2.  The Baby Boom  More children are born in the 1950s than any other decade  child born every 6.9 seconds  Reasons  Reunion of families after the war  Decreasing marriage age…down to about 21 for women and 23 for men  Advances in medicine  Economic Prosperity

3.  GI Bill of Rights- guaranteed veterans a years’ worth of unemployment benefits while job hunting; also paid part of their tuition  GIs purchase homes outside of the urban cities  Sub-developments became popular and the idea for the “cookie cutter” home was born  Ideal image that the man worked and the woman raised the family

4.  July 1948- issues executive order for desegregation of the armed forces  Also called for an end to discrimination in hiring government employees  1947- Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American to play in the MLB

5.  Democrat: Adlai Stevenson  Republican: Dwight D. Eisenhower  “I like Ike”  VP: Richard Nixon  Eisenhower wins

6.  Business  Franchises begin…McDonalds opened its first doors in Illinois in 1955  Disney Land opened in California in 1955

7.  Vaccine- drug to fight and prevent childhood diseases  First developed in 1950s  Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio  Baby boom had impact on child care and economy

8.  Leisure becomes important to those who survived the difficulties of the Great Depression and WWII  Peak of comic book production and sales  baseball reaches its zenith  Bowling alleys open in almost every city in America  Boy and Girl Scouts numbers reach all time high  Swimming pools become popular at both homes and public locations  Magazines

9.  Suburban living made owning a car necessary  Interstate Highway Act- authorized the building of a nationwide highway network  President Eisenhower  41,000 miles of highways  Led to new suburbs  Decline in the use of railroads  Provided jobs: drive-in movies, restaurants, malls  Negative: pollution, accidents