1951 The 22nd Amendment was adopted, limiting the number of terms a president can serve;and color television was introduced in the U.S.

1952 Elizabeth II became Queen of England; Richard Nixon made his “Checker’s” speech; Federal spending was $67.69 billion; and the Federal debt was $259.1 billion. The stamp: still 3¢.

1953 Dwight Eisenhower became president; the Minneapolis Lakers won the NBA Championship; the first issue of TV Guide was published; and Lucille Ball gave birth to Little Ricky.

1954 The Geneva Conference convened to bring peace in Vietnam; the Senate condemned Senator McCarthy for misconduct; and the Supreme Court banned racial segregation in Brown v. the Board of Education.

1955 Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister of Britain; the US sent $216 million in aid to Vietnam, and Rosa Parks refused to sit at the back of an Alabama Bus.

1956 Elvis Presley became one of the world’s first rock stars; John F. Kennedy published Profiles in Courage; and the Wizard of Oz aired on TV for the first time.

1957 Russia launched Sputnik I; Iron Liege won the Kentucky Derby; West Side Story debuted on Broadway; and Leave it to Beaver premiered on TV.

1958 Nikita Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union; Charles de Gaulle became the Premier of France; Alvin Ailey established the American Dance Theatre; and Elvis Presley joined the Army.

1959 Fidel Castro became President of Cuba; the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet; Alaska and Hawaii became the 49th and 50th states, and the cost of a first-class stamp went up for the first time since 1918...to 4¢.

1960 There were 900 U.S. military advisors in South Vietnam; John Kennedy became president; 90% of U.S. homes had a television set; and Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird.

1961 The Berlin Wall was built; OPEC was formally established; Alan Shepard became the first U.S. astronaut; and West Side Story was released as a film.

1962 The Cuban Missile Crisis occurred; the New York Yankees beat the San Francisco Giants in the World Series; and Johnny Carson started hosting The Tonight Show.

1963 Cardinal Montini became Pope Paul VI; Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech; and President Kennedy was assassinated.

1964 Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison; Federal spending was $118.53 billion while the debt was $316.1 billion; and the price of a first-class stamp went to 5¢.

1965 The first US combat troops were sent to Vietnam; and there were six days of racial riots in Watts (Los Angeles).

1966 The Medicare system was implemented; the first episode of Star Trek aired on TV, the Metropolitan Opera moved to Lincoln Center in NY; and the DNA code was deciphered.

1967 Thurgood Marshall became the first black US Supreme Court justice; the Philadelphia 76ers won the NBA Championship; PBS was created by Congress; and Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful human heart transplant.

1968 Russia invaded Czechoslovakia; Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated; and the price of a first class stamp went to 6¢.

1969 Richard Nixon was elected President; Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, Jr. walked on the moon; a rock festival was held in Woodstock, NY; and cigarette advertising was banned on TV and radio.

1970 US troops invaded Cambodia; Kansas City won the Super Bowl; the Beatles broke up; Monday Night Football debuted with Howard Cosell; and IBM introduced the floppy disk.

1971 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that busing students is legal for achieving racial desegregation; the 26th Amendment was adopted lowering the voting age to 18; and the price of a first class stamp jumped to 8¢.

1972 President Nixon visited to China; and five men were arrested for trying to bug the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.

1973 Low supply of automobile fuel led to long lines at gas stations; Marlon Brando refused the Best Actor Oscar; and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) was designed.

1974 The Cultural Revolution began in China; Patty Hearst was kidnapped; Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency; and the cost of a first-class stamp went to 10¢.

1975 The Vietnam War ended; three men were found guilty of the Watergate cover-up; Saturday Night Live premiered with George Carlin as its first host; and the cost of the stamp went to 13¢.

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