1950's

9/15/15

1957
The United States is involved in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The Race to Space is ongoing with the Soviet Union...

• Rev. Martin Luther King Jr organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. This was organized to fight racial segregation by nonviolence means.
• Harry Belafonte recorded the "Banana Boat" song.

• The Wham O company made the first frisbee, which was originally called the Pluto Platter.
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated.
• Humphrey Bogart, actor who starred "Casablanca", "The African Queen" and "Caine Mutiny" dies of cancer of the esophagus.

• Jackie Robinson announced his retirement from baseball to avoid being traded to the NY Giants
• 3 B-52s set record for around the world flight in 45 hrs and 19 mins
• FBI arrests Jack & Myra Sobel who were accused of spying for the Soviet Union 
• 1st electric portable typewriter goes on sale

• Researchers announce that Borazan has been developed (harder than diamonds)

• Cat in the Hat written by Dr. Seuss first published
• Earthquakes rattle Alaska and San Francisco
• US army sells the last of their homing pigeons

October:

• The Soviets successfully launched a rocket into space with Sputnik 1, a basketball shaped satellite. About a week later, Nikita Khrushchev wanted another rocket launched to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, which gave scientists just 3 weeks to accomplish this. The Soviets were in fierce competition with the United States (we are in the middle of the Cold War) and wanted to be the first to send a living creature into orbit. Three stray dogs, (Albina, Mushka & Laika) were being trained to be the "cosmonaut" for this mission. These dogs were were confined to small spaces, exposed to loud noises and vibrations and wore special suits made for the flight. Laika was chosen as the "lucky" dog. During the flight, the Soviets would monitor her vital signs and other bodily functions to get a better understanding of the physical demands launching and traveling in space causes a living creature. She had a small, padded area that was large enough for her to stand in and lay down. She also had special gelatinous food to eat. 

November:

• On November 3, 1957, Sputnik 2 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was a successful launch and the spacecraft with Laika began to orbit the earth. The world watched and waited for news of Laika's condition. The Soviets then had to admit that there was no recovery plan to retrieve Laika from space and she would die in space. It was debated as to how long she lived. Some speculate that she died after eating her last ration of food which was poisoned. Others thought she died four days into the trip because of an electrical burnout and the increased the interior temperature of the spacecraft. And still others she died hours into the trip because of stress and heat. One thing is for sure, she did not live more than six days into the trip because on the sixth day the spacecraft batteries died and with it the life support systems. The spacecraft continued to orbit the earth until reentry on April 14, 1958, but it burned up upon reentry. Laika was seen as a hero in the Soviet Union and proved that a living creature could enter space. However, her trip and death sparked a huge debate over animal rights. 

9/29/15

1953

Accusations of spying, ending of the Korean Conflict, coronation of Queen Elizabeth II...1953 was filled with lots of events!

January:

• Frances and Oliver Bolton, from Ohio, were the first mother-son to serve in Congress together at the same time.
• GM announced the first 2-seater sports car...the Corvette

• In Egypt, all political parties were dissolved and banned. The ban continued until 1976.
• In his State of the Union address, President Truman informed the American public that the US has developed a hydrogen bomb
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States
• J. Fred Muggs, a chimp, joins the "Today Show" as a mascot

February:

• Peter Pan opens at the Roxy Theater in NYC

• President Eisenhower refused a clemency appeal for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were accused and arrested for spying for the Soviet Union.
• The Soviets break off diplomatic relations with Israel
• Pope Pius XII asks for clemency for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
• Tenley Albright became the first American woman to win the women's world figure skating competition in Switzerland.

• Ted Williams, pilot and baseball player, was shot down over Korea, but was uninjured.
• Georgia approved the first US literature censorship board
• Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of the DNA molecule.

March:

• Russian Premier, Joseph Stalin died after 29 years in power. After his death, Chechens were allowed to return to Russia.
• North Korean gunners at Wonsan fired at the USS Missouri and the ship responds by firing 998 rounds to their enemy's position
• F.M. Adams becomes the first commissioned woman army doctor and stationed at Fort Hood, Texas
• An American B-47 bomber drops a nuclear bomb, accidentally, on South Carolina, but it did not detonate
• The Braves, a baseball team, announced that they were leaving Boston and moving to Milwaukee
• Dr. Jonas Salk announced that the polio vaccine was successfully tested in a small group of adults and children. It would be a few years still before the vaccine was approved with the general public. The vaccine is so successful that by 1961 polio cases decrease by 95%

April:

• The first TV guide was published with the Lucy and Desi's baby on the cover

• The first 3D horror movie was made, "House of Wax" starring Vincent Price.
• Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace

May:

• An F5 tornado hit Waco, Texas killing 114 people and injuring 597 others, causing over $200 million in damages
• Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier as she piloted F-86 Canadair in CA
• First 3D animated cartoon premiered "Melody"

• Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tensing Norgay, A Sherpa of Nepal, became the first climbers to reach the summit. The expedition was led by John Hunt.

June:

• Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was crowned in Westminster Abbey, 16 months after the death of her father, King George VI. 
• An atomic bomb test explosion took place at Yucca Flats, Nevada, equivalent to 50,000 tons of TNT. This was double the 1945 blast over Hiroshima.

• Pres. Eisenhower announced that proposals for a Korean truce are acceptable to the US and appealed to South Korea to accept terms to stop the war.
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of passing U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union during World War II, were executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. The Supreme Court had vacated a stay granted by Justice William O. Douglas and President Eisenhower refused to intervene, despite a massive worldwide campaign to free them.

July:

• The 1st helicopter passenger service began in NYC
• American forces withdrew from Pork Chop Hill in Korea after heavy fighting.
• The 1st Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, organized by Tom Patterson, opened with Alec Guiness in Richard III.
• On the 25th, a truce ended the Korean War.
• NYC subway fare rose from 10 to 15 cents and they started using subway tokens

August:

• Operation Big Switch occurs where sick and prisoners of war were exchanged
• American mountain climber Art Gilkey was swept away by an avalanche on Pakistan’s K2. In 1993 his remains were brought down by mountaineer Roger Payne.
• The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of their first hydrogen bomb. First they denied it, then they acknowledged that they did do it.

September:

• The first successful separation operation of Siamese twins occurs.
• North Korean pilot Lieutenant Ro Kim Suk landed his aircraft at Kimpo airfield outside Seoul. In April, 2 B-29's dropped flyers offering a $50,000 reward and political asylum for the delivery of an intact MiG-15. Although Ro denied any knowledge of the bounty, he collected the reward, and American scientists were able to examine the MiG-15. The Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, powered by a jet engine superior to those then used in American fighter planes, first saw combat in Korea during November 1950, where its performance shifted the balance of air power to Russian-backed North Korea. 

November:

• The Polio virus was identified and photographed for the first time in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
• US VP Richard Nixon visited Hanoi in Vietnam.
• While receiving an award for his contributions to civil rights from the B’Nai Brith’s Anti-Defamation League, President Dwight Eisenhower spontaneously denounced the tactics of fellow Republican Joseph McCarthy, asserting the right of everyone to meet his "accuser face to face." A vehement anti-Communist, Senator McCarthy led a long series of secret and public hearings on the role of Communism in the American government and society, frequently making unsubstantiated charges against individual citizens.
• New York City began 11 days without newspapers when a strike of photoengravers shut down publication. Sales increased for magazines and paperback books.

December:

• Audrey Hepburn was featured on the cover of Life Magazine.

• The first color TV sets went on sale. An Admiral color set was priced about $1,175 in 1953 dollars! Color TV sets did not become affordable to the masses until the late 1960s.

10/6/15
Year: 1950 

The Great Brink's robbery was an armed robbery of the Brink's Building in the North End in Boston, Massachusetts on January 17, 1950. The robbers stole $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks, money orders and other securities. The robbery was known as the "crime of the century". It was executed by an eleven member gang who left few clues at the scene of the crime.

The gang was led by Joseph "Big Fernand" McGinnis. The rest of the gang was Anthony Pinocchio, Stanley "Frank" Gusciora, Joseph O'Keefe, Vincent Dacosta, Michael Vincent Jacquouille, Thomas Francis Richardson, Adolf "Blues" Maffei, Henry Conan , James Faherty and Joseph Banfield.

At the Brink's depot, O'Keefe and Gusciora picked the outside door locks with an ice pick and the inner door with a piece of plastic. They temporarily removed the cylinders from the locks so a locksmith could make duplicate keys for them. The gang decided to wait for the optimal time to execute the heist. Pinocchio studied schedules and when lights went on and off in certain rooms to make sure the room was empty. The gang made several practice runs when staff left the building to ensure their plan was flawless. It took two years of planning and practice runs before they were sure they were ready.

After six failed attempts, the gang executed their plan on January 17, 1950. The men dressed in uniforms similar to Brink's employees and entered the building. They went to the second floor and tied up and gagged the guards on duty. They wore Halloween masks, gloves and rubber soled shoes to make it difficult to identify them. They gathered four revolvers and all the money they could in 35 minutes. The men then counted the money, gave each member a small amount of money and then scattered to establish alibis. They agreed to not touch the rest of the money for six years, which was the statute of limitations for this crime.

Little evidence was found after the robbery. Brink's Incorporated had offered a $100,000 reward for any information about the robbery. The truck the robbers used was found in Stoughton, about 30 minutes from Brink's Building, but close to O'Keefe's house. Six months after the robbery, O'Keefe and Gusciora were arrested for a robbery in Pennsylvania. Once arrested the men reached out to the other gang members for money to help in their defense against the new crimes. The FBI questioned O'Keefe and Gusciora about the Brink's robbery, but they denied knowing anything about it. Maffei was convicted of tax evasion.

O'Keefe claimed that he never got his share of the loot. He stated that it was given to Maffei for safe keeping. O'Keefe was desperate and in need of money so he kidnapped Dacosta and demanded money from the gang. Pinocchio paid a small ransom for Dacosta, but decided that O'Keefe was more trouble and fearing the gang would be caught, Pinocchio hired Elmer Burke to kill O'Keefe. Burke traveled from New York to Boston and shot O'Keefe, seriously wounding him.

The FBI again approached O'Keefe about the Brink's robbery on January 6, 1956 and this time O'Keefe decided to talk. On January 12, 1956, five days before the statute of limitations was to expire, the FBI arrested the gang. O'Keefe served four years and then was released from prison because he cooperated with authorities. McGinnis, Gusciora and Banfield died while in prison or while awaiting trial. Only $58,000 of the $2.7 million was ever recovered.

12/8/15
Year: 1952

• In Cuba, Fulgencia Batista takes power in a coup d'état. The US government is happy with Batista because they see him as anti-Communist and a reliable ally.
• "I Love Lucy" wipes out the competition in biggest viewing audience to date with 10.6 million households watching.

• While running for President of the United States, Senator Robert Taft suggests that the United States consider breaking diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
• Concerning a settlement of the Korean War, President Truman declares his opposition to an agreement that includes prisoners of war being forced to return to North Korea or China against their will. 
• The celebrated Hollywood actor John Garfield, 39, is dead. He had been called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities who were looking for Communists, had refused to name names and had been blacklisted by the film studios. He was suffering from heart problems and stress. 
• The United States Congress has passed the McCarran-Walter Immigration and Naturalization Act. It ends the ban on Asian immigration but increases the power of the government to deport non-citizens suspected of Communist  sympathies.
• Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.
• In Korea the Chinese attack the 1st Marine division in a battle for a ridge called Bunker Hill.
• On October 14th in Korea, the truce talks have halted again. The UN commander, General Mark Clark, has initiated "Operation Showdown." On October 25th, General Mark Clark's "Operation Showdown" ends. The area fought over is still held by Communist forces. The US 7th Infantry has lost  365 killed, 1,174 wounded and 1 captured. Basically the front line in Korea remains unchanged.
• The United States tests a hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands
• In London, two weeks after five days "killer fog" at least 4,000 deaths have occurred. Thousands more who appear to have recovered will die from reoccurring complications.

• Charles Dickens book, The Pickwick Papers is made into a film starring James Hayter and Nigel Patrick.