Part II – 1954

1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 |1957 | 1958 | 1959
1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966
1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 19701971 | 1972 | 1973
1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980
1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987
1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | Epilogue, 1993

Events

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-segregated schools violated the 14th Amendment, striking down the concept of “separate but equal.” (05/17/54)

President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Congressional Resolution altering the words of the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance by changing the phrase “one nation indivisible” to “one nation, under God, indivisible.” (06/14/54)

President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Congressional Resolution altering the words of the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance by changing the phrase “one nation indivisible” to “one nation, under God, indivisible.” (06/14/54)

General Electric hired Ronald Reagan as the host on “The General Electric Theater” and to do plant tours promoting free enterprise. As his movie acting career faded, Reagan had switched to television and had been the host for three years on “Death Valley Days” sponsored by Borax. (1954)


Lifestyles

“Father Knows Best” premiered on television, creating the mythical image of the American family. (1954)

Contraception pioneer Margaret Sanger, the first woman to address the Diet, Japan’s parliament, urged Japanese women to practice birth control. (04/15/54)

Women volunteers participated in the first experimental trials on humans of oral contraceptives developed by Dr. Gregory Pincus at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Shrewsbury, MA. The research project was being financed by Katherine Dexter McCormick, who, in 1904, had been the second woman to graduate from MIT. (1954)


Politics

Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok published Ladies of Courage, a tribute to women in American politics. It also contained a chapter that urged women to enter politics and offered concrete advice on how to get started. (1954)

Two women destined to be powerful advocates for women’s rights in Congress, Edith Green (D-OR) and Martha Wright Griffiths (D-MI), were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. (11/54)


The Backlash

The American Security Council was founded. (1954)

The “Army-McCarthy” hearings before the Senate Permanent Investigations Subcommittee captured a television audience of 20 million off and on for nearly three months. (1954)

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