First American in Space
In May 1961 US Navy aviator Alan B. Shepard, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts, made the first crewed Project Mercury flight in a spacecraft named Freedom 7. The Freedom 7 craft entered space, but was not capable of achieving orbit. Source:...
Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of US Supreme court rulings that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. Source:...
Yuri Gagarin: First man in space
In April 1961 the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human to journey into outer space. Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth in the Vostok 1 capsule, Source: Wikipedia
HAM – The first Chimp In Space
In January 1961, the chimpanzee HAM (AKA Holloman Aerospace Medical Center) made history as the first primate to travel in space aboard a Mercury Redstone rocket on a sub-orbital flight for NASA. Ham’s flight lasted ~16 ½ minutes at a speed of ~5800 mph to a height of...
TV Commercials 1960
https://youtu.be/3kHPFjEcsFE https://youtu.be/jCKxWQCs3f0 https://youtu.be/PZFoJiqmW2s https://youtu.be/zWIykzZ8cMg https://youtu.be/1p9Yz5aJPpI
First Kidney Dialysis Shunt
https://youtu.be/xG82t_a3-i0 In March 1960 the first kidney dialysis shunt, developed by Dr. Belding H. Scribner, was planted in a kidney patient in Seattle Washington. The process, enabling ambulatory dialysis, first developed in the 1940s by Dr. Willem J. Kolff, had...
Bathyscaphe Trieste Dives Into Mariana Trench
https://youtu.be/VDdrBfF-fp8 In January 1960, the Bathyscaphe "Trieste," piloted by Jacques Piccard and USN Lt. Don Walsh, reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench (east of the Philipines) at 37,000 feet below sea level. Source: Wikipedia
Russian Probe Luna 2 Strikes Moon Surface
In September 1959, Luna 2, the sixth Russian spacecraft launched to the moon, was the first spacecraft to reach the moon's surface and the first man-made object to make contact with another celestial body. Luna 2 impacted on the Moon's surface at...
First Satellite Images of Earth
https://youtu.be/-O99IH9kbPw In August 1959 the United States launched the Explorer 6 satellite, popularly known as the "paddlewheel satellite. The satellite featured a photocell scanner that transmitted a crude picture of the earth's surface and cloud cover from a...
Ho Chi Minh Trail
In May 1959 the Peoples’ Army of Vietnam’s Military Transportation Group 559 was established in North Vietnam. The group ultimately created and maintained the Ho Chi Minh Trail to facilitate the infiltratiion of troops and supplies from North Vietnam in support...
NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Following closely after the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the act abolished the National Advisory Committee for...
U.S. plan to explore space near the moon
https://youtu.be/38pfWCaSZ9Y During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union began to build powerful new rockets—which they would eventually use to send humans into space and, ultimately, to the moon. In 1958 NASA launched Project Mercury with three...
US Launches Explorer 1
https://youtu.be/NfMIrKkzRx8 In January 1958 the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency successfully launched a satellite using a Jupiter C rocket developed by Dr. Wernher von Braun. The satellite carried a cosmic ray detector designed to measure the radiation environment...
SPUTNIK 1 ~ Fellow Traveler
https://youtu.be/xKuz7JmENek In October 1957 Sputnik 1 was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union. The satellite orbited for three weeks before its batteries ran out. It continued to orbit the planet for two months before it...
Ford Edsel
In 1957 the Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel, named after Henry Ford's son. Although the Edsel had many innovations still in use today, including self-adjusting brakes and a powerful V-8 engine, the car was one of Ford's biggest financial failures. The...
Cost of Living in 1956
PRICES IN 1956 House: $9,550Average income: $4,454Ford car: $1748-$3151Milk: $.97Gas: $.23Bread $.18Postage stamp: $.03Chuck Pot Roast: $ .33 lb.Spareribs: $.39 lb.Cabbage: $.04 lb.Eggs, doz.: $.45Coffee: $.69 lb.Carnation Instant Chocolate Drink, 10oz.: $.33Rheingold...
Birth of the US Interstate Highway System
https://youtu.be/6xd9cxRtt_k In June 1956, Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 into law. Under the act, the federal government would pay for 90 percent of the cost of construction of Interstate Highways. Each Interstate Highway was required to be a...
First Commercial Videotape Recorder
https://youtu.be/f0e03ScjnO4 A video tape recorder (VTR) is designed to record and play back video and audio material from magnetic tape. In 1956, Ampex Corporation introduced the first practical videotape recorder for television...
Federal Hourly Minimum Wage at $1.00/hr.
https://youtu.be/tQE0ldkiKo0 In accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the federal minimum wage in 1956 was set at $1/hr. Effective Date 1938 Act 1 1961 Amendments 2 1966 and SubsequentAmendments 3 Oct 24, 1938$0.25Oct...
Congress Mandates In God We Trust on all U.S. Currency
https://youtu.be/A36Iq5qNukQ In 1955 the US Congress passed a bill requiring that "In God We Trust" appear on all American currency. Midst the Cold War threat of atheistic communism, the bill passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by...
Microwave Oven
https://youtu.be/Fuo6bw5wyf8 American engineer Percy Spencer invented the modern microwave oven from radar technology developed during WWII. Named "Radarange," the oven went on sale in 1946. A microwave oven introduced by Tappan in 1955...
1950s Cigarette TV Commercials
These were the cultural and media messages I received when I began clandestine smoking at age 13. https://youtu.be/Z023OAz4fkI https://youtu.be/wibHcZ4FNbU https://youtu.be/c9or3KCrgQM https://youtu.be/Hr4duBBcCpA...
Vintage Commercials
With a shift in government spending at the end of the Korean War, the American GDP dropped by 2.2% and unemployment peaked at ~6%. Although the U.S. Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy to curb inflation, spiking interest rates decreased consumer demand. The...
Atoms for Peace
https://youtu.be/CQ0bd4cShs8 In December 1953 , Preident Eisenhower delivered his "Atoms for Peace" address to the UN. He called on both the US and Soviet Union to abandon their nuclear arsenals. The "Atoms for Peace" program spread nuclear technology to nations that...
Transcontinental Non-stop Flight
https://youtu.be/sfwb9piy9WQ In November 1953 American Airlines began the 1st regular non-stop commercial NY-LA air service with the Douglas DC7 . yesterdays airlines.com 1932 First scheduled cross-country passenger flights with no change of plane 1933...