decades-1950's

=1950's- A Time of Affluence and Anxiety=

**“We Didn’t Plant the Seeds”**
Written by Madelaine Kukanza and Peter Dunn Inspired By Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”

Korea, transplant, Truman and the H-Bomb Credit Cards, Alger Hiss, how bout that comic strip?

Color TV, MacArthur said “peace”, happy times with the Japanese Flash Cameras, Churchill, South Africans please carry those racial IDs

Polio and seat belts, for your safety and your health Cousteau and the Greek ship, Nixon and his Checker’s speech.

//We didn’t plant the seeds They were always growing And those ideas flowing. We didn’t plant the seeds The ideas were raining And the seeds were gaining.//
 * Chorus**

DNA, Mt. Everest climbed, only made better cause Stalin died Julius and Ethel. England meet your new queen

Dien Bien Phu, cancer, and the first atomic submarine Bannister and the four-minute mile, all races have the power

Disneyland, Rosa Parks, and the Civil Right’s demand Warsaw Pact, James Dean “Rock Around the Clock”

//We didn’t plant the seeds They were always growing And those ideas flowing. We didn’t plant the seeds The ideas were raining And the seeds were gaining.//
 * Chorus**

Velcro, Princess Grace, Elvis Presley set the pace Khrushchev, Stalin and problems in the Suez.

Dr. Suess, Sputnik, Eisenhower Doctrine Little Rock, oh my god what a shock!

Berlin Airlift, Lego Toys, don’t you get the drift? NASA, Charles De Gaulle, Hula Hoops shouldn’t fall

Castro, Sound of Music, Barbie, Buddy Holly Alaska, Hawaii—now we have the big 5-0!

//We didn’t plant the seeds They were always growing And those ideas flowing. We didn’t plant the seeds The ideas were raining And the seeds were gaining.//
 * Chorus**

Khrushchev and Castro what a fiasco Russians in space, we already lost the race Truman and Ike carry on the fight Alaska and Hawaii complete the land Because now we must take our final stand

//We didn’t plant the seeds They were always growing Always growing, always growing, always growing…//

TIMELINES:
1950 North Korea invades South Korea, sparking the Korean War. President Truman sends U.S. military troops as part of a United Nations effort. April 11, 1951 General MacArthur fired 1953 - Fighting ends in Korea. 1954 - U. S. Senator Joseph McCarthy begins televised hearings into alleged Communists in the army. 1958 Nikita Khrushchev becomes premier of the U.S.S.R. 1958 - Explorer I, the first U.S. satellite, successfully orbits the earth. 1957 Sputnik is launched by the USSR 1959 Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba. 1959 The U.S.S.R. sets off an international, space-age buzz when it launches a rocket with two monkeys on board.
 * Foreign:**

1950 Former state department bureaucrat and alleged Communist spy Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury. Senator Joseph McCarthy begins his one-man anti-Communist crusade. 1950 to 1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, accused of cold war espionage, are sentenced to death. The Rosenbergs are executed in 1953 amid protest. 1951 General MacArthur fired 1952 - The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1952 is signed, removing racial and ethnic barriers to becoming a U.S. citizen. 1953 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are electrocuted for their part in W.W.II espionage. 1954 In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas the Supreme Court rules unanimously that racial segregation violates the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. 1954 - Racial segregation is ruled unconstitutional in public schools by the U.S. Supreme Court. 1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. 1955 - The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge making the new AFL-CIO an organization with 15 million members. 1956 - The Federal Highway Act is signed, marking the beginning of work on the interstate highway system. 1957 In Little Rock, Arkansas, the civil rights movement shifts into high gear when white crowds protest efforts to desegregate public schools. President Eisenhower sends in the National Guard. December 10, 1958 - The first domestic jet-airline passenger service is begun by National Airlines between New York City and Miami.
 * Political**:

1950- The very first “Peanuts” cartoon strip was released 1951-The beginning fo Color T.V 1954- Segregation is made illegal 1956- Grace Kelly became Princess Grace when she marries Prince Rainier III of Monoco 1956- The T.V Remote Control is introduced 1957- Dr. Suess writes Cat in the Hat 1958- Hula Hoops rise in popularity 1958- Lego Toys are created 1959- Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P Richardson die in a plane crash
 * Cultural and Social:**

**OUR FOREIGN POLICY:**
-Increase our sphere of influence(expand markets for American EXPORTS) -Marshall plan-helped rebuild western Europe so it would not turn communist. -Peace Corps-we sponsored the Peace Corps and used them to better our reputation with the world -Send supplies to Afghanistan -Aided in rebuilding Japan -contain communism

ECONOMICS:
-The United States was the most successful in the world during this era -The GNP went from $284.6 billion to $482.7 billion throughout the 1950’s -This was a time of an intense increase in the economy -Domestic problems were ignored for a while so that the economy could rise, but that caused problems later on

MUSIC AND FASHION:
-This was the era of Rock n’ Roll -Famous Artists: Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Chuck Berry. Girls wore pedal pushers or poodle skirts and their hair was often in a ponytail, but girls slowly began to rebel from this look Boys wore tight jeans and shirts, slicked hair, and leather jackets.

People to Know:
Eisenhower Truman McCarthy Rosa Parks Elvis Presley Douglas MacArthur

Interesting 50s Sites
[|50s Slang] [|50s Fashion] [|50s Music]



Elvis Presley-Jailhouse Rock Music Video
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Sources: www.wikipedia.org history1900s.about.com/library/time/bltime1950.htm www.fashion-era.com/1950s/1950s_9_timeline_chart.htm www.answers.com/topic/timeline-of-united-states-history-1950-1969 history.enotes.com/1950-business-economy-america-decades [|www.mediahistory.umn.edu/ti]me/1950s.html www.djs-unlimited.net/DJU50.html home.att.net/~boomers.fifties.teenmag/1950s_fashion.html drake.marin/k12/ca/us/students/gallaghj/fashion/fash_thru_decade.html www.statondailyphoto.com www.ghettodriveby.com www.youtube.com kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade50.html