Selective Service Act extended
https://youtu.be/wGQzbDyty2A The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was passed by Congress in September 1940, establishing the first peacetime conscription in United States history The Selective Service Act of 1948 created the basis...
Britain Decides to Develop Thermonuclear Weapons
https://youtu.be/0RNwR1Sewh8 Great Britain successfully tested an atomic bomb in Operation Hurricane in October 1952, becoming the world's third nuclear power. However, in November 1952, the United States conducted Ivy Mike, the first successful...
First US Advisors Sent to South Vietnam
https://youtu.be/qtaX8MIimwE After WWII, American Cold War policy was based on the "domino theory”— if one country fell to communism, the surrounding countries would fall, like dominoes. The Eisenhower administration was worried that the potential fall of Vietnam...
President Eisenhower upholds use of atomic weapons
https://youtu.be/DqFhDplE1PI In March 1955 Secretary of State John Foster Dulles told reporters “... in the event of [a] general war in the Far East, we would probably make use of some tactical small atomic weapons.” When asked to comment the following day at a press...
West Germany joins North Atlantic Treaty Organization
https://youtu.be/0rICHFt7Gg4 In 1949, the Americans, British, and French combined their zones of occupation in West Germany to establish the Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Federal Republic of Germany). The Soviets responded by forming the Deutsche Demokratische Republik...
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization – SEATO
https://youtu.be/6_Hb8IDU4Tk Wikipedia In September 1954 the United States, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Although most of the SEATO member states were...
Coup D’état in Guatemala
https://youtu.be/uVkthJcKQxg In June 1954, Operation PBSuccess (a covert operation directed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency) orchestrated the invasion of Guatemala from Honduras by a force of Guatemalan mercenaries. The successful coup d'état deposed...
First Taiwan Strait Crisis
In August 1954 the Communist People's Republic of China attacked several islands located a few miles from mainland China in the Taiwan Strait that were held by the Nationalist Republic of China. Wikipedia In January 1955, the Formosa Resolution was...
Eisenhower Describes Domino Theory
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower described the domino theory during an April 1954, news conference, when referring to communism in Indochina. The geopolitical theory stated that if one country fell to a communist takeover, the surrounding...
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...
USS Nautilus – First Nuclear-Powered Submarine
Named after both Captain Nemo's fictional submarine in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and the WWII submarine USS Nautilus (SS-168) ,the new nuclear-powered Nautilus was launched in 1954. Because the USS Nautilus nuclear propulsion allowed prolonged submersion...
Nationwide Atom Bomb Drills
The development of the H-bomb committed the United States to an arms race with the Soviet Union. Despite the specter of nuclear holocaust, both the United States and the Soviet Union vied to build ever more powerful nuclear weapons. The Federal Civil Defense...
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...
Memorial Day
Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 1953 May 21, 1953By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation Whereas the bodies of our war dead lie buried in hallowed plots throughout the land, and it has long been our custom to decorate their graves on...
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...
MiG-15 Pilot Flees to South Korea
https://youtu.be/bFzEp0vuC7Y Operation Moolah - in 1953 U.S forces in Korea offered $100,00 and political asylum to the first pilot who defected to South Korea with a combat-capable MiG-15. In September 1953, a MiG- 15 piloted by Senior Lt. No Kum-Sok of the North...
American War Deaths Through History
Source: American war deaths through history CONFLICT SPAN CASUALTIES Revolutionary War 1775-1783 25,000 Northwest Indian War 1785-1795 ~1,056 Quasi-War 1798-1800 514 War of 1812 1812-1815 ~20,000 1st Seminole War 1817-1818 36 Black Hawk War 1832 305 2nd Seminole War...
Soviets Test Their First Hydrogen Bomb
Throughout the late 1940s, aware that thermonuclear weapons were developed by the United States, the Soviet Union worked to develop a hydrogen bomb to counter the perceived Cold War threat. Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov (considered the father of the Soviet...
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...
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
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...
Battle of Pork Chop Hill
The Battle of Pork Chop Hill comprised a pair of related Korean War battles fought between United Nations forces and the Chinese and North Korean armies from April through July 1953. Fought while the UN and the Chinese and North Koreans were negotiating...
Battle of Kumsong
https://youtu.be/CjVCrqQPIkY The Battle of Kumsong (Chinese: 金城战役) was one of the last battles of the Korean War. During ceasefire negotiations, the United Nations, Chinese and North Korean forces were unable to agree on the issue of prisoner...
Lt. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor Commands 8th Army
https://youtu.be/HGU3squqQ_w Lt. General Maxwell Taylor In February 1953, Lt. General Maxwell Taylor assumed command of the Eighth United States Army during the final combat operations of the Korean War. Wikipedia From 1955 to 1959, he was the Army Chief of...
Last Year of The Korean War
During 1953, fighting on the ground during the Korean War evolved into a war of attrition. The war in the air, however continued with MIG-15 vs F-86 Sabre Jet dogfights and a massive US bombing campaign North Korea. Warfare History Network History.com National...