Brown v. Board of Education
In the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. The case became one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement,...
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Edward R. Murrow vs. Joseph McCarthy
Edward Roscoe Murrow was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent who first gained radio prominence with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe during WWII. In the spring of 1954 the US Senate held a series of hearings to investigate...
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Five Shot In U.S. Congress
In March 1954 four Puerto Rican nationalists wanting independence from US rule, shot 30 rounds from semi-automatic pistols from the balcony of the House of Representatives chamber in the United States Capitol. The nationalists unfurled...
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Joseph Stalin Dies
In March 1953 Joseph Stalin died of a stroke at his personal dacha near Moscow. After a state funeral, his body was interred along with Vladimir Lenin in a mausoleum within the Kremlin. Like America's President Roosevelt, Stalin's health had deteriorated towards the...
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Nikita Khrushchev
After Joseph Stalin’s death in March 1953 and the execution of the powerful state security chief, Lavrenty Beria—which Khrushchev engineered—Nikita Khrushchev engaged in a power struggle with Georgy Malenkov, who was Stalin’s heir apparent....
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Iranian Coup d’état
https://youtu.be/VlbRUwgASAQ In August 1953 a coup d'état overthrew Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of strengthening the monarchical rule of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The coup was...
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U.S. Information Agency
https://youtu.be/N4my1PeWUrg The United States Information Agency (USIA) was established in 1953 "to understand, inform and influence foreign publics in promotion of the national interest, and to broaden the dialogue between Americans and U.S. institutions, and their...
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Arab Republic of Egypt
In July 1952 the Egyptian Free Officers Movement, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein with General Muhammad Naguib as titular head, seized control of King Farouk’s government buildings, radio stations, and police stations in Cairo. The rule of Egypt passed to...
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Armistice Ends Korean War
The armistice signed on July 27, 1953, formally ended the war in Korea. North and South Korea remained separate and occupied almost the same territory they had when the war began. https://youtu.be/K1otXThthbk
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Attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba
On 26 July 1953, the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba was attacked by an armed group of ~135 revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. Poorly executed, the attack failed and the surviving revolutionaries, including Castro, were imprisoned. This armed attack is...
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Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
https://youtu.be/UZe_omSv8FE Queen Elizabeth II was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. After the the abdication of his brother in 1936, the Duke became King George VI. In 1947 Elizabeth married Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, with whom she...
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Wormwood
https://youtu.be/b01DL8DTUGM In 1953, an Army scientist took a fatal plunge from his hotel window. In 1975, a bombshell report tied his death to a top-secret experiment. — Wormwood (TV Mini-Series 2017) - IMDb Frank Rudolph Emmanuel Olson was...
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I Like Ike
https://youtu.be/Y9RAxAgksSE In November 1952. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower won a landslide victory over Democrat Adlai Stevenson, ending a string of Democratic Party wins that stretched back to Franklin Roosevelt's victory over Herbert Hoover...
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Death Of King George VI
A heavy smoker, King George VI (born Albert Frederick Arthur George) died of lung cancer and heart disease in February 1952. Born during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria George was named after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince...
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The Weavers Wimoweh
https://youtu.be/77VUYPVMtWY Wimoweh - 1952 The Weavers were an American folk quartet from Greenwich Village in New York City who sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs,...
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Sexist and Prejudicial Public Service Announcements
https://youtu.be/xuZzHOKhKAI https://youtu.be/Oe7qdnBTJy8
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President Truman Relieves Gen MacArthur of Command
https://youtu.be/U7Siq4eFS-8 With the UN military situation in Korea improving in early 1951, President Harry S. Truman was contemplating offering a peace negotiation to Communist China. However, in late March 1951 General Douglas MacArthur independently challenged...
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Kefauver Senate Crime Investigation
https://youtu.be/WnnWin0Zq7Q In 1951 the United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce (Chairman -Senator Estes Kefauver) investigated inter-state organized crime. "The Kefauver Committee hearings in the winter of 1951...
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Marijuana Scare Films
In the 1950s increased access to automobiles gave American teenagers a variety of freedoms and temptations that were unimaginable to previous generations. As many American parents became worried, marijuana became a major source of concern. The Complicated History...
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Defense Production Act
The Defense Production Act of 1950 was part of a broad civil defense and war mobilization effort granting the president the power to expand industrial production of key materials or products for national security and other reasons in the...
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Kim Dynasty
Kim Il-sung ~ Wikipedia His name roughly translates as: "One who becomes the sun" Kim Jong-il ~Wikipedia His name roughly translates: “the proper or just sun. Kim Jong-un ~ Wikipedia His name roughly translates as "justice and favor.
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Truman Seizes Railroads
https://youtu.be/6XI6CXrlNSo In August 1950, to prevent a pending strike during wartime, President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order directing the U.S. Army to seize control of America’s railroads. President Truman had previously intervened in post-war labor...
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Dean Acheson ~ Pacific Defense
https://youtu.be/i9c4c6J9GfM In January 1950 U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave a speech to the National Press Club intended to outline the Pacific defense posture of the United States. He named Japan and the Philippines in the U.S. defense plan,...
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Kim Il-sung pre-Korean War
Kim Il-sung Kim Il-sung's life Before the Korean War Kim Il-sung’s life has been greatly mythologized by North Korean historians. After reviewing the literature (including Kim’s autobiography Reminiscences: With the Century) and interviewing Korean historians on my...
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CIA Mind Control
https://youtu.be/NUW-frxo2X4 In 1950 the director of the U.S. Central Intelligence authorized Project BLUEBIRD to discover methods of: conditioning personnel to prevent unauthorized extraction of informationcontrol of an individual by the application of special...
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