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Timeline of the Twentieth Century: 1950-1959

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1950

First Modern Credit Card Introduced

First Organ Transplant

First "Peanuts" Cartoon Strip

Korean War Begins

Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt

U.S. President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb

1951

Color TV Introduced

South Africans Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race

Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending WWII

Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister of Great Britain

1952

Car Seat Belts Introduced

The Great Smog of 1952

Jacques Cousteau Discovers Ancient Greek Ship

Polio Vaccine Created

Princess Elizabeth Becomes Queen at Age 25

1953

DNA Discovered

Hillary and Norgay Climb Mt. Everest

Joseph Stalin Dies

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Executed for Espionage

1954

Britain Sponsors an Expedition to Search for the Abominable Snowman

First Atomic Submarine Launched

Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer

Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile

Segregation Ruled Illegal in U.S.

1955

Disneyland Opens

James Dean Dies in Car Accident

McDonald's Corporation Founded

Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus

Warsaw Pact Signed

1956

Elvis Gyrates on Ed Sullivan's Show

Grace Kelly Marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco

Hungarian Revolution

Khrushchev Denounces Stalin

Suez Crisis

T.V. Remote Control Invented

Velcro Introduced

1957

Dr. Seuss Publishes The Cat in the Hat

European Economic Community Established

Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age

Laika Becomes the First Living Animal to Enter Orbit

1958

Boris Pasternak Refuses Nobel Prize

Chinese Leader Mao Zedong Launches the "Great Leap Forward"

Hope Diamond is Donated to the Smithsonian

Hula Hoops Become Popular

LEGO Toy Bricks First Introduced

NASA Founded

Peace Symbol Created

1959

Castro Becomes Dictator of Cuba

International Treaty Makes Antarctica Scientific Preserve

Kitchen Debate Between Nixon and Khrushchev

The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway

U.S. Quiz Shows Found to be Fixed

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