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Period: to
the postwar times at home
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Harry Truman becomes the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House.
In 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised presidential address from the White House to a limited audience. There were only 44,000 television sets within a few cities. Within a short amount of time, television and entertainment became very popular throughout the world. -
Transistor is invented, spurring growth in computers and electronics.
John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William B. Shockley of Bell Labs discover the transistor. Brattain and Bardeen build the first pointcontact transistor, made of two gold foil contacts sitting on a germanium crystal. When electric current is applied to one contact, the germanium boosts the strength of the current flowing through the other contact. -
President Eisenhower and Congress add the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
In 1954, President Eisenhower tried to persuade Congress to add the words "under God," creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy's daughter said no to this alteration. During this time the pledge is: "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.
Jonas Stalk discovers the vaccine for polio desease. Dr. Thomas declared the vaccine to be safe and effective on April 12, 1955. Before this happened, they gave it to kids all over the world and not one of the kids had died from the vaccine. That's why it was such a big success. Within minutes of Francis's declaration that the vaccine was safe and effective, the news of the event was carried coast to coast by wire services and radio and television newscasts. -
The first nuclear power plant in the U.S. goes online at Shippingport, Pa.
In 1957, the first full-scale nuclear power plant at Shippingport, Pennsylvania, goes into service. Twenty-one days later it reaches full power, generating 60 megawatts of electricity. Shippingport shipped its first power into the Pittsburgh grid Dec. 18, 1957. Eisenhower returned to formally dedicate the plant the following May 26. -
NASA is established.
NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It 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 today is known world wide.
