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Harry Truman: the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House.
On this day in 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised presidential address from the White House. This was a very limited audience. Television was still in its infancy: There were only about 44,000 TV sets in U.S. homes, concentrated in a few cities, compared with some 40 million radios -
Tranistor Invented
The transistor was invented in 1947 by three American physicists at the Bell Telephone Laboratories. Their names were John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain. The three men received the 1956 Physics Nobel Prize for their joint invention. -
• President Eisenhower and Congress add the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance
President Eisenhower had been baptized a Presbyterian very recently, just a year before. He responded enthusiastically to Docherty in a conversation following the service. Eisenhower acted on his suggestion the next day and on February 8, 1954, Rep. Charles Oakman (R-Mich.), introduced a bill to that effect. Congress passed the necessary legislation and Eisenhower signed the bill into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954. Eisenhower stated "In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of relig -
Polio Vaccine Announced to the World
With these words on April 12, 1955, Dr. Thomas Francis Jr., director of the Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, announced to the world that the Salk polio vaccine was up to 90% effective in preventing paralytic polio. Dr. Francis made the announcement to a crowd of scientists and reporters at the University of Michigan's Rackham Auditorium, concluding his two-year national field trials of the poliomyelitis vaccine. -
The First Nuclear Power Plant
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957 many Americans grew concerned that the United States was losing its competitive edge. Others feared a nuclear attack would soon follow. In 1958, the United States government responded by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), as an independent agency for space exploration. -
NASA
After Congressional hearings during spring 1958, Congress passed the legislation and President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law on July 29, 1958. Although it had generally been assumed that Hugh Dryden, the head of the NASA, would be appointed administrator. Keith Glennan was sworn in at the White House as NASA's first Administrator.
