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Rourke Stubna Chapter 27 Time Line
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• Harry Truman becomes the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House.
Truman delivered the first televised presidential address from the White House to a limited audience. There were about 44,000 TV sets in U.S. homes, concentrated in a few cities, compared with some 40 million radios. Five days earlier saw the first telecast of a World Series game, pitting the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers. -
Transistor is invented, spurring growth in computers and electronics
John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at AT&T's Bell Labs in the United States, performed experiments and observed that when two gold point contacts were applied to a crystal of germanium, a signal was produced with the output power greater than the input. Solid State Physics Group leader William Shockley saw the potential in this, and over the next few months worked to greatly expand the knowledge of semiconductors. The term transistor was coined by John R. Pierce. -
• President Eisenhower and Congress add the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance
Eisenhower acted on his suggestion the next day and on February 8, 1954, Rep. Charles Oakman, 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 religious faith in America's heritage and future. The phrase "under God" was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance June 14, 1954. -
Polio vaccine announced to the world by Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis
On April 12, 1955, Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr., of the University of Michigan, the monitor of the test results, "declared the vaccine to be safe and effective." The announcement was made at the University of Michigan, exactly 10 years to the day after the death of President Roosevelt. -
The first nuclear power plant in the U.S. goes online at Shippingport, Pa.
"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, USA, about 25 miles (from Pittsburgh. The reactor went online December 2, 1957, -
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. Currently,
