1950s

"'50s" redirects here. For decades comprising years 50–59 of other centuries, see List of decades.

See also: United States in the 1950s

In the mid-1950s Elvis Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll

The 1950s (pronounced "nineteen-fifties", commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959.

By its end, the world had largely recovered from World War II and the Cold War developed from its modest beginning in the late-1940s to a hot competition between the United States and the Soviet Union by the early-1960s.

Clashes between communism and capitalism dominated the decade, especially in the Northern Hemisphere. The conflicts included the Korean War in the beginnings of the decade and the beginning of the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1. Along with increased testing of nuclear weapons (such as RDS-37 and Upshot–Knothole), this created a politically conservative climate. In the United States, the Second Red Scare caused Congressional hearings by both houses in Congress and anti-communism was the prevailing sentiment in the United States throughout the decade. The beginning of decolonization in Africa and Asia took place in this decade and accelerated in the following decade.

Wars and conflicts

Korean War

• Cold War conflicts involving the influence of the rival superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States
  • Korean War (1950–1953) – The war, which lasted from June 25, 1950, until the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953, started as a civil war between North Korea and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). When it began, North and South Korea existed as provisional governments competing for control over the Korean peninsula, due to the division of Korea by outside powers. While originally a civil war, it quickly escalated into a war between the Western powers under the United Nations Command led by the United States and its allies and the communist powers of the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. On September 15, General Douglas MacArthur conducted Operation Chromite, an amphibious landing at the city of Inchon (Song Do port). The North Korean army collapsed, and within a few days, MacArthur's army retook Seoul (South Korea's capital). He then pushed north, capturing Pyongyang in October. Chinese intervention the following month drove UN forces south again. MacArthur then planned for a full-scale invasion of China, but this was against the wishes of President Truman and others who wanted a limited war. He was dismissed and replaced by General Matthew Ridgeway. The war then became a bloody stalemate for the next two and a half years while peace negotiations dragged on. The war left 33,742 American soldiers dead, 92,134 wounded, and 80,000 Missing in action (MIA) or Prisoner of war (POW). Estimates place Korean and Chinese casualties at 1,000,000–1,400,000 dead or wounded, and 140,000 MIA or POW.
  • The Vietnam War began in 1959. Diệm instituted a policy of death penalty against any communist activity in 1956. The Viet Minh began an assassination campaign in early 1957. An article by French scholar Bernard Fall published in July 1958 concluded that a new war had begun. The first official large unit military action was on September 26, 1959, when the Viet Cong ambushed two ARVN companies.
• Arab–Israeli conflict (Early 20th century-present)
  • Suez Crisis (1956) – The Suez Crisis was a war fought on Egyptian territory in 1956. Following the nationalisation of the Suez Canal in 1956 by Gamal Abdel Nasser, the United Kingdom, France and Israel subsequently invaded. The operation was a military success, but after the United States and Soviet Union united in opposition to the invasion, the invaders were forced to withdraw. This was seen as a major humiliation, especially for the two Western European countries, and symbolizes the beginning of the end of colonialism and the weakening of European global importance, specifically the collapse of the British Empire.
• Algerian War (1954–1962) – An important decolonization war, it was a complex conflict characterized by guerrilla warfare, maquis fighting, terrorism against civilians, use of torture on both sides and counter-terrorism operations by the French Army. The war eventually led to the independence of Algeria from France.

Internal conflicts

Fidel Castro becomes the leader of Cuba as a result of the Cuban Revolution

Raúl Castro (left), with his arm around his second-in-command, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, in their Sierra de Cristal mountain stronghold in Oriente Province, Cuba, in 1958.

• Cuban Revolution (1953–1959) – The 1959 overthrow of Fulgencio Batista by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and other forces resulted in the creation of the first communist government in the Western hemisphere.
• The Mau Mau began retaliating against the British in Kenya. This led to concentration camps in Kenya, a British military victory, and the election of moderate nationalist Jomo Kenyatta as leader of Kenya.
• The wind of destruction began in Rwanda in 1959 following the assault of Hutu politician Dominique Mbonyumutwa by Tutsi forces. This was the beginning of decades of ethnic violence in the country, which culminated in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

Decolonization and Independence

• Decolonization of former European Colonial empires. The French Fourth Republic in particular faced conflict on two fronts within the French Union, the Algerian War and the First Indo-China War. The Federation of Malaya peacefully gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. French rule ended in Algeria in 1958, Vietnam left French Indo-china in 1954. The rival states of North Vietnam and South Vietnam were formed. Cambodia and the Kingdom of Laos also gained independence, effectively ending French presence in Southeast Asia. Elsewhere the Belgian Congo and other African nations gained their independence from France, Belgium and the United Kingdom.
• Large-scale decolonization in Africa first began in the 1950s. In 1951 Libya became the first African country to gain independence in the decade, and in 1954 the Algerian War began. 1956 saw Sudan, Morocco, and Tunisia become independent, and the next year Ghana became the first sub-saharan African nation to gain independence.

Prominent political events

• European Common Market – The European Communities (or Common Markets), the precursor of the European Union, was established with the Treaty of Rome in 1957.
• On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists staged an attempted assassination on U.S. President Harry S. Truman. The leader of the team Griselio Torresola had firearm experience and Oscar Collazo was his accomplice. They made their assault at the Blair House where President Truman and his family were staying. Torresola mortally wounded a White House policeman, Leslie Coffelt, who shot Torresola dead before expiring himself. Collazo, as a co-conspirator in a felony that turned into a homicide, was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to death in 1952 but then his sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

Gallery of notable world leaders

Note: Names of country leaders shown below in bold face remained in power continuously throughout the entirety of the decade.

• 
  Dwight D. Eisenhower
• 
  Nikita Khrushchev
• Mao Zedong
  Mao Zedong
• 
  Konrad Adenauer
• Harold Macmillan
  Harold Macmillan
• 
  René Coty
• 
  Alcide De Gasperi
• 
  Pope Pius XII
• 
  Juan Perón
• 
  Robert Menzies
• 
  Getulio Vargas
• 
  Gamal Abdel Nasser
• 
  Jawaharlal Nehru
• 
  David Ben-Gurion
• 
  Syngman Rhee
• 
  Kim Il-sung
• 
  Joseph Stalin
• 
  Francisco Franco
• 
  Charles de Gaulle
• 
  Winston Churchill
• Anthony Eden
  Anthony Eden
• 
  Harry S. Truman
• 
  Chiang Kai-shek
• 
  Ibn Saud
• 
  Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

International issues

• Establishment of the Non-aligned Movement, consisting of nations not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.

Africa

• Africa experienced the beginning of large-scale top-down economic interventions in the 1950s that failed to cause improvement and led to charitable exhaustion by the West as the century went on. The widespread corruption was not dealt with and war, disease, and famine continued to be constant problems in the region.
• Egyptian general Gamel Abdel Nasser overthrew the Egyptian monarchy, establishing himself as President of Egypt. Nasser became an influential leader in the Middle East in the 1950s, leading Arab states into war with Israel, becoming a major leader of the Non-Aligned Movement and promoting pan-Arab unification.

America

• In the 1950s America was the center of covert and overt conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. Their varying collusion with national, populist, and elitist interests destabilized the region. The United States CIA orchestrated the overthrow of the Guatemalan government in 1954. In 1958 the military dictatorship of Venezuela was overthrown. This continued a pattern of regional revolution and warfare making extensive use of ground forces.
• In 1957, Dr. François Duvalier came to power in an election in Haiti. He later declared himself president for life, and ruled until his death in 1971.
• In 1959, Alaska (3 January) and Hawaii (21 August) became the 49th and 50th states respectively of the United States.
• In 1959 Fidel Castro overthrew the regime of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, establishing a communist government in the country. Although Castro initially sought aid from the US, he was rebuffed and later turned to the Soviet Union.
• NORAD signed in 1959 by Canada and the United States creating a unified North American air defense system.
• Brasília was built in 41 months, from 1956, and on April 21, 1960, became the capital of Brazil

The maximum territorial extent of countries in the world under Soviet influence, after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and before the official Sino-Soviet split of 1961

Asia

• The U.S. ended its occupation of Japan, which became fully independent. Japan held democratic elections and recovered economically.
• Within a year of its establishment, the People's Republic of China had reclaimed Tibet and intervened in the Korean War, causing years of hostility and estrangement from the United States. Mao admired Stalin and rejected the changes in Moscow after Stalin's death in 1953, leading to growing tension with the Soviet Union.
• In 1950–1953 France tried to contain a growing communist insurgency led by Ho Chi Minh. After their defeat in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 France granted independence to the nations of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. At the Geneva Conference of 1954 France and the Communists agreed to divide Vietnam and hold elections in 1956. The U.S. and South Vietnam rejected the Geneva accords and the division became permanent.

Europe

• With the help of the Marshall Plan, post-war reconstruction succeeded, with some countries (including West Germany) adopting free market capitalism while others adopted Keynesian-policy welfare states. Europe continued to be divided into Western and Soviet bloc countries. The geographical point of this division came to be called the Iron Curtain.
• Because previous attempts for a unified state failed, Germany remained divided into two states: the capitalist Federal Republic of Germany in the west and the socialist German Democratic Republic in the east. The Federal Republic identified itself as the legal successor to the fascist dictatorship and was obliged in paying war reparations. The GDR, however, denounced the fascist past completely and did not recognize itself as responsible for paying reparations on behalf of the Nazi regime. The GDR's more harsh attitude in suppressing anti-communist and Russophobic sentiment lingering in the post-Nazi society resulted in increased emigration to the west.
• While the United States military maintained its bases in western Europe, the Soviet Union maintained its bases in the east. In 1953 Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, died. This led to the rise of Nikita Khrushchev, who denounced Stalin and pursued a more liberal domestic and foreign policy, stressing peaceful competition with the West rather than overt hostility. There were anti-Stalinist uprisings in East Germany and Poland in 1953 and Hungary in 1956.

Disasters

North Sea flood of 1953

Natural:

• On 15 August 1950 an earthquake and floods in Assam, India killed 574 and left 5,000,000 homeless.
• On 18 January 1951 Mount Lamington erupted in Papua New Guinea, killing 3,000 people.
• On 31 January 1953 the North Sea flood of 1953 killed 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially Zeeland) and 307 in the United Kingdom
• On 9 September 1954 an earthquake centered on the city of Orléansville, Algeria killed 1,500 and left thousands homeless.
• On 11 October 1954 Hurricane Hazel crossed over Haiti, killing 1,000.
• On 19 August 1955 Hurricane Diane hit the northeastern United States, killing over 200 people, and causing over $1.0 billion in damage.
• On 27 June 1957 Hurricane Audrey demolished Cameron, Louisiana, US, killing 400 people.
• In April 1959, the Río Negro flooded central Uruguay.
• Typhoon Vera hit central Honshū on 26 September 1959, killing an estimated 5,098, injuring another 38,921, and leaving 1,533,000 homeless. Most of the damage was centered in the Nagoya area.
• On 2 December 1959, Malpasset Dam in southern France collapsed and water flowed over the town of Fréjus, killing 412.

Non-natural:

• On 12 March 1950, an Avro Tudor plane carrying a rugby team crashed in Wales, killing 80 people.
• On 18 June 1953, a USAF Douglas C-124 Globemaster II crashed after takeoff from Tachikawa, Japan, killing all 129 on board.
• On 10 January 1954, BOAC Flight 781, a new de Havilland Comet jetliner, disintegrated in mid-air due to structural failure and crashed off the Italian coast, killing all 35 on board.
• On 30 June 1956, a United Airlines Douglas DC-7 and a Trans World Airlines Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation collided above the Grand Canyon in Arizona, killing all 128 people on board both aircraft.
• On 25 July 1956, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collided with the Swedish ocean liner MS Stockholm off the Nantucket, Massachusetts, coastline. 51 people were killed and the Andrea Doria sank the next morning.
• On 6 February 1958, British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, West Germany. 23 people on board were killed (including 8 players of the Manchester United F.C. soccer team).
• On 21 April 1958, a mid-air collision between United Airlines Flight 736 and a USAF fighter jet killed 49 people.
• On 14 August 1958, a KLM Lockheed Constellation crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland, killing all 99 people aboard.

Economics

• The United States was the most influential economic power in the world after World War II under the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Inflation was moderate during the decade of the 1950s. The first few months had a deflationary hangover from the 1940s but the first full year ended with what looked like the beginnings of massive inflation with annual inflation rates ranging from 8% to 9% a year. Fortunately, by 1952 inflation subsided. 1954 and 1955 flirted with deflation again but the remainder of the decade had moderate inflation ranging from 1% to 3.7%. The average annual inflation for the entire decade was only 2.04%.

Religion

On November 1, 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, the Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of Mary as a dogma:

By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.

Pope Pius XII deliberately left open the question of whether Mary died before her Assumption.

Before the dogmatic definition, in Deiparae Virginis Mariae Pope Pius XII sought the opinion of Catholic Bishops and a large number of them pointed to the Book of Genesis (3:15) as scriptural support for the dogma. In Munificentissimus Deus Pius XII referred to the "struggle against the infernal foe" as in Genesis 3:15 and to "complete victory over the sin and death" as in the Letters of Paul as a scriptural basis for the dogmatic definition, Mary being assumed to heaven as in 1 Corinthians 15:54: "then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory".

Science and technology

Technology

Sputnik

30k USSR postage stamp depicting Sputnik 1

The recently invented transistor, though initially quite feeble, had clear potential and was rapidly improved and developed at the beginning of the 1950s by companies such as GE, RCA, and Philco. The first commercial transistor production started at the Western Electric plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in October, 1951 with the point contact germanium transistor. It wasn't until around 1954 that transistor products began to achieve real commercial success with small portable radios.

Television, which first reached the marketplace in the 1940s, attained maturity during the 1950s and by the end of the decade, most American households owned a TV set. A rush to produce larger screens than the tiny ones found on 1940s models occurred during 1950-52. In 1954 RCA intro Bell Telephone Labs produced the first Solar battery. In 1954 you could get a yard of contact paper for only 59 cents. Polypropylene was invented in 1954. In 1955 Jonas Salk invented a polio vaccine which was given to more than seven million American students. In 1956 a solar powered wrist watch was invented.

A surprise came in 1957: a 184-pound (83 kg) satellite named Sputnik 1 was launched by the Soviets. The space race began 4 months later as the United States launched a smaller satellite. In 1958 the first plastic Coke bottle appeared.

Operation Castle became the highest-yield nuclear test series ever conducted by the United States.

• Charles H. Townes builds the Maser in 1953 at the Columbia University.
• The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth on October 4, 1957.
• The United States conducts its first hydrogen bomb explosion test.
• The invention of the modern Solar cell.
• Passenger jets enter service.
• The U.S uses Federal prisons, mental institutions and pharmalogical testing volunteers to test drugs like LSD and chlorpromazine. Also started experimenting with the transorbital lobotomy.
• President Harry S. Truman inaugurated transcontinental television service on September 4, 1951, when he made a speech to the nation. AT&T carried his address from San Francisco and it was viewed from the west coast to the east coast at the same time.

Science

• Francis Crick and James Watson discover the double-helix structure of DNA. Rosalind Franklin contributed to the discovery of the double helix structure.
• An immunization vaccine is produced for polio.
• The first successful ultrasound test of the heart activity.
• CERN is established.
• The world's first nuclear power plant is opened in Obninsk near Moscow.
• NASA is organized.
• The first human cervical cancer cells were cultured outside a body in 1951, from Henrietta Lacks. The cells are known as HeLa cells and are the first and most commonly used immortalised cell line.
• First transistor computer, built at the University of Manchester in November 1953.

Popular culture

Music

Further information: 1950s in music, Rock and roll, Timeline of musical events § 1950s, First rock and roll record, and List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand

Popular music in the early 1950s was essentially a continuation of the crooner sound of the previous decade, with less emphasis on the jazz-influenced big band style and more emphasis on a conservative, operatic, symphonic style of music. Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Patti Page, Judy Garland, Johnnie Ray, Kay Starr, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin, Georgia Gibbs, Eddie Fisher, Teresa Brewer, Dinah Shore, Kitty Kallen, Joni James, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Toni Arden, June Valli, Doris Day, Arthur Godfrey, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Guy Mitchell, Nat King Cole, and vocal groups like the Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, The Four Lads, The Four Aces, The Chordettes, The Fontane Sisters, The Hilltoppers and the Ames Brothers. Jo Stafford's "You Belong To Me" was the #1 song of 1952 on the Billboard Top 100 chart.

The middle of the decade saw a change in the popular music landscape as classic pop was swept off the charts by rock-and-roll. Crooners such as Eddie Fisher, Perry Como, and Patti Page, who had dominated the first half of the decade, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed by the decade's end. doo-wop entered the pop charts in the 1950s. Its popularity soon spawns the parody "Who Put the Bomp".

Chuck Berry (1957) became a popular rock and roll musician

Rock-n-roll emerged in the mid-1950s with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, James Brown, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin, Ritchie Valens, Duane Eddy, Eddie Cochran, Brenda Lee, Bobby Vee, Connie Francis, Johnny Mathis, Neil Sedaka, Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson being notable exponents. In the mid-1950s, Elvis Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. Chuck Berry, with "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), refined and developed the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, focusing on teen life and introducing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music. Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Johnny Horton, and Marty Robbins were Rockabilly musicians. Doo-wop was another popular genre at the time. Popular Doo Wop and Rock-n-Roll bands of the mid to late 1950s include The Platters, The Flamingos, The Dells, The Silhouettes, Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers, Little Anthony and The Imperials, Danny & the Juniors, The Coasters, The Drifters, The Del-Vikings and Dion and the Belmonts.

The new music differed from previous styles in that it was primarily targeted at the teenager market, which became a distinct entity for the first time in the 1950s as growing prosperity meant that young people did not have to grow up as quickly or be expected to support a family. Rock-and-roll proved to be a difficult phenomenon for older Americans to accept and there were widespread accusations of it being a communist-orchestrated scheme to corrupt the youth, although rock and roll was extremely market based and capitalistic.

Jazz stars in the 1950s who came into prominence in their genres called bebop, hard bop, cool jazz and the blues, at this time included Lester Young, Ben Webster, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, Gil Evans, Jerry Mulligan, Cannonball Adderley, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Dave Brubeck, Art Blakey, Max Roach, the Miles Davis Quintet, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, and Billie Holiday.

The American folk music revival became a phenomenon in the United States in the 1950s to mid-1960s with the initial success of The Weavers who popularized the genre. Their sound, and their broad repertoire of traditional folk material and topical songs inspired other groups such as the Kingston Trio, the Chad Mitchell Trio, The New Christy Minstrels, and the "collegiate folk" groups such as The Brothers Four, The Four Freshmen, The Four Preps, and The Highwaymen. All featured tight vocal harmonies and a repertoire at least initially rooted in folk music and topical songs.

On 3 February 1959, a chartered plane transporting the three American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson goes down in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four occupants on board, including pilot Roger Peterson. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died", popularized in Don McLean's 1972 song "American Pie". This event, combined with the conscription of Elvis into the US Army, is often taken to mark the point where the era of 1950s rock-and-roll ended.

Film

Further information: 1950s in film

Cary Grant as Roger O. Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959)

European cinema experienced a renaissance in the 1950s following the deprivations of World War II. Italian director Federico Fellini won the first foreign language film Academy Award with La Strada and garnered another Academy Award with Nights of Cabiria. In 1955, Swedish director Ingmar Bergman earned a Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival with Smiles of a Summer Night and followed the film with masterpieces The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries. Jean Cocteau's Orphée, a film central to his Orphic Trilogy, starred Jean Marais and was released in 1950. French director Claude Chabrol's Le Beau Serge is now widely considered the first film of the French New Wave. Notable European film stars of the period include Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Max von Sydow, and Jean-Paul Belmondo.

Japanese cinema reached its zenith with films from director Akira Kurosawa including Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and The Hidden Fortress. Other distinguished Japanese directors of the period were Yasujirō Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi. Russian fantasy director Aleksandr Ptushko's mythological epics Sadko, Ilya Muromets, and Sampo were internationally acclaimed as was Ballad of a Soldier, a 1959 Soviet film directed by Grigory Chukhray

In Hollywood, the epic Ben-Hur grabbed a record 11 Academy Awards in 1959 and its success gave a new lease of life to motion picture studio MGM.

The "Golden Era" of 3-D cinematography transpired during the 1950s.

Television

The 1950s are known as The Golden Age of Television by some people. Sales of TV sets rose tremendously in the 1950s and by 1950 4.4 million families in America had a television set. Americans devoted most of their free time to watching television broadcasts. People spent so much time watching TV, that movie attendance dropped and so did the number of radio listeners. Television revolutionized the way Americans see themselves and the world around them. TV affects all aspects of American culture. "Television affects what we wear, the music we listen to, what we eat, and the news we receive."

Art movements

In the early 1950s Abstract expressionism and artists Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning were enormously influential. However, by the late 1950s Color Field painting and Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko's paintings became more in focus to the next generation.

Pop art used the iconography of television, photography, comics, cinema and advertising. With its roots in dadaism, it started to take form towards the end of the 1950s when some European artists started to make the symbols and products of the world of advertising and propaganda the main subject of their artistic work. This return of figurative art, in opposition to the abstract expressionism that dominated the aesthetic scene since the end of World War II was dominated by Great Britain until the early 1960s when Andy Warhol, the most known artist of this movement began to show Pop Art in galleries in the United States.

Fashion

New ideas meant new designers who had a concept of what was fashion. Fashion started gaining a voice and style when Christian Dior created “The New Look” collection. The 1950s was not only about spending on luxurious brands but also the idea of being comfortable was created. It was a time where resources were available and it was a new type of fashion. Designers were creating collections with different materials such as: taffeta, nylon, rayon, wool and leather that allowed different colors and patterns. People started wearing artificial fibers because it was easier to take care of and it was price effective. It was a time where shopping was part of a lifestyle.

Christian Dior: "The New Look"

Different designers emerged or made a comeback on the 1950s because as mention before it was a time for fashion and ideas. The most important designers from the time were:

Christian Dior: everything started in 1947 after World War II was over. Christian Dior found that there were a lot of resources in the market. He created the famous and inspirational collection named “The New Look.” This consisted on the idea of creating voluminous dresses that would not only represent wealth but also show power on women. This collection was the first collection to use 80 yards of fabric. He introduced the idea of the hourglass shape for women; wide shoulders, tight waistline and then voluminous full skirts. Dior was a revolutionary and he was the major influence for the next collections. He is known for always developing new ideas and designs, which led to a rapid expansion and becoming worldwide known. He had pressure to create innovative designs for each collection and Dior did manage to provide that to the consumers. He not only made the hourglass shape very famous but he also developed the H-line as well as the A and Y-Lines. Dior was a very important designer, he changed the way fashion was looked on the world but most importantly he reestablished Paris as a fashion capital.

Cristóbal Balenciaga

Cristobal Balenciaga: Cristobal Balenciaga a Spanish designer who opened his first couture house in 1915. In 1936 he went to Paris in order to avoid the Spanish Civil War, there he had inspiration for his fashion collections. His designs were an inspiration for emerging designers of the time. His legacy is as important as the one from Dior, revolutionaries. He was known for creating sack dresses, heavy volumes and balloon skirts. For him everything started when he worked for Marquesa de Casa Torre who became his patron and main source of inspiration. Marquesa de Casa Torre helped Balenciaga enter the world of couture. His fist suit was very dramatic. The suit consisted on cutout and cut-ins the waist over a slim skirt, something not seen before. Balenciaga was a revolutionary designer who was not afraid to cut and let loose because he had everything under control. In 1950s and the 1960s his designs were well known for attention to color and texture. He was creating different silhouettes for women, in 1955 he created the tunic, 1957 the sack dress and 1958 the Empire styles. He was known for moving from tailored designs to shapeless allowing him to show portion and balance on the bodies. Showing that his designs evolved with time and maintained his ideologies.

Details on a Coco Chanel Suit

Coco Chanel: After World War II the famous designer reestablished herself. This time Chanel introduced very useful clothing for women, the boxy suit. The suits created in 1954 were special because of the unique tweeds that were made just for her. Her ideology was to create comfort clothing that had function and made women look pretty and young. The suits had jackets, skirts and accessories such as hats and handbags. Her style was well known over the world and her idea of having functional luxurious clothing influenced other designers from the era. Chanel believed that luxurious should come from being comfortable that is why her designers were so unique and different from the time period, she also achieved her looks by adding accessories such as pearl necklaces. Chanel believed that even though Dior designs were revolutionary for the time period they did not managed to represent the women of the time. She believed women had to wear something to represent their survival to another war and their active roles in society. Coming back from a closed house of fashion was not easy for Chanel and competing against younger designers. The Chanel suit was known as a status symbol for wealthy and powerful women. Chanel influenced over the years and her brand is still one of the most influential brands for fashion.

Paavo Nurmi and the Olympic flame in the opening ceremony of the 1952 Summer Olympics.

Sports

• Inaugural season of the Formula One

Olympics

• 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki, Finland
• 1952 Winter Olympics held in Oslo, Norway
• 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne, Australia
• 1956 Winter Olympics held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy

FIFA World Cups

• 1950 World Cup hosted by Brazil, won by Uruguay
• 1954 World Cup hosted by Switzerland, won by West Germany
• 1958 World Cup hosted by Sweden, won by Brazil

The 1958 World Cup is notable for marking the debut on the world stage of a then largely unknown 17-year-old Pelé.

People

World leaders

• President Iskander Mirza (Pakistan)
• President Ayub Khan (Pakistan)
• General Secretary Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
• General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev (Soviet Union)
• Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden (United Kingdom)
• Prime Minister Harold Macmillan (United Kingdom)
• President Juho Kusti Paasikivi (Finland)
• President Urho Kekkonen (Finland)
• President Laureano Gómez (Colombia)
• President Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez (Colombia)
• President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (Colombia)
• President Harry S. Truman (United States)
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower (United States)
• President Charles de Gaulle (France)
• President Vincent Auriol (France)
• President René Coty (France)
• President Miguel Alemán Valdés (Mexico)
• President Adolfo Ruiz (Mexico)
• President Adolfo López Mateos (Mexico)
• Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)
• President Arturo Frondizi (Argentina)
• President Juan Perón (Argentina)
• Prime Minister Robert Menzies (Australia)
• President Getúlio Vargas (Brazil)
• President Juscelino Kubitschek (Brazil)
• Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent (Canada)
• Prime Minister John Diefenbaker (Canada)
• President Carlos Prío Socarrás (Cuba)
• President Fulgencio Batista (Cuba)
• President Anselmo Alliegro y Milá (Cuba) (interim)
• President Carlos Manuel Piedra (Cuba)
• President Manuel Urrutia Lleó (Cuba)
• President Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado (Cuba) – from 1959
• Prime Minister Kim Il Sung (North Korea)
• Chairman Mao Zedong (People's Republic of China)
• President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China on Taiwan)
• King George VI (Commonwealth realms)
• Queen Elizabeth II (Commonwealth realms)
• Prime Minister Lester Pearson (Canada)
• President Klement Gottwald (Czechoslovakia)
• President Antonín Zápotocký (Czechoslovakia)
• President Antonín Novotný (Czechoslovakia)
• President Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt)
• Emperor Haile Selassie (Ethiopia)
• President Juho Kusti Paasikivi (Finland)
• President Urho Kekkonen (Finland)
• Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
• President Sukarno (Indonesia)
• Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh (Iran)
• Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (Iran)
• King Faisal II (Iraq)
• President Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i (Iraq)
• Taoiseach John A. Costello (Ireland)
• Taoiseach Éamon de Valera (Ireland)
• Taoiseach Seán Lemass (Ireland)
• Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi (Italy)
• Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
• President Bolesław Bierut (Poland)
• King Idris (Libya) – from 1951
• Prime Minister George Borg Olivier (Malta)
• Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar (Portugal)
• Generalissimo Francisco Franco (Spain)
• Prime Minister Tage Erlander (Sweden)
• President Celal Bayar (Turkey)
• Prime Minister Adnan Menderes (Turkey)
• Pope Pius XII (Vatican)
• Pope John XXIII (Vatican)
• Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (West Germany)
• President Josip Broz Tito (Yugoslavia)
• Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaya)
• Marcos Pérez Jiménez (Venezuela)

Politics

• Aleksey Innokentevich Antonov, Chief of General Staff of the Unified Armed Forces Warsaw Treaty Organization
• Eugene R. Black, President World Bank
• William Sterling Cole, Director-general International Atomic Energy Agency
• Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Secretary-general Latin Union
• André François-Poncet, Chairman of the Standing Commission International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
• Louis Goffin, Secretary-general Western European Union
• Walter Hallstein, President of the European Commission
• Fritz Hess, Director Universal Postal Union
• Ivan Stepanovich Konev, Commander-in-chief of the Unified Armed Forces Warsaw Treaty Organization
• Henri St. Leger, Secretary-general International Organization for Standardization
• Robert C. Lonati, Secretary-general World Tourism Organization
• David A. Morse, Director-general International Labour Organization
• Arnold Duncan McNair, Baron McNair, President of the European Court of Human Rights
• Ove Nielsen, Secretary-general International Maritime Organization
• Maurice Pate, Executive Director United Nations Children's Fund
• Robert Schuman, President of the European Parliamentary Assembly
• Gustav Swoboda, Chief of the Secretariat World Meteorological Organization
• José Guillermo Trabanino Guerrero, Secretary-general Organization of Central American States
• Eric Wyndham White, Executive Secretary World Trade Organization

Entertainers

• 
  Elizabeth Taylor in Father of the Bride 1950
• 
  Marilyn Monroe performing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 1953
• 
  Montgomery Clift in I Confess, 1953
• 
  Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen 1951
• 
  James Dean as Cal in East of Eden 1955
• 
  Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments, 1956

• Steve Allen
• Desi Arnaz
• Fred Astaire
• Gene Autry
• Lauren Bacall
• Lucille Ball
• Brigitte Bardot
• Harry Belafonte
• Jean-Paul Belmondo
• Jack Benny
• Ingrid Bergman
• Vivian Blaine
• Humphrey Bogart
• Marlon Brando
• Lloyd Bridges
• Yul Brynner
• Richard Burton
• James Cagney
• Cab Calloway
• Johnny Carson
• Montgomery Clift
• Clay Cole
• Gary Cooper
• Joan Crawford
• Bing Crosby
• Tony Curtis
• Peter Cushing
• Dorothy Dandridge
• Bette Davis
• Doris Day
• James Dean
• Sandra Dee
• Brandon deWilde
• Marlene Dietrich
• Troy Donahue
• Diana Dors
• Kirk Douglas
• Clint Eastwood
• José Ferrer
• Errol Flynn
• Henry Fonda
• Anne Francis
• William Frawley
• Annette Funicello
• Clark Gable
• Ava Gardner
• Judy Garland
• Cary Grant
• John Gregson
• Alec Guinness
• Tony Hancock
• Julie Harris
• Helen Hayes
• Susan Hayward
• Rita Hayworth
• Audrey Hepburn
• Katharine Hepburn
• Charlton Heston
• William Holden
• Judy Holliday
• Bob Hope
• Rock Hudson
• Van Johnson
• Jessica Jones
• Gene Kelly
• Grace Kelly
• Deborah Kerr
• Alan Ladd
• Burt Lancaster
• Janet Leigh
• Jack Lemmon
• Jerry Lewis
• Sophia Loren
• Shirley MacLaine
• Jayne Mansfield
• Dean Martin
• Giulietta Masina
• James Mason
• Marcello Mastroianni
• Jerry Mathers
• Toshiro Mifune
• Ray Milland
• Hayley Mills
• Sal Mineo
• Robert Mitchum
• Marilyn Monroe
• Yves Montand
• Ricky Nelson
• Paul Newman
• Kim Novak
• Laurence Olivier
• Geraldine Page
• Jack Palance
• Gregory Peck
• Jon Provost
• Anthony Quinn
• George Reeves
• Steve Reeves
• Tommy Rettig
• Debbie Reynolds
• Thelma Ritter
• Cliff Robertson
• Roy Rogers
• Cesar Romero
• Jane Russell
• Rosalind Russell
• Eva Marie Saint
• Frank Sinatra
• Kim Stanley
• Barbara Stanwyck
• James Stewart
• Max von Sydow
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Robert Taylor
• Spencer Tracy
• Lana Turner
• Vivian Vance
• Robert Wagner
• John Wayne
• Jack Webb
• Orson Welles
• Richard Widmark
• Shelley Winters

Musicians

See also: List of musicians of the 1950s and Million Dollar Quartet

• 
  Harry Belafonte, 1954
• 
  Bill Haley of Bill Haley and the Comets singing Rock Around the Clock, 1955
• 
  Elvis Presley in a publicity photo for Jailhouse Rock (1957)
• 
  Chuck Berry in 1957
• 
  Fats Domino singing Blueberry Hill on The Alan Freed Show c. 1956

• Black Ace
• Buddy Ace
• Johnny Ace
• Arthur Alexander
• Lee Allen
• Gene Allison
• Marian Anderson
• Pink Anderson
• Paul Anka
• Louis Armstrong
• Eddy Arnold
• Chet Atkins
• Gene Autry
• Frankie Avalon
• Charles Aznavour
• LaVern Baker
• Hank Ballard
• Bobby Bare
• Sidney Bechet
• Harry Belafonte
• Jesse Belvin
• Tex Beneke
• Boyd Bennett
• Tony Bennett
• Chuck Berry
• Richard Berry
• Bill Black
• Otis Blackwell
• Scrapper Blackwell
• Blind Blake
• Bobby Bland
• Johnny Bond
• Pat Boone
• The Big Bopper
• Jimmy Bowen
• Calvin Boze
• Jackie Brenston
• Teresa Brewer
• Big Bill Broonzy
• Charles Brown
• Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
• James Brown
• Nappy Brown
• Roy Brown
• Ruth Brown
• Tommy Brown
• Dave Brubeck
• Jimmy Bryant
• Sonny Burgess
• Solomon Burke
• Johnny Burnette
• James Burton
• Sam Butera
• Erskine Butterfield
• Maria Callas
• Glen Campbell
• Martha Carson
• Goree Carter
• Johnny Cash
• Bobby Charles
• Ray Charles
• Boozoo Chavis
• Chubby Checker
• Clifton Chenier
• Lou Christie
• June Christy
• Eugene Church
• Dee Clark
• Joe Clay
• Jack Clement
• Patsy Cline
• Rosemary Clooney
• Eddie Cochran
• Nat "King" Cole
• John Coltrane
• Perry Como
• James Cotton
• Floyd Council
• Pee Wee Crayton
• Bing Crosby
• Bob Crosby
• Gary Crosby
• Arthur Crudup
• Mac Curtis
• Dick Dale
• Dick Dale (singer)
• Dalida
• Bobby Darin
• Hal David
• Jimmie Davis
• Miles Davis
• Sammy Davis, Jr.
• Bobby Day
• Doris Day
• Bo Diddley
• Willie Dixon
• Carl Dobkins, Jr.
• Bill Doggett
• Fats Domino
• Lonnie Donegan
• Jimmy Dorsey
• Lee Dorsey
• Tommy Dorsey
• K. C. Douglas
• Rusty Draper
• Champion Jack Dupree
• Jimmy Durante
• Leroy Van Dyke
• Jack Earls
• Billy "The Kid" Emerson
• Werly Fairburn
• Charlie Feathers
• H-Bomb Ferguson
• Eddie Fisher
• Sonny Fisher
• Toni Fisher
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Mary Ford
• Tennessee Ernie Ford
• Helen Forrest
• Connie Francis
• Alan Freed
• Ernie Freeman
• Frank Frost
• Johnny Fuller
• Billy Fury
• Earl Gaines
• Hank Garland
• Judy Garland
• Clarence Garlow
• Georgia Gibbs
• Dizzy Gillespie
• Dick Glasser
• Arthur Godfrey
• Benny Goodman
• Roscoe Gordon
• Eydie Gormé
• Charlie Gracie
• Gogi Grant
• Jack Guthrie
• Roy Hamilton
• Lionel Hampton
• Pat Hare
• Slim Harpo
• Homer Harris
• Peppermint Harris
• Wynonie Harris
• Hawkshaw Hawkins
• Screamin' Jay Hawkins
• Al Hibbler
• Chuck Higgins
• Earl Hines
• Silas Hogan
• Smokey Hogg
• Ron Holden
• Billie Holiday
• Buddy Holly
• John Lee Hooker
• Lightnin' Hopkins
• Johnny Horton
• David Houston
• Joe Houston
• Ivory Joe Hunter
• Tab Hunter
• Bull Moose Jackson
• Mahalia Jackson
• Elmore James
• Etta James
• Harry James
• Homesick James
• Joni James
• Sonny James
• Waylon Jennings
• Kris Jensen
• Dr. John
• Little Willie John
• Jimmy Jones
• Louis Jordan
• Don Julian
• Kitty Kallen
• Chris Kenner
• Anita Kerr
• Albert King
• B.B. King
• Ben E. King
• Earl King
• Freddie King
• Pee Wee King
• Saunders King
• Christine Kittrell
• Baker Knight
• Sonny Knight
• Buddy Knox
• Gene Krupa
• Frankie Laine
• Major Lance
• Mario Lanza
• Ellis Larkins
• Brenda Lee
• Dickie Lee
• Peggy Lee
• Lazy Lester
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• Smiley Lewis
• Little Willie Littlefield
• Julie London
• Joe Hill Louis
• Willie Love
• Robin Luke
• Frankie Lymon
• Loretta Lynn
• Carl Mann
• Dean Martin
• Grady Martin
• Janis Martin
• Johnny Mathis
• Jimmy McCracklin
• Skeets McDonald
• Big Jay McNeely
• Clyde McPhatter
• Max Merritt
• Big Maceo Merriweather
• Amos Milburn
• Chuck Miller
• Mitch Miller
• Ned Miller
• Roy Milton
• Garnet Mimms
• Charles Mingus
• Bobby Mitchell
• Guy Mitchell
• Thelonious Monk
• Bill Monroe
• Vaughn Monroe
• Wes Montgomery
• Benny Moré
• Moon Mullican
• Rose Murphy
• Jimmy Nelson
• Ricky Nelson
• Sandy Nelson
• Robert Nighthawk
• Willie Nix
• Jimmy Nolen
• Nervous Norvus
• Donald O'Conner
• St. Louis Jimmy Oden
• Odetta
• Gene O'Quin
• Roy Orbison
• Johnny Otis
• Patti Page
• Charlie Parker
• Junior Parker
• Dolly Parton
• Les Paul
• Art Pepper
• Carl Perkins
• Oscar Peterson
• Phil Phillips
• Sam Phillips
• Webb Pierce
• Gene Pitney
• Pérez Prado
• Elvis Presley
• Jimmy Preston
• Johnny Preston
• Lloyd Price
• Ray Price
• Louis Prima
• Johnnie Ray
• Tampa Red
• Jerry Reed
• Jimmy Reed
• Della Reese
• Django Reinhardt
• Slim Rhodes
• Buddy Rich
• Charlie Rich
• Cliff Richard
• Little Richard
• Tommy Ridgley
• Billy Lee Riley
• Tex Ritter
• Johnny Rivers
• Max Roach
• Marty Robbins
• Jimmie Rodgers
• Arsenio Rodríguez
• Kenny Rogers
• Bobby Rydell
• Kyu Sakamoto
• Washboard Sam
• Tommy Sands
• Mabel Scott
• Neil Sedaka
• Pete Seeger
• Johnny Shines
• Dinah Shore
• Frank Sinatra
• Memphis Slim
• Sunnyland Slim
• Huey "Piano" Smith
• Ray Smith
• Warren Smith
• Kay Starr
• Joan Sutherland
• Art Tatum
• Jesse Thomas
• Rufus Thomas
• Hank Thompson
• Big Mama Thornton
• Johnny Tillotson
• Merle Travis
• Ernest Tubb
• Big Joe Turner
• Ike Turner
• Sammy Turner
• Conway Twitty
• Ritchie Valens
• Bobby Vee
• Gene Vincent
• T-Bone Walker
• Little Walter
• Mercy Dee Walton
• Baby Boy Warren
• Muddy Waters
• Johnny "Guitar" Watson
• Joe Weaver
• Ben Webster
• Lenny Welch
• Speedy West
• Josh White
• Slim Whitman
• Andy Williams
• Big Joe Williams
• Cootie Williams
• Hank Williams
• Larry Williams
• Otis Williams
• Tex Williams
• Ralph Willis
• Bob Wills
• Howlin' Wolf
• Malcolm Yelvington
• Faron Young
• Johnny "Man" Young
• Timi Yuro

Bands

• The Accents
• Jay & The Americans
• The Ames Brothers
• The Andrews Sisters
• Dave Appell & the Applejacks
• The Bell Notes
• The Belmonts
• Dion & The Belmonts
• Travis & Bob
• The Bobbettes
• The Bonnie Sisters
• The Bosstones
• The Buchanan Brothers
• The Cadets
• The Cadillacs
• The Capris
• The Cardinals
• The Castells
• The Champs
• The Chantels
• The Charioteers
• Otis Williams and the Charms
• The Chimes
• The Chips
• The Chordettes
• The Cleftones
• The Clovers
• The Coasters
• The Collegians
• Bill Haley and the Comets
• The Corsairs
• The Counts
• The Crew Cuts
• The Crescendos
• The Crests
• The Crows
• Danny & the Juniors
• Jan & Dean
• The Dells
• The Del-Satins
• The Delta Rhythm Boys
• The Del-Vikings
• Deep River Boys
• The Dovells
• The Dubs
• The Duprees
• The Diamonds
• The Drifters
• The Earls
• The Echoes
• The Edsels
• The El Dorados
• The Elegants
• The Emotions
• The Escorts
• The Everly Brothers
• The Fairfield Four
• The Falcons
• The Flamingos
• The Flairs
• The Fleetwoods
• The Fiestas
• The Five Satins
• The Five Discs
• The Five Keys
• The Five Sharps
• The Fontane Sisters
• The Four Aces
• The Four Buddies
• The Four Freshmen
• The Four Knights
• The Four Lads
• The Four Lovers
• The Four Preps
• The Four Seasons
• The Four Tunes
• The Gaylords
• The G-Clefs
• The Golden Gate Quartet
• The Harptones
• The Hearts
• The Heathertones
• The Hilltoppers
• The Hollywood Flames
• Johnny & The Hurricanes
• The Impalas
• Little Anthony and the Imperials
• The Ink Spots
• The Isley Brothers
• The Jewels
• The Jesters
• The Jive Bombers
• The Jive Five
• Marvin & Johnny
• Robert & Johnny
• Don & Juan
• The Jubalaires
• The Kingston Trio
• The Knockouts
• The Larks
• The Lettermen
• Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers
• The McGuire Sisters
• The Medallions
• The Mello-Kings
• The Mello-Moods
• The Mills Brothers
• The Midnighters
• The Monotones
• The Moonglows
• The Mystics
• The Nutmegs
• The Oak Ridge Boys
• The Orioles
• The Paragons
• The Penguins
• The Pied Pipers
• The Platters
• The Pony-Tails
• The Quarrymen
• The Quotations
• Randy & The Rainbows
• The Ravens
• The Rays
• The Regents
• The Righteous Brothers
• Norman Fox & The Rob-Roys
• The Robins
• The Rock-A-Teens
• The Sensations
• The Shadows
• The Shepherd Sisters
• The Silhouettes
• The Solitaires
• Sons of The Pioneers
• The Spaniels
• The Sparkletones
• The Spiders
• The Spinners
• Joey Dee & The Starliters
• The Stereos
• The Swallows
• Mickey & Sylvia
• Tátrai Quartet
• The Teenagers
• The Teen Queens
• The Tokens
• The Tornados
• The Turbans
• The Tymes
• The Valentines
• The Ventures
• The Virtues
• The Volumes
• Billy Ward & The Dominoes
• The Wrens
• Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs
• Windsbacher Knabenchor

Sports figures

• 
  Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn Dodgers third baseman, 1954
• 
  Willie Mays, New York Giants centerfielder in 1954
• 
  Mickey Mantle, New York Yankee's centerfielder, in 1953
• 
  Duke Snider, Brooklyn Dodgers centerfielder, c. 1953

• Henry Aaron (baseball player)
• Ernie Banks (baseball player)
• Roger Bannister (English track and field athlete)
• Carmen Basilio (boxing)
• Yogi Berra (baseball player)
• Jim Brown (football player)
• Roy Campanella (baseball player)
• Ezzard Charles (boxing)
• Maureen Connolly (tennis player)
• Bob Cousy (basketball player)
• Joe DiMaggio (baseball player)
• Whitey Ford (baseball player)
• Gordie Howe (Canadian ice hockey player)
• Ben Hogan (golf)
• Ingemar Johansson (boxing)
• Al Kaline (baseball player)
• John Landy (Australian track and field athlete)
• Mickey Mantle (baseball player)
• Rocky Marciano (boxer)
• Eddie Mathews (baseball player)
• Willie Mays (baseball player)
• Archie Moore (boxing)
• Stan Musial (baseball player)
• Bobo Olson (boxing)
• Floyd Patterson (boxing)
• Pelé (Brazilian association footballer)
• Bob Pettit
• Ferenc Puskás
• Maurice Richard (Canadian ice hockey player)
• Jackie Robinson (baseball player)
• Frank Robinson (baseball player)
• Sugar Ray Robinson (boxer)
• Wilma Rudolph
• Bill Russell (basketball player)
• Sam Snead (golf)
• Duke Snider (baseball player)
• Warren Spahn (baseball player)
• Casey Stengel (baseball manager, former player)
• Chuck Taylor
• Johnny Unitas (football)
• Ted Williams (baseball player)
• Lev Yashin
• Emil Zátopek

See also

• 1950s in television
• 1950s in literature
• Post-World War II boom

Timeline

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:

1950 • 1951 • 1952 • 1953 • 1954 • 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1959

Further reading

• Bessel, Richard and Dirk Schumann, eds. Life after Death: Approaches to a Cultural and Social History of Europe During the 1940s and 1950s (2003), essays by scholars on recovery from the war
• Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005)
• London Institute of World Affairs, The Year Book of World Affairs 1957 (London 1957) full text online, comprehensive reference book covering 1956 in diplomacy, international affairs and politics for major nations and regions
• Montgomery, John. The Fifties (1960), On Britain.
• Wybrow, Robert J. "Britain Speaks Out, 1937-87 (1989), Summaries of public opinion polls in Britain

United States

• Dunar, Andrew J. America in the fifties (2006)
• Halberstam, David. The Fifties (1993) excerpt and text search
• Levine, Alan J. The Myth of the 1950s (2008) excerpt and text search
• Marling, Karal Ann. As Seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s (Harvard University Press, 1996) 328 pp.
• Miller, Douglas T. and Marion Nowak. The fifties: the way we really were (1977)
• Stoner, John C., and Alice L. George. Social History of the United States: The 1950s (2008)
• Wills, Charles. America in the 1950s (Decades of American History) (2005)

External links

• Heroes of the 1950s – slideshow by Life magazine
• "The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947–57, exhibition about 1950s fashion". Victoria and Albert Museum.
• Footage from the 1950s
• 1950s Video Timeline