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Period: to
1950's
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HUAC created
The Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was originally established in 1937 under the chairmanship of Martin Dies. The main objective of the HUAC was the investigation of un-American and subversive activities. -
World War II starts
Germany invades Poland -
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The U.S.S. Arizona was completely destroyed and the U.S.S. Oklahoma capsized. A total of twelve ships sank or were beached in the attack and nine additional vessels were damaged. More than 160 aircraft were destroyed and more than 150 others damaged. -
Battle of Midway
considered the decisive battle of the war in the Pacific. Before this battle the Japanese were on the offensive, capturing territory throughout Asia and the Pacific. By their attack, the Japanese had planned to capture Midway to use as an advance base, as well as to entrap and destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet. After Midway, the Americans and their Allies took the offensive in the Pacific. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The defeat of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad not only dealt a crippling blow to Hitler's campaign in the East but also marked the strategic turning point of the Second World War, and has come to be recognized as one of the greatest military debacles of all time. Over the years, the terrible fighting at Stalingrad has also come to symbolize the senseless sacrifice of human life to individual pride and political whim. -
Battle of Normandy
The Allied forces, based in Britain, decided to begin the invasion by landing a huge army at a place called Normandy Beach, which is located on the northwest coast of France. Code-named "Operation Overlord", and commanded by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allies landed on June 6, 1944 at five beaches in the Normandy area with the code names of: Utah Beach, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach. -
Servicemen's Readjustment Act
The public remembered a post-WW I recession, when millions of vets returned to face unemployment and homelessness. Twice as many veterans would return from WW II, & widespread economic hardship was a real concern. A healthy postwar economy would depend on providing soldiers with a means to support themselves once they were back home. It offered vets up to $500 a year for college tuition & other educational costs. . Other benefits included mortgage subsidies, enabling veterans to purchase homes -
Keenan starts containment
Containment was a foreign policy strategy followed by the United States during the Cold War. First laid out by George F. Kennan in 1947, Containment stated that communism needed to be contained and isolated, or it would spread to neighboring countries. This spread would allow the Domino Theory to take hold, meaning that if one country fell to communism, then each surrounding country would fall as well, like a row of dominoes. -
Bombing of Hiroshima
Hiroshima became the target of the first weapon at 08.15 on 6 August 1945. The all-clear had in fact sounded from an initial alert when the bomb was dropped. It was carried by a B-29 Superfortress called Enola Gay. The Japanese government attempted to play down the impact and significance of this ominous development, which was followed a few days later by a second atomic bombing. -
Bombing of Nagasaki
The bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th was the last major act of World War Two and within days the Japanese had surrendered.Two senior American military figures - General Groves and Admiral Purnell - were convinced that two atomic bombs dropped within days of the other would have such an overwhelming impact on the Japanese government that it would surrender. -
Germany Surrenders
Russian troops fought to within yards of his subterranean bunker, Adolph Hitler put a pistol to his head, pulled the trigger and closed the curtain on the Third Reich. Before his death, Hitler anointed Admiral Karl Donitz as his successor with orders to continue the fighting. Hitler was unaware that the German surrender had already begun. -
Taft-Hartly Act
It allows the president to appoint a board of inquiry to investigate union disputes when he believes a strike would endanger national health or safety, and obtain an 80-day injunction to stop the continuation of a strike. It declares all closed shops illegal. It permits union shops only after a majority of the employees vote for them. It forbids jurisdictional strikes and secondary boycotts. It ends the check-off system whereby the employer collects union dues.
No political campaigns for unions -
HUAC begins investigating Hollywood
HUAC began an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. In September 1947, the HUAC interviewed 41 people who were working in Hollywood. These people attended voluntarily and became known as "friendly witnesses". During their interviews they named several people who they accused of holding left-wing views. Those identified as communists or socialists were now ordered to testify before the HUAC. If these people refused to name names, they were added to a blacklist that had been -
Israel becomes a nation
Jewish leaders assembled at the Tel Aviv Museum to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence and announce the creation of the first modern Jewish state. The next day, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan attacked the fledgling country. -
Truman's "Fair Deal"
His Fair Deal recommended that all Americans have health insurance, that the minimum wage be increased, and that, by law, all Americans be guaranteed equal rights. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
Nationalists, led by Chaing Kai-Shek, were defeated at Nanjing and forced to flee to Taiwan. Communist rule was established in the People's Republic of China under the leadership of Mao Zedong. -
Alger Hiss convicted
Harvard-trained lawyer with an impeccable pedigree. Whittaker Chambers was a short, stocky, and rumpled Columbia drop-out and confessed former Communist from a poor and troubled Philadelphia family. Time and time again the two men would tell congressional committees, trial juries, and a reading public flatly contradictory stories about Hiss's allegiances during the period from 1933 to 1938. Hiss, according to Chambers, was a dedicated Communist engaged in espionage, even while working at the hi -
McCarthyism begins
The practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from 1950-54 & characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on U.S. institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. The term now used to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, and demagogic attacks on the character/patriotism of political adversaries/ -
Korean War begins
Korea, a former Japanese possession, had been divided into zones of occupation following World War II. U.S. forces accepted the surrender of Japanese forces in southern Korea, while Soviet forces did the same in northern Korea. Like in Germany, however, the "temporary" division soon became permanent. The Soviets assisted in the establishment of a communist regime in North Korea, while the United States became the main source of financial and military support for South Korea. On June 25, 1950, -
22nd Amendment ratified
No US President can be elected to more than two terms. It also limits the maximum time a President may serve to 10 years, if one should succeed to the office. -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg found guilty
Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage after having been named by Sgt. David Greenglass, Ethel's younger brother and a former machinist at Los Alamos, who also confessed to passing secret information to the USSR through a courier. Both Rosenbergs asserted their right under the Fifth Amendment not to incriminate themselves whenever asked about their involvement in the Communist Party of with its members.The Rosenbergs were and sentenced to death. -
Ike runs for president
Ike vs. Stevenson with the focus on Korean War and communism. Eisenhower's advantage in military experience gave him an edge in the public mind with regard to the Korean War. The phrase "I shall go to Korea" resonated with the American electorate and gave Eisenhower enough momentum in his campaign to handily carry the election in November. -
Hydrogen Bomb invented
Its chief architect was Dr. Edward Teller. It was detonated in Enewetak in the Marshall Islands. -
Lucy goes to hospital
1st woman have pregnancy shown on TV -
Korean War ends
After three years of a bloody and frustrating war, the United States, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea agree to an armistice, bringing the Korean War to an end. The armistice ended America's first experiment with the Cold War concept of "limited war." Whether or not Eisenhower's threats of nuclear attacks helped, by July 1953 all sides involved in the conflict were ready to sign an agreement ending the bloodshed. The armistice, signed on July 27. -
1st color TV on sale
A successful color television system began commercial broadcasting, first authorized by the FCC based on a system designed by RCA. -
Vietminh defeats the French
Ho Chi Minh forces win their war for independence at the decisive battle of Dien Bien Phu. -
Brown v. Board of Education
Where a State has undertaken to provide an opportunity for an education in its public schools, such an opportunity is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms. segregation of children in public schools solely on the basis of race deprives children of the minority group of equal educational opportunities, even though the physical facilities and other "tangible" factors may be equal. The "separate but equal" doctrine adopted in Plessy v. Ferguson, has no place in public ed -
Khruschev is dominat leader in USSR
In the years following Stalin‟s death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the dominant figure in the collective leadership of the USSR and, by early 1955, had consolidated his position to become the most prominent member of said leadership and de facto leader of the Soviet Union -
Salk's polio vaccine becomes widely available
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Montgomery Bus Boycott
An effort by Montgomery, Alabama, blacks to end segregation on city buses by boycotting the vehicles. The arrest of Rosa Parks, forty-two-year-old black seamstress and former secretary of local NAACP, for refusing to surrender her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white male passenger. Successful effort by 40,000 blacks in Montgomery against segregation on municipal buses reflected new attitude of protest by southern blacks. Considered the beginning of the Modern Civil Rights Movement. Rise of MLK -
Federal Aid Highway Act signed
Authorization of 25 billion dollars for the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System supposedly over a 10-year period. Eisenhower argued for the highways for the purpose of national defense. -
Elvis 1st appears on the Ed Sullivan show
Over 60 million people, both young and old, watched the show and many people believe it helped bridge the generation gap for Elvis' acceptance into the mainstream. -
Hungarian uprising started
On Oct 31st, 1956, Nagy broadcast that Hungary would withdraw itself from the Warsaw Pact. This was pushing the Russians too far & Kadar left the government in disgust & established a rival govt in E Hungary which was supported by Soviet tanks. On Nov 4th, Soviet tanks went into Budapest to restore order & they acted with immense brutality even killing wounded people. Tanks dragged round bodies through the streets of Budapest as a warning to others who were still protesting. -
Suez Canal Crisis
Britain, France, and Egypt all fought for control of the canal. Britain and France recieved control. -
Ike reelected
The 1956 election was a rematch of 1952, as Eisenhower's opponent in 1956 was Democrat Adlai Stevenson.
Ike was popular, but had health conditions that became a quiet issue. Stevenson remained popular with a core of liberal Democrats but held no office and had no real base. He (and Eisenhower) largely ignored the civil rights issue. Eisenhower had ended the Korean War and the nation was prosperous, so a landslide for Ike. -
Civil Rights Act passed
Primarily a voting rights bill, was the first civil rights legislation enacted by Congress in the United States since Reconstruction following the American Civil War. Following the historic US Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1955), which eventually led to the integration of public schools, Southern whites in Virginia began a "Massive Resistance". Violence against blacks rose there and in other states. -
40 million TVs in the U.S.
1.I Love Lucy 2.The Ed Sullivan Show 3.General Electric Theatre 4.The $64,000 Question 5.December Bride 6.Alfred Hitchcock Presents 7.I've Got A Secret 8.Gunsmoke 9.The Perry Como Show 10.The Jack Benny Show -
Little Rock Nine
The Little Rock Nine were the nine African-American students involved in the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School. Their entrance into the school sparked a nationwide crisis when Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, in defiance of a federal court order, called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the Nine from entering. Pres. Ike responded by federalizing the National Guard and sending in units of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the Nine students to school. -
Sputnik launched
First artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into Earth's orbit by the Soviet Union. Sputnik 1's success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space Race, a part of the larger Cold War. The launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the Space Age. -
NASA created
As a result of the space race between USA and the Soviet Union in the 1950s. The U.S. Congress, alarmed by the perceived threat to national security and technological leadership, urged immediate and swift action; Pres. Ike and his advisers came to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was also created at this time to develop space technology for military purposes. -
Barbie Doll invented
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U2 incident
A U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was brought down in the Soviet Union
