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• Harry Truman becomes the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House
Since January 8, 1790, when George Washington personally delivered the first annual message to Congress, presidents have "from time to time," been doing just that in what has become known as the State of the Union Address. -
Transistor is invented, spurring growth in computers and electronics
By 1906, because of the work of Lee de Forest, inventors knew the two basic functions of a vacuum tube -- converting alternating current to direct current and amplifying an electronic signal. Over the decades, vacuum tubes were improved and were used in more and more complicated circuitry. At the 1939 World's Fair, for example, vacuum tubes were showcased in fully electronic television. And by 1945, the high-speed computer ENIAC was built, containing more than 17,000 tubes. Although successful, -
• 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. Congressional sessions open with the recital of the Pledge, as do government meetings at -
• The first nuclear power plant in the U.S. goes online at Shippingport, Pa.
The Shippingport Atomic Power Station, "the world’s first full-scale atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses," (though the British Magnox reactor at Calder Hall was first connected to the grid on 27 August 1956, it also produced plutonium for military uses)[1] was located near the present-day Beaver Valley Nuclear Generating Station on the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, USA, about 25 miles (40 km) from Pittsburgh. The reactor went online December 2, 1957, an -
• NASA is established
October 1, 1958, the official start of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was the beginning of a rich history of unique scientific and technological achievements in human space flight, aeronautics, space science, and space applications. Formed as a result of the Sputnik crisis of confidence, NASA inherited the earlier National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and other government organizations, and almost immediately began working on options for human space fligh -
• Polio vaccine announced to the world by Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis.
With these words on April 12, 1955, Dr. Thomas Francis Jr., director of the Poliomyelitis Vaccine Evaluation Center at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, announced to the world that the Salk polio vaccine was up to 90% effective in preventing paralytic polio. Dr. Francis made the announcement to a crowd of scientists and reporters at the University of Michigan's Rackham Auditorium, concluding his two-year national field trials of the poliomyelitis vaccine developed by his form
