1950
The first modern Credit Card is introduced in the U.S.
Korean War Begins.
The first 'Peanuts' Cartoon Strip is published.
Destination Moon, the first major science-fiction film to deal seriously with the prospect, problems and technology of space travel, is released.
Carson McCuller's Member of the Wedding, premieres in NYC.
Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot is published.
The Huntsville Times runs the headline, 'Dr. von Braun Says Rocket Flights Possible to Moon'.
T. S. Eliot speaks out against television in the UK.
The Senate Internal Security Subcommittee is formed in the U.S.
Bette Davis plays Margo Channing in All About Eve.
U.S. President Truman orders the construction of Hydrogen Bomb.
Shirley Temple announces her retirement from show business.
Jackson Pollock paints Autumn Rhythm, Number 30.
1951
The Festival of Britain begins, followed by nationwide celebrations in UK.
Colour TV is introduced.
South Africans are forced to carry ID Cards identifying their race.
Arthur C. Clarke’s short story 'The Sentinel', later expanded and modified into the novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, is published in the magazine 10 Story Fantasy.
The first jukebox that plays 45 RPM records is introduced.
Sculptor Henry Moore refuses the offer of a knighthood.
Disc jockey and music promoter Alan Freed broadcasts his first Rhythm and blues radio programme from station WJW in Cleveland, Ohio and uses the term rock and roll.
Television sitcom I Love Lucy debuts on CBS.
Marlon Brando stars as Stanley Kowalski in Elia Kazan’s film adaptation of Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire.
Truman signs peace treaty with Japan, officially ending WWII.
On his 72nd birthday Albert Einstein sticks his tongue out at the UPI photographer Arthur Sasse.
The Day the Earth Stood Still, directed by Robert Wise, is released.
One of the first space monsters on film appears in The Thing.
Dragnet debuts on NBC.
Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man.
J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is published.
A new beauty competition is founded, Miss World.
Winston Churchill is reelected Prime Minister of Great Britain.
What's My Line? debuts on BBC Television.
The contraceptive pill is invented by Luis E. Miramontes.
John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids is published.
1952
Car seat belts are introduced as optional safety features by automakers.
Jacques Cousteau discovers ancient Greek ship.
New USA president Dwight Eisenhower is elected.
The film Invasion U.S.A., about the invasion of the United States by an unnamed Communist enemy, is released.
John Steinbeck’s East of Eden is published.
Sam Phillips starts his own label, Sun Records in Memphis.
Bwana Devil, the first American, feature-length, colour 3-D movie, is released.
The Neo Edwardians, Teddy Boys or Teds are seen around London.
Andy Warhol has his first exhibition in New York, based on the writings of Truman Capote.
The Polio vaccine is created.
The MGM musical Singin' in the Rain premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen at age 25.
The first issue of MAD magazine is published.
Identity cards and then food rationing end in the U.K.
First reported Rock and Roll riot breaks out at Alan Freed's
Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, Ohio.
Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me is published
The Big Bang Theory of the creation of the Universe is first propounded.
The Diary of Anne Frank is published in the U.S.
A 10.4 megaton bomb is exploded on 1 November, west of Bikini.
1953
James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain is published.
Hillary and Norgay climb Mt. Everest.
Joseph Stalin dies.
Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale is published.
Hugh Hefner launches Playboy magazine.
The Quatermass Experiment, first of the famous Quatermass science-fiction serials by Nigel Kneale, begins its run on the BBC.
Marlon Brando stars in The Wild One and the sales of black leather motorcycle jackets, jeans and sun glasses rise considerably.
Francis Bacon begins his series of paintings, Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X.
The science fiction film It Came from Outer Space is released… in 3-D.
Bill Haley & His Comets’ 'Crazy Man, Crazy' becomes the first rock and roll single to make the Billboard national American musical charts.
George Steven’s western Shane is released.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed for espionage.
L. Sprague de Camp’s and Catherine Crook de Camp’s Science-Fiction Handbook is published.
DNA, the secret of life, discovered by James Watson and Frances Crick.
Arthur Miller's play The Crucible premieres at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York.
McCarthy witch hunt hearings take place in USA.
House of Wax, becomes the first 3-D movie to ever make
the box office top ten.
Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye is published.
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is published.
Marilyn Monroe stars as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
William S. Burroughs’ Junkie is published.
Elvis Presley records for the first time.
1954
Britain sponsors an expedition to search for the Abominable Snowman.
The first atomic submarine, USS Nautilus, is launched.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is published.
New report says cigarettes cause cancer.
Richard Matheson's I am Legend is published.
Segregation is ruled Illegal in the U.S.
Albert Einstein’s Ideas and Opinions is published.
Roger Bannister breaks the four-minute mile.
The first organ, a kidney, is successfully transplanted.
J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers are published.
Joan Cawford stars as Vienna in Nicolas Ray's western, Johnny Guitar.
R&B music explodes into the mainstream with black vocal groups leading the crossover.
Jack Arnold’s 3-D creature feature, Creature from the Black Lagoon is released.
Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception is published.
Seven Samurai, co-written, edited and directed by Akira Kurosawa is released.
Godzilla makes his film debut.
Dr. Frederic Wertham links juvenile delinquency to comic books in his publication Seduction of the Innocent.
Roald Dahl produces his first collection of twisted tales, Someone Like You.
1955
Disneyland opens.
James Dean dies in car accident at the age of 24.
Rebel Without a Cause is released.
Movie studios open their vaults for television rentals and sales.
Rock 'n' roll music warrants a mention in the year end Encyclopedia Britannica music review, which derogatorily refers to it as 'jungle music'.
Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is published in Paris.
'Rock Around the Clock' becomes the first Rock and Roll single to reach Number One on the American charts.
McDonald's corporation is founded.
Chuck Berry's 'Maybellene' cracks the Top Five on the U.S. Pop Charts.
The Warsaw Pact is signed.
The Girl Can't Help It, starring Jayne Mansfield, is released, featuring musical interludes by Little Richard, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, Eddie Cochran and Julie London.
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on Montgomery bus.
Allen Ginsberg performs his first public reading of Howl at Six Gallery in San Francisco.
The first issue of the Guinness Book of Records is published.
The Marlboro Man campaign debuts.
The Todd-AO widescreen process is successfully introduced with director Fred Zinnemann's Oklahoma!
Tests begin on fibre optics for future mass digital communication.
Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley is published.
Bo Diddley makes his US R&B chart debut with his single 'Bo Diddley'.
Ken Russell's series of documentary Teddy Girl photographs are published in Picture Post magazine.
The Broadway production of Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens, directed by Elia Kazan.
Blackboard Jungle is the first film to feature a rock 'n' roll song, 'Rock-Around-The-Clock.'
Flannery O'Connor’s Good Country People and A Good Man Is Hard To Find are published.
Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman star in Douglas Sirk’s melodrama All That Heaven Allows.
Sun Records releases 'Folsom Prison Blues' by Johnny Cash.
Mary Quant opens her boutique, Bazaar, in Kings Road London.
Little Richard records 'Tutti Frutti' with significantly cleaned up lyrics.
The English-language version of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is premiered at the Arts Theatre, London.
Marilyn Monroe's dress catches a subway breeze in The Seven Year Itch.
1956
Elvis Presley makes his national television debut on 'The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show'.
Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
Forbidden Planet is released.
Hungarian Revolution.
Khrushchev denounces Stalin.
The first practical videotape recorder (VTR) is developed
by the AMPEX Corporation.
As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere on CBS
as the first half-hour American soap operas.
The Suez Crisis occurs.
The Killing, directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Jim Thompson is released.
'Blue Suede Shoes' is released by Carl Perkins on the Sun Records label.
Grace Metalious’ Peyton Place is published.
The Eurovision Song Contest is held for the first time.
One of the first exhibitions of pop art, This Is Tomorrow, opens in
Whitechapel Gallery, London.
T.V. remote control is invented.
A group of racial segregationists (followers of Asa Earl Carter) rush the
stage at a Nat King Cole concert in Birmingham, Alabama.
IBM create the first hard disk drive.
James Baldwin’s Sonny's Blues is published.
The Wizard of Oz (1939) is televised on CBS, becoming the first feature-length film broadcast on TV, with a viewing audience estimated at 45 million people.
Norman Mailer’s The White Negro: Superficial Reflections
on the Hipster is published.
Dick Clark hosts American Bandstand for the first time.
Marty wins the best picture, best director (Delbert Mann)
and best actor (Ernest Borgnine.)
Velcro is introduced to the public.
Ed McBain’s first book in the long-running 87th Precinct series,
Cop Hater, is published.
Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, based on Jack Finney's 1954
novel, is released.
The British science-fiction/horror film X the Unknown, made by Hammer
Films is released.
Rocky Marciano retires as the only undefeated Heavyweight Champion of the world with a perfect record (49-0; 43 by knockout).
Nat King Cole becomes the first major black performer to host a variety show on national television.
1957
Dr. Seuss publishes The Cat in the Hat.
Max von Sydow plays a game of chess with Death in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal.
European Economic Community is established.
On his final Ed Sullivan appearance Elvis is filmed from the waist up.
Dorothy Parker begins writing book reviews for Esquire.
Director, Sidney Lumet’s first film, 12 Angry Men, based on the play of the same name by Reginald Rose, is released.
The graphite core of the British nuclear reactor at Windscale, Cumbria, catches fire, releasing substantial amounts of radioactive contamination into the surrounding area.
The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool, England.
Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is published.
Michael Landon suffers the trials of adolescent angst in AIP’s I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
Buddy Holly’s 'That’ll Be The Day' reaches Number One in the U.S. and U.K. music charts.
The soviet satellite Sputnik launches the Space Age.
An automobile wreck provides Professor Frankenstein with a teenage cadaver in AIP’s I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.
Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism and Human Emotions is published.
The Abominable Snowman, The Amazing Colossal Man and The Astounding She-Monster attack the movie screens.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney first meet at St. Peter's Church garden fete in Liverpool, England.
Laika becomes the first living creature to enter orbit.
Jacques Tourneur’s Night of the Demon, based on the story 'Casting the Runes' by M. R. James, is released.
Patrick Moore presents his first The Sky at Night on UK television.
The Incredible Shrinking Man is released, directed by Jack Arnold and adapted for the screen by Richard Matheson from his novel The Shrinking Man.
Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day's Journey Into Night is performed on Broadway.
1958
De Gaulle becomes President of France.
Boris Pasternak refuses the Nobel Prize.
Tony Richardson’s film adaptation of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger is released, with Richard Burton as the angry young man, Jimmy Porter.
Chinese Leader Mao Zedong launches the 'Great Leap Forward'.
Brendan Behan’s Borstal Boy is published.
Forest J. Ackerman’s magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland sees its debut.
Phil Spector begins his recording career.
The National Association of Broadcasters bans subliminal ads.
Richard Knerr and Arthur Melin invent the Hula Hoop.
Raymond Williams’ Culture and Society 1780-1950 is published.
The Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian.
Stereo LP records are sold for the first time.
Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany's is published.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in New York.
Frankenstein and his creature appear for the first time in colour, in Hammer Studio's The Curse of Frankenstein.
Marvin Gaye begins recording with his first group.
The number of drive-in theatres in the U.S. peaks at near 5,000.
Lego Toy Bricks are first introduced.
NASA is founded.
Movie goers brave the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Horror of Dracula and the terrors of The Fly and The Blob.
Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey opens at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London.
Pinewood Studios release the first Carry On film, Carry On Sergeant.
Paris fashion dictates shorter skirts above the knee.
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is published.
The Peace Symbol is created.
Johnny Stompanato is fatally stabbed with a butcher knife by
Lana Turner's 14 year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane.
August Derleth’s The Mask of Cthulhu is published.
1959
Castro becomes dictator of Cuba.
An international treaty makes Antarctica a scientific preserve.
Juke Box Jury premieres on BBC Television.
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper die in a plane crash while on tour.
Salvador Dali completes his monumental painting, The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.
The Russian probe Luna 2 becomes the first man-made object to reach the Moon.
Ben-Hur, directed by William Wyler, premieres at Loews Theater in New York City and goes on to win an epic eleven Academy Awards.
The first of the Pan Book of Horror Stories is released, edited by Herbert van Thal, becoming one of the most well-known and influential of anthologies.
Motown Records start up, setting new styles of music that will dominate the sounds of the sixties.
Barbie dolls invented for children.
Robert Bloch’s Psycho is published.
Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone debuts on CBS.
The Sound of Music opens on Broadway.
Since 1955 the U.S. market share for rock 'n' roll has increased from 15.7%
to 42.7% making it the fastest growing style of music ever.
The 'Kitchen Debate' between Nixon and Khrushchev takes place at the
opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow.
Plan 9 from Outer Space is released and Edward D. Wood, Jr. insures himself
a place in movie history.
DC Comics introduces Supergirl, cousin of Superman.
Lana Turner stars in Douglas Sirk’s melodrama of movie stardom and racial tension, Imitation of Life.
Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon is published.
Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing tussle in Hammer Film’s The Mummy, directed by Terence Fisher.
The one billionth can of Spam is sold in the U.S.
U.S. CBS Quiz Show, 'The 64,000 Question', is found to be fixed, creating havoc within the U.S. television industry.
Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House is published.
The first public 'happening' is produced by Allan Kaprow at the Reuben Gallery in New York. Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg are among the performers.
William Castle's The Tingler electrifies its audience with Percepto! i.e. electrical 'buzzers' attached to the underside of several seats in the auditorium.
The microchip is invented, making way for future home computers...
