Technicians testing
equipment, Poughkeepsie,
1956.
Pioneering Innovation in the Workplace
IBM continues to lead in the advancement of women and the integration of the workplace ahead of legislative action or public opinion.
1950 - 1953
Korean War is fought.
1950
The Mattachine Society, America's first gay rights organization, is founded.
1951
Congress deactivates the 24th U.S. Infantry, the last all-Black Army unit, in response to President Truman's order to integrate the Army.
1953
Introduction of the Salk vaccine, which plays a major international role in the decline of polio.
1954
In Brown v. the Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court rules segregation by race in schools unconstitutional.
1955
African American seamstress Rosa Parks sparks bus boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama.
The first lesbian rights group in the U.S., the Daughters of Bilitis, is founded.
1957
Angry crowds prevent nine African American students from entering Little Rock High School in Arkansas. President Eisenhower sends federal troops to escort the students.
1959
Introduction of the microchip.
Severo Ochoa, a Spanish-born U.S. citizen, becomes the first Hispanic scientist to win the Nobel Prize in physiology.
Alaska and Hawaii are admitted to the Union as the 49th and 50th states.
Daniel Inouye, a Hawaiian of Japanese descent and a disabled U.S. World War ll hero, is elected to Congress from Hawaii.