President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
U.S. Population: 171,984,130
There are 47,200,000 TV sets in use in 39,500,000 homes.
Leave It to Beaver premier's on CBS that depict the ideal American.
Columbia University professor Charles Van Doren becomes a media sensation by winning $129,000 on the quiz show Twenty One.
Eugene O'Neill's A Long Day's Journey Into Night is produced and wins both the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize.
Miss America: Marian McKnight (SC)
Top Movies: The Bridge on the River Kwai,
Twelve Angry Men, Sayonara, Peyton Place,
Witness for the Prosecution, Around the World in
80 Days, Friendly Persuasion, Giant, The King
and I and The Ten Commandments
General Foods Corp. introduces TANG breakfast
beverage crystals.
Barry Gordy, Jr. invests $700 to fund 'Motown
Records.'
Velcro is patented by George de Mestral of
Switzerland.
Greyhound introduces the "It's such a comfort to
take the bus and leave the driving to us" ad
campaign.
The 13-year-old Bobby Fisher becomes a chess
champion.
First round-the-world nonstop jet plane
flight. Maj. Gen. Archie J. Old, Jr. (USAF) led
a flight of three Boeing B-52 bombers around the
world in 45 hours, 19 minutes (completed Jan.
18).
Major John Glenn, Jr. sets an air speed record
by traveling from California to New York in a
jet in 3 hours, 23 minutes, and 8.4 seconds.
The Pink Flamingo on lawns
Sputnik is launched.
AFL-CIO votes to expel the Teamsters, which was
re admitted in October 1987.
You'd find 2,974 AM radio, 530 FM radio and 471
TV Stations.
Music Man, starring Robert Preston, opens on
Broadway.
West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein (music),
Stephen Sondheim (lyrics) and Jerome Robbins
(choreography) opens on Broadway.
Britain becomes the third nation to join the
"nuclear club" with the explosion of an atomic
weapon.
Ed Gein's killing and mutilation spree is over
as he is arrested. Gein was the inspiration for
Norman Bates in Psycho and Buffalo Bill in
Silence of the Lambs.
Eveready produces "AA" size alkaline batteries
for use in "personal transistor radios."
Cost of first class stamp - 3 cents.
B-52 bombers begin full-time flying alert in
case of USSR attack.
Jackie Robinson, perhaps the finest athlete of
the century, announced his retirement from
baseball.
Elizabeth Taylor's 2nd. divorce from
Michael Wilding and 3rd. marriage to
Mike Todd.
Singers Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme wed in
Las Vegas.
Please Don't Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr is a
book smash! The movie starred Doris Day and
David Niven.
Jimmy Hoffa gains control of the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters
The Frisbee is renamed and nationally marketed!
One thousand computers are sold.
On September 4, the last game is played at
Ebbets Field in Brooklyn as the Dodgers prepare
to move to LA. On February 23 of 1960, they tear
the stadium down. Days that will live in infamy!
Wagon Train debuts on TV.
The National Geographic announces that it has
found the resting place of the H.M.S. Bounty.
American Bandstand goes national on August 5,
1957 with Dick Clark as the host.
Elvis Presley emerges as one of the world's first rock stars. The gyrating rocker enjoys fame on the stages of the Milton Berle, Steve Allen and Ed Sullivan shows, as well as in the first of his many movies, Love Me Tender.
Humphrey Bogart passes away 1/14/1957.
Senator Joseph McCarthy dies of sclerosis of the
liver.
Richard E. Byrd, 1888-1957, American aviator
and polar explorer passes away.
The first large scale American nuclear power
plant goes into operation in Shippensport, PA
and will service Pittsburgh.
The average American production worker is now
making $82.32 a week.
5,000 new products will hit the supermarket
shelves, including frozen pizza.
Introduced in the fall of '57 for the '58
season, the Edsel came into the world with a big
fanfare and went out like a bomb a few years
later.
Prime commercial paper (4 to 6 mos) was at
3.81%. In New York City a commercial loan ran
4.47%
At a Miami radio station, new employee Lawrence
Harvey Zeiger abruptly adopts a stage name -
Larry King - and begins broadcasting.
NYC ends trolley car service
Pulitzer prize awarded to John F. Kennedy for
Profiles in Courage. Nobel Prizes in Science:
Chemistry: Sir Alexander Todd (UK), for research
with chemical compounds that are factors in
heredity. Physics: Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning
Yang (China), for disproving principle of
conservation of parity. Physiology or Medicine:
Daniel Bovet (Italy), for development of drugs
to relieve allergies and relax muscles during
surgery.
Bardeen, Cooper, and Scheiffer (US) propose a
theory of superconductivity.
Treaty of Rome establishes European Economic
Community (Common Market)
The publication of Jack Kerouac's On the Road
introduces the words "beat" and "beatnik" into
the American popular consciousness and gives a
name to a generation.
Americans Clarence W. Lillehie and Earl Bakk
invent the internal pace maker.
Theodore Geisel writes Cat in the Hat as Dr.
Seuss!
The Little Rock Nine require federal
intervention.
There is a 51.7% business failure rate.
Margarine sales take the lead over butter.
Williams-Sonoma opens in San Francisco.
Better Homes & Gardens prints its first
microwave-cooking article.
American will import 258,343 passenger cars.
Proctor and Gamble acquired Charmin Paper Mills,
a regional manufacturer of toilet tissue, towels
and napkins. Dick Wilson, aka Mr. Whipple was a
mere 41 years old. P&G also introduces Zest
Soap.
There are 38,702 motor vehicle related deaths.
While in the air, there were 6 accidents
resulting in 70 fatalities.
Unemployment is 4.3%
