The 1950's

 Home Page for The 1950's

Select from the right-hand menu '1950's CONTENT' specific class-graduation years.  Stories, pictures, scans, audio, video, and class-year specific content will be posted as it becomes available.

 
Decade overview

• Consumerism in its many guises is a major theme of the 1950s. At the beginning of the century, most people worked to survive and sometimes prosper; in the 1950s many people work to buy the "American dream."
• In 1950, the first charge card is introduced by Diners' Club; a prototype of the credit card, it had to be paid off in full monthly.
• In 1954, TV dinners are introduced in the United States.
• In 1954, there are fifteen computers in the United States.
• In 1955, Rosa Parks rides in the front seat of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, propelling the demand for civil rights reform in America.
• In 1957, John McCarthy founds the Artificial Intelligence Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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"Carbons to Computers: Historical Timeline 1950-1959 (text)." Smithsonian Education - Welcome. 1998. Smithsonian Institution. 28 Dec. 2008 <http://smithsonianeducation.org/scitech/carbons/text/1950.html>.