The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the “Fifties” or the ” ’50s”) (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959.
Throughout the decade, the world continued its recovery from World War II, aided by the post-World War II economic expansion. The period also saw great population growth with increased birth rates and the emergence of the baby boomer generation. Despite this recovery, the Cold War developed from its modest beginnings in the late 1940s to a heated competition between the Soviet Union and the United States by the early 1960s. The ideological clash between communism and capitalism dominated the decade, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, with conflicts including the Korean War in the early 1950s, the Cuban Revolution, the beginning of the Vietnam War in French Indochina, and the beginning of the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957. Along with increased testing of nuclear weapons (such as RDS-37 and Upshot–Knothole), the tense geopolitical situation created a politically conservative climate. In the United States, a wave of anti-communist sentiment known as the Second Red Scare resulted in Congressional hearings by both houses in Congress. The beginning of decolonization in Africa and Asia also took place in this decade and accelerated in the following decade. (Wikipedia)
Skiers basking in the winter sun, Cranmore Mountain Resort, North Conway, New Hampshire, 1955.Taxi driver, Flin Flon, Manitoba, 1956.Midtown and Lower Manhattan covered in smog, New York, 1955.Mom and son in fashionable wear, New York City, 1953.Edinburgh Lawnmarket looking east towards the High street and St. Giles, 1953.The Pioneer Club at night, Las Vegas, 1951.Camera Girl, 1950s.TV times for December, 1959.Legs, 1958.Whispering wall, London, 1950.THE CAT ATE THE RAT Ohio license plates, 1950.Jackie Kennedy taking a selfie in the mirror with Ethel Kennedy and John F. Kennedy, 1954.Rome, Italy, 1957.Jayne Mansfield in Corpus Christi, Texas, 1958.Main Street in Moscow, Idaho, 1952.Buying ice-cream, Moscow, Russia, 1958.Portrait of a young woman in 1954.Market Square in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, 1950s.New York City in 1958.Little girl in Urambo, Tanganyika (Tanzania),1952.Times Square, New York City, 1951.Havana harbor, Cuba, 1954.Young German girl feeding a bird, 1950s.Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield, 1957Jacqueline Kennedy in her wedding dress, September 12, 1953.Marilyn Monroe in the early 1950s.Sugar Ray’s, 124th and 7th, NYC, 1950.Young couple in the 1950s.22 students crammed in a telephone cabin to set up a record in California, 1959.The observatory on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, NYC, 1950.Bologna in the 1950s.Seventeen-year-old Bianca Passarge of Hamburg dresses up as a cat and dances on wine bottles, June 1958.Looking west on Ventura Boulevard at Woodman Avenue, Los Angeles, 1952.Cheerleader, 1958.Skating is Healthy, 1950s.RCA Building, Times Square, NYC, 1953.Kensington Market, Toronto, 1957.Marilyn Monroe, 1956.Los Angeles, 1952.Broadway, Los Angeles, 1954.Ercolano, Italia, 1955.Colorado, 1955.Rue de Partants, Paris, 1950sYoung woman. Omagari, Akita, 1953.Swimming exams at Newcastle Ocean Baths, 1953. This is probably part of a water safety or life-saving test. She isn’t going to swim lengths in her clothes.Schoolgirls pedalling home to change their clothes because tight-fitting slacks, pedal-pushers and shorts had been banned from their West Berlin school, 1953.Kirk Douglas on the beach at Cannes with a young actress Brigitte Bardot during the 6th International Cannes Film Festival, 1953.The Queen, pictured in 1952.Elvis Presley and Messerchmitt Bubble Car, Memphis, 1956.Audrey Hepburn with her dog Mr. Famous on the Paramount lot, Hollywood, 1957.
Yesterday Today 