Usa History From1950 to 1959

Facts about this decade ---

Population: 151,684,000 (U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census)*

Unemployed: 3,288,000

Life expectancy: Women 71.1, men 65.6

Car Sales: 6,665,800

Average Salary: $2,992

Labor Force male/female: 5/2

Cost of a loaf of bread: $0.14

Bomb shelter plans, like the government pamphlet You Can Survive, become widely available

Important Historic and Cultural Events

1950 - Pres. Harry Truman ( 'til 1952) approves production of the hydrogen bomb and sends air force and navy to Korea in June.

1951 - Transcontinental television begins with a speech by Pres. Truman.

1953 - 1961 Dwight D. Eisenhower is president.

1952 - The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952 removes racial and ethnic barriers to becoming a U.S. citizen.

1953 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are electrocuted for their part in W.W.II espionage.

1953 - Fighting ends in Korea.

1954 - U. S. Senator Joseph McCarthy begins televised hearings into alleged Communists in the army.

1954 - Racial segregation is ruled unconstitutional in public schools by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

1955 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge making the new AFL-CIO an organization with 15 million members.

also in 1955 Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio

1956 - The Federal Highway Act is signed, marking the beginning of work on the interstate highway system.

1958 - Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite, successfully orbits the earth.

1958 - The first domestic jet-airline passenger service is begun by National Airlines between New York City and Miami.

1959 - Alaska and Hawaii become the forty-ninth and fiftieth states.

There was a fresh artistic outlook after World War II ended and the artistic world reflected this outlook. Abstract expressionism (see glossary ) like Jackson Pollock , Barnett Newman , Willem de Kooning , Clyfford Still and Franz Kline received official recognition at the New York Museum