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THE POSTWAR YEARS AT HOME (1945-1960)
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First White House speech aired live
President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised presidential address from the White House. In his speech, Truman called on Americans to conserve food to help hard-pressed Europeans, still recovering from the devastation caused by the war and threatened with a massive winter famine. The speech was watched by practically any TV owner. -
Transistor is invented
The first transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories on December 16, 1947 by William Shockley. This was perhaps the most important electronics event of the 20th century, as it later made possible the integrated circuit and microprocessor that are the basis of modern electronics.The transistorized radio changed the world, opening up the information age. Information could quickly be scattered to the ends of the Earth, to the point that historian Charles Stewart heard about the assassination of M -
“Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
With the addition of "under God" to the Pledge, it became both "a patriotic oath and a public prayer. Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change."The change was partly motivated by a desire to differentiate between communism, which promotes Atheism, and Western capitalistic democracies, which were at least nominally Christian. The phrase "Atheistic Communists" has been repeated so many times that the public has linked Atheism with communism; the two are oft -
Polio Vaccine Announced to the Public
Dr. Salk became a revered medical figure upon the announcement in 1955 that his new polio vaccine was safe and effective. It was a turning point in the fight against a disease that condemned some victims to live the rest of their lives in tanklike breathing machines called iron lungs and placed sunny swimming holes off limits to children because of parents' fears of contagion. The Salk vaccine changed medical history, preventing many thousands of cases of crippling illness and saving thousands -
Shippingport, Pa Nuclear Power Plant
It was the world’s first full-scale atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses. It was located near the present-day Beaver Valley Nuclear Generating Station on the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his Atoms for Peace speech to the United Nations there. -
NASA is established
NASA started because of sputnik. It deals with the studies of space and the earth.The best-known NASA field installations are the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center near Houston, Tex., where flights are coordinated, and the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., where all space shuttle launches take place.
