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• Harry Truman becomes the first president to address the nation on TV from the White House.
On this day in 1947, President Harry S. Truman delivered the first televised presidential address from the White House. ... a White House telecast to the nation, he was not the first president to appear on television. ... In 1948, Truman also became the first presidential candidate to air a paid political ad on TV. -
• Transistor is invented, spurring growth in computers and electronics.
In 1947, scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories invented the first transistor, a tiny circuit device that amplifies, controls, and generates electrical signals. The transistor could do the work of a much larger vacuum tube, but took up less space and generated less heat. The transistor could be used in radios, computers, and other electronic devices, and greatly changed the electronics industry. Because of the transistor, giant machines that once filled whole rooms could now fit on a desk. -
President Eisenhower and Congress add the words “Under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Louis A. Bowman (1872–1959) was the first to initiate the addition of "under God" to the Pledge. He stated that the words came from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Though not all manuscript versions of the Gettysburg Address contain the words "under God", all the reporters' transcripts of the speech as delivered do, as perhaps Lincoln may have deviated from his prepared text and inserted the phrase when he said "that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom. -
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THE POSTWAR YEARS AT HOME
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Polio vaccine announced to the world by Dr. Jonas Salk and Dr. Thomas Francis.
Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist, best known for his discovery and development of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. Thomas Francis, Jr. was an American physician, virologist, and epidemiologist. Francis was the first person to isolate influenza virus in America, and in 1940 showed that there are other strains of influenza, and took part in the development of influenza vaccines. -
• 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. 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, and was in operation until October, 1982. It was an experimental, light water moderated, thermal breeder reactor and is notable for its ability to transmute (inexpensive) Thorium 232 to Uranium 233 -
NASA is established.
October 1, 1958, the official start of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 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 . NASA's human space flight efforts again resumed in 1981, with the Space Shuttle program that continues today to help build
