After a tentative start in 1950, (see my posts on this Home Page) 1951 was quite a busy year in the sci-fi film genre. These are some of the films that will be featured in this blog.
· The Thing: From Another World
· The Man From Planet X
· When Worlds Collide
· The Day the Earth Stood Still
· Five
· Unknown World
· Flight To Mars
The first film to be featured will be, The Thing: From Another World. But before we do, let’s take a bit of time to get a feel of that significant year for sci-fi in the movies…
A Taste of the Times (1951)
- The President of the US is still Harry S “The Buck Stops Here” Truman
- Despite peace talks, the Korean War continues.
- The UN condemns the People's Republic of China as being the aggressor in Korea.
- Seoul falls first to Communist forces and later to US-led UN troops
- MacArthur threatened the Chinese with an extension of the Korean War if the proposed truce was not accepted. He was soon to be dismissed by Truman.
- Colour television makes its first appearance in the U.S.
- The first transcontinental wireless phone call was made.
- Charles F. Blair, Jr. makes the first solo flight across North Pole, the setting for The Thing!
- Recording of the song “Rocket 88,” which has been credited as being the first rock ’n’ roll record.
- UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), the first commercial computer able to handle both numeric and alphabetic data, makes its debut.
- The first nuclear power plant is built by the US Atomic Energy Commission.
- The first H Bomb test was conducted on Eniwetok Atoll.
- Construction of back-yard A-bomb shelters increased.
- Atomic testing began in the Nevada desert.
- Stalin declares that Russia has an atom bomb.
- FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is responsible for a secret nationwide program intended to remove politically suspect employees from their jobs.
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for treason.
©Chris Christopoulos 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment