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Civil rights by Unseen Histories/

10 Most Famous Historical World Events of the 1950s

The 1950s was a decade marked by the post-World War II, the dawn of the cold war, and the civil rights movements in the United States. The United States had the world’s strongest military power, this decade a lot happened the nascent civil rights movement, the crusade against communism, and the Korean war. This decade is known as the Golden age Era for Americans after the war people could find jobs, and people started watching television and listening to music. It is also the period of babu boom troops were eager to return home and start a life with their wives. People were more relaxed and no longer had to worry about the war and how to support their families. Today the movies and music we watch and listen to trace back to the golden era. Well as life was returning to the norm fashion became popular fashion designers stopped making military wear and started designing fashionable trends. The new era provided new synthetic fabrics offering fresh possibilities for the mass production of clothing. Film stars and fashion magazines promoted new looks and showed how to wear new styles of clothing well. French designer Christian Dior launched his elegant, opulent new look for women which remained popular in the Golden Era. The new look dressed with rounded shoulders and fancy skirts, this new look was celebrated even at the end of the war. Like fashion, food had its style to know that people were more relaxed and many come up with new food delicacies. Family dinners were common because now families were close to each other, these delicacies ranged from canned soup to different cakes cuisines.

Here are the famous historical world events in the 1950s

1. Korean War

Korean War Refugee With Baby by Unknown Arthur/Wikimedia Commons

After five years of simmering tension on the Korean peninsula, the Korean war began in 1950 when the Northern Korean army invaded South Korea. It was a war between a dividing line between communist North Korea and non-communist South Korea. It is said that the Soviet Union and communist China encouraged this invasion, this war was the beginning of the cold war. People feared this is the beginning of World War III, this war brought the death of more than five million soldiers and civilians, the Americans refer to the war as the Forgotten war it lacked attention unlike World war I, II, and the Vietnam war. The Korean Peninsula is still dived today. North Korean leader Kim Il-sung launched the attack once he had received a promise of support from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, this attack was a surprise to the Americans. This war caused a large human catastrophe in the first month the Strategic Air Command groups dropped 4000 tons of bombs. The Americans supported South Korea; the war ended in 1953 when the 34^th president of the United States signed an armistice ending organized combat operations.

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2. Elizabeth II became queen of the United Kingdom

Queen Elizabeth II’s official portrait for 1959 tour by Unknown Arthur/

Queen Elizabeth II served as a queen from 1952 as well as the head of the Commonwealth, the queen was known for taking a keen and serious interest in government and political affairs she was credited with modernizing many aspects of the monarchy. She is the longest-reigning British monarch in History. February 2022, Elizabeth celebrated her Platinum Jubilee marking seven decades of her service to the Commonwealth. She was the elder daughter of Prince Albert duke of York and his wife Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon. The path of her ascension was filled with unexpected circumstances and surprises, she married Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and was blessed with four children, Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward. The couple was in Kenya when King George VI died, her coronation was the first major international event to be broadcasted on television. She was a teen when she witnessed the horrible events of World War I, she died at the age of 96 years.

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3. Montgomery Bus boycott

Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by Deputy Sheriff  by Unknown Arthur/

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a civil rights protest where African Americans refused to ride city buses in Montgomery Alabama to protest segregated seating. This demonstration was one of the first large-scale demonstrations in the U.S., the demonstrations were sparked when Rose Parks an African American was arrested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man. This demonstration saw Martin Luther King Jr who was a young pastor emerge as a prominent leader of the American civil rights movement. The bus boycott demonstrated the potential for a nonviolent mass protest to successfully challenge racial segregation and served as an example for other southern campaigns that followed. Women played a crucial role in the success of the boycott: Robinson, Johnnie Carr, and Irene West sustained the MIA committees. The national coverage resulted in a wide range of support outside Montgomery, despite having segregated seating arrangements on public buses, it was routine in Montgomery for bus drivers to force African Americans out of their seats for a white passenger. If you did not adhere to the rule legal action was taken to arrest passengers who refused to obey these orders.

4. The Suez Crisis

Suez canal invasion by Unknown Arthur/

The Suez Crisis began when Israeli armed forces pushed into Egypt towards the Suez Canal, Israel was joined by the French and British damaging the relationship between Israel and the United States. The canal is a valuable waterway that controlled two-thirds of the oil used in Europe. This crisis was a pivotal event among cold war superpowers, the canal was built in Egypt under the supervision of French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps the manmade waterway opened in 1869 after ten years of construction it separates Egypt from the Sinai Peninsula. This crisis caused a massive political fallout in Britain and also caused an economic crisis, the canal enabled direct connection to the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean facilitating international trade routes easily available and allowing goods to be shipped between Europe and Asia more directly. The Suez crisis marked the first United Nations peacekeeping force, Egypt won this battle and still has control of the Suez Canal.

5. Sputnik Launched

Satellite by Nasa/

The Soviet Union commences the space age by launching Sputnik the world’s first artificial satellite. The word Sputnik is a Russian word that means fellow traveler, the satellite was launched to correspond with the International Geophysical year to study the Earth and the Solar system. The launch of Sputnik ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S. R space race. Sputnik was ten times the size of the first planned U.S. satellite, this satellite brought panic among the people scared that missiles will be launched that could reach the U.S. The Soviet Union launched the second satellite with a live passenger a dog named Laika. The U.S. also wanted to prove themselves they can also make it into space and launched a satellite named the Explorer. Today they are thousands of satellites orbiting the earth, the Sputnik satellite was one accomplishment in a string of technological successes this brought fear to the U.S. military.

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6. The rise of Elvis Presley

Three women listening to the radio in Finland in the 1950s by Reino Kalevi Lehtonen/

Music was one of the accepted entertainment in the 1950s decade, musicians made hits during this decade. There was a new style of music was broadcast to audiences over the radio, the invention of the transistor radio in 1954 increased music’s popularity and had a tremendous impact on the music industry. One of the most successful musicians during this decade was Elvis Presley, he crossed styles and audiences in a way never done before. Presley’s first single, That’s All Right, was first played on the Memphis radio in July 1954 and was an instant hit. He starred in thirty-three successful films, made history with his television appearances and specials, he broke the record in live concert performances on tour and Las Vegas. Globally, he has sold over one billion records, more than any other artist. His American sales earned him gold, and platinum awards, Elvis was talented, looked good, was charismatic and he had good humor he was kind to people. Known the world over his first name is regarded as one of the most important figures of this decade. Elvis died at the age of 42 years at his home in Memphis Graceland.

7. Cuba revolution

Fulgencio Batista by Unknown Arthur/

Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt to overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, Batista Zaldivar was born in Cuba’s Oriente province in 1901, in Banes, only miles away from the Castro family plantation, Las Manassas. The Cuban revolution was a social and armed movement that took place on the Caribbean Island of Cuba. Batista’s regime was supported by the U.S. government, during his reign, he became rich while the citizens starved. He became a dictator and this sparked the revolution, led by Fidel Castro and supported by both the middle class and the lower class, and set out to end the Batista regime. Batista left Cuba with 180 of his associates with a fortune of millions of dollars but he died before Castro could get to him. Castro succeeded Batista and became one of the longest-serving presidents in Cuba, he became a communist dictator he put to death hundreds of his former political enemies in hasty trials intended more as propaganda than as judicial proceedings. He was known to be worse than Batista.

8. Joseph Stalin dies

A cropped image of Joseph Stalin during the Tehran Conference by Unknown Arthur

Joseph Stalin was one of the most important world leaders, he was the dictator of the Union Soviet Socialist Republics. He transformed the soviet from a peasant society to a military superpower. During his brutal reign, millions of his citizens died, and he involved himself in revolutionary politics as well as criminal activities as a young man. Stalin ruled with terror, he had exile camps, he made citizens spy on each other and he killed anyone who opposed him, he instituted the Great Purge, a series of campaigns designed to rid the Communist Party. Stalin died in 1953 after a stroke. His boy was embalmed and preserved in Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow’s red square in 1961, later it was embalmed and buried near Kremlin.

9. First Organ transplant

In the 1950s, the kidney was the first human organ to be transplanted successfully, Dr. Richard Lawler, Dr. James West, and Dr. Raymond Murphy performed the first successful kidney transplant at Little Company of Mary Hospital, Evergreen Park. In the late 1960s, transplants become successful medical advances in the prevention and treatment of rejection -specifically the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine led to more successful transplants. The patient receiving the kidney was Ruth Tucker she was 49 years suffering from polycystic kidney disease, both her kidneys were affected and were no longer functioning the transplant was the only way to survive.

10. President Truman approves hydrogen bomb construction

Army soldiers by Unknown Arthur/

President Harry Truman addressed the world that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb this was during the cold war. Two-and-a-half years later, the United States tested its first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific. The blast proved about 1,000 times stronger than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. The hydrogen bomb is also known as a Thermonuclear weapon, a hydrogen bomb is a nuclear weapon that utilizes nuclear fusion to create an explosion and it is much stronger and can cause a catastrophic disaster.