It Was 1952 – Happy Birthday Mom!
Back in 1952…
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- • Dwight Eisenhower was elected President of the United States
- • That was the first time the elections were broadcast on TV
- • Speaking of TV: I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriet, Jackie Gleason, Dina Shore, and George and Gracie were all hits
- • Gasoline was 20¢ a gallon
- • Jonas Salk developed a successful Polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh
- • Ernest Hemingway published The Old Man and the Sea
- • The average price of a Ford was $2,000
- • That’s just over 20 grand in 2022 money. Things cost less back then.
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- • Famous Births: Paul Stanley (Kiss), Terry O’Quinn (Lost), John Goodman (Roseanne), David Hasselhoff (Knight Rider), Mr. T
- • The first Mr. Potato Head was sold
- • You could easily buy a house for under $10,000
- • That’s about 100 grand in 2022 money. Good luck with that.
- • Chevrolet Corvette prototype completed, production models introduced the next year
- • Princess Elizabeth coronated Queen of England
- • Microwave ovens first sold for domestic use. They were the size of refrigerators.
- • One pound of ground beef: 53¢
- • The first contraceptive pill was created
- • The Yankees beat Brooklyn in the World Series
- • A loaf of bread cost 12¢
- • The Greatest Show on Earth, High Noon, and Limelight were at the box office
- • The Olympics were held in Helsinki, Finland
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- • Postage stamps cost 3¢
- • The Today Show premiered on NBC
- • Construction began on the first nuclear submarine U.S.S. Nautilus
- • A hamburger at McDonald’s cost 15¢
- • The Korean War was still a thing
- • But Color TV wasn’t
- • And ball point pens hadn’t caught on yet
- • Long distance phone calls existed, and cost about 50¢ per minute to call New York from Philadelphia
- • If you think that’s bad, it cost $2.50 per minute to call California from New York
- • Puerto Rico became a Commonwealth of the U.S.
- • T-Bone Steak: 59¢ per pound
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- • The first commercial jet aircraft entered service
- • More Famous Births: Patrick Swayze, Christopher Reeve, Jeff Goldblum, Mandy Patinkin
- • Everybody smoked, and cigarettes cost about 25¢ per pack
- • The first successful artificial heart was transplanted
- • The first B-52 Stratofortress took to the skies
- • My mom was born on February 11th in Lebanon, Pennsylvania – Happy Birthday Mom!
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Images and data as of January 2022. All registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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