The 1950s
The 1950s, called the Fabulous Fifties or the Atomic Age, is a decade in the 20th century, including the years from 1950 to 1959. It follows the 1940s and comes before the 1960s. As a period of history, it is considered part of modern times.
Timeline[]
1950[]
February 9: Sen. Joe McCarthy (1908-1957) declares he has in his hand a list of known Communists at the State Department--Wheeling, West Virginia.
May: L. Ron Hubbard publishes Dianetics.
June 25: Korean War begins.
July: The 4077th MASH unit established in South Korea, with Frank "Hawkeye" Pierce as chief surgeon.
July: James Bond (b. 1921) assigned to the 00 section of British intelligence, given a license to kill--London.
October: Alan Turing proposes his Test for the demonstration of artificial intelligence.
1951[]
Tommy becomes deaf, dumb and blind.
Johnny Cash shoots a man in Reno just to watch him die; ends up in Folsom State Prison.
Justice Society disbands.
A thing from another world goes on a rampage after being unfrozen--North Pole.
February 14: Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Jake LaMotta to become Middleweight Boxing Champion--Chicago.
April 11: President Truman removes General Douglas MacArthur from command of U.S. forces in Korea.
May: James Bond, working for the first time with CIA Agent Felix Leiter, confronts a SMERSH operative trying to recoup lost funds at Casino Royale
July 18: Klaatu lands his flying saucer, causes Earth to stand still--Washington, D.C.
1952[]
Sgt. Raymond Shaw captured, brainwashed during the Korean War--Manchuria.
The Mau Mau rebellion
Michael Corleone (b. 1920) assumes control of the Corleone Family--Long Island.
Hickory Huskers become Indiana State Basketball Champions--Indianapolis.
January 4: Having completed his medical exams, Ernesto "Che" Guevara sets off across South America on a motorcycle--Buenos Aires.
February: James Bond tracks down SMERSH operative Mr. Big in Jamaica.
March: The Air Force launches Project Blue Book to investigate UFO reports. The project is terminated in 1970.
November 4: Dwight Eisenhower elected president.
1953[]
Sir Edmund Hillary conquers Mt Everest, reports seeing Yeti footprints.
It comes from outer space--Sand Rock, Arizona
March 5: Joseph Stalin dies of a stroke--Moscow.
April 13: CIA Director Allen Dulles orders the creation of the mind-control research program MK-ULTRA.
April 25: James Watson and Francis Crick crack the DNA code--Cambridge, England.
June 19: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed--Sing Sing, New York.
August 21: J.R. "Bob" Dobbs founds the Church of the SubGenius on instructions from alien space monster JHVH-1--Dallas.
December: L. Ron Hubbard incorporates the Church of Scientology--Camden, New Jersey.
1954[]
Irradiated giant ants attack in New Mexico, the first of a number of giant invertebrate incidents.
March: Ichthyoid Creature from the Devonian Era discovered and is presumed slain after abducting an ichthyologist's girlfriend--Black Lagoon, Brazil.
Vito Corleone, retired head of the Corleone crime family, dies of a heart attack.
January 14: Marilyn Monroe marries Joe DiMaggio, and is divorced later in the year.
March 1: The United States detonates a hydrogen bomb--Bikini Atoll, Pacific Ocean.
March 9: Edward R. Murrow condemns Joe McCarthy on CBS News.
May 1: Sun Myung Moon founds the Unification Church--Seoul.
June: SMERSH's Rosa Klebb plots to assassinate James Bond--London.
June 9: Joe McCarthy is asked if, at long last, he had any sense of decency; end of his era--Washington, D.C.
June 29: Buckminster Fuller patents the geodesic dome--Black Mountain, North Carolina.
November: Gojira, a giant dinosaur revived and mutated by nuclear testing, attacks Tokyo, the first of a number of Atomic Age monsters to cause havoc around the world.
1955[]
May: The Creature From the Black Lagoon is captured and taken for study to the United States, where he escapes into the Everglades--Ocean Harbor Park, Florida.
April: Area 51 established in Nevada.
April 12: Dr. Jonas Salk develops a vaccine for polio.
June: Alden Pyle, quiet American, is killed in Saigon.
September 30: Actor James Dean (b. 1931) dies in an accident in his Porsche 550 Spyder--Cholame, California.
November: J’onn J’onzz, the last of his Martian species, accidentally teleported from Mars to Earth, where he disguises himself as private detective John Jones while fighting superpowered adversaries as the Martian Manhunter.
November 5: Marty McFly arrives from 1985 in a retrofitted DeLorean--Hill Valley, California.
November 12: McFly goes back to the future.
December 1: Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of the bus--Montgomery, Alabama.
1956[]
Napoleon Solo becomes an agent of U.N.C.L.E.
April: The Creature From the Black Lagoon is recaptured and subjected to bizarre experiments before escaping once again into the Atlantic Ocean--Ocean Harbor Park, Florida.
Rodan, a mutant pterosaur, terrorizes Japan.
April 19: Grace Kelly marries Prince Ranier of Monaco.
March: James Bond confronts Doctor Julius No--Crab Key, Caribbean.
June 29: Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur Miller.
August 16: Bela Lugosi (b. 1882) is dead.
September 30: The start of the Battle of Algiers.
October 23: Barry Allen becomes the second Flash.
October 29: Suez Crisis
November 4: Hungarian Revolution squashed as Soviet tanks roll into Budapest.
Body Snatchers begin invasion--Santa Mira, California.
1957[]
Hugh Carey becomes the Incredible Shrinking Man--off the coast of California.
May: James Bond foils SMERSH operative Auric Goldfinger's plan to raid Fort Knox, defeating his henchman Oddjob and seduces his ally Pussy Galore.
June 13: Jason Voorhees (b. 1946) drowns while counselors are distracted at Camp Crystal Lake, New Jersey.
July: Guy Debord forms the Situationist International.
July 6: John Lennon meets Paul McCartney, asks him to join his band--Liverpool.
September 4: Ford introduces the Edsel.
October 4: Launch of Sputnik.
November 16: Arrest of psychotic killer Ed Gein (1906-1984) in Plainfield, Wisc.
December: Hugh Hefner publishes the first issue of Playboy.
1958[]
July: Extraterrestrial Blob battles teenagers--Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
Attack of a 50-foot Woman--Las Vegas, Nevada.
Lt. Frank Columbo (born c. 1930) joins the LAPD.
1959[]
January 1: The Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, unseats the Batista dictatorship--Havana.
February 3: On the Day the Music Died, a plane crash kills Buddy Holly (b. 1936), Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper--Clear Lake, Iowa.
May: James Bond for the first time confronts Ernst Blofeld and SPECTRE--New Providence Island, Bahamas.
July: Outer Space implements Plan 9.
Katar Hol arrives on Earth from Thanagar to become Hawkman.
Kara Zor-El arrives on Earth from Argo City, becomes Supergirl.
Hal Jordan becomes Earth's second Green Lantern.
July: Summer loving happens so fast for Sandy Olsson and Danny Zucko--Venice, California.
November 15: The "In Cold Blood" murders--Holcomb, Kansas
December 12: Hotelier Norman Bates kills a guest in the shower of her motel room--Kern County, California.