The American dream of home ownership is both seeded and realized as postwar demand for housing — aided by VA mortgage programs and Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance — leads to the rise of vast suburban tracts like Levittown, on New York's Long Island. By 1951, "the original suburb" blooms into a homogeneous community of 17,500 homes built with factory-like methods. Each identical five-room, Cape Cod-style bungalow is plunked onto a concrete slab, assembled with precut materials, furnished with a refrigerator, stove, Bendix washer, and built-in Admiral television set, and sold for $7,990. Lawns must be cut at least once a week. Wash can be hung out only on weekdays. Developer Bill Levitt describes his company as "the General Motors of the housing industry" and proceeds to develop new Levittowns in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Of the latter, House & Home magazine writes, "Nothing like it has ever happened before. This is the free enterprise system at its lustiest."

The Pelvis

Elvis Presley's dance gyrations, as televised on The Milton Berle Show in 1956, titillate millions of young American girls and are branded obscene by millions of adults, earning the 21-year-old singer the nickname "Elvis the Pelvis" — and a lucrative motion picture contract.

 

The Man Who Saved Children

Dr. Jonas Salk announces the introduction of a safe and effective polio vaccine in 1955, and mass inoculations of American schoolchildren begin. Within a few years, cases of infantile paralysis in the United States plummet from 25,000 a year to fewer than a dozen. Every parent's nightmare — their child gasping for breath in an iron lung or unable to walk without leg braces — becomes a thing of the past. One public opinion survey ranks Salk with Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi.

 

Woof Wear

American girls flock to sock hops wearing ankle-length skirts flared by crinoline petticoats and appliquéd with — well, anything. But felt poodles become the mascot of choice, perhaps owing to Lucille Ball's popular coif, known as a poodle cut. A cinched belt and saddle shoes complete the outfit.

 

Sputnik Takes the Lead

The Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite — a 184-pound sphere dubbed Sputnik I — into space on October 4, 1957. It is the dawn of the Space Age, or reason for national panic, depending on your point of view. While the satellite, "purely scientific" according to the Soviets, passes 560 miles above the United States seven times daily, the New York Times opines that the U.S. is in a "race for survival," and House Speaker John McCormack claims the "survival of the free world" is at stake if the U.S. doesn't catch up with the Soviet space program. Two months later, the U.S. answers back with the nationally televised launch of a three-pound ball atop a Vanguard rocket. It rises four feet off the ground before collapsing on the launch pad. Fortunately, the next decade sees unimagined achievements by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. space program.

Other Memorable Moments

1950 The Haloid Company (later Xerox) sells the first xerographic copying machine.

1950 Diners Club, the world's first independent credit card company, is launched.

1951 RCA broadcasts the first color television programs, from the Empire State Building in New York.

1953 Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay become the first men to climb Mount Everest.

1953 Elizabeth II, age 25, is crowned queen of England.

1953 Dow Chemical introduces Saran Wrap, the first cling wrap designed for household use.

1954 Roger Bannister of England becomes the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes.

1956 IBM produces the first computer with a disk drive. Fifty 24-inch disks provide 4.4 megabytes of storage.

1956 President Eisenhower signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act, paving the way for construction of a 41,000-mile federal highway system, the largest public works project in history.

1957 Eveready's first watch battery eliminates the need for winding.

1958 Wham-O introduces the Hula Hoop and sells 20 million of them within six months.

1959 The Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in New York six months after the architect's death.

1959 Alaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th states respectively.