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{{Redirect|'50s|decades comprising years 50–59 of other centuries |List of decades}}
In the short preamble to The Communist Manifesto, one of history’s most widely read texts, you can tell that the authors have had it, right up to their beards. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were clearly sick of explaining that communism was not a synonym for evil or naivety, but a historical stage vital to the flourishing of all. In 1848, they demanded an immediate end to fearful European talk about the “specter” of communism. But, more than a century and a half later, the jittery gossip about communism continues.
{{See also|United States in the 1950s}}
[[File:1950s decade montage.png|455x455px|thumb|right|Top, L-R: U.S. Marines engaged in street fighting during the [[Korean War]], circa late September 1950; The first polio vaccine is developed by [[Jonas Salk]].{{paragraph}}


Centre, L-R: US tests its first thermonuclear bomb with code name ''[[Ivy Mike]]'' in 1952. A 1954 thermonuclear test, code named ''[[Castle Romeo]]'', is shown here; In 1959, [[Fidel Castro]] overthrows [[Fulgencio Batista]] in the [[Cuban Revolution]], which results in the creation of the first communist government in the Western hemisphere; [[Elvis Presley]] becomes the leading figure of the newly popular music genre of rock and roll in the mid-1950s.{{paragraph}}
Marx may have been one of the world’s most influential thinkers. His work, however, is now barely taught in the West. We might have scant knowledge of Marx these days, but we do retain enormous confidence that his ideas crumbled into dust along with the Berlin Wall.


Bottom, L-R: Smoke rises from oil tanks on Port Said following the invasion of [[Egypt]] by [[Israel]], [[United Kingdom]] and [[France]] as part of the [[Suez Crisis]] in late 1956; French paratroopers march in [[Algiers]] in the beginning of the [[Algerian War]], 1957; The [[Soviet Union]] launches ''[[Sputnik 1]]'', the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth, in October 1957.]]
Well. They didn’t. That wall never contained communism. And, heck, communism contains some ideas that are still very appealing, especially in times such as now when an economic downturn has been felt by so many.


{{Decadebox|195}}
Communism is a system of social organization that has never been truly tried and, these days, never truly explained. Yet it inspires fear in some, derision in others, and an almost universal unconcern for what it is actually intended to convey.
The '''1950s''' (pronounced ''nineteen-fifties''; commonly abbreviated as the '''{{linktext|lang=en|fifties}}''' (among other variants)) 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.
Given that a) Marx is tough, and b) you’re pretty busy making profit for capitalists all day, let’s have a précis.
You could read Marx for yourself, of course, and find that his communism is not made from dreary monsters but instead complex reasoning toward a future social evolution. Many of its features may even be acceptable to your conservative aunt, if only she read him, too. But, given that a) Marx is tough, and b) you’re pretty busy making profit for capitalists all day, let’s have a précis.


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|Sputnik 1]]. Along with increased testing of nuclear weapons (such as [[RDS-37]] and [[Operation Upshot–Knothole|Upshot–Knothole]]), this created a politically conservative climate. In the United States, the [[McCarthyism|Second Red Scare]] caused Congressional hearings by both houses in [[U.S. Congress|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.
There have been many significant socialist and communist thinkers, but the fact they largely call themselves Marxist is a tip-off that this guy’s writing—particularly the three volumes of Capital—is foundational. But, you’re busy, and Capital is very long and bound to put you to sleep sometime in Volume 2.


{{TOC limit|3}}
As people who need Marx but have little time to read Marx, we’ll make this quick. Let’s try some subheadings before we transform the world.


== Politics and wars ==
What’s the difference between communism, socialism, and liberalism?
[[File:Koreanwarmontage.jpg|right|190px|thumb|[[Korean War]]]]
First up, you need to suffer one of those tedious passages where we define some terms. Here we go: Socialism and communism and liberalism are not interchangeable words. Just because members of the alt-right hurl these terms from a patchwork Make-America-Great-Again tote bag of insults (which also may include “feminazi,” “social-justice warrior,” and “snowflake”), they have distinct meanings. Although they may see being a “liberal” as identical to being a communist, these are very different categories of thought.


===Wars===
The liberal, whether of a progressive or conservative sort, believes that social problems largely derive from poor individual morals. US presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, for example, said our moral intolerance of minorities is the great problem with America; US president Donald Trump said our moral privileging of minorities is the great problem with America.
* [[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.{{paragraph}} 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.{{paragraph}} 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 War#Aftermath: Operation Glory|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 1955. 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/pent14.htm|title=The Pentagon Papers, Volume 1, Chapter 5, Section 3, "Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954–1960"|publisher=}}</ref>
* [[Arab–Israeli conflict]] (from the early 20th century)
[[File:Israeli troops in sinai war.jpg|230px|thumb|Israeli troops preparing for combat in the Sinai peninsula during the [[Suez Crisis]].]]
** [[Suez Crisis]] (1956) – The [[Suez Crisis]] was a war fought on [[Egypt]]ian 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 (World War II)|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 ===
Communists believe oppression is the result of our “mode of production,” which is the way we organize our means for survival. Currently, that system is capitalism.
[[File:Fidel Castro - MATS Terminal Washington 1959.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Fidel Castro]] becomes the leader of Cuba as a result of the [[Cuban Revolution]]]]
The communist cannot agree with either proposition. The communist does agree that oppression of minorities is a true problem—vehemently, in fact—but they do not see people’s bad morals as the origin of this. Instead, this oppression is the result of what is called our “mode of production,” which is the way we organize our means for survival. Currently, that system is capitalism. Communism is the critique and the antidote to capitalism, with all its problems, including those of social and cultural division.
* [[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 [[Communism|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]].
* [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] – A massive, spontaneous popular uprising in the Soviet [[satellite state]] of [[Hungarian People's Republic|Hungary]] against that country's Soviet-backed [[Marxist-Leninist]] regime, inspired by political changes in Poland and the Soviet Union. The uprising, fought primarily by students and workers, managed to fight the invading Soviet Army to a standstill, and a new, pro-reform government took power. While the top Soviet leaders even considered withdrawing from Hungary entirely, they soon crushed the Revolution with a massive second invasion, killing thousands of Hungarians and sending hundreds of thousands more into exile. This was the largest act of internal dissent in the history of the [[Soviet Bloc]], and its violent suppression served to further discredit the Soviet Union even among its erstwhile supporters.


=== Decolonization and Independence ===
A liberal believes that capitalism can be humanized. They use a phrase like “crony capitalism” to suggest that capitalism is only bad when bad people are capitalists. A socialist is skeptical about this. A communist doesn’t believe it at all. In other words, liberals think a few bad apples spoil the supply. A communist thinks that the crate itself is rotten.
* [[Decolonization]] of former European [[Colonial empire]]s. 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 Algeria|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 under Sihanouk (1954–1970)|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 Africa]]n nation to gain independence.


=== Prominent political events ===
A communist is a socialist, but a socialist is not necessarily a communist. A communist believes that socialism is a historical phase that precedes communism and follows capitalism. Socialism is that system where the state is the full or partial owner of all property. Communism is the collective ownership of all property. A socialist might be happy with just moving things around a bit and, say, making sure that investment banks who have behaved reprehensibly aren’t always the first beneficiaries of government welfare.
* [[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.
* On July 7, 1950, the first [[Group Areas Act]] was promulgated by the [[Parliament of South Africa]] and implemented over a period of several years. The passing of the Act contributed significantly to the period of institutionalised [[racial segregation]] and [[discrimination]] in [[South Africa]] known as [[Apartheid]], which lasted from 1948 to 1991. One of the most famous uses of the Group Areas Act was the destruction of [[Sophiatown]], a suburb of [[Johannesburg]], which began on the 9th of February 1955.
* Establishment of the [[Non-aligned Movement]], consisting of nations not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.


[[File:Soviet empire 1960.png|thumb|The maximum territorial extent of countries in the world under [[Soviet Empire|Soviet]] [[Sphere of influence|influence]], after the [[Cuban Revolution]] of 1959 and before the official [[Sino-Soviet split]] of 1961]]
A communist wants more. A communist seeks the abolition of property, whether held by the state or private firms and citizens; they want all of us to own everything equally and become our own dictators. A communist seeks conditions to end the state entirely and have all human society collectively managed.


==== Asia ====
The road to communism
* The U.S. ended its occupation of Japan, which became fully independent. Japan held democratic elections and recovered economically.
To make his argument that the mode of production is the starting point for many of our ideas and life experiences, Marx goes back in time. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles,” Marx famously wrote. That is to say, the labor of many has ensured the comfort of a few ever since the Neolithic Revolution. This is our struggle.
* 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.
* The [[Chinese Civil War]], which had started officially in 1927 and continued until the [[Second World War]] had ended on May 7, 1950. It resulted in the previous incumbent government in China, the [[Republic of China]], retreating to the islands of Taiwan and [[Hainan]] until the [[Landing Operation on Hainan Island]].


==== Africa ====
In a slave economy, most of us are slaves. In a feudal economy, most of us are serfs. In a capitalist economy, we become the servants of a small class of capitalists.
* 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 [[Western world|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-Arabism|pan-Arab unification]].
* In 1957, [[Kwame Nkrumah|Dr. Kwame Nkrumah]], after a series of negotiations with the then British empire, secured the independence of Ghana. Ghana was hitherto referred to as Gold Coast, a colony of the [[British Empire]].


==== Americas ====
AP PHOTO/GEMUNU AMARASINGHE
* 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]] [[Operation PBSUCCESS|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]].
The forefathers of communism: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, and Rohana Wijeweera
* 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 a slave mode of production, the slave gives all their labor—or what Marx calls “surplus”—to the slave owner. Under feudalism, the serf gave roughly 50% of their surplus to the lord. Under capitalism today, we give a lot of our surplus to our bosses. You may earn your pay in two or three hours, and the rest of your labor is turned to profit by the firm for which you work. If a business fails to make a profit—which it derives from the surplus provided by the worker—it will not be a business for very long.
* 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 [[Communism|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


==== Europe ====
The progressive liberal believes that if we encourage business owners to be better people, this exploitation will not occur. But the communist believes that the exploitation is inevitable.
* 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 [[Nazi Germany|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-communism|anti-communist]] and [[Russophobia|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 ==
You might think the individual will is more powerful than the mode of production that contains it. To this, a communist, particularly one in a bad mood, might counter you with a picture of a Congolese child mining for the rare elements used inside our smartphones. No amount of assertiveness training is going to help that kid succeed. Our mode of production plays a very significant role in the development of that child: Capitalism needs that cheap labor to function. For a communist, the true face of capitalism is this young miner. If we want virtue, it does not, per the liberal belief, “all start with me.” It starts with the mode of production.
[[File:Watersnoodramp 1953.jpg|thumb|[[North Sea flood of 1953]]]]
'''Natural:'''
* On August 15, 1950 the 8.6 {{M|w|link=y}} [[1950 Assam–Tibet earthquake|Assam–Tibet earthquake]] shakes the region with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of XI (''Extreme''), killing between 1,500–3,300 people.
* On January 18, 1951 [[Mount Lamington]] erupted in [[Papua New Guinea]], killing 3,000 people.
* On January 31, 1953 the [[North Sea flood of 1953]] killed 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands (especially [[Zeeland]]) and 307 in the United Kingdom<ref>{{Cite book|title=Agricultural Records|last=Stratton|first=J.M.|publisher=John Baker|year=1969|isbn=978-0-212-97022-3}}</ref>
* On September 9, 1954 the 6.7 {{M|w|link=y}} [[1954 Chlef earthquake|Chlef earthquake]] shakes northern [[Algeria]] with a maximum [[Mercalli intensity scale|Mercalli intensity]] of XI (''Extreme''). The shock destroyed [[Orléansville]], left 1,243–1,409 dead, and 5,000 injured.
* On October 11, 1954 [[Hurricane Hazel]] crossed over [[Haiti]], killing 1,000.
* On August 19, 1955 [[Hurricane Diane]] hit the northeastern United States, killing over 200 people, and causing over $1.0 billion in damage.
* On June 27, 1957 [[Hurricane Audrey]] demolished [[Cameron, Louisiana]], US, killing 400 people.
* In April 1959, the [[1959 flood in Uruguay|Río Negro flooded central Uruguay]].
* [[Typhoon Vera (1959)|Typhoon Vera]] hit central [[Honshū]] on September 26, 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 December 2, 1959, [[Malpasset|Malpasset Dam]] in southern France collapsed and water flowed over the town of [[Fréjus]], killing 412.


'''Non-natural:'''
A big secret is that Marx was actually quite impressed by capitalism, our current mode of production in this stage of history. As much as he urged the workers of the world to seize their machinery and claim the products and tools of their labor as collective property—he praised capitalism. He saw the abundance it could create and he predicted a time when machines would do much of the boring work and innovation would solve many human problems.
* On March 12, 1950, an [[Avro Tudor]] plane carrying a [[Rugby football|rugby]] team [[Llandow air disaster|crashed]] in [[Wales]], killing 80 people.
* On June 18, 1953, a [[United States Air Force|USAF]] [[Douglas C-124 Globemaster II]] [[Tachikawa air disaster|crashed after takeoff]] from [[Tachikawa]], Japan, killing all 129 on board.
* On January 10, 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 June 30, 1956, a [[United Airlines]] [[Douglas DC-7]] and a [[Trans World Airlines]] [[Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation]] [[1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision|collided]] above the [[Grand Canyon]] in [[Arizona]], killing all 128 people on board both aircraft.
* On July 25, 1956, the Italian ocean liner {{SS|Andrea Doria}} collided with the Swedish ocean liner [[MS Athena|MS ''Stockholm'']] off the [[Nantucket, Massachusetts]], coastline. 51 people were killed and the ''Andrea Doria'' sank the next morning.
* On February 6, 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 April 21, 1958, a mid-air collision between [[United Airlines Flight 736]] and a [[United States Air Force|USAF]] fighter jet killed 49 people.
* On August 14, 1958, a [[KLM]] Lockheed Constellation [[KLM Flight 607-E|crashed]] into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland, killing all 99 people aboard.


== Economics ==
The communist believes that capitalism produces regular crises, and that over time, there is tendency of the rate of profit to fall. in the Marxist view, capitalism is going to run its course as the current mode of production, so we’d better have some communism ready to step in. Because, goodness knows, we certainly get some poor solutions to times of capitalist crisis.
* 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. 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%.<ref>{{cite web|title=Inflation and CPI Consumer Price Index 1950–1959|url=http://inflationdata.com/articles/inflation-cpi-consumer-price-index-1950–1959/|work=Inflation Data|publisher=InflationData.com|accessdate=23 April 2014}}{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
What communism may look like
Consider this your trigger warning for disappointment: There is no blueprint for communism. If we hold with Marx’s view of history as a matter of interplay between what he calls the base (the mode of production) and the superstructure (the law, the culture, the apparatuses of the state, our morals, and, basically, everything else in human society), then we can’t predict with real accuracy where we are being led by the next stage. But we can talk a little about how we might get there.


== Religion ==
No transition in the mode of production has ever been smooth, nor has it been particularly quick. The transition in Europe from feudalism to capitalism took even longer than the director’s cut of Titanic. It had its own vanguard: Intellectuals like John Locke, Adam Smith, and David Ricardo provided instructions for the leaders of the modern state and its partner economy. It’s useful to note that all these stars of classical economics had died before Marx even learned to read. Yet, theirs are the thoughts on which the poorly functioning neoliberal policy of the present still rests. Theirs are the thoughts on which many lives are ended early or lived in blank servitude.
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.
Climate change and the irrevocable fact of nuclear weapons reduce the original communist hope for collective management of everything.
This is not to say that the seizing of power by socialists eager for the communist stage of history is going to be a picnic. Things started well at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, but they didn’t continue in this strategic, bloodless mode. A future transfer could be peaceful—even the result of democratic elections—allowing for the possibility in the West of a truly democratic election free from intervention by the capitalist class.


Pope Pius XII deliberately left open the question of whether Mary died before her Assumption.
Capitalism had many false starts, and now, in the view of a commie such as myself, it is enduring a very real end. Voters are rejecting its prescriptions in different ways, expressing their frustration by electing authoritarians who promise a fictional version of the past or, as in Spain, Greece, and Scotland, socialists and communists who hint at an unseen future. Just this past week, Jean-Luc Melenchon, a man informed by Marx, won close to 20% of votes in the first round of the French presidential election.


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".
We don’t know what that communist future will look like. We know that our age of automation has created the possibility of free time. We know that we have collectively created the means to sustain all on this planet. But, we also know that we have built this abundance at the cost of environmental devastation. Both climate change and the irrevocable fact of nuclear weapons reduce the original communist hope for collective management of everything; these totalizing threats demands a certain level of totalitarian management. It is my view that an honest communist can now no longer say that the state can be done away with entirely—these true threats require a handful of true bureaucrats to manage them.


==Assassinations and attempts==
But, there is no need for the nation-state to sustain our life, any more than there is a need for profit. A good, productive life for all demands a new and collective mode of production. Or, at the very least, it demands a little of our curiosity. If you no longer believe economists who tell us the “GDP is up!” even as our incomes decline, perhaps you can give some of your leisure time to confront the specter of communism.
Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
[[File:Cecil Beaton Photographs- Political and Military Personalities; Abdullah, King of Jordan; Abdullah, King of Jordan CBM1666 (cropped).jpg|thumb|150px|[[Abdullah I of Jordan]]]]
* 1950: '''The attempted assassination of Harry Truman''' - two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate President Truman in Washington, DC, killing two Secret Service agents. The president was not hurt. One of the assassins was killed in the incident and the other was sentenced to death. President Truman converted his sentence to life imprisonment.
* 1951: '''[[Abdullah I of Jordan|King Abdullah's assassination]]''' - King Abdullah I of Jordan was murdered during the Friday prayers in Jerusalem. With his assassination the possibility of peace negotiations between Israel and Jordan came to a long end.
* 1955: '''The assassination of the President of Panama''' - the president of Panama [[José Antonio Remón Cantera]] was assassinated.
* 1956: '''The assassination of the Nicaraguan president''' - [[Anastasio Somoza García]], the dictatorial president of Nicaragua, was killed by an assassin. After his death the throne took hold of his son, Luis Somosa DeBeila.
* 1959: '''The assassination of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister''' - Sri Lankan Prime Minister [[S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike]] was assassinated by a robed Buddhist monk as part of the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict.

== Science and technology ==

=== Technology ===
[[File:MOSFET Structure.png|thumb|The [[MOSFET]] (MOS transistor) was invented by [[Mohamed Atalla]] and [[Dawon Kahng]] at [[Bell Labs]] in [[November 1959]]. It is central to the [[Digital Revolution]], and the most widely manufactured device in history.]]
[[File:Sputnik_asm.jpg|thumb|right|In 1957, the Soviet Union launches to space [[Sputnik 1]], the first artificial satellite ]]
The recently invented [[history of the transistor|bipolar transistor]], though initially quite feeble, had clear potential and was rapidly improved and developed at the beginning of the 1950s by companies such as [[General Electric|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 [[transistor radio|radios]].

A breakthrough in [[semiconductor]] technology came with the invention of the [[MOSFET]] (metal-oxide-semiconductor [[field-effect transistor]]), also known as the MOS transistor, by [[Mohamed Atalla]] and [[Dawon Kahng]] at [[Bell Labs]],<ref name="computerhistory">{{cite journal|url=https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/metal-oxide-semiconductor-mos-transistor-demonstrated/|title=1960 - Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Transistor Demonstrated|journal=The Silicon Engine|publisher=[[Computer History Museum]]}}</ref> in [[November 1959]].<ref name="Bassett22">{{cite book |last1=Bassett |first1=Ross Knox |title=To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology |date=2007 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |isbn=9780801886393 |pages=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UUbB3d2UnaAC&pg=PA22}}</ref> It revolutionized the [[electronics industry]],<ref name="Chan">{{cite book |last1=Chan |first1=Yi-Jen |title=Studies of InAIAs/InGaAs and GaInP/GaAs heterostructure FET's for high speed applications |date=1992 |publisher=[[University of Michigan]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sV4eAQAAMAAJ |page=1 |quote=The Si MOSFET has revolutionized the electronics industry and as a result impacts our daily lives in almost every conceivable way.}}</ref> and became the fundamental building block of the [[Digital Revolution]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wong |first1=Kit Po |title=Electrical Engineering - Volume II |date=2009 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems|EOLSS Publications]] |isbn=9781905839780 |page=7}}</ref> The MOSFET went on to become the most widely manufactured device in history.<ref name="computerhistory2018">{{cite web |title=13 Sextillion & Counting: The Long & Winding Road to the Most Frequently Manufactured Human Artifact in History |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/13-sextillion-counting-the-long-winding-road-to-the-most-frequently-manufactured-human-artifact-in-history/ |date=April 2, 2018 |website=[[Computer History Museum]] |accessdate=28 July 2019}}</ref><ref name="Baker">{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=R. Jacob |title=CMOS: Circuit Design, Layout, and Simulation |date=2011 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |isbn=978-1118038239 |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kxYhNrOKuJQC&pg=PA7}}</ref>

[[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 {{convert|184|lb|adj=on}} 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.

[[File:Castle Bravo (black and white).jpg|right|thumb|250px|[[Castle Bravo]]: A 15 megaton hydrogen bomb experiment conducted by the United States in 1954. Photographed 78 miles (125 kilometers) from the explosion epicenter.]]
* [[Charles Hard Townes|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]] [[Ivy Mike|explosion test]].
* The invention of the modern [[Solar cell]].
* The first [[Passenger jet]]s enter service.
* The U.S. uses Federal prisons, mental institutions and [[pharmacological]] 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 ===
[[File:DNA-fragment-3D-vdW.png|thumb|right|100px|Francis Crick and James Watson discover the spiral structure of [[DNA]]]]
* [[Francis Crick]] and [[James D. Watson|James Watson]] discover the double-helix structure of [[DNA]]. [[Rosalind Franklin]] contributed to the discovery of the double helix structure.
* An [[Polio vaccine|immunization vaccine]] is produced for [[polio]].
* The first successful [[Medical ultrasonography|ultrasound test]] of the heart activity.
* [[CERN]] is established.
* The [[Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant|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|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.

{{clear}}

== Popular culture ==

===Music===
{{Further|1950s in music|Rock and roll|Timeline of musical events#1950s|First rock and roll record|List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand}}
[[File:Elvis and RCA Victor.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Elvis Presley]] became a popular [[rock and roll]] musician during the decade]]
[[File:Chuck Berry51.JPG|thumb|right|150px|[[Chuck Berry]] became a popular [[rock and roll]] musician during the decade]]
[[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 (singer)|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 (band)|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 (singer)|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.<ref>R. S. Denisoff, W. L. Schurk, ''Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited'' (Transaction Publishers, 3rd edn., 1986), p. 13.</ref>
[[doo-wop]] entered the pop charts in the 1950s. Its popularity soon spawns the parody "[[Who Put the Bomp (song)|Who Put the Bomp]]".

[[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 solo]]s and [[Guitar showmanship|showmanship]] that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.<ref name="Campbell2008p168">M. Campbell, ed., ''Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes on'' (Cengage Learning, 3rd edn., 2008), pp. 168–9.</ref> [[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 song]]s 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 (folk band)|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 [[The Big Bopper|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 (pilot)|Roger Peterson]]. The tragedy is later termed "[[The Day the Music Died]]", popularized in [[Don McLean]]'s 1972 song "[[American Pie (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.

=== Television ===
[[File:Family watching television 1958.jpg|260px|thumb|An American family watching television together, 1958]]
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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kallen|first=Stuart|title=A Cultural History of the United States|year=1999|publisher=Lucent|location=San Diego}}</ref> 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."<ref>''American History''. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2012.</ref>

=== Film ===
{{Further|1950s in film}}
[[File:North by Northwest movie trailer screenshot (6).jpg|thumb|[[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 [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|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 (film)|Wild Strawberries]]''. [[Jean Cocteau]]'s ''[[Orpheus (film)|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 (film)|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 (film)|Sadko]]'', ''[[Ilya Muromets (film)|Ilya Muromets]]'', and ''[[Sampo (film)|Sampo]]'' were internationally acclaimed as was ''[[Ballad of a Soldier]]'', a 1959 [[Cinema of the Soviet Union|Soviet film]] directed by [[Grigory Chukhray]]

In [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]], the epic ''[[Ben-Hur (1959 film)|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 film|3-D cinematography]] transpired during the 1950s.

=== 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 ===
{{See also|1945–60 in Western fashion}}
[[Image:Marilyn_Monroe_and_Jane_Russell_at_Chinese_Theater.jpg|170px|thumb|American fashions, 1953]]
[[Image:Teenage girl 1958.jpg|thumb|180px|right|Short hair was very popular for young women in the 1950s as can be seen in this photograph taken in 1958]]
The 1950s saw the birth of the [[teenager]] and with it [[rock n roll]] and youth fashion dominating the fashion industry. In the UK the [[Teddy boy]] became both style icons and anti-authoritarian figures. While in America [[Greaser (subculture)|Greaser]]s had a similar social position. Previously teenagers dressed similar to their parents but now a rebellious and different youth style was being developed. this was particularly noticeable in the overtly sexual nature of their dress. men wore tight trousers, leather jackets and emphasis was on long greasy hair.

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 (style)|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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.fashion-era.com/1950s_glamour.htm|title=1950s Fashion History 50s Glamour, Dior New Look|last=Thomas|first=Pauline|website=www.fashion-era.com|access-date=2016-10-31}}</ref> It was a time where shopping was part of a lifestyle.

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 (style)|“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.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Fashion: A Visual History from Regency & Romance to Retro & Revolution: A Complete Illustrated Chronology of Fashion from the 1800s to the Present Day.|last=Stevenson|first=N.J.|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|year=2012|isbn=|location=New York City|pages=|quote=|via=}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" />

'''[[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.<ref name=":1" /> He was known for creating sack dresses, heavy volumes and balloon skirts.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://theredlist.com/wiki-2-23-1249-1255-view-1940s-profile-cristobal-balenciaga-3.html|title=Cristobal Balenciaga : Fashion, History|website=theredlist.com|access-date=2016-10-31}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" /> His first suit was very dramatic. The suit consisted on cutout and cut-ins the waist over a slim skirt, something not seen before.<ref name=":1" /> Balenciaga was a revolutionary designer who was not afraid to cut and let loose because he had everything under control. In the 1950s and 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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-clothing-industry/fashion-designers/cristobal-balenciaga|title=Cristóbal Balenciaga|newspaper=LoveToKnow|access-date=2016-10-31}}</ref> He was known for moving from tailored designs to shapeless allowing him to show portion and balance on the bodies.<ref name=":1" /> Showing that his designs evolved with time and maintained his ideologies.

'''[[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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://bellatory.com/fashion-industry/Fashion-History-Womens-Clothing-of-the-1950s|title=Fashion History—Women's Clothing of the 1950s|newspaper=Bellatory|access-date=2016-10-31}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-clothing-industry/fashion-designers/gabrielle-coco-chanel|title=Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel|newspaper=LoveToKnow|access-date=2016-10-31}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.biography.com/people/coco-chanel-9244165#!|title=Coco Chanel Biography|last=|first=|date=August 12, 2016|website=Biography.com|publisher=|access-date=}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/chnl/hd_chnl.htm|title=Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (1883–1971) and the House of Chanel {{!}} Essay {{!}} Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History {{!}} The Metropolitan Museum of Art|last=Krick|first=Jessa|date=|website=The Met’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History|publisher=|access-date=2016-10-31}}</ref> Coming back from a closed house of fashion was not easy for Chanel and competing against younger designers.<ref name=":2" /> The Chanel suit was known as a status symbol for wealthy and powerful women.<ref name=":2" /> Chanel influenced over the years and her brand is still one of the most influential brands for fashion.
{{clear}}

=== Sports ===
[[File:Olympiatuli 1952.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Paavo Nurmi]] and the [[Olympic flame]] in the opening ceremony of the [[1952 Summer Olympics]]]]

* Inaugural season of [[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 FIFA World Cup|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]].

{{clear}}

== People ==

=== World leaders ===
{{qnote|Names of world leaders shown below in '''bold''' remained in power continuously throughout the decade.}}
{{Alphabetize}}
<gallery widths="125px" heights="125px" perrow="7">
File:Harry_S._Truman.jpg|{{flagicon|United States|1912}} [[Harry S. Truman]]
File:Dwight D. Eisenhower, official photo portrait, May 29, 1959.jpg|{{flagicon|United States|1959}} [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]
File:CroppedStalin1943.jpg|{{flagicon|Soviet Union|1936}} [[Joseph Stalin]]
File:Nikita_Khrushchev_in_1959.png|{{flagicon|Soviet Union|1955}} [[Nikita Khrushchev]]
File:Churchill portrait NYP 45063.jpg|{{flagicon|United Kingdom}} [[Winston Churchill]]
File:Anthony Eden (retouched).jpg|{{flagicon|United Kingdom}} [[Anthony Eden]]
File:The_National_Archives_UK_-_CO_1069-1-17(cropped).jpg|{{flagicon|United Kingdom}} [[Harold Macmillan]]
File:Nieuwste portret van de Staatsminister van Frankrijk, Bestanddeelnr 901-4021 (cropped).jpg|{{flagicon|French Fourth Republic}} [[Vincent Auriol]]
File:René Coty - 1954.jpg|{{flagicon|French Fourth Republic}} [[René Coty]]
File:Charles de Gaulle 1967.jpg|{{flagicon|France}} [[Charles de Gaulle]]
File:Chiang Kai-shek.jpg|{{flagicon|Taiwan}} '''[[Chiang Kai-shek]]'''
File:Mao_1950.jpg|{{flagicon|China}} '''[[Mao Zedong]]'''
File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F078072-0004, Konrad Adenauer.jpg|{{flagicon|West Germany}} '''[[Konrad Adenauer]]'''
File:Opvolger van Pieck, Walter Ulbricht, Bestanddeelnr 911-5926.jpg|{{flagicon|East Germany}} '''[[Walter Ulbricht]]'''
File:Alcide de Gasperi 2.jpg|{{flagicon|Italy}} [[Alcide De Gasperi]]
File:His Holiness Pope Pius XII.png|{{flagicon|Vatican City}} [[Pope Pius XII]]
File:Juan Domingo Perón.jpg|{{flagicon|Argentina}} [[Juan Perón]]
File:Louisstlaurent.jpg|{{flagicon|Canada|1921}} [[Louis St. Laurent]]
File:John G. Diefenbaker.jpg|{{flagicon|Canada|1957}} [[John Diefenbaker]]
File:Portrait Menzies 1950s.jpg|{{flagicon|Australia}} '''[[Robert Menzies]]'''
File:Getulio Vargas (1930).jpg|{{flagicon|Brazil|1889}} [[Getulio Vargas]]
File:Juscelino.jpg|{{flagicon|Brazil|1889}} [[Juscelino Kubitschek]]
File:Abdel-Nasser 1955.jpg|{{flagicon|Egypt|1952}} [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]]
File:Jnehru.jpg|{{flagicon|India}} '''[[Jawaharlal Nehru]]'''
File:Ben-Gurion.jpg|{{flagicon|Israel}} [[David Ben-Gurion]]
File:Rhee Syng-Man in 1956.jpg|{{flagicon|Korea, South|1949}} '''[[Syngman Rhee]]'''
File:Kim Il Sung Portrait-2.jpg|{{flagicon|Korea, North|1948}} '''[[Kim Il-sung]]'''
File:Willem Drees 1958.jpg|{{flagicon|Netherlands}} [[Willem Drees]]
File:Francisco Franco 1950 (cropped).jpg|{{flagicon|Spain|1945}} '''[[Francisco Franco]]'''
File:King Abdulaziz ibn Abdul Rahman.jpg|{{flagicon|Saudi Arabia|1938}} [[Ibn Saud]]
File:Saud of Saudi Arabia.jpg|{{flagicon|Saudi Arabia|1938}} [[Saud of Saudi Arabia|Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud]]
File:King Hussein in uniform in 1953.jpg|{{flagicon|Jordan}} [[King Hussein]]
File:Fidel Castro in Washington.jpg|{{flagicon|Cuba}} [[Fidel Castro]]
File:Kommunista politikusok a tribünön fortepan 79084 (profile-4).jpg|{{flagicon|HPR|1949}} [[Mátyás Rákosi]]
File:Nagy Imre igazolványkép.jpg|{{flagicon|HPR|rev}} [[Imre Nagy]]
File:János Kádár (fototeca.iiccr.ro).jpg|{{flagicon|HPR}} [[János Kádár]]
File:PL Bolesław Bierut (1892-1956).jpg|{{flagicon|PPR}} [[Bolesław Bierut]]
File:Wladyslaw Gomulka 1967.jpg| {{flagicon|PPR}} [[Władysław Gomułka]]
File:Josip Broz Tito uniform portrait.jpg|{{flagicon|SFR Yugoslavia}} '''[[Josip Broz Tito]]'''
</gallery>

=== 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 ===

<gallery widths="160px" heights="160px" perrow="4">
File:Monroecirca1953.jpg|[[Marilyn Monroe]]
File:James_Dean_in_Rebel_Without_a_Cause.jpg|[[James Dean]]
File:Marlon Brando in 'Streetcar named Desire' trailer (cropped).jpg|[[Marlon Brando]]
File:Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca trailer.jpg|[[Humphrey Bogart]]
</gallery>
{{Div col|colwidth=18em}}
* [[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]]
* [[Lenny Bruce]]
* [[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]]
* [[María Félix]]
* [[José Ferrer]]
* [[Errol Flynn]]
* [[Henry Fonda]]
* [[Anne Francis]]
* [[William Frawley]]
* [[Annette Funicello]]
* [[Clark Gable]]
* [[Ava Gardner]]
* [[Judy Garland]]
* [[Jackie Gleason]]
* [[Cary Grant]]
* [[John Gregson]]
* [[Alec Guinness]]
* [[Tony Hancock]]
* [[Julie Harris (American actress)|Julie Harris]]
* [[Helen Hayes]]
* [[Susan Hayward]]
* [[Rita Hayworth]]
* [[Audrey Hepburn]]
* [[Katharine Hepburn]]
* [[Charlton Heston]]
* [[William Holden]]
* [[Judy Holliday]]
* [[Bob Hope]]
* [[Rock Hudson]]
* [[Pedro Infante]]
* [[Van Johnson]]
* [[Gene Kelly]]
* [[Grace Kelly]]
* [[Deborah Kerr]]
* [[Eartha Kitt]]
* [[Alan Ladd]]
* [[Burt Lancaster]]
* [[Peter Lawford]]
* [[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]]
* [[Jorge Negrete]]
* [[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 (actor)|Robert Taylor]]
* [[Spencer Tracy]]
* [[Lana Turner]]
* [[Vivian Vance]]
* [[Robert Wagner]]
* [[John Wayne]]
* [[Jack Webb]]
* [[Orson Welles]]
* [[Richard Widmark]]
* [[Shelley Winters]]
* [[Natalie Wood]]
{{div col end}}

=== Musicians ===
{{see also|List of musicians of the 1950s|Million Dollar Quartet}}
<gallery>
File:Everly Brothers - Cropped.jpg|[[Everly Brothers]] c. 1958
File:BillHaley.JPG|[[Bill Haley and the Comets]] c. 1954
File:Elvis Presley - TV Radio Mirror, September 1956 01 (cropped).jpg|Elvis Presley, (1957)
File:Chuck Berry 1957.jpg|[[Chuck Berry]] in 1957
Image:Fats Domino 1956.png|[[Fats Domino]] singing ''[[Blueberry Hill (song)|Blueberry Hill]]'' on ''The [[Alan Freed]] Show'' c. 1956
</gallery>
{{Div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Edith Piaf]]
* [[Black Ace]]
* [[Buddy Ace]]
* [[Johnny Ace]]
* [[Arthur Alexander]]
* [[Lee Allen (musician)|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 (musician)|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 (musician)|Charles Brown]]
* [[Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown]]
* [[James Brown]]
* [[Nappy Brown]]
* [[Roy Brown (blues musician)|Roy Brown]]
* [[Ruth Brown]]
* [[Tommy Brown (singer)|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 (bassist)|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 (singer)|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 (musician)|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 (singer)|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 (pianist)|Jimmy Jones]]
* [[Louis Jordan]]
* [[Don Julian (musician)|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 (musician)|Chuck Miller]]
* [[Mitch Miller]]
* [[Ned Miller]]
* [[Roy Milton]]
* [[Garnet Mimms]]
* [[Charles Mingus]]
* [[Bobby Mitchell (singer)|Bobby Mitchell]]
* [[Guy Mitchell]]
* [[Thelonious Monk]]
* [[Bill Monroe]]
* [[Vaughn Monroe]]
* [[Wes Montgomery]]
* [[Benny Moré]]
* [[Moon Mullican]]
* [[Rose Murphy]]
* [[Jimmy Nelson (singer)|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 (musician)|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 (pop singer)|Jimmie Rodgers]]
* [[Arsenio Rodríguez]]
* [[Kenny Rogers]]
* [[Bobby Rydell]]
* [[Kyu Sakamoto]]
* [[Washboard Sam]]
* [[Tommy Sands (entertainer)|Tommy Sands]]
* [[Mabel Scott]]
* [[Neil Sedaka]]
* [[Pete Seeger]]
* [[Johnny Shines]]
* [[Dinah Shore]]
* [[Frank Sinatra]]
* [[Memphis Slim]]
* [[Sunnyland Slim]]
* [[Huey "Piano" Smith]]
* [[Ray Smith (rockabilly singer)|Ray Smith]]
* [[Warren Smith (singer)|Warren Smith]]
* [[Kay Starr]]
* [[Joan Sutherland]]
* [[Art Tatum]]
* [[Jesse Thomas (musician)|Jesse Thomas]]
* [[Rufus Thomas]]
* [[Hank Thompson (musician)|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 (blues musician)|Ralph Willis]]
* [[Bob Wills]]
* [[Howlin' Wolf]]
* [[Malcolm Yelvington]]
* [[Faron Young]]
* [[Johnny "Man" Young]]
* [[Timi Yuro]]
{{div col end}}

=== Bands ===
{{Div col|colwidth=18em}}
* [[The Accents]]
* [[Jay & The Americans]]
* [[The Ames Brothers]]
* [[The Andrews Sisters]]
* [[Dave Appell|Dave Appell & the Applejacks]]
* [[The Bell Notes]]
* [[The Belmonts]]
* [[Dion & The Belmonts]]
* [[Travis & Bob]]
* [[The Bobbettes]]
* [[The Bonnie Sisters]]
* [[The Bosstones]]
* [[Buchanan Brothers|The Buchanan Brothers]]
* [[The Cadets (doo wop)|The Cadets]]
* [[The Cadillacs]]
* [[The Capris]]
* [[The Cardinals]]
* [[The Castells]]
* [[The Champs]]
* [[The Chantels]]
* [[The Charioteers]]
* [[Otis Williams and the Charms]]
* [[The Chimes (US band)|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 and Dean|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 (American group)|The Echoes]]
* [[The Edsels]]
* [[The El Dorados]]
* [[The Elegants]]
* [[The Emotions]]
* [[The Escorts (Iowa band)|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 (band)|The Four Seasons]]
* [[The Four Tunes]]
* [[The Gaylords (American vocal group)|The Gaylords]]
* [[The G-Clefs]]
* [[Golden Gate Quartet|The Golden Gate Quartet]]
* [[The Harptones]]
* [[The Hearts]]
* [[The Heathertones]]
* [[The Hilltoppers (band)|The Hilltoppers]]
* [[The Hollywood Flames]]
* [[Johnny and The Hurricanes|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|Randy & The Rainbows]]
* [[The Ravens]]
* [[The Rays]]
* [[The Regents (doo-wop band)|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|Sons of The Pioneers]]
* [[The Spaniels]]
* [[The Sparkletones]]
* [[The Spiders (American band)|The Spiders]]
* [[The Spinners (American R&B group)|The Spinners]]
* [[Joey Dee and the Starliters|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 (doo-wop band)|The Valentines]]
* [[The Ventures]]
* [[The Virtues]]
* [[The Volumes]]
* [[Billy Ward & The Dominoes]]
* [[The Wrens (R&B band)|The Wrens]]
* [[Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs]]
* [[Windsbacher Knabenchor]]
{{div col end}}

=== Sports figures ===
<gallery>
File:Jrobinson.jpg|[[Jackie Robinson]], [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] third baseman, 1954
File:Willie Mays 1954.png|[[Willie Mays]], [[New York Giants (NL)|New York Giants]] centerfielder in 1954
File:Mickey Mantle 1953.jpg|[[Mickey Mantle]], [[New York Yankees]] centerfielder, in 1953
File:Duke Snider 1953.jpg|[[Duke Snider]], [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] centerfielder, c. 1953
</gallery>

{{Div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Hank Aaron|Henry Aaron]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[Ernie Banks]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[Roger Bannister]] (English [[track and field]] athlete)
* [[Carmen Basilio]] (boxing)
* [[Yogi Berra]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[Jim Brown]] ([[American football|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]] ([[boxing|boxer]])
* [[Eddie Mathews]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[Willie Mays]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[George Mikan]] ([[basketball]] player)
* [[Archie Moore]] (boxing)
* [[Stan Musial]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[Bobo Olson]] (boxing)
* [[Floyd Patterson]] (boxing)
* [[Pelé]] (Brazilian [[association football]]er)
* [[Bob Pettit]]
* [[Ferenc Puskás]]
* [[Maurice Richard]] (Canadian [[ice hockey]] player)
* [[Jackie Robinson]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[Frank Robinson]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[Sugar Ray Robinson]] ([[boxing|boxer]])
* [[Wilma Rudolph]]
* [[Bill Russell (basketball)|Bill Russell]] ([[basketball]] player)
* [[Sam Snead]] (golf)
* [[Duke Snider]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[Warren Spahn]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[Casey Stengel]] ([[baseball]] manager, former player)
* [[Chuck Taylor (salesman)|Chuck Taylor]]
* [[Johnny Unitas]] (football)
* [[Ted Williams]] ([[baseball]] player)
* [[Lev Yashin]]
* [[Emil Zátopek]]
{{div col end}}
<!-- Please keep list alphabetical -->

== See also ==
{{portal|1950s}}
* [[1950s in television]]
* [[List of years in literature#1950s|1950s in literature]]
* [[Post-World War II boom]]
* [[1950s American automobile culture]]

=== 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]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== 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, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=rKETAAAAIAAJ The Year Book of World Affairs 1957]'' (London 1957), 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 (book)|The Fifties]]'' (1993) [https://www.amazon.com/Fifties-David-Halberstam/dp/0449909336/ excerpt and text search]
* Levine, Alan J. ''The Myth of the 1950s'' (2008) [https://books.google.com/books?id=HSFu99FCJwQC 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 ==
{{Commons category}}

* [http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/56241/heroes-of-the-1950s#index/0 Heroes of the 1950s] – slideshow by ''[[Life magazine]]''
* {{cite web |publisher= [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]|url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1486_couture/|title= The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947–57, exhibition about 1950s fashion}}
* [http://www.itnsource.com/en/specials/1950s/ Footage from the 1950s]
* [http://www.mrpopculture.com/the-1950s/ 1950s Video Timeline]

{{Events by month links}}
{{20th century}}

[[Category:1950s| ]]
[[Category:20th century]]

Revision as of 15:42, 26 September 2019

"'50s" redirects here. For decades comprising years 50–59 of other centuries, see List of decades.
See also: United States in the 1950s
Top, L-R: U.S. Marines engaged in street fighting during the Korean War, circa late September 1950; The first polio vaccine is developed by Jonas Salk.
Centre, L-R: US tests its first thermonuclear bomb with code name Ivy Mike in 1952. A 1954 thermonuclear test, code named Castle Romeo, is shown here; In 1959, Fidel Castro overthrows Fulgencio Batista in the Cuban Revolution, which results in the creation of the first communist government in the Western hemisphere; Elvis Presley becomes the leading figure of the newly popular music genre of rock and roll in the mid-1950s.
Bottom, L-R: Smoke rises from oil tanks on Port Said following the invasion of Egypt by Israel, United Kingdom and France as part of the Suez Crisis in late 1956; French paratroopers march in Algiers in the beginning of the Algerian War, 1957; The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth, in October 1957.
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The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the fifties (among other variants)) 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.

Politics and wars

Korean War

Wars

  • 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 1955. 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.[1]
  • Arab–Israeli conflict (from the early 20th century)
Israeli troops preparing for combat in the Sinai peninsula during the Suez Crisis.
    • 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
  • 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.
  • Hungarian Revolution of 1956 – A massive, spontaneous popular uprising in the Soviet satellite state of Hungary against that country's Soviet-backed Marxist-Leninist regime, inspired by political changes in Poland and the Soviet Union. The uprising, fought primarily by students and workers, managed to fight the invading Soviet Army to a standstill, and a new, pro-reform government took power. While the top Soviet leaders even considered withdrawing from Hungary entirely, they soon crushed the Revolution with a massive second invasion, killing thousands of Hungarians and sending hundreds of thousands more into exile. This was the largest act of internal dissent in the history of the Soviet Bloc, and its violent suppression served to further discredit the Soviet Union even among its erstwhile supporters.

Decolonization and 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.
  • On July 7, 1950, the first Group Areas Act was promulgated by the Parliament of South Africa and implemented over a period of several years. The passing of the Act contributed significantly to the period of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa known as Apartheid, which lasted from 1948 to 1991. One of the most famous uses of the Group Areas Act was the destruction of Sophiatown, a suburb of Johannesburg, which began on the 9th of February 1955.
  • Establishment of the Non-aligned Movement, consisting of nations not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.
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.
  • The Chinese Civil War, which had started officially in 1927 and continued until the Second World War had ended on May 7, 1950. It resulted in the previous incumbent government in China, the Republic of China, retreating to the islands of Taiwan and Hainan until the Landing Operation on Hainan Island.

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.
  • In 1957, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, after a series of negotiations with the then British empire, secured the independence of Ghana. Ghana was hitherto referred to as Gold Coast, a colony of the British Empire.

Americas

  • 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

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:

Non-natural:

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. 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%.[3]

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".

Assassinations and attempts

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:

Abdullah I of Jordan
  • 1950: The attempted assassination of Harry Truman - two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to assassinate President Truman in Washington, DC, killing two Secret Service agents. The president was not hurt. One of the assassins was killed in the incident and the other was sentenced to death. President Truman converted his sentence to life imprisonment.
  • 1951: King Abdullah's assassination - King Abdullah I of Jordan was murdered during the Friday prayers in Jerusalem. With his assassination the possibility of peace negotiations between Israel and Jordan came to a long end.
  • 1955: The assassination of the President of Panama - the president of Panama José Antonio Remón Cantera was assassinated.
  • 1956: The assassination of the Nicaraguan president - Anastasio Somoza García, the dictatorial president of Nicaragua, was killed by an assassin. After his death the throne took hold of his son, Luis Somosa DeBeila.
  • 1959: The assassination of Sri Lanka's Prime Minister - Sri Lankan Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike was assassinated by a robed Buddhist monk as part of the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict.

Science and technology

Technology

The MOSFET (MOS transistor) was invented by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in November 1959. It is central to the Digital Revolution, and the most widely manufactured device in history.
In 1957, the Soviet Union launches to space Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite

The recently invented bipolar 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.

A breakthrough in semiconductor technology came with the invention of the MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor), also known as the MOS transistor, by Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs,[4] in November 1959.[5] It revolutionized the electronics industry,[6] and became the fundamental building block of the Digital Revolution.[7] The MOSFET went on to become the most widely manufactured device in history.[8][9]

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.

Castle Bravo: A 15 megaton hydrogen bomb experiment conducted by the United States in 1954. Photographed 78 miles (125 kilometers) from the explosion epicenter.

Science

Francis Crick and James Watson discover the spiral structure of DNA

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
File:Elvis and RCA Victor.jpg
Elvis Presley became a popular rock and roll musician during the decade
Chuck Berry became a popular rock and roll musician during the decade

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.[10] doo-wop entered the pop charts in the 1950s. Its popularity soon spawns the parody "Who Put the Bomp".

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.[11] 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.

Television

An American family watching television together, 1958

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.[12] 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."[13]

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.

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

See also: 1945–60 in Western fashion
American fashions, 1953
Short hair was very popular for young women in the 1950s as can be seen in this photograph taken in 1958

The 1950s saw the birth of the teenager and with it rock n roll and youth fashion dominating the fashion industry. In the UK the Teddy boy became both style icons and anti-authoritarian figures. While in America Greasers had a similar social position. Previously teenagers dressed similar to their parents but now a rebellious and different youth style was being developed. this was particularly noticeable in the overtly sexual nature of their dress. men wore tight trousers, leather jackets and emphasis was on long greasy hair.

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.[14] It was a time where shopping was part of a lifestyle.

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.[14] 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.[15] 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.[15]

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.[15] He was known for creating sack dresses, heavy volumes and balloon skirts.[16] 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.[15] His first suit was very dramatic. The suit consisted on cutout and cut-ins the waist over a slim skirt, something not seen before.[15] Balenciaga was a revolutionary designer who was not afraid to cut and let loose because he had everything under control. In the 1950s and 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.[17] He was known for moving from tailored designs to shapeless allowing him to show portion and balance on the bodies.[15] Showing that his designs evolved with time and maintained his ideologies.

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.[18] 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.[19] 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.[20] 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.[21] Coming back from a closed house of fashion was not easy for Chanel and competing against younger designers.[21] The Chanel suit was known as a status symbol for wealthy and powerful women.[21] Chanel influenced over the years and her brand is still one of the most influential brands for fashion.

Sports

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

Olympics

FIFA World Cups

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

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

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

Musicians

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

Bands

Sports figures

See also

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

References

  1. ^ "The Pentagon Papers, Volume 1, Chapter 5, Section 3, "Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam, 1954–1960"".
  2. ^ Stratton, J.M. (1969). Agricultural Records. John Baker. ISBN 978-0-212-97022-3.
  3. ^ "Inflation and CPI Consumer Price Index 1950–1959". Inflation Data. InflationData.com. Retrieved 23 April 2014.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ "1960 - Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) Transistor Demonstrated". The Silicon Engine. Computer History Museum.
  5. ^ Bassett, Ross Knox (2007). To the Digital Age: Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 22. ISBN 9780801886393.
  6. ^ Chan, Yi-Jen (1992). Studies of InAIAs/InGaAs and GaInP/GaAs heterostructure FET's for high speed applications. University of Michigan. p. 1. The Si MOSFET has revolutionized the electronics industry and as a result impacts our daily lives in almost every conceivable way.
  7. ^ Wong, Kit Po (2009). Electrical Engineering - Volume II. EOLSS Publications. p. 7. ISBN 9781905839780.
  8. ^ "13 Sextillion & Counting: The Long & Winding Road to the Most Frequently Manufactured Human Artifact in History". Computer History Museum. April 2, 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  9. ^ Baker, R. Jacob (2011). CMOS: Circuit Design, Layout, and Simulation. John Wiley & Sons. p. 7. ISBN 978-1118038239.
  10. ^ R. S. Denisoff, W. L. Schurk, Tarnished gold: the record industry revisited (Transaction Publishers, 3rd edn., 1986), p. 13.
  11. ^ M. Campbell, ed., Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes on (Cengage Learning, 3rd edn., 2008), pp. 168–9.
  12. ^ Kallen, Stuart (1999). A Cultural History of the United States. San Diego: Lucent.
  13. ^ American History. ABC-CLIO, 2012. Web. 11 Dec. 2012.
  14. ^ a b Thomas, Pauline. "1950s Fashion History 50s Glamour, Dior New Look". www.fashion-era.com. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  15. ^ a b c d e f Stevenson, N.J. (2012). Fashion: A Visual History from Regency & Romance to Retro & Revolution: A Complete Illustrated Chronology of Fashion from the 1800s to the Present Day. New York City: St. Martin's Griffin.
  16. ^ "Cristobal Balenciaga : Fashion, History". theredlist.com. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  17. ^ "Cristóbal Balenciaga". LoveToKnow. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  18. ^ "Fashion History—Women's Clothing of the 1950s". Bellatory. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
  19. ^ "Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel". LoveToKnow. Retrieved 2016-10-31.
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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), 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)
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