Topic 8

• APRIL 25: British Physicist Francis Crick and American scientist James D. Watson publish a description of the double-helix DNA molecule


  1953
• JULY 27: Fighting ceases in the Korean War; United Nations Command, contained United States, North Korea, and the Republic of China, signed an armistice agreement


  1953
• AUGUST 19: United States CIA helps overthrow the Iranian government and put Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi on the throne


  1953
• OCTOBER 30: Cold War prompts Eisenhower to approve a top-secret document stating the US Nuclear Arsenal must be expanded to combat the communist threat around the world


  1953
• DECEMBER 30: The first color television goes on sale


  1953
• FEBRUARY 23: First large scale of Children's Polio Vaccine in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania


  1954
• APRIL 22: Joseph McCarthy begins televised Senate hearings into alleged communist influence in the United States Army


  1954
• MAY 17: Brown vs Board of Education is presented; states racial segregation is unconstitutional and stated by the Supreme Court; goes against the 14th amendment equal protection clause


  1954
• Case is due to a girl Linda Brown who was segregated from her classmates at the Monroe School in Topeka, Kansas
• SEPTEMBER 8: Bangkok, Thailand is where the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization is formed; US, Great Britain, France, Thailand, Australia, Phillipines, New Zealand, and Pakistan; created a mutual defense pact


  1954
• FEBRUARY 12: US Government agrees to train South Vietnamese troops


  1955
• MAY 31: US Supreme Court orders that all public schools be integrated


  1955
• JULY 17: Disneyland in Anaheim, CA opens


  1955
• AUGUST 28: Emmett Till is accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant and is beaten, drowned, and hung in Tallahatchie County; his attackers were set free and his mom wanted an open casket which spread the word of what was still happening in the racist south


  1955
• DECEMBER 1: Rosa Parks is a African-American seamstress; arrested due to refusal to give up her seat on the bus to a white man; led to bus segregation and Montgomery Bus Boycott


  1955
• DECEMBER 5: American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations create AFL - CIO


  1955
• JANUARY 28: Elvis Presley's First National Televised Performance; First show is titled "Stage Show"


  1956
• MARCH 12: Congressman from the Southern States call for a massive resistance on desegregation; known as Southern Manifesto says that integration is communism


  1956
• MAY 3: Heartbreak Hotel becomes a hit by Elvis Presley


  1956
• SEPTEMBER 25: First Transatlantic Telephone Cable begins operation


  1956
• OCTOBER 8: Don Larsen made history by pitching the first no-hitter in postseason baseball history against the Brooklyn Dodgers World Series in the 5th game


  1956
• NOVEMBER 6: Eisenhower (753) won the election against A. Stevenson (73) and will maintain his presidency


  1956
• JANUARY 20: Eisenhower is inaugurated


  1957
• APRIL 29: Congress approves first civil rights bill since reconstruction and adds protection to voting rights


  1957
• SEPTEMBER 4: Arkansas governor Orval Faubus calls national guard to duty to ban 9 black students from attending Central High School in Little Rock


  1957
• SEPTEMBER 21: Faubus withdraws troops


  1957
• SEPTEMBER 24: Eisenhower sends federal troops to Little Rock for protection


  1957
• DECEMBER 6: The Vanguard Satellite will explode on Launchpad


  1957
• JANUARY 31: Explorer I Satellite is the first US space satellite to be launched by the US Army at Cape Canaveral, Florida and discovers Van Allen radiation belt


  1958
• MARCH 24: Elvis Presley is forced to join the US Army in Memphis, TN


  1958
• APRIL 17: First World Fair since the end of World War II in Brussels, Belgium; US and Soviet Union have a Cold War debate


  1958
• JULY 8: Lituya Bay, Alaska Earthquake registers as a 7.5 out of 8 on the Richter Scale and causes a significant tsunami; 2 people died during earthquake


  1958
• OCTOBER 1: NASA begins as a civilian agency of the Federal government and is dedicated to space science


  1958
• DECEMBER 10: First Jet Airline passenger service is inaugurated during the flight between New York City and Miami


  1958
• JANUARY 3: Alaska becomes the 49th State


  1959
• JANUARY 7: US Gov't Recognizes that Fidel Castro is the leader of Cuba


  1959
• FEBRUARY 22: First Daytona 500 is held and the first winner is Lee Petty


  1959
• APRIL 9: 7 Military Pilots are selected by NASA to be the first astronauts and known as the Mercury Seven Crew; Glenn, Carpenter, Cooper, Grissom, Scare, Shepard, Slayton


  1959
• APRIL 25: Saint Lawrence Seaway is going to open and runs along the Canadian and US borders


  1959
• AUGUST 21: Hawaii becomes the 50th state


  1959