The Year 1952 – Throwback Thursday

I follow a blog The 1951 Club which celebrates all things associated with 1951. That blog gave me the germ of an idea to report on 1952, the year in which I was born.

The most important event in 1952 for me was being born. OK. That probably is not extremely significant to everyone else, but for me it is where everything starts. Without that event nothing else would really matter to me.

Many other significant things also took place in 1952. I very much enjoyed compiling these facts.

The president of the United States was Harry S. Truman. In November election Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected as Truman’s successor, defeating Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson. Other world leaders were Sir Winston Churchill in Great Britain and Joseph Stalin in Russia/Soviet Union. Stalin’s official title was Chairman of the Council of People’s Commisar. John F. Kennedy was elected U.S. Senator.

Elizabeth II became queen of England after the death of her father, King George. VI.

The U.S. was involved in the Korean war. The U.S. detonated the first hydrogen bomb. Britain announced the development of nuclear weapons.

Most Americans considered themselves to be prosperous. The average earnings for an American worker was $3,400 per year. Three out of five American families had a car and two out of three families had a telephone. One out of three families had a television. My family had a car but we did not get a telephone or a television for several years. First class postage in the United States was $.03. The average cost of a home was $16,800. A Ford car cost from $1,526 to $2,384.

The average age of marriage for U.S. women was 20 years old. Most of them would not work outside the home after their children were born. The U.S. life expectancy was 68.6 years.

In medical developments, the first successful sex reassignment therapy was performed in Copenhagen and George Jorgensen Jr. became Christine Jorgenson. The first successful separation of Siamese twins was conducted at Mount Sinai Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. There was a continuing outbreak of polio with 50,000 people affected. The polio vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk in 1952.

The first Holiday Inn opened in Tennessee. The Today show made it debut on NBC. The first sporting event was televised nationally. It was a boxing match between Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles which was won by Walcott. Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise opened. Kellogg’s introduced Sugar Smacks and Frosted Flakes. The first issue of  Mad Magazine was published. The Diary of Ann Frank was published. Ernest Hemingway published The Old Man and the Sea. Summer Olympics were held in Helsinki Finland. Winter Olympics were held in Oslo, Norway.

Mother Teresa opened a home for dying and destitute in Calcutta. Albert Schweitzer won the Nobel Peace Prize. Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr. met for the first time. Nelson Mandela opened the first black legal firm in South Africa and along with 8,500 people were arrested for protesting against apartheid.

Notable people born in 1952 were: Amy Tan, American novelist; Bob Costas, American sportscaster; Marilu Henner, American actress and author; Dan Akroyd, Canadian actor and comedian; George Strait, American county musician; and Mr. T., John Goodman, Patrick Swayze, Steven Seagal, Christopher Reeve and David Hasselhoff, American actors.

I had a great time researching facts about the year I was born. This would be an interesting post topic for all bloggers to consider. The things that were most striking to me were that Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin were current world leaders. In my recollection of history, they had lived decades before I was born so the thought that they were in power during my lifetime really surprised me. Perhaps I am not as accepting of my age as I thought I was.

Sources of information: HistoryOrb.com, thepeoplehistory.com, worldhistory project.org, fiftiesweb.com and Wikipedia.