1950s Timeline

	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
Tipton St John & Venn Ottery Events	First tractor arrived on a local farm.   Electricity supply provided to Venn Ottery church.	A wartime evacuee revisited Tipton for a holiday!	Carol singing round the village.	Celebrations for the Coronation. School closed for 5 days. Beer is 1/- a pint and cider 9d.   Commemorative trees planted.   Fund started to rebuild school.		Sewage works built behind Hayne Farm. (Before this most houses had cess pits or septic tanks.)   Furnished railway coaches available as holiday lets.	Metcombe Vale houses built.	Tipton Players stage the show: “Reluctant Heroes”
	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
UK Events	Motor fuel rationing comes to an end after 11 years.   BBC Light Programme first broadcasts the daily children’s radio feature “Listen with Mother”.   The Eagle comic first appears, featuring Dan Dare and Captain Pugwash.   The rebuilt House of Commons, following bombing in WWII, is used for the first time.   Stone of Scone is stolen from Westminster Abbey	Peak District becomes UK’s first National Park.   “The Archers” begins on BBC radio.   Festival of Britain opens in London.   Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean defect to the Soviet Union.   Zebra crossings  introduced for first time.   LEO runs the world’s first commercial computer program for J. Lyons and Co.’s tea shops in the U.K.	Death of King George VI.    Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen.   Funeral of King George VI at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Lynmouth devastated by floods. “The Mousetrap” play opened in London. One shilling charge for prescription drugs dispensed under NHS.   Operation Hurricane: UK explodes its first atomic bomb in the Monte Bello Islands, Australia.   Smog in London kills estimated 4000 people.	Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey. 29th March:  Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay reach the summit of Mount Everest June  –  Crick & Watson publish their discovery about the structure of DNA. Sweet rationing comes to an end.   Myxomatosis reaches the UK.   Piltdown Man is exposed as a hoax.   The Samaritans telephone counselling service starts.	Food rationing ends. Roger Bannister runs the mile in under 4 minutes. UK Atomic Energy Authority created. Hancock’s Half Hour is first broadcast on BBC radio.	Hovercraft invented, by Christopher Cockerell. First commercial TV station broadcast in UK. U.K’s first atomic bomber unit, No. 138 Squadron RAF, is formed. Big freeze across Britain;   RAF works to deliver food and medical supplies to worst affected areas. Ruth Ellis is the last woman to be hanged in the UK.	UK’s first nuclear power station opens (Calder Hall Clean Air Act first enacted British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean resurface in the Soviet Union, after being missing for 5 years. Suez Crisis causes petrol rationing in England. First CND marches take place at Aldermarston. Premium Bonds introduced in England.	Royal Christmas Message is on TV with the Queen on camera first time. Jodrell Bank observatory becomes operational. First successful (test) explosion of British hydrogen bomb, at Christmas Island. Windscale fire and nuclear accident Ultrasound scanning pioneered in Scotland. UK Foot and Mouth Disease: > 30,000 animals slaughtered. Windscale fire October: Worst nuclear accident in  UK.	Motorway system starts. Bertrand Russell launches Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. First parking meters installed in the UK. Donald Campbell sets the world water speed record at 248.62 mph. Munich Air Disaster kills many of Manchester  United football team. Sir Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole	Oil discovered in the North Sea. British Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day. BMC launches the Mini. Britain becomes a founder member of the European Free Trade Association. First Section of M1 Motorway from London to Birmingham opens. The first Ten Tors event is held on Dartmoor.
	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
World Events	Korean War starts.   Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed, formally segregating the races.   Mauna Loa in Hawaii starts erupting.	Winter of Terror: Avalanches in the Alps kill 240 and bury 45,000 for a time, in Switzerland, Austria and Italy.   West Germany joins UNESCO.	First polio vaccine developed.   Kenya:  Mau Mau rebellion starts.   Calcutta, India: Mother Teresa opens home for the dying.   USA tests first hydrogen bomb.	Korean War ends. Univac 1103 is first commercial computer to use random access memory. Hugh Hefner publishes first Playboy magazine.	Bill Hayley and the Comets record “Rock Around The Clock”.   1st nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched.   SEATO is established in Bangkok.	Vietnam war starts  –  continues until 1975. US: Claudette Colvin (African-American girl) refuses to give up seat on bus to white woman.	Oct-Nov:  Suez Crisis  –   Egypt seizes control of Suez Canal from the British and French. First Eurovision Song Contest. The first Transatlantic Telephone Cable goes into operation.	Russia launches first sputnik into space. The EEC European Economic Community is formed. Asian Flu pandemic claims over 150,000 lives world wide	NASA is first established. World Fair EXPO 58 held in Brussels. Microchip invented. Great Chinese Famine begins,  ends in 1961 nearly 30 million die.	The Dalai Lama and tens of thousands of Tibetans flee to India after China Invades Tibet Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba after Revolution Xerox launches the first commercial copier.

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