1950s

File:1950s decade montage.png|370x370px|thumb|right|'''Top, L-R:''' U.S. Marines engaged in street fighting during the '''[[Korean War]]''', {{circa}} late September 1950; The first '''[[polio vaccine]]''' is developed by [[Jonas Salk]].'''Centre, L-R:''' US tests its first '''[[thermonuclear bomb]]''' with code name ''[[Ivy Mike]]'' in 1952. A 1954 thermonuclear test, code named ''[[Castle Romeo]]''; In 1959, [[Fidel Castro]] overthrows [[Fulgencio Batista]] in the '''[[Cuban Revolution]]''', which results in the creation of the first and only communist government in the Western hemisphere; '''[[Elvis Presley]]''' becomes the leading figure of the newly popular music genre of [[rock and roll]] in the mid-1950s.'''Bottom, L-R:''' Smoke rises from oil tanks on Port Said following the invasion of Egypt by Israel, United Kingdom and France as part of the '''[[Suez Crisis]]''' in late 1956; The '''[[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]]'''; The [[Soviet Union]] launches '''''[[Sputnik 1]]''''', the first artificial satellite to orbit the [[Earth]], in October 1957. This starts the [[Space Race]] between the Soviet Union and the [[United States]]. rect 0 0 254 206 [[Korean War]] rect 254 0 538 206 [[polio vaccine]] rect 0 206 166 414 [[Thermonuclear weapon]] rect 166 208 371 414 [[Cuban Revolution]] rect 371 208 538 414 [[Elvis Presley]] rect 0 414 262 606 [[Suez Crisis]] rect 260 414 390 607 [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] rect 390 414 540 607 [[Sputnik 1]] The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties" or the "50s") (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959. Throughout the decade, the world continued its recovery from World War II, aided by the post-World War II economic expansion. The period also saw great population growth with increased birth rates and the emergence of the baby boomer generation. Despite this recovery, the Cold War developed from its modest beginnings in the late 1940s to a heated competition between the Soviet Union and the United States by the early 1960s.