Do you remember these Events &  News of 1951

  • The Korean War took another turn as the People's Republic of China made an unexpected entrance into the fighting in 1951.
  • Gen. Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his command in Korea by President Truman, returned to the US for the first time since before World War II.  After a parade celebrating his return, he bade farewell to Congress with his famous words, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away..." 
  • Winston Churchill, the British hero of WWII, was re-elected as Prime Minister of Great Britain. 
  • The first commercial computer, the UNIVAC 1, was built. "UNIVAC" (Universal Automatic Computer). The "UNIVAC" followed the experimental "ENIAC," which had been developed in 1945. The first "UNIVAC" was sold to the Census Bureau. 
  • Florence Chadwick swam the English Channel from England to France in 16 hours. 
  • J. Andre-Thomas invented the first heart-lung machine, allowing advanced life-support during open-heart surgery. 
  • There were 15,500,000 TV sets in American homes, and 108 TV stations across the US. In 1951 Color TV was  introduced by CBS with the first color television broadcast. The broadcast took place in 5 American cities, and CBS began producing two and a half hours a day. 
  • The Twenty-Second Amendment was ratified, limiting presidents to two terms in office. 
  • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of selling atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. 
  • Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was first published. 

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  •  The first H- Bomb - On May 12, the United States detonated a hydrogen bomb on an island in the Pacific. The hydrogen bomb is many times more powerful than an atomic bomb. The Russian development of an A–bomb convinced the US to proceed with development of the H–bomb.
  •  US Airforce Orders B- 52 Bomber.  The US Airforce ordered production models of the B-52 Bomber from Boeing. The B-52 was set to replace the B-36 Bomber. It has eight engines and a total bomb load of 50,000 pounds. The B-52 can fly non-stop for a total of 15,000 miles.

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  •  King Abdulah assassinated - King Abdullah of Jordan (formerly Transjordan) was assassinated while praying at the Al Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem. Abdullah had been engaging in secret negotiations with Israel and was killed by a Palestinian extremist. Abdullah was succeeded by his son Emir Talal, who was later declared mentally ill. His son, Crown Prince Ibn Talal Hussein, took over, and ruled Jordan until his death in 1999. 

  •  1951 was a busy year for headline news and events that changed the world but the greatest class emerged from ELHS. 

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