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Harry Truman becomes the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House.
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Transistor is invented, spurring growth in computers and electronics.
The transistor was invented in 1947 by three American physicists at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain. The three men received the 1956 Physics Nobel Prize for their joint invention. Prior to the transistor the only alternative to its current regulation and switching functions was the vacuum tube, which could only be miniaturized to a certain extent, and wasted a lot of energy in the form of heat. -
President Eisenhower and Congress add the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Between 1924 and 1954, the Pledge of Allegiance was worded: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." In 1954, during the McCarthy era and communism scare, Congress passed a bill, which was signed into law, to add the words "under God." The current Pledge reads: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands" -
Polio vaccine announced to the world by Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis.
Until 1955, when the Salk vaccine was introduced, polio was considered the most frightening public health problem of the post-war United States. Annual epidemics were increasingly devastating. The 1952 epidemic was the worst outbreak in the nation's history. Of nearly 58,000 cases reported that year, 3,145 people died and 21,269 were left with mild to disabling paralysis, with most of the victims children.In 1947, Salk accepted an appointment to the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. -
The first nuclear power plant in the U.S. goes online at Shippingport, Pa.
The Shippingport Atomic Power Station, "the world’s first full-scale atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses.was located near the present-day Beaver Valley Nuclear Generating Station on the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania.The reactor went online December 2, 1957, and was in operation until October, 1982. -
NASA is established.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research.NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).
