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Building the course, un-teaching the harmonious 1950s, limitations of the ideal, popular memory.

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Teaching the Many Americas of the 1950s

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Karen Dunak, Teaching the Many Americas of the 1950s, OAH Magazine of History , Volume 26, Issue 4, October 2012, Pages 13–16, https://doi.org/10.1093/oahmag/oas032

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Each time I teach the survey of U.S. history since 1877, I show students A Date with Your Family, a short film produced in 1950. Highlighting an idealized vision of family life during the early post–World War II years, the film encourages teenagers to view dining at home with the family as a great joy and privilege. Much like the fictional Cleaver clan of Leave It to Beaver, the family members embrace their assigned roles and enjoy a version of domestic nuclear family bliss ( 1 ). Is this film corny? You bet. Students laugh at the exaggerated niceties of the film's prescriptive family unit, but their post-viewing analysis has been fascinating.

The majority of students grew up less than two hours from our small liberal arts university in southeastern Ohio. Many are first-generation college students, and they tend toward fairly conservative political views. And yet discussions of A Date with Your Family have revealed divisions within this relatively homogenous student body. Some students identified with the family values espoused by the film. Their families, they assured me, were very much like the nuclear family presented in the movie. When they lived at home they would eat dinner at the same time every night. Gender roles were fairly similar. Their parents were the accepted authority figures. Other students viewed the film with a more critical eye. They used words like “robotic” and “cookie cutter” and “zombies” to describe the family. They charged that no family was that “perfect.” Or, at least, that no family was that perfect now. Back in the 1950s, they suggested, when people believed in the traditional family, some families maybe were like the one featured in the film ( 2 ).

Discussions about A Date with Your Family encouraged an explanation and exploration of cultural ideals as opposed to lived realities. We examined the roles of race, class, politics, and region in the portrayal of this fictional family. Student comments got me wondering what it was that shaped their preconceptions about the 1950s. How could I get at the root of their perceptions? These questions deserved more attention than we could give them in the introductory survey, so I created a course that aimed to answer these questions over an entire semester. More than any other class I'd designed to that point, “1950s America” seemed the most likely to teach not only the content of the topic at hand but also the essential goal of developing students' historical thinking skills ( 3 ). This article provides an overview of the design and execution of the course.

The inspiration from the survey shaped the organization of the course. Students would critically engage with the idealized 1950s, the realities of lived experience during the decade, and the ways the history of the 1950s had become memory. With that in mind, I divided the course into three sections: The American Way of Life, Alternative Ways of Life, and Remembering the 1950s. For the first part of the course, students examine evidence that supports an idealistic view of 1950s America. They focus on ideas about consensus and contentment that play to their expectation of the period. In the second section they explore evidence that challenges this ideal—civil rights activism, Cold War anxieties, resistance to normative gender roles and sexual behaviors, youth cultural rebellion, and critical views of cultural conformity. The final third aims to reveal preconceptions of the period and how they came to be. This last section traces the evolution of American memory of the decade—from a fairly critical view of the 1950s in the immediate aftermath of the 1960s to the more nostalgic view that developed in the 1970s and has continued into the twenty-first century.

As a whole, the course is concerned with three questions: What was the American Way of Life and how was it communicated across American culture? What were the inconsistencies and limitations of the American Way of Life? and Why has popular memory of the American Way of Life, and the 1950s as a whole, changed over time? Having a specific question for each section of the course, each focused on a singular concept, helps students think deeply about an idea referred to time and again in assigned readings, class discussions, and source analysis. At the same time, course organization and focus encourages them to think critically and comparatively about people, events, and ideas that existed simultaneously but differed dramatically ( 4 ).

Beyond student interest and positive response to the subject, my inspiration for this course and its organization came from another observation I had while teaching other courses. As an important historical thinking skill, comparison proved difficult for many students. They struggled to identify differences between one point of view and another. They could not intertwine evaluations of sources, arguments, or ideas. I often found myself reading student responses that would describe one source, and then another, but give no real explanation of how they were different and why. The structure of the 1950s course demands that students spend such an extended amount of time studying one idea—in this case, the American Way of Life—that when an alternative to the ideal is presented, the difference is obvious. Because of the time spent developing this ideal, comparison of experiences against it are clearer and more striking than they might be otherwise.

Throughout the semester, students complete analyses of assigned sources, both primary and secondary. They write several paragraphs about the source, including a summary, a critical analysis (author, audience, argument, intent), and a discussion of where the source fits with our definition of the American Way of Life. In this consideration of where a source fits, students are encouraged to pair the assigned source with those we have already read, either as a support or a challenge to ideas previously established in class. At the end of each third of the course, students write an essay to answer the motivating question for that section. Students can rely on the source analyses they have completed over the course of the semester as they write their larger essays. Thinking about the sources in conversation with one another allows for a greater integration of source material as well as a greater engagement of historians' arguments and primary source evidence.

During the first third of the course, as we focus on the construction of an idealized American Way of Life, we talk extensively about the construction of the postwar suburb and suburban culture. A key source is a July 1950 Time magazine feature article on William Levitt and the development of Levittown, New York. Highlighting Levitt's background, wartime experience, and business savvy, the article also points to the necessity of government-business cooperation in the building of the postwar suburban community and the enthusiastic response Levitt's creation received. While celebrating the opportunities provided by Levittown, the article also reveals the anxieties of the moneyed set of Long Island, who feared the eventual decline of Levittown into “future slums.” Even at the peak of suburban development's popularity, there were concerns that those pre-planned neighborhoods and cookie-cutter houses could lead citizens to a troubling conformity. Along with reading the article from Time, students analyze advertisements from contemporary periodicals, investigate government programs, evaluate early television commercials, critique propaganda films designed to promote a newly constructed shopping mall, and consider how sitcoms such as Leave It to Beaver worked in tandem to craft an idealized version of American life. Students comprehend that a multitude of influences contributed to create a cultural standard to which many Americans aspired. The American Way of Life was not some organic entity: it was a consciously crafted lifestyle, shaped by government, business, and media. And, as the Time article indicates, it was not without its critics—even at its most celebrated moment ( 5 ).

In my experiences teaching the course, Levittown and Leave It to Beaver ultimately come to serve as metaphors for the suburban and familial components of the American Way of Life. These specific examples of a suburb and a nuclear family—as they “should” be, according to the culture—are referenced time and again by students over the duration of the course. Using the Time article and Levittown images, students gain a sense of the intended order of a suburb's layout. They identify the motivation behind the rules and regulations set forth to keep the community looking neat and uniform. They are familiar with the youth of the population and the focus on the nuclear-family unit. They evaluate the government's role in promoting these communities, and they understand the appeal of home ownership for those who had survived the Great Depression and World War II.

Similarly, the Cleavers provide a tangible example of the ideal family. The episode we watch in class, “Ward's Problem,” highlights the privileged nature of the Cleavers's lives. It seems that Ward has double-booked his weekend, promising Wally a fishing trip and committing to Beaver's student-father school picnic. The episode chronicles his efforts to please both boys. Clearly, Ward's “problem” is easily solved. The show suggests that these are the kinds of problems a typical family might face. Money is no object. The children respect their elders. The family exists in perfect harmony, and each member appears entirely content with his or her role. The “problem” faced is how to attain the pinnacle of 1950s family life: togetherness ( 6 ).

These representations serve as perfect foils for the second section of the course. Among the most successful and eye-opening topics is the civil rights movement. Generally, students have some sort of background on the topic, but their familiarity is typically with the famed figures of the freedom struggle: Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X. We discuss impediments to full attainment of the American Way of Life based on racial discrimination and Jim Crow segregation. I remind students that the murder of Emmett Till took place in the same nation where a newly democratized middle-class population was heading to the suburbs ( 7 ). Ward Cleaver and his family served as American role models and entertained millions while nine African American students faced angry mobs as they attempted to desegregate Little Rock's Central High School (Figure  1 ). Having established the idea of the American Way of Life during the first section of the course, these limitations of the ideal are particularly striking.

A young African American resident of Little Rock, Arkansas, watches in August 1959 as a march to protest the reopening of the public schools on a racially integrated basis passes through his neighborhood. The emergence of a mass civil rights movement in the mid-1950s, as well as the bitter and violent opposition it generated, unsettle students' preconceived notions of the decade and its supposedly shared American Way of Life. (Courtesy of Library of Congress)

Students' understanding of the 1950s as the “boring” decade of conformity is shaken when they consider the many and multilayered experiences of Americans during this period. Multiple students have commented that they think of the civil rights movement as a phenomenon of the 1960s, the far more exciting decade of social revolution ( 8 ). The second section of the course is marked by the stirrings that would erupt in “the Sixties.” Women engaged publicly and politically as they protested the American policies of the nuclear age ( 9 ). Members of the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis aimed to decriminalize and legitimize homosexuality ( 10 ). Hugh Hefner, a perennial class favorite, rejected the family-man style of masculinity and popularized the swinging single so celebrated in the pages of Playboy (see John Bodnar's article in this issue) ( 11 ). Evidence of the freedom struggle, Cold War critiques, and alternative genders and sexualities complicates students' understanding not only of the 1950s but also the decade and decades that followed (and, ideally, all historical periods).

The idea of events occurring in simultaneity is fundamental to students' development as historians. At the conclusion of the second third of the course and start of the third, I've tended to pause and ask students to assess what we've learned. While students' written efforts indicate their understanding that historians shape historical arguments by their selection of evidence, their points of emphasis, and their engagement with other historians, class discussions have proved even better evidence of students' understanding of history as “the study of the past” rather than merely “the past.” When I taught the course during the spring 2011 semester, I had potentially the most affirming moment of my teaching life when I commented that there are many students who enter history classes believing there is a singular version of the past. Following my remarks, the students in my class heaved heavy sighs and rolled their eyes at such a ridiculous sentiment.

The memory section of the course has proven to be the most challenging. Considering how views of the past have changed requires consideration of the events of subsequent decades. To some degree, this contextualizing adds another complex layer to students' historical considerations. It challenges students' long-ingrained belief that history is unchanging. In their final papers, students tend to highlight the nostalgic memory of 1950s and skip the more critical perspective of 1960s liberals and increasingly leftward leaning youth ( 12 ). While considerations of the American Way of Life and its alternatives lend themselves to direct comparison, the evolution of American memory has proven more difficult for students to master. In future offerings of the course, I will highlight this evolution more during the final weeks of the semester in writing and in class discussion. In the past I have assigned a single standard format for source analysis assignments, but for future courses I will create templates specific to each third of the course with hopes of helping students better identify and analyze the themes driving each section.

This final section of the course is in many ways the most important for students as they prepare to leave the classroom. Public and family memory, museums and memorials, and fictional presentations of the past are among the most likely sites in which students will confront history and its presentations in their postcollegiate lives. Modeling a method of critical thinking, in the world of media and entertainment most particularly, provides students with a chance to continue their roles as historians.

When we watch Pleasantville (1998), a film in which siblings of the late 1990s are transported back to the world of a fictional 1950s town, the students are confronted with a critical memory of the 1950s, but one in which race or “color” is addressed only metaphorically. Conformity and contentment prevent the black-and-white citizens of Pleasantville from seeing the beauty and passion and danger of life with color. Class discussion allowed us to explore how the film played into preconceptions of the blandness of the 1950s even as it critiqued media portrayals of the decade. Simultaneously, the film presented a very specific and fairly critical view of the 1990s, leading students to consider how memory is often more a product of the present than the past ( 13 ). In a course evaluation, one student commented that Pleasantville was an effective “link. [I] really got it in relation to the class.” The student also noted that the “class was very helpful in understanding the 1950s mentality and what the decades following had to say.”

Even as memories of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s presented the 1950s as a simpler time, the students' investigation of the varied experiences of the period during the second section of the course allowed them to develop a critical perspective of recent memories. In the aftermath of the course, students reported continued encounters with the many and varied constructions of history. As one student told me, she engaged in heated discussion at home when an older relative asserted that the 1950s were a better, easier time—a discussion that ultimately revealed competing memories among members of the same family. That students leave the class with a sense of the constructed and contested nature of history is no small victory.

Beyond developing the 1950s course, I've taken the lessons of simultaneity, comparison, and debate and applied them across other classes, especially my survey of U.S. history since 1877. Beyond the 1950s, for as many topics as possible, I present alternate perspectives of select periods. When teaching the 1920s, I stress the newness of this modern decade, as technological advances shaped a mass culture that challenged traditional values and mores. Likewise, I emphasize the ways those uneasy with these challenges aimed to reassert their influence, be it through renewed commitment to a more conservative Christianity, adoption of increasingly nativist views, or the promotion of the prohibition of alcohol. Students must determine whether the decade marked a transformation or a continuation of American culture and values. Problematizing how we view a decade or an era helps students understand the importance of evidence selection to the historian's craft. It reveals the many and multi-layered experiences of those in the past. And perhaps most importantly, it helps them consider how arguments and viewpoints are developed across time and how we must engage with various histories rather than a single, indisputable version of the past.

A Date with Your Family, directed by Edward C. Simmel (United States: Simmel-Meservey, 1950). Available at http://archive.org/details/DateWith 1950.

On the popular memory of 1950s families, see Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap (New York: Basic Books, 2000).

Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001).

At the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, I attended a workshop on “Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.” The first session, “How to Create an Undergraduate Course,” with presentations by Lendol Calder, Kevin Kenny, Stefan Tanaka, and Janice Reiff, fundamentally shaped my approach to course organization and the learning goals I hope students will achieve by a course's conclusion.

“Up from the Potato Fields,” Time, July 3, 1950. On persisting class divisions during the postwar years, see Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York: Knopf, 2003), 193–278.

“Ward's Problem,” Leave It to Beaver, season 2, episode 3, directed by Norman Tokar (October 16, 1958; Los Angeles: Universal Studios, 2006). DVD. On “togetherness,” see Jessica Weiss, To Have and to Hold: Marriage, the Baby Boom, and Social Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).

American Experience: The Murder of Emmett Till, directed by Stanley Nelson (2003; Arlington: PBS, 2004). DVD.

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and Political Uses of the Past,” Journal of American History 91 (March 2005): 1233–63.

Dee Garrison, “‘Our Skirts Gave Them Courage’: The Civil Defense Protest Movement in New York City, 1955–1961,” in Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945–1960, ed. Joanne Meyerowitz (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994), 201–28.

John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 2 nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 9–109.

Barbara Ehrenreich, Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment (New York: Anchor Books, 1983), 42–51; Elizabeth Fraterrigio, Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

On memory of the 1950s and 1960s, see Daniel Marcus, Happy Days and Wonder Years: The Fifties and Sixties in Contemporary Cultural Politics (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2004).

Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross (1998; Los Angeles: New Line Home Video, 2004). DVD.

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1950s Body Image History

Entertainment in the 1950s, impact of television in the 1950s, famous people in the 1950s, 1950s vs modern era.

1 January 1950 – 31 December 1959

The 1950s were a decade marked by the post-World War II recovery, the rise of the Cold War and the Civil Rights movement in the United States. The period also saw great population growth with increased birth rates. The beginning of decolonization in Africa and Asia also took place in this decade. The United States became the world’s strongest military power with very strong economy.

About 4 million babies were born each year during the 1950s. When the boom ended in 1964, there were almost 77 million “baby boomers.”

The ideological clash between communism and capitalism dominated the decade. The major conflicts of the decade included: the Korean War, the Cuban Revolution, the beginning of the Vietnam War in French Indochina, and the beginning of the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957.

During the 1950s the struggle against racism and segregation entered the mainstream of American life. A growing group of Americans spoke out against inequality and injustice. In December 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat on a city bus to a white person. Her arrest sparked a 13-month boycott of the city’s buses by black citizens.

The 1950s saw the emergence of Rock ‘n’ Roll with Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, Jackie Wilson, Gene Vincent and Chuck Berry. In the 1950s, television became a major form of popular entertainment. By 1955, half of all American homes had a television.

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Humanities in Class: Webinar Series

The 1950’s in American History and Memory: The Way We Never Were

Volker Janssen (Professor of History, California State University, Fullerton)

March 17, 2016

How do we remember the 1950s? As the climax of the American Century, when returning GIs and their wives settled into suburbia to have lots of children and enjoy the fruits of living in the only major industrial power left standing after World War II? Or as an age of conformity and anxiety, when anyone who challenged the status quo was suspect and Americans were poised to retreat to fall-out shelters? Or both? Join us to explore how we remember those mid-century years and learn why those memories matter now.

History / American History / Collective Memory / Aftermath of World War II / The Fifties /

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Article contents

• Jennifer Delton Jennifer Delton Department of History, Skidmore College
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.292
• Published online: 05 October 2015

The 1950s have typically been seen as a complacent, conservative time between the end of World War II and the radical 1960s, when anticommunism and the Cold War subverted reform and undermined civil liberties. But the era can also be seen as a very liberal time in which meeting the Communist threat led to Keynesian economic policies, the expansion of New Deal programs, and advances in civil rights. Politically, it was “the Eisenhower Era,” dominated by a moderate Republican president, a high level of bipartisan cooperation, and a foreign policy committed to containing communism. Culturally, it was an era of middle-class conformity, which also gave us abstract expressionism, rock and roll, Beat poetry, and a grassroots challenge to Jim Crow.

• anticommunism
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Course: US history   >   Unit 8

• Korean War overview
• The Korean War
• The Eisenhower era
• Anticommunism in the 1950s

Popular culture and mass media in the 1950s

• Women in the 1950s
• Atomic fears and the arms race
• The start of the Space Race
• 1950s America

• In the 1950s and 1960s, young Americans had more disposable income and enjoyed greater material comfort than their forebears, which allowed them to devote more time and money to leisure activities and the consumption of popular culture.
• Rock and roll , a new style of music which drew inspiration from African American blues music, embraced themes popular among teenagers, such as young love and rebellion against authority.
• In the 1950s, the relatively new technology of television began to compete with motion pictures as a major form of popular entertainment.

The postwar boom and popular culture

Rocking around the clock, hollywood on the defensive, the triumph of television, what do you think, attribution, want to join the conversation.

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1950's Major News Events in History

• 1950 The Korean War begins when North Korea invades South Korea
• 1951 "I Love Lucy" premieres on television on the CBS network
• 1952 Elizabeth II becomes the Queen of England after her father, George VI, dies.
• 1953 Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine.
• 1954 The U.S. Supreme Court rules that racial segregation is unconstitutional Brown v. Board of Education.
• 1955 Rosa Parks is arrested in Alabama after she refuses to give up her bus seat to a white passenger
• 1956 The Suez Crisis begins after Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal.
• 1957 The USSR successfully launches Sputnik 1, the very first artificial satellite.
• 1958 NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is created.
• 1959 The St. Lawrence Seaway is completed.

More Detailed Information on each Event and those not included can be found below

1950s Important News and Events, Key Technology Fashion and Popular Culture

Fifties Fashions, the peak of the Baby Boomer Years where following the end of the great depression and then World War II people wanted to live a normal life raising a family, teens found rock and roll music and Elvis, parents found more consumer choice and jobs were abundant.

The events listed below we have tried to put a small paragraph on the specific year page providing additional information )

What Happened in 1950 History

The Diner's Club begins issuing the first credit cards.

The Korean War begins when North Korea invades South Korea.

Famous physicist Albert Einstein warns the world that a nuclear war would lead to mutual destruction.

The United States begins the development and production of the hydrogen bomb.

The FIFA World Cup is held in Brazil and Uruguay wins the title.

What Happened in 1951 History

"I Love Lucy" premieres on television on the CBS network.

DJ Alan Freed coins the term "Rock n' Roll."

Libya becomes independent from Italian rule after about forty years.

Luis Miramontes develops the first oral contraceptive.

The United States ratifies the 22nd amendment, limiting a president to two terms.

What Happened in 1952 History

Elizabeth II becomes the Queen of England after her father, George VI, dies.

The first hydrogen bomb is successfully detonated by the United States.

The Mau Mau Rebellion begins in Kenya as an effort to end the British rule of the country.

Puerto Rico is named as a self-governing commonwealth of the U.S.

The first issue of the comedy-driven MAD Magazine is published.

What Happened in 1953 History

The Double Helix DNA Model is revealed by Francis Crick and James Watson.

Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first people to successfully climb to the top of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.

Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine.

The first James Bond novel, "Casino Royale," is published by British author Ian Fleming.

Joseph Stalin, the leader of the USSR, dies and is replaced by Nikita Khrushchev.

What Happened in 1954 History

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that racial segregation is unconstitutional in public schools in their unanimous decision of Brown v. Board of Education.

U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy is censured by the Senate, ending his four year long hunt for Communists within the United States government.

Frozen TV Dinners are introduced by Swanson.

Ellis Island ceases to be a point of immigration into the U.S. when it officially closes.

Roger Bannister becomes the first recorded man to run a mile in under four minutes.

1950's Fashion

With the economic boom in the Fifties, glamour become fashionable once again and A-line and pencil skirts were very popular form-fitting fashions. Dresses in the decade would often feature stylish ruffles or lace accents and were usually knee-length or tea-length. Going into the late fifties and 1960s mini-dresses and maxi-length skirt outfits entered the scene. The mid-50's trends in women's fashion changed again. Round-neck styles on sleeveless shirts or long sleeve shirts were popular, as well as polo-necks. Dolman sleeves dominated fashionable tops in the fifties and sixties, The examples below are from Our new updated Fifties Fashion Section, with examples of Ladies, Mens and Children's Fashion Clothes and Accessory examples including dresses, hats, shoes and much more take a little time to browse through them

Ladies Dresses From The 1950's

Money and Inflation 1950's

To provide an estimate of inflation we have given a guide to the value of $100 US Dollars for the first year in the decade to the equivalent in today's money

If you have $100 Converted from 1950 to 2021 it would be equivalent to $1,104 today

In 1950 the average income per year was $3,210.00 and by 1959 was $5,010.00

In 1950 a gallon of gas was 18 cents and by 1959 was 25 cents

In 1950 the average cost of new car was $1,510.00 and by 1959 was $2,200.00

A few more prices from the 50's and how much things cost

Chrysler New Yorker $4347

1958 Chevrolet Corvette $3631

Men's All Wool Suits $28.90

Square dance Cotton Check Dress $3.29

Electric Portable Singer Sewing Machine $19.90

Ronson Electric Shaver $28.50

Rib Roast 29 cents per pound

Ritz Crackers 32 cents

Rollaway Beds $14.95

Ring 1 carat Diamond $399.00

Mechanical Adding Machine $3.98

What Happened in 1955 History

The popular children's television show "The Mickey Mouse Club" premieres. The Disneyland theme park in California also opened during this year..

The Warsaw Pact is signed by the Soviet Union and seven of its satellite countries (Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Czechoslovakia).

Rosa Parks is arrested in Alabama after she refuses to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, sparking the Civil Rights Movement.

The McDonald's chain of restaurants is started by Ray Kroc.

The United States adds "In God We Trust" to all paper currency.

What Happened in 1956 History

The popular musician Elvis Presley has his very first hit song, "Heartbreak Hotel."

American Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.

The Suez Crisis begins after Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal.

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 becomes law, allowing for the mass construction of tens of thousands of interstate highways in the U.S.

Albert Sabin creates the oral polio vaccine to replace the Salk vaccine.

What Happened in 1957 History

The USSR successfully launches Sputnik 1, the very first artificial satellite. They also launch Sputnik 2 later in the year, a satellite that carried the first animal into space.

The "Baby Boom" peaks during this year.

Nine African-American students enroll at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas and are met with resistance by protesters and the state's governor. Federal troops end up escorting the students into the school at the command of President Eisenhower.

The European Economic Community is created when West Germany, Italy, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg sign the Treaty of Rome.

Malaysia and Ghana gain independence from the United Kingdom.

Popular Names In the 1950's

Girls names, from our 1950s homes pages.

What Happened in 1958 History

The microchip is co-invented by Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby.

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is created.

Bobby Fischer, a fourteen-year-old boy, wins the U.S. Chess Championship.

The popular children's toy the Hula-Hoop is created by Wham-O.

The Great Chinese Famine begins.

What Happened in 1959 History

The Cuban revolution ends and Fidel Castro comes to power, creating the first Communist nation in the West.

Alaska and Hawaii are admitted as the 49th and 50th states in the U.S.

The Soviet Union's Luna 2 spacecraft becomes the first man-made object to touch the surface of the Moon after it crashes.

The first astronauts are introduced by NASA ( John H. Glenn, Jr. and Alan Shepard, Jr. ).

The St. Lawrence Seaway is completed.

Other Major Events From The 50's

The 50's were the time when the shape of the political landscape in the world could be clearly defined between the Soviet dominated East and the capitalist West.

The cold war became a grim reality because both sides had the power and technology for a Nuclear holocaust, but equally both knew any war could not truly be won.

Following the end of the second world war the economies of the western world boomed which led to the start of a consumer-led economy that seemed to have no bounds .

With the forming of the EEC European Economic Community, West Germany enjoyed a growth which exceeded any expectations at the end of the war.

Following on to the break up of the British Empire which before had occupied 30% of the globe many fledgling democracies were starting to find their own identities including India Pakistan Rhodesia now ( Zimbabwe ), and having the growing pains that any new democracy would face .

During the 50's and following decades more and more of the old colonial empires would be forced to allow allow countries their independence.

Following the creation of the new State of Israel there were many conflicts in the middle east which are still occurring to this day. The Suez Crisis in 1956 begins on July 26th as the supply of oil is blocked through the Suez Canal

Like Germany in Europe Japan saw massive economic growth by supplying the goods needed for the consumer-led society in both Europe and the United States.

Sporting Changes In The 50's

New York teams rule 50s baseball with the Yankees, Giants and Dodgers

The game spreads with whole teams being relocated to other parts of the country including Boston Braves to Milwaukee and New York Giants to San Francisco

Television begins broadcasting live games and unlike Radio a decade before had a negative impact on attendance

Chuck Cooper drafted by the Boston Celtics in 1950, becomes the first black player in the NBA.

24-second shot clock Introduced in Pro Game In 1954 forcing a team to shoot it within that 24 seconds, or give the ball to the other team.

Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain dominate the game winning 8 out of 10 MVP trophy's from 1958 to 1968

Association Football (Soccer)

Following the end of World War II the game takes center stage in 1950 with the first world cup since 1938 held in Brazil where Uruguay won the world cup again.

Attendance at British soccer matches Skyrocket with 30 million going to stadiums around the UK.

American Football

Television Helps Gain New Fans to NFL but decreases local atendence

Cleveland Browns Make Big Impact ON NFL winning Three NFL Championship games

Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs Dominate The Decade

Televised hockey Takes Off

Zamboni ice-smoothing tractor Used For First Time

Facemask For goaltenders introduced

Popular Culture 1950s

Popular Culture in the 50's can be captured in just a few words which speak volumes. "The Cold War", "Baby Boomers" , "Korea" , "The Red Scare",. This was the decade where people built Bomb Shelters, had babies and the news was filled with what the reds were doing or going to do.

The other important change was in how teenagers were viewed up until the 50's teenagers were just children and were treated as such the 50's and future decades changed that where teenagers became an important section of society when politicians and others realized teenagers would very quickly become voters and consumers and a new generation of pop stars including Elvis Presley were created whose main target audience was teenagers.

As the radio had done in the 20's providing the masses with news and entertainment so the TV did in the fifties originally broadcasting in black and white but later in color

This was also a time of great affluence after the depression years and the World Wars consumerism took off in a big way which in turn created jobs and wealth and a circle of growth

Following on from black men joining the forces and fighting for their country , a change was needed to treat this section of society equally " they had fought for their country " and should be treated as equals, and the battle for civil rights began

The frozen "french fries" were invented by the JR Simplot company in the early 50's and up till the time McDonalds still peeled, cut and prepared fries on the premises

A common name termed for people born in the 50's are the baby boomers . ( after the depression in the 30's and the world war in the 40's ) people felt confident enough to have children and an explosion in the population occurred.

Following the end of the war a mini consumer boom followed with the baby boom, new homes and improved wealth for the working man a boom in electrical appliances and gadgets followed for TV's, Washing Machines, fridges, music players and more.

As new homes were built furniture was needed to fill them and with the restrictions ended on use of raw materials and a feeling of calm and prosperity, plus the acailabilty of new materials new furniture became bright and functional,

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the earth. and so starts the space race and man's exploration of our solar system

Inventions The Year Invented Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use )

Atomic Clock ----- 1955 England

Breeder Reactor ----- 1951 USA Converted Uranium to Plutonium

Computer Modem ----- 1958 USA

Credit Card ----- 1950 USA by Ralph Schneider

Hovercraft ----- 1955 England by Christopher Cockerell

Hydrogen Bomb ----- 1952 USA by Edward Teller's team

Lunar Probe ----- 1959 Russia Lunik I passed the Moon;

Lunar Probe ----- 1959 Russia Lunik II crashed on the Moon;

Lunar Probe ----- 1959 Russia Lunik III photographed the far side of the Moon

Microchip ----- 1958 USA by Jack Kilby

Nuclear Power ----- 1956 England First power station at Calder Hall

Robot ----- 1954 USA by George C Devol Jr

Satellite ----- 1957 Russia Sputnik I

Solar Cell ----- 1954 USA Or Photovoltaic cells

Transistor Radio ----- 1953 USA Texas Instruments

Video Recorder ----- 1956 USA

Video Tape ----- 1956 USA

25 Major Scientific Achievements of the 1950s: Can We Top Them?

We're on the cusp of a major push in scientific research. Much like the 1950s, our government is determined to pour more money and more resources into science so we can push ahead. This time, we're not in a Space race, but a race to mitigate Global Warming. Anybody who tells you different is fibbing. The only way to get out of this mess (or at least alleviate some of it) is to rely on science to invent the technologies that can help us.

Recently, President Obama promised the nation's scientists he would step up governmental and private funding for new Research and Development (R&D) projects, reversing its critical decline over the past 25 years. Citing America's lagging role as a global leader in science and technology; the President said, we are dangerously close to following seriously behind other countries like India and China.

Pointing to the 1950s as America's "high-water mark " in funding science research, the President promised to spend more than $21.5 billion on Science from the 2009 Stimulus Package - particularly for projects addressing renewable energy .

He said another goal was to make research and experiment tax credits permanent in the 2010 budget. While it is clear that President Obama strongly believes in the promise and potential of science, it is less clear whether Congress and the public supports a larger funding initiative for R&D. 

In the 1950s, shortly after WWII, and the public awareness of the role science played in ending the War, it was a different story. In 1958, (thanks to both public and private sources) the U.S spent $10 billion on science technology (far more than $21.5 billion in today's dollars). There was widespread public enthusiasm and support for Science - especially as the U.S. raced into space, determined to put the first man on the moon (which took until the 1960s).

In case you've forgotten the major science breakthroughs in the 1950s (or maybe never even knew), here's a list of some of the important scientific achievements, (listed in chronological order; some more vitally important than others). These achievements are a representative sampling of some of the successful technology and science discovered; many of these discoveries have had a major impact on our lives.

1. First electric power from U.S. reactor.

2. First U.S. thermonuclear explosion.

3. Introduction of Coast-to-coast TV.

4. Large electronic computer delivered to the Bureau of Census.

5. Automation of the auto industry begins.

6. Bubble chamber for tracking atomic particles created.

7. Discovery of the brain's arousal system.

8. Heart-lung machine first used on a human.

9. Proposed structure of DNA announced.

10. Solar batteries unveiled.

11. Tranquilizers introduced.

12. Introduction of both color and wide-screen TVs.

13. Nike missile revealed.

14. First supersonic flight by a military aircraft.

15. Discovery of reward center in the brain.

16. vertical take-off and landing of jet aircraft.

17. Experimental use of oral contraceptives.

18. Mass use of Salk polio vaccine.

19. All-transistor radios introduced.

Wikimedia public domain

20. Transatlantic telephone cable introduced.

21. Nuclear-powered submarines unveiled.

22. Discovery of cold fusion.

23. Synthetic diamonds produced.

24, First U.S. satellites and ICBM unveiled.

25. Stereo record technology developed.

After WWII, a good deal of the money spent on scientific research went to the military, but the military's discoveries carried over to civilian life and to other branches of science.  Military funding for science, in fact, helped develop computer engineering and technologies leading to digital computing. Because it was the military complex's scientific research that created the computing culture, some say it retains its " Cold War military perspective ."

Regardless of that philosophy, computer science had a "profound, earth-shaking effect" on day-to-day living, business, psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience, to name a few. The funding of military scientific research also found its way into earth sciences: geodesy, oceanography and seismology (much of this now contributing to our understanding of Global Warming).

Biological sciences also grew under military funding, but less directly than other sciences that might have military (defense) applications. Private foundation funding was an important source of R&D in biological and medical research in the 1950-60s. Although military-driven and funded science is still creating and producing high-tech products (take the pilot-less drones, for example and the huge advances in development of prosthetics for amputees, as well as newly funded, ongoing research to enable communication via brain wave technology), the emphasis now may be less on military-funded research and more on scientists working to mitigate or reverse the devastating effects of Global Warming.

Psychic Analysis : The new Science race is on - just like the 1950s - but this time, the prize is not to conquer space, but to conquer pollution, carbon emissions, drought and the rapid extinction of many of life's animal species. Every time we see more wild fires spreading across the world; every time another glacier melts; every time another species is determined endangered or nearly extinct, we are hearing a drum beating. There are still far too many people for whom this drum beat is inaudible.

The woes of the troubled economy and the troubled climate are intertwined. One solution is this:  work on fixing one, and you help fix the other. Putting the economy first, however, is putting the cart before the horse. It doesn't take a psychic to see the horse is stumbling and in danger of falling and tipping over the cart, unless we radically change our priorities and literally yell and stomp our feet, demanding more funding for scientific research. Time is of the essence. With thanks to Fortune Magazine, January, 1959, AFP, and multiple related histories researched from the internet.

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Civil Rights Movement

By: History.com Editors

Updated: May 14, 2024 | Original: October 27, 2009

The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. The Civil War officially abolished slavery , but it didn’t end discrimination against Black people—they continued to endure the devastating effects of racism, especially in the South. By the mid-20th century, Black Americans, along with many other Americans, mobilized and began an unprecedented fight for equality that spanned two decades.

Jim Crow Laws

During Reconstruction , Black people took on leadership roles like never before. They held public office and sought legislative changes for equality and the right to vote.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution gave Black people equal protection under the law. In 1870, the 15th Amendment granted Black American men the right to vote. Still, many white Americans, especially those in the South, were unhappy that people they’d once enslaved were now on a more-or-less equal playing field.

To marginalize Black people, keep them separate from white people and erase the progress they’d made during Reconstruction, “ Jim Crow ” laws were established in the South beginning in the late 19th century. Black people couldn’t use the same public facilities as white people, live in many of the same towns or go to the same schools. Interracial marriage was illegal, and most Black people couldn’t vote because they were unable to pass voter literacy tests.

Jim Crow laws weren’t adopted in northern states; however, Black people still experienced discrimination at their jobs or when they tried to buy a house or get an education. To make matters worse, laws were passed in some states to limit voting rights for Black Americans.

Moreover, southern segregation gained ground in 1896 when the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Plessy v. Ferguson that facilities for Black and white people could be “separate but equal."

World War II and Civil Rights

Prior to World War II , most Black people worked as low-wage farmers, factory workers, domestics or servants. By the early 1940s, war-related work was booming, but most Black Americans weren’t given better-paying jobs. They were also discouraged from joining the military.

After thousands of Black people threatened to march on Washington to demand equal employment rights, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 on June 25, 1941. It opened national defense jobs and other government jobs to all Americans regardless of race, creed, color or national origin.

Black men and women served heroically in World War II, despite suffering segregation and discrimination during their deployment. The Tuskegee Airmen broke the racial barrier to become the first Black military aviators in the U.S. Army Air Corps and earned more than 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses. Yet many Black veterans were met with prejudice and scorn upon returning home. This was a stark contrast to why America had entered the war to begin with—to defend freedom and democracy in the world.

As the Cold War began, President Harry Truman initiated a civil rights agenda, and in 1948 issued Executive Order 9981 to end discrimination in the military. These events helped set the stage for grass-roots initiatives to enact racial equality legislation and incite the civil rights movement.

On December 1, 1955, a 42-year-old woman named Rosa Parks found a seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus after work. Segregation laws at the time stated Black passengers must sit in designated seats at the back of the bus, and Parks complied.

When a white man got on the bus and couldn’t find a seat in the white section at the front of the bus, the bus driver instructed Parks and three other Black passengers to give up their seats. Parks refused and was arrested.

As word of her arrest ignited outrage and support, Parks unwittingly became the “mother of the modern-day civil rights movement.” Black community leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) led by Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr ., a role which would place him front and center in the fight for civil rights.

Parks’ courage incited the MIA to stage a boycott of the Montgomery bus system . The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days. On November 14, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled segregated seating was unconstitutional. 

Little Rock Nine

In 1954, the civil rights movement gained momentum when the United States Supreme Court made segregation illegal in public schools in the case of Brown v. Board of Education . In 1957, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas asked for volunteers from all-Black high schools to attend the formerly segregated school.

On September 4, 1957, nine Black students, known as the Little Rock Nine , arrived at Central High School to begin classes but were instead met by the Arkansas National Guard (on order of Governor Orval Faubus) and a screaming, threatening mob. The Little Rock Nine tried again a couple of weeks later and made it inside, but had to be removed for their safety when violence ensued.

Finally, President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened and ordered federal troops to escort the Little Rock Nine to and from classes at Central High. Still, the students faced continual harassment and prejudice.

Their efforts, however, brought much-needed attention to the issue of desegregation and fueled protests on both sides of the issue.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

Even though all Americans had gained the right to vote, many southern states made it difficult for Black citizens. They often required prospective voters of color to take literacy tests that were confusing, misleading and nearly impossible to pass.

Wanting to show a commitment to the civil rights movement and minimize racial tensions in the South, the Eisenhower administration pressured Congress to consider new civil rights legislation.

On September 9, 1957, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law, the first major civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to prevent someone from voting. It also created a commission to investigate voter fraud.

Sit-In at Woolworth's Lunch Counter

Despite making some gains, Black Americans still experienced blatant prejudice in their daily lives. On February 1, 1960, four college students took a stand against segregation in Greensboro, North Carolina when they refused to leave a Woolworth’s lunch counter without being served.

Over the next several days, hundreds of people joined their cause in what became known as the Greensboro sit-ins. After some were arrested and charged with trespassing, protesters launched a boycott of all segregated lunch counters until the owners caved and the original four students were finally served at the Woolworth’s lunch counter where they’d first stood their ground.

Their efforts spearheaded peaceful sit-ins and demonstrations in dozens of cities and helped launch the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to encourage all students to get involved in the civil rights movement. It also caught the eye of young college graduate Stokely Carmichael , who joined the SNCC during the Freedom Summer of 1964 to register Black voters in Mississippi. In 1966, Carmichael became the chair of the SNCC, giving his famous speech in which he originated the phrase "Black power.”

Freedom Riders

On May 4, 1961, 13 “ Freedom Riders ”—seven Black and six white activists–mounted a Greyhound bus in Washington, D.C. , embarking on a bus tour of the American south to protest segregated bus terminals. They were testing the 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia that declared the segregation of interstate transportation facilities unconstitutional.

Facing violence from both police officers and white protesters, the Freedom Rides drew international attention. On Mother’s Day 1961, the bus reached Anniston, Alabama, where a mob mounted the bus and threw a bomb into it. The Freedom Riders escaped the burning bus but were badly beaten. Photos of the bus engulfed in flames were widely circulated, and the group could not find a bus driver to take them further. U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (brother to President John F. Kennedy ) negotiated with Alabama Governor John Patterson to find a suitable driver, and the Freedom Riders resumed their journey under police escort on May 20. But the officers left the group once they reached Montgomery, where a white mob brutally attacked the bus. Attorney General Kennedy responded to the riders—and a call from Martin Luther King Jr.—by sending federal marshals to Montgomery.

On May 24, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders reached Jackson, Mississippi. Though met with hundreds of supporters, the group was arrested for trespassing in a “whites-only” facility and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Attorneys for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) brought the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed the convictions. Hundreds of new Freedom Riders were drawn to the cause, and the rides continued.

In the fall of 1961, under pressure from the Kennedy administration, the Interstate Commerce Commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals

March on Washington

Arguably one of the most famous events of the civil rights movement took place on August 28, 1963: the March on Washington . It was organized and attended by civil rights leaders such as A. Philip Randolph , Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr.

More than 200,000 people of all races congregated in Washington, D. C. for the peaceful march with the main purpose of forcing civil rights legislation and establishing job equality for everyone. The highlight of the march was King’s speech in which he continually stated, “I have a dream…”

King’s “ I Have a Dream” speech galvanized the national civil rights movement and became a slogan for equality and freedom.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 —legislation initiated by President John F. Kennedy before his assassination —into law on July 2 of that year.

King and other civil rights activists witnessed the signing. The law guaranteed equal employment for all, limited the use of voter literacy tests and allowed federal authorities to ensure public facilities were integrated.

Bloody Sunday

On March 7, 1965, the civil rights movement in Alabama took an especially violent turn as 600 peaceful demonstrators participated in the Selma to Montgomery march to protest the killing of Black civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson by a white police officer and to encourage legislation to enforce the 15th amendment.

As the protesters neared the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were blocked by Alabama state and local police sent by Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, a vocal opponent of desegregation. Refusing to stand down, protesters moved forward and were viciously beaten and teargassed by police and dozens of protesters were hospitalized.

The entire incident was televised and became known as “ Bloody Sunday .” Some activists wanted to retaliate with violence, but King pushed for nonviolent protests and eventually gained federal protection for another march.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

When President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965, he took the Civil Rights Act of 1964 several steps further. The new law banned all voter literacy tests and provided federal examiners in certain voting jurisdictions. 

It also allowed the attorney general to contest state and local poll taxes. As a result, poll taxes were later declared unconstitutional in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections in 1966.

Part of the Act was walked back decades later, in 2013, when a Supreme Court decision ruled that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act was unconstitutional, holding that the constraints placed on certain states and federal review of states' voting procedures were outdated.

Civil Rights Leaders Assassinated

The civil rights movement had tragic consequences for two of its leaders in the late 1960s. On February 21, 1965, former Nation of Islam leader and Organization of Afro-American Unity founder Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally.

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on his hotel room's balcony. Emotionally-charged looting and riots followed, putting even more pressure on the Johnson administration to push through additional civil rights laws.

Fair Housing Act of 1968

The Fair Housing Act became law on April 11, 1968, just days after King’s assassination. It prevented housing discrimination based on race, sex, national origin and religion. It was also the last legislation enacted during the civil rights era.

The civil rights movement was an empowering yet precarious time for Black Americans. The efforts of civil rights activists and countless protesters of all races brought about legislation to end segregation, Black voter suppression and discriminatory employment and housing practices.

A Brief History of Jim Crow. Constitutional Rights Foundation. Civil Rights Act of 1957. Civil Rights Digital Library. Document for June 25th: Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry. National Archives. Greensboro Lunch Counter Sit-In. African American Odyssey. Little Rock School Desegregation (1957).  The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford . Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Stanford . Rosa Marie Parks Biography. Rosa and Raymond Parks. Selma, Alabama, (Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965). BlackPast.org. The Civil Rights Movement (1919-1960s). National Humanities Center. The Little Rock Nine. National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior: Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. Turning Point: World War II. Virginia Historical Society.

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The 1950s: Key Themes and Documents

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Table of Contents

• Front Cover.
• Half Title Page.
• Recent Titles in the Unlocking American History Series.
• Title Page.
• Copyright Page.
• How to Use This Book.
• Key Themes.
• Introduction.
• Alphabetical List of Entries.
• Topical List of Entries.
• List of Primary Documents.
• 1: The Abbott and Costello Show.
• 2: Acheson, Dean.
• 3: The Adventures of Kit Carson.
• 4: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
• 5: The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.
• 6: The Adventures of Superman.
• 7: The Affluent Society.
• 8: Airline Industry.
• 9: Allen v. Merrill (1957).
• 10: American Bandstand.
• 11: American Communications Association v. Douds (1950).
• 12: Anka, Paul.
• 13: Atomic Bomb.
• 14: Automobile Industry.
• 15: Baby Boom.
• 16: Baldwin, James.
• 18: Ben-Hur.
• 19: Bennett, Tony.
• 20: Berry, Chuck.
• 21: The Big Bopper.
• 22: Blackboard Jungle.
• 23: The Blob.
• 24: Bomb Shelters.
• 25: Boston Celtics.
• 26: Brando, Marlon.
• 27: Bridge on the River Kwai.
• 28: Brooklyn Dodgers.
• 29: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954).
• 30: Cambodia.
• 31: Castro, Fidel.
• 32: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
• 33: The Catcher in the Rye.
• 34: Censorship.
• 35: The Chantels.
• 36: Charles, Ray.
• 37: Cinemascope.
• 38: Civil Rights Act of 1957.
• 39: Civil Rights Movement.
• 40: Cold War.
• 41: Cole, Nat King.
• 42: Common Market.
• 43: Consumer Culture.
• 44: Containment.
• 45: Cooke, Sam.
• 46: Cooper v. Aaron (1958).
• 47: Credit Cards.
• 48: The Crucible.
• 50: Cuban Americans.
• 51: Davis, Miles.
• 52: Davy Crockett.
• 53: Dean, James.
• 54: Dennis v. United States (1951).
• 55: Desegregation.
• 56: Disneyland.
• 57: Doctor Zhivago.
• 58: Domino, Fats.
• 59: Domino Theory.
• 60: Doo-Wop.
• 61: Dragnet.
• 62: Drive-In Theater.
• 63: The Ed Sullivan Show.
• 65: Educational Tracking.
• 66: Eisenhower, Dwight D..
• 67: Election of 1952.
• 68: Election of 1956.
• 69: The Everly Brothers.
• 70: Father Knows Best.
• 71: The Fly.
• 72: Francis, Connie.
• 73: Freed, Alan.
• 75: Gibson, Althea.
• 76: Ginsberg,

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Historyplex

Political Events of the 1950s: A Decade of Change and Transformation

The 1950s laid the foundation for many of the political crises threatening the world today. Read on to know more about the major political events of this eventful decade.

Imagine a time when the biggest, bloodiest war in human history had just ended. One of the most infamous dictators in history had admitted defeat and committed suicide. The largest genocide in history had been discovered, the guilty charged, and punished accordingly. Imperialism was on its way out, sporting grim gashes and limp limbs.

Although this may sound peaceful, the 1950s were one of the most turbulent decades in global politics, containing some seminal political events.

The 1950s saw the rise of global tensions due to cold war, and the world was cleft into two political, administrative and ideological halves — capitalism, espoused by the US, and communism, adopted by the Soviet Union, or USSR. This also gave rise to a third group of non-aligned countries. The new politics during the 1950s were largely determined by the relations between the US and the USSR, and the changing political dynamics due to an increasing number of countries gaining independence from their imperial rulers

One of the first major wars since the Second World War, the Korean War put the conflict between capitalism and communism into sharp relief by pitting the North and South halves of Korea, communist and capitalist respectively, against each other. The USA backed the Southern half openly, sending its army into the battlefield under the aegis of the UN; the US forces alone outnumbered the North Korean army. The North Koreans were aided by China, who provided the bulk of the united communist armies, and the USSR.

The South Korean army successfully defended their territory against the invading Northern forces, although the military engagement failed to produce peace. The political situation in both the halves of Korea continued to be volatile for the years following the war, and the two countries remain at war with each other, not having signed an official peace treaty in spite of a ceasefire. North Korea has since gone on to become a nuclear state, ringing bells in the corridors of the decision-makers of global peacekeeping.

Vietnam War

One of the most infamous and universally condemned military engagements in modern history was the USA’s ill-fated foray into Vietnam. Seeing a chance to prevent the spread of communism, the US backed the democratic South Vietnam against the communistic North.

Communism won this round, with the Ho Chi Minh-led North Vietnamese Viet Cong, running riot among the Southern forces.

However, despite its military failure the Americans’ aim of preventing the spread of communism was successful, as other South Asian countries chose to stay in the good books of the US by allowing the spread of capitalism, rather than risk military action from the mighty American army.

Warsaw Pact

In response to NATO’s inclusion of West Germany, a group of Eastern European communist countries formed the Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , also known as the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense treaty to negate the West’s advancing power in Central Europe. The Warsaw Pact was the most important Cold War treaty between communistic countries, since the member countries had borders (Iron Curtain) with West-aligned countries in Europe.

The members in the Warsaw Pact were the Soviet Union, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. After the Sino-Soviet Split in 1961, Albania aligned with China, and officially withdrew from the Warsaw Pact in 1968.

Hungarian Revolution

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 began as a student demonstration, and quickly spread across Hungary. Although the demonstrators and the Soviet administrators tried to work out the protestor’s demands, the Russian Politburo reversed its decision and decided to quell the rebellion with force. Approximately 2500 Hungarians and 700 Russian soldiers lost their lives in the ensuing violent clashes. Although the Hungarian Revolution was crushed in just days — the revolution lasted from October 23 to November 10 — and didn’t receive extensive media coverage in the West, it loosened the Iron Curtain and was instrumental in the eventual division of the Soviet Union.

Non-Aligned Movement

With the world divided between groups of nations siding with either the US or the Soviet Union, there emerged a group of nations, led by India, Egypt and Yugoslavia, that held no formal alignment towards any group. The NAM currently has 120 members, mainly including ‘developing’ countries.

The Threat of Nuclear Fusion

Following the WWII, both the US and the USSR had carried on research upon nuclear fusion, or thermonuclear weapons . After the first Soviet thermonuclear weapons test in 1949, numerous series of fusion weapons were tested by the US, including the ‘Operation Ivy’ series and ‘Operation Castle’ series.

The threat of the new weapons, which were much more destructive than nuclear fission weapons, introduced for the first time a real possibility of the entire world being destroyed by man-made weapons. Before the research into thermonuclear weapons, even the most powerful weapons — nuclear fission weapons — were only capable of destruction on a local scale. Fusion weapons increased the possible scale of destruction exponentially.

Thermonuclear weapons reached their pinnacle with the Soviet Tsar Bomba test in 1961, which had a yield of 57 megatons of TNT, more than three times the most powerful fusion weapon produced by the USA, and more than two thousand times the yield of the atomic bomb deployed over Nagasaki.

Royal Accessions

George VI, King of the United Kingdom, died in 1952, and was replaced by his elder daughter, Elizabeth II . As of 2012, Elizabeth II is the second longest serving monarch in the history of the United Kingdom, behind Queen Victoria, who ruled for 63 years.

Leopold III, King of the Belgians, abdicated in favor his 21-year old son Baudouin (‘Boudewijn’ in French form) in 1951. Baudouin ruled Belgium until his death in 1993.

Around the same time, Sweden’s monarchy too changed. Gustaf V handed the reins to his son, Gustav VI Adolf, in 1950. He was 67 years old at the time of his accession and ruled until 1973.

Decolonization of Africa

By the 20th century, a majority of African countries (all but Ethiopia and Liberia) were ruled by European nations. The 1950s saw the start of the decolonization of African countries. The first to gain independence (except Egypt in 1922) was Libya, in 1951. Other Saharan (North African) states soon followed suit, and Ghana became the first independent sub-Saharan country in 1957.

American Presidents

In the first presidential elections of the decade, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the President of the United States in 1952, replacing Harry Truman. Eisenhower was reelected in 1956, eventually being replaced by John F. Kennedy in 1961 (1960 elections).

The 22nd Amendment

The 22nd Amendment, passed in 1951, legally restricted a President to two terms in office .

There had been an informal custom in the US that a president should only serve for two terms. The 22nd amendment was passed after, and in response to, Franklin Delano Roosevelt getting elected for the third time in a row. He won the presidential elections in 1932, 1936 and 1940.

FDR, who served for two terms and died in the middle of the third, remains the only president to have served more than two terms in office (which consequently also made Eleanor Roosevelt the longest-serving First Lady in the history of the US).

Soviet Premiers

After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1953, and Georgy Malenkov became Premier. Malenkov was replaced on Khrushchev’s orders in 1955 by Nicolai Bulganin, who was replaced in 1958 by Khrushchev himself. Khrushchev was removed from his post in 1964. He is known for his — relatively — liberal views on communism (de-Stalinization) and his backing of the Soviet Space Program. The first artificial satellite in the world, Sputnik 1, was launched during Khrushchev’s administration.

British Prime Ministers

Sir Winston Churchill was elected as Prime Minister in 1951, taking over from Clement Attlee. He was replaced by Sir Anthony Eden in 1955. Eden was replaced by Harold Macmillan in 1957. Macmillan served till 1963.

Hawaii and Alaska Inducted Into the USA

Alaska was bought by the USA from Russia in 1867, and was governed as a district. After gold rushes in northwestern North America, Alaska was incorporated as a US territory in 1912 and gained statehood in 1959.

Hawaii was a kingdom until 1887, when the reigning king Kalakaua signed the Constitution of Hawaii, drastically reducing the extent of the king’s power. Two years after Kalakaua’s death in 1891, his sister (having inherited the throne) proposed a new constitution. However, she was overthrown in the same year and a provisional government remained in power for the next five years. In 1898, Hawaii was made a US territory, and granted statehood in 1959.

The Kitchen Debate

At the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959, then US Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev met informally. The undiplomatic, informal conversation between the two is known as the Kitchen Debate, since it took place in the kitchen of a specially constructed cheap house, built to display the affordability of housing in capitalist states. Although the meeting had little effect on the political tension between the countries, it is said to have convinced Khrushchev to back John F. Kennedy in the 1960 elections, since he felt Kennedy would be an easier opponent to encounter than Nixon. Khrushchev indeed didn’t have to deal with Nixon, since by the time Nixon became president in 1969, Khrushchev had already been replaced as the Soviet Premier and First Secretary.

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 organized the disparate statutes previously applicable to issues relating to immigration and US citizenship, and molded them into the first proper Immigration Act. The Act is also called the McCarran-Walter Act.

Segregationist Laws passed in South Africa

The Apartheid in South Africa was further enhanced by the introduction of numerous laws, such as

The Immorality Act :  Banned extramarital sex between a white and a non-white person.

The Population Registeration Act:  Forced the population to be classified as Black, White, or Colored. The whites were given higher status in society, administration, political and the legal system.

The Group Areas Act:  Granted sections of a city to be used by a particular race. The non-whites often had to live in small, congested areas far from work, while the whites enjoyed the benefit of the best living sections. The non-whites had to apply for a ‘pass book’ to enter the white zones.

The Bantu Education Act:  Forcibly separated educational facilities on all levels, including universities, on the basis of race.

Desegregation in the USA

While the blacks in South Africa were suffering under the Apartheid rule, the winds of desegregation had begun to blow in America. A 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education , overturned previous norms by declaring that  separate facilities for whites and blacks are inherently unequal . This, combined with a case in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the National Guard accompanied nine black students — called the Little Rock Nine — to a recently desegregated school and remained in the school for a year for the black students’ protection, helped the Civil Rights Movement in America gather pace.

Cuban Revolution

The Cuban dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista was overthrown in 1959 in an armed movement led by Fidel Castro , his brother Raul, and Che Guevara . The government put together by Castro was the first communist government in the Western hemisphere , and its close geographical proximity to the USA would go on to cause severe international issues in the coming decades.

Baghdad Pact

In 1955, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan signed a treaty known as the Middle East Treaty Organization, Central Treaty Organization, or the Baghdad Pact, in order to forge a US-aligned bloc of middle eastern countries close to the Soviet Union. When the Iraqi monarchy was overthrown in 1958, the new government became non-aligned. The Baghdad pact fell apart in the seventies, after the USSR established close political relations with countries south of the members of the Baghdad Pact, negating the Pact’s purpose to prevent southward expansion of the Soviet Union.

Liberation of Japan

Japan had been defeated in WWII under royal rule and was consequently occupied by the US. The US had a notable say in drafting Japan’s new, democratic constitution. This included the disarmament clause, which prevented Japan from fielding an army. Emperor Hirohito, who had led Japan’s military actions in WWII, also helped usher in the new era of economic progress and social reforms. By the end of Hirohito’s reign in 1989, Japan had become the second largest economy in the world. Japan is still one of the largest economies in the world, with a massive share in a wide range of industries ranging from automobiles to mobile phones.

Incorporation of Tibet

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) incorporated Tibet in 1950. During the 1959 uprising in Tibet, the 14th Dalai Lama escaped to India (Dharamshala), souring relations between India and China. Tibet has remained a contentious region; although Tibet is universally recognized as a part of China, the 14th Dalai Lama has set up a Central Tibetan Administration in India and aims to free Tibet, and there are occasional protests in the West over China’s occupation of TIbet.

Founding of the European Communities

The precursor of the European Union, the European Communities, was founded in 1957 . The founder members of the EC include West Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy. The United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland joined in 1973, Greece in 1981 and Spain and Portugal in 1986. The European Communities wasn’t a single entity, but a conglomerate of three working towards similar ends with the same set of rules — European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).

Constitution of India

Early in 1950 (January 26), the Indian constitution came into effect (India had gained independence from British rule in 1947, and the constitution had been adopted in 1949), creating the Republic of India, which replaced the Union of India.

Israeli ‘Law of Return’

The newly-formed (1948) Jewish state Israel passed a law granting any Jew automatic citizenship after immigrating into Israel. This spurred Jewish communities in neighboring Arab states to emigrate to Israel.

Britain, France, and the United States signed a Tripartite Declaration in 1950 for immediate action if Israel’s frontiers were violated. In response, five Arab League Nations signed a security pact, denying the use of the Suez Canal by Israel. The tripartite declaration stated that the three nations were opposed to the idea of an arms race, but after the Soviet Union started supplying arms and ammo to Egypt, France broke the declaration by supplying Israel with the same.

Suez Crisis

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser  was a highly influential figure in 1950s politics. His vision of Pan-Arabism brought him into conflict with Britain and France. Nasser intended to nationalize the Suez canal by paying off the shareholders, prominently Britain and France, and using the profits for construction of the Aswan dam on the Nile river. Nasser’s popularity in the Arab World, his insistence on staying non-aligned in the Cold War, and arms deal with the Soviet Union (Czech arms deal) put him at crossroads with Britain and France’s West-aligned interests in the Middle East.

Nasser nationalized the crucial Suez canal on July 26, 1956 and immediately prohibited Israel’s usage of the same, in addition to blocking the naval routes either side of the Sinai peninsula. This left Israel with only one sea route: the Mediterranean. In response to the nationalization of Suez, Israel invaded the Sinai peninsula on October 29, 1956, and captured Suez. On November 1, British and French air raids on Egypt debilitated the Egyptian forces by a great degree. Nasser himself didn’t believe that Egypt could repel the three-pronged invasion. Fortunately for him, diplomacy from the UN and the USA convinced Britain and France to withdraw their forces. The British and French withdrew by December, and Israel by March 1957.

A month after Israel’s withdrawal, the canal was reopened. In retaliation, Nasser advised Arab nations to reduce their supply of oil to Western Europe, i.e., primarily Britain and France. The apparent ‘victory’ for Nasser (because Britain, France and Israel had been forced to retreat) elevated his status among the Arab World. It also set the trend of oil-producing Middle East countries threatening to price out Western nations if not politically appeased.

Establishment of Fatah

Yasser Arafat led the foundation of Palestinian political party Fatah (or Fateh) in 1959. The full name of the organization is harakat al-tahrir al-watani al-filastini .

Fatah was created from Palestinian nationalists, led by the charismatic Arafat, who became almost synonymous with much of the organization’s activities. Fatah was involved in several controversial events, such as the battle of Karameh and the Black September aggression against Jordan. Fatah currently controls the West Bank.

The 1950s were far from the blissful decade the world had been hoping for. The political events of this decade resulted in the worsening of the Cold War, increased tensions in the Middle East (a condition still not remedied), but in the ‘win’ column, heralded the emergence of the American Civil Rights Movement under Martin Luther King, Jr., the rise of Japan from the ashes of the Second World War, and the independence and consolidation of several new countries, proudly celebrating liberty and freedom.

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The 1950s was a decade of post-war prosperity and optimism in the United States. It was a time of conformity, consumerism, and Cold War tensions. The baby boom brought a surge in population, and suburbs began to form as families moved to the outskirts of cities. Rock and roll music emerged, and television became a popular form of entertainment. On the political front, the Civil Rights movement began to gain momentum, and the fear of communism led to the Red Scare and McCarthyism. The 1950s was a period of significant change and progress in the United States, but it was also a time of social unrest and political turmoil.

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Ready for her close-up —

Meet the woman whose research helped the fbi catch notorious serial killers, hulu documentary mastermind: to think like a killer traces career of dr. ann burgess..

Jennifer Ouellette - Jul 16, 2024 9:00 pm UTC

Fans of the Netflix series Mindhunter might recall the character of Dr. Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), a psychologist who joins forces with FBI criminal profilers to study the unique psychology of serial killers in hopes of more effectively catching them. But they might not know about the inspiration for the character: Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess , whose long, distinguished career finally gets the attention it deserves in a new documentary from Hulu, Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer .

Burgess herself thought it was "fun" to see a fictional character based on her but noted that Hollywood did take some liberties. "They got it wrong," she told Ars. "They made me a psychologist. I'm a nurse"—specifically, a forensic and psychiatric nurse who pioneered research on sex crimes, victimology, and criminal psychology.

Mastermind should go a long way toward setting things right. Hulu brought on Abby Fuller to direct, best known for her work on the Chef's Table series for Netflix. Fuller might seem like a surprising choice for making a true crime documentary, but the streamer thought she would bring a fresh take to a well-worn genre. "I love the true crime aspects, but I thought we could do something more elevated and cinematic and really make this a character-driven piece about [Ann], with true crime elements," Fuller told Ars.

There's no doubt that the public has a rather morbid fascination with serial killers, and Burgess certainly has had concerns about the way media coverage and Hollywood films have turned murderers into celebrities. "Despite how obviously horrible these killers were, despite their utter brutality and the pain they inflicted upon their victims, they'd somehow become romanticized," Burgess wrote in her memoir, A Killer by Design: Murderers, Mindhunters, and My Quest to Decipher the Criminal Mind . "All the inconvenient details that interfered with this narrative—the loss of life, issues of mental health, and the victims themselves—were simply ignored."

That said, it's not like anyone who finds the twisted psychology of serial killers, or true crime in general, fascinating is a sociopath or murderer in the making. "I think we all grapple with light and dark and how we see it in the world," said Fuller. "There's an inherent fascination with what makes someone who they are, with human behavior. And if you're interested in human behavior, a serial killer exhibits some of the more fascinating behavior that exists. Trying to grasp the darkest of the dark and understand it is a way to ensure we never become it."

"I think it's a human factor," Burgess said. "I don't see anything wrong with it. There is a fascination to try to understand why people commit these horrifying crimes. How can people do these things? But I also think people like to play detective a little bit. I think that's normal. You don't want to be fooled; you don't want to become a victim. So what can you learn to avoid it?"

For Burgess, it has always been about the victims. She co-founded one of the first crisis counseling programs at Boston City Hospital in the 1970s with Boston College sociologist Lynda Lytle Holmstrom. The duo conducted research on the emotional and traumatic effects of sexual violence, interviewing nearly 150 rape victims in the process. They were the first to realize that rape was about power and control rather than sex, and coined the term "rape trauma syndrome" to describe the psychological after-effects.

(WARNING: Some graphic details about violent crimes below.)

Their work caught the attention of Roy Hazelwood of the FBI, who invited Burgess to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, to give lectures to agents in the fledgling Behavioral Sciences Unit (BSU) on victimology and violent sex crimes. Thus began a decades-long collaboration that established criminal profiling as a legitimate practice in law enforcement.

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Old West Photography Topic of UW Harlow Talk July 25

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Institutional Communications Bureau of Mines Building, Room 137 Laramie, WY 82071 Phone: (307) 766-2929 Email:   [email protected]

Published July 18, 2024

How the American West was depicted by early European paintings and then actually shown in its reality by early-day photographers is the topic of the weekly Harlow Summer Seminar Series at the renovated University of Wyoming-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Station Thursday, July 25. The facility is located at the AMK Ranch in Grand Teton National Park.

Rachel Sailor, a UW professor of art history and American studies, will present “When the Cameras Came: Photography and the American West.” The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with a barbecue, followed by a 6:30 p.m. seminar. The events are free and open to the public, although a $10 donation is suggested.

Photographs of the Old West typically meet with a mixture of nostalgia, historical reverence and pride of place for most American citizens. The aesthetics of these photographs, however, are more about tropes than truth, Sailor says. They illustrated a centuries-old practice of depicting places through compositions and techniques codified in 17th century European painting.

“Yet, what about the camera’s reputation for delivering infallible veracity and for being a dispassionate intercessor between one time and place and another?” Sailor asks.

In her talk, she will discuss what landscape aesthetics were inherited and naturalized by the camera and how citizens can “read’ the visual rhetoric of the Old West.

Sailor’s research interests include the history of photography, landscape studies and regional cultural production. She has published two books on photography of the American West and is working on a third.

For more information, email Sailor at [email protected] .

About the University of Wyoming-National Park Service Research Station

The research station, a cooperative effort between UW and the NPS for the past 71 years, provides a base for university faculty members and government scientists from around the world to conduct research in the diverse aquatic and terrestrial environments of Grand Teton National Park and the greater Yellowstone area. The research station is located on the AMK Ranch historic district on a peninsula extending into Jackson Lake near Leeks Marina.

About the Harlow Summer Seminar Series

Formerly called the AMK Ranch Talk Series, the Harlow program is named after retired UW Department of Zoology and Physiology Professor Hank Harlow, who helped make the UW-NPS Research Station a significant center for research and community outreach. Harlow began the popular weekly public seminars during the summer months. This summer’s weekly programs are from June 20-Aug. 8.

Further details of the evening events are available at www.uwnps.org , where those interested can join a mailing list.

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Changing Partisan Coalitions in a Politically Divided Nation

1. the partisanship and ideology of american voters, table of contents.

• What this report tells us – and what it doesn’t
• Partisans and partisan leaners in the U.S. electorate
• Party identification and ideology
• Education and partisanship
• Education, race and partisanship
• Partisanship by race and gender
• Partisanship across educational and gender groups by race and ethnicity
• Gender and partisanship
• Parents are more Republican than voters without children
• Partisanship among men and women within age groups
• Race, age and partisanship
• The partisanship of generational cohorts
• Religion, race and ethnicity, and partisanship
• Party identification among atheists, agnostics and ‘nothing in particular’
• Partisanship and religious service attendance
• Partisanship by income groups
• The relationship between income and partisanship differs by education
• Union members remain more Democratic than Republican
• Homeowners are more Republican than renters
• Partisanship of military veterans
• Demographic differences in partisanship by community type
• Race and ethnicity
• Age and the U.S. electorate
• Education by race and ethnicity
• Religious affiliation
• Ideological composition of voters
• Acknowledgments
• Overview of survey methodologies
• The 2023 American Trends Panel profile survey methodology
• Measuring party identification across survey modes
• Adjusting telephone survey trends
• Appendix B: Religious category definitions
• Appendix C: Age cohort definitions

The partisan identification of registered voters is now evenly split between the two major parties: 49% of registered voters are Democrats or lean to the Democratic Party, and a nearly identical share – 48% – are Republicans or lean to the Republican Party.

The partisan balance has tightened in recent years following a clear edge in Democratic Party affiliation during the last administration.

• Four years ago, in the run-up to the 2020 election, Democrats had a 5 percentage point advantage over the GOP (51% vs. 46%).

The share of voters who are in the Democratic coalition reached 55% in 2008. For much of the last three decades of Pew Research Center surveys, the partisan composition of registered voters has been more closely divided.

About two-thirds of registered voters identify as a partisan, and they are roughly evenly split between those who say they are Republicans (32% of voters) and those who say they are Democrats (33%). Roughly a third instead say they are independents or something else (35%), with most of these voters leaning toward one of the parties. Partisan leaners often share the same political views and behaviors as those who directly identify with the party they favor.

The share of voters who identify as independent or something else is somewhat higher than in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As a result, there are more “leaners” today than in the past. Currently, 15% of voters lean toward the Republican Party and 16% lean toward the Democratic Party. By comparison, in 1994, 27% of voters leaned toward either the GOP (15%) or the Democratic Party (12%).

While the electorate overall is nearly equally divided between those who align with the Republican and Democratic parties, a greater share of registered voters say they are both ideologically conservative and associate with the Republican Party (33%) than say they are liberal and align with the Democratic Party (23%).

A quarter of voters associate with the Democratic Party and describe their views as either conservative or moderate, and 14% identify as moderates or liberals and are Republicans or Republican leaners.

The partisan and ideological composition of voters is relatively unchanged over the last five years.

(As a result of significant mode differences in measures of ideology between telephone and online surveys, there is not directly comparable data on ideology prior to 2019.)

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Gun laws lower firearm-related suicides among youth, study shows

New research out of Duke University found that some gun laws can prevent firearm suicides' among children and teens. States with safe storage laws and mandatory waiting periods had lower rates of suicide deaths among children 18 and younger.

These same laws did not decrease the risk of kids being murdered by a firearm, the research found.

Lead researcher Dr. Krista Haines is an assistant professor of surgery and population health sciences at  Duke University  School of Medicine in North Carolina. Haines told USA TODAY there there was a surge in firearm fatalities across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There's not a lot of interventions out there that we found that worked." said Haines "Looking at what legislation is out there that does actually work, we thought would be a good first start."

Researchers looked at 36 laws in all 50 states to see if any of these gun laws reduced or increased the risk of suicide or homicide among kids 18 and younger.

What types of gun laws prevented deaths?

Child access prevention laws, safe storage laws and mandatory waiting periods decreased the rate of suicide amongst children and teens, researchers found.

"We know that children are getting guns to kill themselves," said Haines. "It's a huge problem."

More laws that control access to these guns amongst children and teens can help prevent these deaths.

Firearms are the leading cause of death among children and teens.

More than 90% of firearm deaths worldwide occur in the U.S., researchers said.

A look at the statistics: Gun violence is a public health crisis, surgeon general says

Stand-your-ground laws help protect people using guns as self defense. Researchers said this law increased children and teens' risk of suicide. At the same time, laws that set a minimum age for possession of guns did not significantly change the suicide death rate.

"We found some laws that do work, and since those do work, we need to figure out ways to encourage states that don't have those laws to try to enact them." Said Haines.

Surgeon General call gun violence a national health crisis

Last month, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy  declared gun violence a public health crisis , issuing a 39-page advisory on initiatives to prevent firearm deaths. The advisory said the rate of firearm-related deaths “reached a near three-decade high in 2021."

According to the Surgeon General, more than 48,000 people died by gun violence in 2022 – that's an increase of 16,000 deaths compared to 2010. At the same time, firearm-related suicides have increased by 20%, including a “staggering increase” in such deaths among young people, the advisory noted. 

Murthy said gun violence demands a public health approach rather than the polarizing political response.

Gun violence became the  leading cause of death in children  in 2020 and U.S. adults are worried that they or a loved one will become a victim, according to Reuters. More than half of U.S. adults said that they or a family member experienced a firearm-related incident, according to a 2023 report from  KFF , a health policy research and news organization.

How was the research conducted?

Researchers analyzed firearm death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looking at more than 17,000 child gun-related deaths that occurred between 2009 and 2020. Of these deaths 6,700 were suicides and over 10,200 were homicides.

A handgun was used in a majority of these youth homicides and suicides, the data shows.

In a press release, Dr. Suresh Agarwal , chief of trauma, acute and critical care surgery at Duke University said, "This is a very early study, and we need to continue to use this kind of research to advance better policies."

Looking forward, Dr. Haines and researchers at Duke University are working with pediatric doctors to interview families in Texas who are gun owners. They hope to develop educational interventions related to safe storage.

Contributing: George Petras

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Research: People Still Want to Work. They Just Want Control Over Their Time.

• Stephanie Tepper
• Neil Lewis, Jr.

It’s a strong predictor for how satisfied they are with their work — and their lives.

To better understand the role that control over one’s time plays in job and life satisfaction, the authors analyzed survey data from a nationally representative sample. They found: 1) People who had greater control over their time had the highest job satisfaction and overall satisfaction with their lives, 2) Those who felt a sense of time scarcity had less satisfaction with their jobs and were less satisfied with their lives, 3) The number of hours people worked was not related to how satisfied people were with their jobs, and 4) For those who had more control over their time, feeling time scarcity did not undermine their job satisfaction as much as it did for those who had less control over their time. Employers should therefore create and tailor flexible work policies to meet diverse employee needs, fostering satisfaction and retention.

Workers — particularly those considered “ knowledge workers ” who are able to do most if not all of their work with a laptop and an internet connection — have been fighting for the right to maintain control over their time for years. While working from home in 2020 and 2021, they demonstrated to their bosses that they are able to maintain, or in some cases even increase , their productivity while working flexibly. Their bosses, on the other hand, have been pulling them in the opposite direction; executives and managers have been fighting to get workers back into the offices that companies are paying a lot of money to lease. This struggle has affected workers and companies alike. Workers quit en masse during a period that became known as “ the Great Resignation ,” and employers who instituted return-to-office mandates have struggled to hire and retain top talent . Now, especially with Gen Z making up an increasing share of the working population and the conversations around hybrid work and returning to the office stagnating, demands for increased flexibility in work arrangements are still top of mind for many employees and job seekers.

• ST Stephanie Tepper is a behavioral scientist who studies behavioral and policy interventions to reduce economic inequality and promote economic opportunity. She is an Associate Fellow at the U.S. Office of Evaluation Sciences and a Postdoctoral Scholar at Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University.
• NL Dr. Neil Lewis Jr is a behavioral scientist who studies the motivational, behavioral, and equity implications of social interventions and policies. He is a Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences at Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medicine, where he is also associate professor of communication, medicine, and public policy.

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