Time Line 1950 - 1974
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
Harry Truman (Pres.) USA: Dwight Eisenhower (President) USA: John Kennedy (Pres.) USA: Lyndon Johnson (Pres.) USA: Richard Nixon (Pres.) Gerald Ford
Frederick Vinson (Chief Justice) Earl Warren (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) Warren Berger (Chief Justice)
Sam Rayburn (House Speaker) Joseph Martin (House Speaker) Sam Rayburn (Speaker of the House) John McCormack (House Speaker) Carl Albert (House Speaker)
Scott Lucas Ernest McFarland (Senate Maj.) Robert Taft William Knowland Lyndon Johnson (Senate Majority Leader) Mike Mansfield (Senate Maj.)
Canada: Louis _St. Laurent Canada: John Diefenbaker Canada: Lester Pearson Canada: Pierre Trudeau
Miguel Alemán Váldez Adolfo Ruíz Cortines Adolfo López Mateos Mexico: Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Mexico: Luis _Echeverría_ Álvarez
UN: Trygvi Lie UN: Dag Hammarskjöld UN: U Thant UN: Kurt Waldheim
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
Clement Atlee UK: Winston Churchill UK: Anthony Eden UK: Harold Macmillan Alec Douglas-Home UK: Harold Wilson UK: James Callaghan Harold Wilson
UK: _George VI UK: Queen _Elizabeth II
France: Fourth Republic France (5th Republic): Charles _de Gaulle France: Georges Pompidou _Giscard d'Estaing
Deutschland: Konrad Adenauer Deutschland: Ludwig Erhard Deutschland: Kurt Kiesinger Deutschland: Willy Brandt Helmut Schmidt
Pope _Pious XII Pope _John XXIII Pope Paul VI
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
USSR: Joseph Stalin USSR: Nikita Khrushchev USSR: Leonid Brezhnev
            Hungarian Revolt                                    
DDR (East Germany): Walter Albricht DDR: Erich Honecker
Polska: Boleslaw Bierut Polska: Wladyslaw Gomulka Polska: Edward Gierek
Romania: Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Romania: Nicolae Ceauescu
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
Nihon: _Yoshida_ Shigeru Nihon: _Hatoyama_ Ichirô _Ishibasi_ Tanzan Nihon: _Kishi_ Nobusuke _Ikeda_ Hayato Nihon: _Satô_ Eisaku Nihon: _Tanaka_ Kakuei
South Korea (1st Republic): Syngman Rhee 2nd Republic South Korea (Mil. Junta): Park Chung Hee South Korea (3rd Republic): Park Chung Hee
Korean War                                          
Zhong Guo: _Mao_ Zedong
French Indochina North Vietnam: _Ho Chi Minh Vietnam: Le Duan
South Vietnam: Ngô Dinh Diêm South Vietnam: Nguyên Van Thiêu
Kingdom of Kampuchea Khmer Republic: Lon Nol
French-Indochina War           Vietnamese Civil War Vietnam War (USA) Vietnamese Civil War
Philippines: D. Macapagal Philippines: Ferdinand Marcos Philippines: Ferdinand Marcos
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
Bharat: Jawaharlal Nehru Bharat: Lal Bahadur Shastri Bharat: Indira Gandhi
                              2nd Indo-Pakistan War         3rd Indo-Pakistan War      
Pakistan: Liaquat Ali Khan Pakistan: new constitution Pakistan: Muhammad _Ayub Khan Pakistan: Yahya Khan Pakistan: Zulfikar Bhutto
  Bangladesh: Mujibur Rahman
Iraq: King _Faisal_ II Iraq: Abdul Karim Qassem Ba'ath Party
Misr: Farouk I Misr: Gamal Abd al-_Nasser Gamal Abd al-_Nasser Misr: Anwar al-_Sadat
                United Arab Republic                          
            Suez Crisis                     Six Day War           Yom Kippur War  
Israel: David Ben-Gurion M. Sharett Israel: David Ben-Gurion Israel: Levi Eshkol Israel: Golda Meir Israel: Yitzhak Rabin
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
        French-Algerian War      
      Kenya: Mau-Mau Uprising Congo Crisis     Biafran War        
Belgian Congo Leopoldville Congo: Joseph Kasavubu Congo Kinshasa: Joseph-Desiré Mobutu (Zaire): (_Mobutu_ Sese Seko)
Tanganyika Tanganyika: Julius Nyerere (Tanzania: Julius Nyerere)
Kenya Kenya: Jomo Kenyatta
Gold Coast Ghana: Kwame Nkrumah Ghana: Kwame Nkrumah Ghana (Junta): Joseph Ankrah Ghana: Kofi Busia Ghana: 2nd Junta
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
South Africa: Daniel François Malan South Africa: Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom South Africa: Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd South Africa: Balthazar Johannes Vorster
Argentina: Juan Peron Argentina: Military Rule Argentina: Civilian Rule Argentina: Military Rule Argentina: Civilian Rule
Fulgencio _Batista_ y Zaldivar Cuba: Fidel _Castro_ Ruz
Chile: Eduardo Frei Chile: Salvador _Allende_ Gossens Chile: Augusto _Pinochet_ Ugarte
Australia: Robert Menzies Australia: John Gorton Australia: Gough Whitlam
          Martin Luther King active            
    _Malcolm_ X active                  
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
      Television: Color replaces black & white                
                Music recording: Stereo replaces monaural            
Diner's Club credit card Hydrogen Bomb Sony transistor radio DuPont Polyester Swanson frozen TV dinners Salk polio vaccine Liquid Paper correction fluid Sputnik artificial satellite Texas Instruments integrated circuit microchip DuPont Spandex Laser Valium Satellite transmission of television signal F-4 Phantom Fighter Deinonychus discovered, suggesting agile dinosaurs NutraSweet NBC 100% color broadcasting Electronic quartz wristwatch Sea floor spreading confirms continental drift First man on the Moon: Neil Armstrong in Apollo 11 Texas Instruments pocket calculator E-mail Atari video game Pong   UPC Bar Codes
  Geodesic Dome No-Cal sugar-free ginger ale Double helix structure of DNA discovered The Breathalyzer McDonald's fast-food restaurant franchise Crest flouride toothpaste Velcro     Enovid birth control pills First man in space: Yuri Gagarin Polaroid instant color photography   M16 assault rifle Sony Betamax home video recorder   Human heart transplant   Arpanet computer network Apollo 13 limps home   F-15 Eagle fighter The Exorcist Computed axial tomography (CAT) scanner
    Pream powdered coffee creamer Heart-lung machine used in surgery   B-52 Stratofortress bomber Ampex Corp. videotape Recorder Eli Lilly pain killer Darvon   Ben-Hur Tylenol acetaminophen analgesic   Nuclear submarine USS Thresher sinks   Quarks: proposed fundamental particles The Sound of Music   Coronary artery bypass   Ibuprofen pain-killer (Midol) Love Story     The Sting Heimlich maneuver
                                  Soyuz spacecraft              
    Norethindrone developed for contraceptive use as a birth control pill     The Beatles        
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
MiG-17 fighter     MiG-21 fighter                                  
    Killer smog hits London Dow Saran Wrap     The Ten Commandments     Sleeping Beauty Head & Shoulders dandruff shampoo 101 Dalmatians   Cleopatra Mary Poppins Doctor Zhivago   The Jungle Book ¯"Mrs. Robinson" Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid Airport   The Godfather American Graffiti Recombinant DNA procedure
    De Havilland Comet jet airliner The Robe             Artificial heart valves             The Graduate             Australopithecus afarensis, and her name is Lucy
  Chlorpromazine (Thorazine) for schizophrenia       Around the World in 80 Days       ¯"Georgia on My Mind" ¯"Stand By Me"   ¯"Rhythm of the Rain" ¯"Baby, I Need Your Loving" ¯"You've Lost That Lovin Feelin"   ¯"Never My Love"              
                      ¯"Moon River"     ¯"Hello, Dolly!" ¯"Yesterday"   ¯"Can't Take My Eyes Off of You"              
                                  ¯"(Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay"              
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974
                  TV: Bonanza  
  TV: The Jackie Gleason Show        
                        TV: The Beverly Hillbillies      
                            TV: Bewitched    
  TV: The Red Skelton Show      
  TV: Gunsmoke
  TV: Dragnet TV: Candid Camera TV: Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In Happy Days
  TV: I Love Lucy       TV: The Andy Griffith Show     TV: All in the Family
TV: The Ed Sullivan Show TV: The Waltons
TV: Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts     TV: The Lucy Show     TV: Sanford and Son
TV: Texaco Star Theater               TV: Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. TV: The Flip Wilson Show
    TV: The Danny Thomas Show         TV: Marcus Welby, M. D.
TV: Fireside Theatre   TV: Wagon Train     TV: 60 Minutes
                                                 
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974

compiled by Matthew White