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Harry Truman address the nation on TV
On this day in 1947, President Harry Truman (1884-1972) makes the first-ever televised presidential address from the White House, asking Americans to cut back on their use of grain in order to help starving Europeans. At the time of Truman's food-conservation speech, Europe was still recovering from World War II and suffering from famine. Truman, the 33rd commander in chief, worried that if the U.S. didn't provide food aid, his administration's Marshall Plan for European economic recovery would -
Transistor
The first transistor was invented at Bell Laboratories on December 16, 1947 by William Shockley (seated at Brattain's laboratory bench), John Bardeen (left) and Walter Brattain (right). 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. Prior to the transistor the only alternative to its current regulation and switching functions (TRANSfer resISTOR) was the vacuum -
Polio Vaccine
Vaccine developments for polio had begun in the early 1900s. However, early attempts failed, partly because researchers did not know there was more than one virus. In 1952, Salk was the first to develop a successful vaccine using a mixture of the three types of virus, grown in monkey kidney cultures. -
"Under God" added to pledge
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Shippingport, Pa nuclear power plant
Shippingport, Pa was a borrough in Beaver county Pennsylvania along the ohio river. Shippingport is famous for being the site of the United States's first commercial nuclear power plant. The Shippingport Atomic Power Station, which began operation in 1957. -
NASA is established
NASA has become the world's premier agent for exploration, carrying on in "the new ocean" of outer space a long tradition of expanding the physical and mental boundaries of humanity. Fifty years ago, however the agency that pushed the frontiers of aeronautics, took us to the moon, flew the space shuttle, built the International Space Station and revealed the secrets of the cosmos, was in its birth throes, and fundamental decisions were being made that profoundly shaped all that was to come.
