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Chapter 27 Timeline
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Harry Truman becomes the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House
President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised presidential address from the White House to a small audience. There were only about 44,000 TV sets in U.S. homes, in a few cities. -
• Transistor is invented, spurring growth in computers and electronics.
The first transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories. It later made possible the integrated circuit and microprocessor that are the basis of modern electronics. Although video was possible with vacuum tube equipment, as was the case with the Ampex VRX-1000, without the transistor video products would never have gotten very small. -
• President Eisenhower and Congress add the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is an expression of loyalty to the federal flag and the republic of the United States of America, originally composed by Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy (1855-1931) in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942.[1] The Pledge has been modified four times since its composition, with the most recent change adding the words "under God" in 1954. -
• Polio vaccine announced to the world by Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis.
Two polio vaccines are used throughout the world to combat poliomyelitis (or polio). The first was developed by Jonas Salk and first tested in 1952. Announced to the world by Salk on April 12, 1955, it consists of an injected dose of inactivated (dead) poliovirus. An oral vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin using attenuated poliovirus -
The first nuclear power plant in the U.S. goes online at Shippingport, Pa.
In 1957, Shippingport, along the Ohio River in far western Pennsylvania, became home to America's first commercial nuclear power plant under President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" program. Just two decades later, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) converted the Beaver County plant to a light water breeder reactor that successfully demonstrated the feasibility of using thorium and uranium 233 fuel to "breed" more fuel than it consumed in generating electricity. -
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.[9][10] 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. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpo
