Baby Boomers - What Happened in 1951?

If you are a baby boomer born in 1951, you will find this information extremely interesting. Hope you enjoy learning more about the year you were born! If you have a friend or a family member born in 1951, send them a link to this page. They will appreciate it!

Major Events

• Harry Truman is president and Alben W. Barkley is vice president of the United States
• President Truman removes General Douglas MacArthur from his command in Korea for making unauthorized policy statements
• North Korean offensive pushes beyond the 38th parallel; truce negotiations fail
• President Harry Truman declares an official end to war with Germany
• President Truman signs a peace treaty with Japan that officially ended World War II
• 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, limiting the number of terms a president may serve to two terms, is ratified
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of passing U.S. nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, are sentenced to death
• Japanese peace treaty signed in San Francisco by 49 nations
• Senator Estes Kefauver begins investigation of gambling and organized crime

Business and Economy

• U.S. GDP (1998 dollars): $339.7 billion
• Federal spending: $45.51 billion
• Federal debt: $255.3 billion
• Consumer Price Index: 26
• Unemployment: 3.3%
• IBM (United Kingdom) is formed
• Businessman J.S. Coxey leads unemployment protest in Washington

Science and Technology

• UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), the first business computer to handle both numeric and alphabetic data, is introduced
• Inauguration of transcontinental television
• Color television introduced in the U.S.
• First color television broadcast transmitted from CBS in New York
• Charles F. Blair, Jr. makes the first solo flight across North Pole
• The first oral contraceptive is introduced
• The first nuclear power plant is built by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
• First nuclear bomb tests at Nevada test site
• Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the United States
• J. Andre-Thomas invents the first heart-lung machine
• Mass production of penicillin and streptomycin reaches records
• Electricity generated from nuclear power for the first time

Sports

• New York Yankees defeated the New York Giants to win the World Series (4-2)
• Los Angeles Rams win the NFL championship
• Joe DiMaggio retires from baseball
• Citation becomes the first race horse to earn more than one million dollars

Famous Baby Boomers Born in 1951

• Al Franken
• Anjelica Huston
• Crystal Gayle
• Jane Seymour
• Kurt Russell
• Lou Ferrigno
• Lucie Arnaz
• Mark Hamill
• Richard Thomas
• Rush Limbaugh
• Sting, Phil Collins
• Tommy Hilfiger

Arts and Entertainment

• Books: From Here to Eternity; The Caine Mutiny; Moses; The Cardinal; A Woman Called Fancy; The Cruel Sea; Melville Goodwin, U.S.A.; Return to Paradise; The Foundling; The Wanderer
• Movies: The African Queen, A Streetcar Named Desire, An American in Paris, A Place in the Sun, The Day the Earth Stood Still
• Songs: Sixty Minute Man, Rocket 88, Dust My Broom, Cry, Too Young, Cold Cold Heart, Glory Of Love, Three O'Clock Blues, Hey Good Lookin', How High The Moon
• Popular Musicians: Dominoes, Jackie Brenston, Elmore James, Johnnie Ray, Nat King Cole, Hank Williams, Tony Bennett, Dinah Washington, Five Keys, B.B. King, Les Paul & Mary Ford
• TV Shows: I Love Lucy debuts, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, The Texaco Star Theater, I Love Lucy, The Red Skelton Show, The Colgate Comedy Hour
• The term "Rock N Roll" is coined by Cleveland Disc Jockey Alan Freed
• "The King and I" opens on Broadway
• Robert Frost and Carl Sandberg both publish collections of poetry titled "Complete Poems"
• Movie theatres experiment with a variety of attractions, including wide-screen projection and 3D effects

Everyday Life

• U.S. Population: 154,877,889
• Life expectancy: 68.4 years
• Average yearly income: $3,709
• Federal hourly minimum wage: $.75
• Cost of a new home: $9,000
• Cost of a new car: $1,500
• Cost of a first-class stamp: $.03

Popular Culture

• The Dennis the Menace comic strip appears in newspapers across the U.S. for the first time
• Topps Company started its first baseball card series
• Swanson introduces beef, chicken, and turkey pot pies
• The first Jack-in-the-Box opens
• S&H Green Stamps started
• The Great Flood of 1951 in Midwest United States
• Surgeons remove an ovarian cyst from Gertrude Levandowski in a 96-hour long operation in Chicago. She loses almost half of her weight.
• Shoppers World (one the first shopping malls in the U.S.) opens in Framingham, Massachusetts
• In Sweden, an 18-year-old sailor is fined for kissing in public. The court calls his actions "obnoxious behavior repulsive to the public morals."