1957 was a wonderful year!

This post is suppose to be about the year we were born. I know my parents lived in Oklahoma the year I was born. I can not imagine what my grandmother went through sending her 20 year old daughter back to Oklahoma from Iowa with her newborn baby, let alone how my mother felt so very alone. I know we lived in a small trailer in a trailer park in Altus, Oklahoma. I remember “American Bandstand” from later years and my dad’s favorite movie was “Bridge over River Kwai” So I remember that, otherwise I don’t remember any of it obviously. Thank heavens for the internet and Google!

How Much things cost in 1957

 Yearly Inflation Rate USA 3.34%  Yearly Inflation Rate UK  3.3%  Average Cost of new house $12,220.00  Average Monthly Rent $90.00  Average Yearly Wages $4.550.00  Cost of a gallon of Gas 24 cents Bacon per pound 60 cents  Eggs per dozen28 cents  HI FI Portable Record Player $79.95  Children's Shoes $5.95

What Events Happened in 1957

U.S.  •Toyota starts selling cars in the US, the first is the Toyopet Crown

Egypt --- Suez Canal Crisis 1956 - 1957

•Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal

Malaya  • Malaya Gains Independence From Britain

World --- Asian Flu Pandemic

• Asian Flu pandemic claims over 150,000 lives world wide

UK  •Windscale nuclear power plant accident on 10th October  in UK

Russia --- First artificial satellite Sputnik 1 Launched Successfully

•USSR launches Sputnik 1 on October 4th  inaugurating the Space Age and the Space Race 

U.S.  • Portable Radar Devices Used To Enforce Speed Limits

Vietnam --- Viet Cong Guerrillas attack South Vietnam

•South Vietnam attacked by Viet Cong Guerrillas

Italy  •Treaty of Rome ( The EEC European Economic Community is formed )

World --- Baby Boomers

•1957 was the peak of the Baby Boomer years

U.S.  •Martin Luther King Jr heads nationwide resistance to racial segregation and discrimination in the US

U.S.  •Federal Troops sent to Arkansas to enforce anti segregation laws               

Singapore  • Singapore gains Self Rule

U.S.  •Tidal Wave follows Hurricane Audrey into coasts of Texas and Louisiana

U.S.  •The National Guard on the order of Governor Orval Faubus is used to prevent nine African American students from entering Central High School in Little Rock on September 4th and shortly after Federal troops charge defiant protesters with fixed bayonets to ensure nine African American Students can attend Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas

U.S.  • The Mackinac suspension bridge opens connecting the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan.

UK  • Foot and Mouth in England Reaches epidemic proportions with 30,000 animals slaughtered

U.S.  • The House for Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) convicts a number of writers and playwright's for Un-American Activities / Communist party membership

Haiti  •Physician Francois Duvalier PAPA DOC becomes president of Haiti

Ghana  •Ghana Gains Independence From Great Britain

Popular Culture

•Elvis Presley purchases a mansion in Memphis, Tennessee and calls it Graceland

•The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool ( Where the Beetle's started )

•The Film Jailhouse Rock premiers with Elvis Presley

• "American Bandstand" the teenagers chart music show makes its network debut on ABC

Popular Films

•The Ten Commandments

•Around the World in Eighty Days

•12 Angry men

•Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley

•The Bridge on the River Kwai

•The Three Faces of Eve

 

Popular Books

•The Cat in the Hat - Dr. Seuss

•From Russia with Love - Ian Fleming

•The Guns of Navarone - Alistair MacLean