History is…Events of the 1950s changed our lives forever

Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 10, 2004

By Bev Jackson, Historical society

It’s always fun to look back a few years and find out what was going on &045; national and international events that affected us here in southern Minnesota. The following is a listing of situations, concerns, and inventions from 1950 to 1959. I wonder, if any one of these topics had never occurred, how the course of history might have been changed?

The first (cardboard) credit card was initiated by the Diners Club (28 restaurants).

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An assassination attempt was made on the life of President Harry Truman by two Cubans.

A major concern about the impact of newly popular television was&045;”Would TV create a nation of morons?”

Television shows of that decade were “I Love Lucy,” “The Roy Rogers Show,” “Jack La Lanne,” and the soap opera “Search For Tomorrow.”

TV dinners became popular.

The U.S. tested the world’s first H-bomb.

A U.S. atomic power plant began generating electricity.

The first session was held at the new United Nations Building.

The Korean War ended.

Marilyn Monroe was on the cover of the first Playboy magazine.

The Salk polio vaccine was approved for public use.

The Interstate Highway system was proposed.

A Supreme Court decision banned segregation, and Little Rock, Ark. was integrated with the help of U.S. troops.

Military advisors were sent to Vietnam.

The minimum wage was boosted to $1.

Rock’n’roll music was described as a combination of “blazing rhythm and blues beat and country swing.”

Kruschev taunted the United States with the threat “We will bury you.”

Martin Luther King became the leader of non-violence protest groups across the country.

New nationwide fads were hula hoops and white bucks, popularized by singer Pat Boone who prided himself on his clean-cut image.

Every day after school, teenagers across the country turned on television to watch Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” and kids all wanted coonskin caps worn on the “Davy Crockett” show.

Elvis Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army, and his big hits in the ’50s were “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Heartbreak Hotel.”

Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

The U.S. launched the first orbiting weather station and put monkeys into space.

The St. Lawrence Seaway opened, linking the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean.

The Ford Edsel was built and sold for only two years.

Alaska and Hawaii became states.

As I perused this listing, it was fun to imagine how my life might have changed if any of these things had not occurred, and I was surprised to realize that most of these national and international events had an impact on my lifestyle or my understanding of humanity. In 2004, more than ever before, we are connected globally. May this be a happy and peaceful connection.

(Bev Jackson is the executive director of the Freeborn County Historical Museum.)