50 Fun Facts About 50s and 60s

Which Soviet satellite, launched in October 1957, started the Space Race?

It weighed 184 pounds; the US answered with NASA in 1958.

Which war lasted from June 1950 until an armistice in July 1953?

It began as a civil war between North and South Korea.

Whose nationalisation of the Suez Canal in 1956 triggered an invasion by Britain, France and Israel?

The operation succeeded militarily but US and Soviet pressure forced a withdrawal.

Who overthrew Fulgencio Batista in Cuba in 1959?

It created the first communist government in the Western hemisphere.

The 1956 Montgomery bus boycott was sparked by which activist?

It ended when Browder v. Gayle struck down Alabama's segregated bus laws.

Which disease saw a turning point in the 1950s with a successful vaccine?

Cases fell rapidly in industrialised countries after widespread use in the mid-1950s.

Which pair announced the double-helix structure of DNA in the early 1950s?

Rosalind Franklin's work contributed to the discovery.

What was the first widely popular credit card, launched in New York in the 1950s?

Credit cards soon spread to multiple countries.

The MOSFET transistor, the building block of modern electronics, was invented in 1959 at which lab?

Mohamed Atalla and Dawon Kahng created it; it became the most manufactured device in history.

Who founded Liquid Paper after inventing an early correction fluid in 1956?

She was the mother of Monkees member Michael Nesmith.

What name was given to the first immortal human cell line, cultured in 1951?

They came from a cervical cancer patient named Henrietta Lacks.

Which 1959 plane crash became known as 'the Day the Music Died'?

Don McLean's 1971 'American Pie' popularised the phrase.

Which comic strip debuted in the 1950s and became the most successful of all time?

It ran until creator Charles M. Schulz's death in 2000.

Which 1959 epic won a record 11 Academy Awards?

Its success revived MGM.

Audrey Hepburn won her Best Actress Oscar for which 1953 film?

The same decade saw Fellini win the first foreign-language film Oscar with La Strada.

Which 1950s film introduced rock and roll music to America's national consciousness?

It came amid the mid-1950s rush of teenage rebellion films starring Brando and James Dean.

Which Disney animated films came out in the 1950s?

Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp also belong to the decade.

How many American families owned a television set by 1950?

By the end of the decade most US households had one.

Which of these was among the most popular TV shows of the 1950s?

Howdy Doody, The Honeymooners and The Mickey Mouse Club were others.

Which president inaugurated transcontinental US television service in 1951?

AT&T carried his San Francisco speech coast to coast.

Where were the 1956 Summer Olympics held?

Helsinki hosted in 1952 and Rome in 1960.

Which Soviet craft became the first to reach the Moon's surface in September 1959?

It was the first spacecraft to make contact with another celestial body.

Which synthetic fibre was introduced in 1959?

Acrylics arrived in 1950, polyesters in 1953 and triacetate in 1954.

Who became the first human in space on 12 April 1961?

The Vostok 1 flight spurred Kennedy's pledge to reach the Moon within the decade.

Who became the first woman in space in June 1963?

She flew on Vostok 6.

Who stayed in orbit as Command Module Pilot while Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the Moon?

Apollo 11 launched on 16 July 1969 and landed on 20 July.

What made the 1960 Kennedy–Nixon debates a historic first?

Kennedy won a very close election.

Which volunteer programme did President Kennedy establish in 1961?

He also promised a more aggressive stance toward the Soviet Union.

In which month and year did the Cuban Missile Crisis take place?

Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles after a US naval quarantine of Cuba.

Construction of the Berlin Wall was authorised in which year?

East Germany built it to stop its citizens leaving for West Berlin.

Martin Luther King Jr. gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech at which 1963 event?

It took place on 28 August; the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing came weeks later.

Which president signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

It outlawed segregation in schools, public places and employment.

How many US presidents served during the 1960s?

Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon.

The June 1969 riots seen as the birth of the gay rights movement happened at which New York bar?

Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco had seen a transgender riot three years earlier.

Which oral contraceptive was approved by the FDA and released in the US in 1960?

It reshaped social norms across the decade.

Who performed the first human heart transplant in 1967?

The operation took place in South Africa.

What was ARPANET, introduced in 1969?

It was a research-oriented network that grew into the Internet.

Which compact Ford car, launched in 1964, was one of the decade's biggest successes?

The late 1960s horsepower race peaked with muscle cars from most makes.

The Beatles' US breakthrough exploded after their 1964 appearance on which TV programme?

They had arrived in America that February, spearheading the British Invasion.

Which Detroit record label, founded in 1960, scored 110 Billboard Top 10 hits?

Its first number one was the Marvelettes' 'Please Mr. Postman' in 1961.

At which 1965 event did Bob Dylan famously 'go electric'?

His albums Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited came out the same year.

Which 1966 Beach Boys album heavily influenced Sgt. Pepper's?

Sgt. Pepper's, released in 1967, was called the soundtrack of the Summer of Love.

Which 1967 event is regarded as the start of the Summer of Love?

Janis Joplin and Otis Redding both broke through there.

Which free concert, four months after Woodstock, marked a dark end to 1969?

Woodstock itself was held in upstate New York that August.

What was the highest-grossing film of the 1960s?

20th Century Fox released it in 1965.

Which 1962 film launched the James Bond series with Sean Connery?

The series continues with new actors to this day.

Which designer popularised the miniskirt in the 1960s?

It faded in the mid-1970s and returned in the mid-1980s.

Which comics publisher introduced Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Hulk in the 1960s?

Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther and the Avengers also debuted.

In which year was the first Super Bowl played?

It was held in Los Angeles.

Where were the 1964 Summer Olympics held?

Rome hosted in 1960 and Mexico City in 1968.