Historical Timeline
1950-1959
Decade overview
Corporate milestones
Consumerism in its many guises is a major theme of the 1950s. At the beginning of the century, most people worked to survive and sometimes prosper; in the 1950s many people work to buy the "American dream."
In 1950, the first charge card is introduced by Diners' Club; a prototype of the credit card, it had to be paid off in full monthly.
In 1954, TV dinners are introduced in the United States.
In 1954, there are fifteen computers in the United States.
In 1955, Rosa Parks rides in the front seat of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, propelling the demand for civil rights reform in America.
In 1957, John McCarthy founds the Artificial Intelligence Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- 1950
- George Nelson's "Executive Office Group" for Herman Miller features first "L-shaped" desk
- 1951
- First commercially available computer, UNIVAC I (universal automatic computer), completed in Philadelphia and turned over to U.S. Census Bureau
- 1952
- Rolodex "Rolomatic" introduced, featuring a ball-bearing clutch mechanism
- 1956
- Bette Nesmith markets "Mistake Out," later
known as "Liquid Paper," to secretaries in her office
- IBM introduces hard disk for data storage--RAMAC
- 1957
- Digital Equipment Corporation incorporates in Massachusetts
- Smith-Corona makes a portable electric typewriter weighing 18.3 pounds (more than its manual predecessor)
- 1958
- Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments conceives the integrated circuit
- Modem dataphone, using telephone lines for transmitting binary data, introduced by Bell Laboratories
- 1959
- First commercial Xerox copier introduced
1900-1909 || 1910-1919
|| 1920-1929 || 1930-1939
|| 1940-1949
1950-1959 || 1960-1969 ||
1970-1979 || 1980-1989 ||
1990-
This material was generously provided by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
