introduced (Diners Club)

  • First "Peanuts" cartoon strip is published

  • First organ transplant is performed

  • Korean War begins

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     1951

  • Color TV is introduced

  • Richard Buckminster Fuller patents the Geodesic Dome, a design that would be utilized in many futuristic constructions
    •  1952

  • Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president of the U.S.

  • First U.S. test of hydrogen bomb

  • Seat belts for cars are introduced

  • Polio vaccine is created

  • Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen Elizabeth II
    •  1953

  • DNA is Discovered

  • Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climb Mt. Everest

  • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for espionage

  • Korean War armistice signed
    •  1954

  • Army-McCarthy hearings begin

  • Rock 'n Roll music gains popularity

  • Report says cigarettes cause cancer

  • Roger Bannister breaks the four-minute mile barrier

  • Segregation ruled illegal in Brown v. Board of Education
    •  1955

  • McDonald's Corp. is founded

  • Rosa Parks arrested after refusing to give up seat on bus

  • James Dean dies in car accident
    •  1956

  • Eisenhower is re-elected

  • T.V. remote control invented

  • Velcro is introduced

  • Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
    •  1957

  • Dr. Seuss publishes "The Cat in the Hat"

  • The Soviet satellite Sputnik begins the Space Age

  • American physicist Gordon Gould invents the laser
    •  1958

  • NASA is founded

  • Hula Hoops become popular

  • Legos are first introduced

  • The Peace Symbol is created
    •  1959

  • Alaska and Hawaii admitted as states

  • Fidel Castro becomes dictator of Cuba

  • "The Sound of Music" opens on Broadway

  • U.S. quiz shows marred by fixing scandal

  • Daytona 500 run for first time.
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    Credits:

    CBS/AP