Last night I gave my presentation to the Sunniside History Society looking at events from the 70 year reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Over the next few days I will publish a list for each decade. Below are the events I included from the 1950s, starting obviously with Princess Elizabeth becoming Queen.
1952
February, Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen
December – smog in London kills 4,000
Singin’ in the Rail premiers
US
tests first hydrogen bomb
1953
Coronation of the Queen (June)
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climb Everest
Korean War ends
Stalin dies
Royal
Yacht Britannia commissioned
1954
First under 4 minute mile run by Roger Bannister
Rationing ends in UK
A de Haviland Comet crashes in the Mediterranean
Alan
Turing dies
1955
HMS Ark Royal is commissioned
Winston Churchill resigned as PM at the age of 80, replaced by Anthony Eden
Eden leads Conservatives to victory in general election
Heatwave and drought in UK
Unemployment at 215,000, 1%
Ruth Ellis last woman to be hanged
Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall become first news readers to be seen reading the news
Commercial tv starts broadcasting
Princess Margaret announces she will not marry Group Captain Peter Townsend
Dame Evelyn Sharp appointed Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the first woman civil servant to attain this most senior position within the UK
Clement
Atlee resigns as Labour leader after 20 years
1956
Premium bonds launched
The Queen opens the world's first commercial nuclear power station at Calder Hall
PG Tips launch their long-running advertising campaign using a chimpanzees (with voices provided by Peter Sellers).
Tesco
open their first self-service store in the UK
1957
Harold Macmillan takes over as PM
Petrol rationing lifted
The 1957–1958 influenza pandemic ("Asian flu"), which has already killed thousands of people worldwide, reaches Britain where it will kill a number estimated at between 20,000 and 33,000
Prime
Minister Harold Macmillan makes his speech in which he claims that "most of our
people have never had it so good"
1958
Life
peerages introduced allowing women to sit in House of Lords for the first time
The Queen bestows the title Prince of Wales on Prince Charles
1st broadcast of Blue Peter
1959
Conservatives win the general election with another increased majority
Economic growth for the year is a very strong 7.2% while
the inflation shows a zero percentage change over the
year
Prime Minister Macmillan makes the "Wind of Change" speech for the first time
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