The 1950s Lifestyles and Social Trends: Chronology

1950:      William J. Levitt expands his mass production home-building techniques, allowing him to build identical, boxlike suburban tract houses.

1950:      Miss Clairol hair coloring is introduced.

1950:      Orlon, a wool-like synthetic fiber, is introduced by E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company.

1950:      Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook, based on General Mills' fictitious spokeswoman, is published.

1950:     July 17 A University of Michigan survey shows that almost half of the U.S. population does not read books.

1951:      The first all-glass-and-steel apartment building, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is completed in Chicago.

1951:      The French clothing manufacturer Izod introduces the Lacoste tennis shirt in the United States.

1951:      C. A. Swanson and Sons introduce the first frozen dinners.

1952:      The McDonald's Golden Arches are designed.

1952:      Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette is published.

1952:      R. Buckminster Fuller displays his geodesic dome at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

1952:      Production of such synthetic yarns as viscose rayon, acetate, and nylon reaches a new high.

1952:      Femininity prevails in women's clothing as cinched waistlines, molded bodices, and yards of wide skirts worn over stiff petticoats become stylish.

1952:      Four-inch stiletto heels are introduced on women's shoes.

1952:     July 17 The U.S. Air Force reports a wave of Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) sightings.

1953:      Plastic women's shoes become popular.

1953:      The Kellogg Company introduces Sugar Smacks breakfast cereal, which is 56 percent sugar.

1953:      Sara Lee Kitchens begins mass-marketing frozen cakes and pies.

1954:      Seamless nylon stockings are introduced.

1954:      The rate at which Americans move into mostly suburban single-family homes rises 33 percent over 1953.

1954:     March The world's largest shopping center, featuring one hundred stores, opens in Detroit.

1954:     October 27 More than two dozen publishers announce the formation of the Comics Code to regulate the content of comic books.

1954:     December 15 The U.S. observes the first Safe Driving Day, sponsored by the Presidential Traffic Safety Commission.

1955:      No-iron Dacron fabric is marketed by DuPont.

1955:      The Coca-Cola Company officially inaugurates the name "Coke."

1955:     February 19 A U.S. Senate committee investigating juvenile delinquency denounces comic books as offering "short courses in crime."

1955:     July Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.

1955:     October An African American minister becomes pastor at a white Methodist church in Connecticut.

1955:     November 27 Three Catholic women are excommunicated in Louisiana for beating a teacher who instructs African American and white children in the same classroom.

1956:      The TWA Terminal at New York's Idlewild (later Kennedy) Airport, designed by Eero Saarinen, opens.

1956:      Plastic is used widely in the furniture industry.

1956:     November 11 The U.S. Census Bureau reports that women outnumber men in the U.S. by 1.38 million.

1956:     December 16 In a controversial action, Francis Cardinal Spellman, archbishop of New York, instructs American Catholics not to see the film Baby Doll "under pain of sin."

1957:      Los Angeles adopts a revised building code that reflects earthquake-stress engineering technology and allows construction of high-rise buildings.

1957:      Wham-O Manufacturing introduces the hula hoop and the Frisbee.

1957:      A Florida circuit court determines that a Jewish couple can maintain custody of the six-year-old daughter of a Catholic woman.

1957:     May–September Evangelist Billy Graham holds a series of highly publicized revival meetings in New York's Madison Square Garden.

1958:      Pizza Hut opens its first restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri.

1958:     March 24 Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army.

1959:      Supermarkets account for 11 percent of U.S. grocery stores, yet are responsible for 69 percent of the country's food sales.

1959:      A number of Protestant churches speak out in favor of using birth control in family planning.