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Harry Truman becomes the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House.
There were only about 44,000 TV sets in U.S. homes, concentrated in a few cities, compared with some 40 million radios. Truman was not the first president to appear on television. President Franklin D. Roosevelt broadcast on a compact black-and-white screen from the New York World’s Fair on April 30, 1939. -
Transistor is invented, spurring growth in computers and electronics
In 1947, scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories invented the first transistor, a tiny circuit device that amplifies, controls, and generates electrical signals. The transistor could do the work of a much larger vacuum tube, but took up less space and generated less heat. The transistor could be used in radios, computers, and other electronic devices, and greatly changed the electronics industry. Because of the transistor, giant machines that once filled whole rooms could now fit on a desk. -
President Eisenhower and Congress add the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance
In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy's daughter objected to this alteration. Today it reads: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." -
Polio vaccine announced to the world by Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis.
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. -
• The first nuclear power plant in the U.S. goes online at Shippingport, Pa.
On December 2,1957 the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, 25 miles outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, came online and became the “world’s first full-scale atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses.” Created to meet President Dwight Eisenhower’s goals for commercial nuclear power generation, as outlined in his Atoms for Peace plan, the plant’s reactor first went critical on this day at 4:30 AM, power generation began six days later, and full power was achieved on Dec 23. -
NASA is established.
NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The agency became operational on October 1, 1958. U.S. space exploration efforts have since been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle.
