Wednesday, April 09, 2008

1950s
1950
- Saturday morning children’s programming begins
- Phone Vision, the first pay per view service begins
- The first Xerox machine is produced
- Assassination attempt on President Truman
- Korean War begins
- First broadcast from the House of Commons

1951
- Colour television introduced in the US and sets go on sale
- Japanese peace treaty signed
- First nuclear power plant built
- TV cameras allowed in 10 Downing Street
- British film censors add an X rating (indicates strong adult content)

1952
- Television's first magazine-format program, the Today show, debuts on NBC
- King George the VI dies, daughter becomes Elizabeth the II
- 3D movies
- Programme for deaf children (BBC)
- Identity cards abolished

1953
- Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
- First issue of the TV Guide magazine
- Panorama has a more cultural view (BBC)
- East Berliners rise against communist rule
- First successful open-heart surgery
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed – for treason
- Hollywood develops wide screen processes i.e. CinemaScope

1954
- First in-vision weatherman
- Supreme Court rules against separate education for blacks and whites
- In U.S., television revenue surpasses radio revenue
- Disney ends Hollywood freeze, leads studios in producing television programs
- NBC broadcasts the World Series in colour for the first time.
- Television Act 1954 becomes Law
- Algerian War of Independence against France begins

1955
- Churchill resigns (April 5)
- Rosa Parks refuses to sit at the back of the bus, breaking segregated seating law. Martin Luther King, Jr, leads black boycott of Montgomery bus system.
- Gunsmoke debuts on CBS, and will go on to be television's longest-running western
- BBC’s monopoly on British television is over. ITV begins broadcasting as is allowed to host commercial adverts

1956
- The Wizard of Oz has its first airing on TV.
- First European cup final
- Morocco gains independence from France

1957
- Russia launches Sputnik I, first earth-orbiting satellite
- Leave It to Beaver premieres on CBS, ushering in an era of television shows that depict the ideal American family.

1958
- Cinema verité (also called “direct cinema”) documentary technique
- Blue Peter airs on BBC
- The first CND protests (campaign for nuclear disarmament)

1959
- Dalai Lama escapes to India.
- Xerox manufactures a plain paper copier
- Fidel Castro assumes power of Cuba
- Public is shocked to learn that most big-money TV quiz shows are fixed
- M1 motorway opens
- Number of television licences reaches 10million (UK)

No comments: