This the second in my series of posts for the 21 Day Family History Connections Experiment.
It’s pretty easy to find information about what the world was like in the year you were born. Besides the obvious choice of Wikipedia.org, there are many sites dedicated to helping you flashback in history. A fun place to start is the FamilySearch Discovery – All About Me activity where you can discover interesting facts about everyone in your family’s birth year. Everyone can sign in with their account or a guest account. (It’s free and you will never get spam email.)
Here’s some fun things I discovered about 1955, the year I was born:
Gas cost $.29 cents a gallon. Four weeks ago, gas here averaged $2.70 a gallon. Six days ago (the last time I was in a car!), gas was $1. 89 and going down. I wonder how far it will drop!!
The wireless TV remote was invented by Eugene Polley. I don’t know about you folks but the first time I was able to change the TV channel from my couch involved pressing one of the several buttons on a large box, still connected by a cable to the TV. I think that was 1978.
There were 165.9 million people in the United States. There are now close to 330 million. (and of those there are currently 1.1 million confirmed cases of Covid-19.)
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the President of the United States. He was a Republican. His Vice-President was Richard M. Nixon. Eisenhower is quoted as saying, “America is best described by one word, freedom.” I wonder what one word our current President, Donald Trump would use. I don’t want to even hazard a guess.
The top-grossing film in 1955 was Lady and the Tramp. Life was so much simpler then!
The film of the year was Marty, starring Ernest Borgnine. That’s pretty cool since he was born in my hometown of Hamden, Connecticut!
Disneyland opens near Los Angeles, CA. Currently, both Disneyland and Disneyworld are closed as the entire country experiences “stay at home” orders.
War erupts between North and South Vietnam. The Vietnam war lasted 19 years. Sadly, this week, in just three months, US deaths from Covid-19 have surpassed all the 58,220 Americans who died over nearly two decades in Vietnam.
The Brooklyn Dodgers won the 1955 World Series defeating the New York Yankees, 4 – 3. The Dodgers have since moved on to become the Los Angles Dodgers.
I also checked out the website: http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1955.html where I explored some the toys from 1955. At various points in my life, I possessed 13 out of the 20!
So, what happened the year YOU were born? Share what you learned on my Facebook Page or in a comment on this post.
Who We Are and How We Got This Way 