Happy 50th birthday to my wonderful mother. I sincerely hope I inherit her skin, because she still looks wonderful and she is definitely fabulous at 50. A half century ago things were very different. President John F. Kennedy had just been inaugurated, the Space Race had begun, the United States is in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement and Elvis, The Shirelles and Ray Charles were at the top of the music charts.
Here is a snapshot of life in 1961:
- Cost of a gallon of Gas was 27 cents
- Average yearly income: $5,735
- Cost of a new home: $12,500
- Cost of a new car: $2,850
- Federal hourly minimum wage: $1.15
- Life expectancy: 70.2 years
- The Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup
- Pampers, the first disposable diaper, are introduced
- Barbie gets a boyfriend when the Ken doll is introduced
- Ray Kroc buys out the McDonald brothers and takes control over the hamburger chain
- The last episode of I Love Lucy is aired
- FM stereo is introduced
- Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin makes the first manned space flight
- Navy Cmdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr. becomes the first United States man in space
- U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
- Fidel Castro declares Cuba is to adopt Communism and bans free elections
- "Freedom Riders" test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia by riding racially integrated interstate buses into the South. Some are attacked and beaten by white supremacist supporters of racial segregation.
- Construction of the Berlin Wall begins.
BAS
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