Dark Jazz Timeline: 1950 - 1964

For previous years, see Gernsback-9 Timeline.

For a history of magic and the occult, see Gernsback-9 Timeline: Occult History.

1950

US State Department official and League of Nations ambassador Alger Hiss disappears in Washington, DC. He resurfaces months later in Moscow and is revealed to have been acting as a spy for the USSR since the 1930s.

Soviet physicist Andre Sakharov defects to the US and reveals the USSR and Japan are cooperating to develop atomic weapons.

WSC demands both USSR and Japan allow open inspections of their atomic energy programs. League of Nations threatens to blockade ports in order to leverage compliance with inspections.

Vice-president Nixon is sent to China in an attempt to meet with Soviet and Japanese representatives. He is left waiting for nearly four hours before receiving a telegram from the Soviet ambassador expressing his regret that he will be unable to attend. The Japanese have several funeral bouquets sent to Nixon's hotel room in Shanghai.

Gordon Teal of Tesla Instruments in New Mexico produces the first transistor.

Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard is published and quickly becomes a bestseller.

June 23 - Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 disappears over Lake Michigan.

1951

Soviet War begins. Japanese invade Manchuria.

William Randolph Hearst dies at his estate on the Polynesian island of Tetiaroa. Half the estate is left to his wife and son, head of Hearst Communications, while the other half establishes over a hundred various trusts and provides funding for a number of philanthropical and scientific organizations.

Turing and Von Neumann construct their first “electronic brain” in Bonn, Germany.

USAF Project Grudge actually terminated (December).

1952

President Dewey collapses from exhaustion on the campaign trail while seeking re-election and is hospitalized. Vice-president Nixon takes over the campaign. His charismatic speeches and patriotic fervor draw crowds, but Dewey's untimely death one month before the election assures victory for Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson and his running-mate, a handsome and charming young Congressman from Massachusetts named John F. Kennedy (whose billionaire father financed their entire campaign).

L. Ron Hubbard publishes the book Scientology, a extension of his previous work in which he describes his “scientific religious philosophy” as the basis for a new world religion.

USAF Project Blue Book established (January).

1953

Newspaper reports of Richard Nixon's suicide are proven to be false when the former Vice-president holds a press conference in Los Angeles. Angry at the negative press and the trauma it has caused his family, Nixon furiously rejects suggestions that he will return to political life, insisting: “You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more.” Nixon utters several profanities during the event, which is broadcast live on nearly every television and radio network.

In the USSR, the “Scientist's Revolt” results in the destruction of the Soviet atomic bomb program, the collapse of the USSR and the death of Stalin. The Japanese take Mongolia and Vladivostok as League of Nation armies enter Moscow.

The Church of Scientology is incorporated in Camden, New Jersey.

1954

The League of Nations settles for peace with Japan, allowing the Japanese annexation of North China. The Chinese government lodges a formal protest with the International Security Council, but the US and Great Britain prevent the matter from being dicussed.

With the USSR defunct and Russia in chaos, both Armenia and the Ukraine become independent nations.

1955

Richard Nixon accepts a job with International Business Machines (IBM) as head of their new division in Manhattan Beach, California. The division consists of scientists at the cutting-edge of the field, tasked with developing advances in electronic brain technology. Nixon uses his connections and diplomatic skills to recruit top minds from around the world.

1956

The Johnson-Kennedy Democratic ticket wins in a landslide over former General Dwight Eisenhower, who is thought to be greatly hobbled by his choice of Vice-president, Republican governor Earl Warren of California. During a post-election interview, TV news journalist Walter Cronkite jokingly suggests to Eisenhower might have fared better had he chosen Nixon; Ike responds, “Nixon Who?”

Nixon hires a young Harvard graduate named Henry Kissinger to head the Games and Strategy Division at IBM's Manhattan Beach facility.

1957

Richard Nixon is featured on the cover of TIME magazine, pictured in front of the Manhattan Beach facility with the title, “Nixon's Think Tank.”

1958

Using calculations made by an electronic brain developed at IBM's Manhattan Beach facility, Frank Lloyd Wright's mile-high skyscraper is completed in New York City.

Distraught over his mother's death from hepatitis, rock crooner Elvis Presley commits suicide while on leave from the US Army.

Richard Nixon is named TIME Magazine's man of the year.

1959

Philippines, Alaska, and Hawaii granted statehood.

Appearing on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar, Richard Nixon juggles five bowling pins and announces he is running for President. Later that night he bowls a perfect set at Angel City Lanes in Los Angeles.

In Tibet a popular uprising against the occupying Chinese army receives support from an army of private soldiers. The Chinese are repelled and Tibet maintains its autonomy. The Dalai Lama declares that Tibet will maintain a defensive capability against Chinese aggression, but commits the nation to a continue course of peace in accordance with the Buddhist tradition. In pursuit of this agenda, the Tibetan government hires a private army to defend its borders.

1960

Running with the campaign slogan, “Nixon Who?” Richard Nixon triumphantly returns from self-imposed political exile and defeats Vice-president Kennedy in a narrow election that is ultimately decided when the Supreme Court ends a third round of vote counting in California.

Revolution in Cuba is ended when the WSC shuts off all electrical power to the country.

Astronomer Frank Drake launches Project Ozma, a search for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life using radio waves (which had been proposed by Nikola Tesla in the 1920s).

1961

President Nixon appoints Henry Kissinger, now President of IBM, to head the Department of Science.

Vice-president Rockefeller visits Russia, the first time a US official has traveled to the country since the end of the Soviet War.

Cuba is returned to the League of Nations under US Mandate.

The WSC begins construction of New Atlantis, a floating city in the Indian Ocean.

President Nixon establishes the Peace Corps.

1962

Upon the sudden retirement of longtime League Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, President Nixon surprises everyone by appointing former Vice-president Kennedy as US Ambassador to the League of Nations. Rockefeller and Kennedy work diligently to reform Russia and bring it to the protective fold of the League.

1963

President Nixon delivers a surprise address to Congress during the tenth day of filibuster of the Civil Rights Act. The President accuses the legislators of dithering and attempting to delay the controversial vote during an election year, and demands Congress act immediately, voting up or down on the law. The act passes with only five Southern states and the state of Arizona voting against.

November 23 - John F. Kennedy, former Vice-president and current US ambassador to the League of Nations, is assassinated by anarchists in Dallas, Texas.

Jomo Kenyatta elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya.

The Food and Drug Administration announces that after six years of testing it has found the methods of Dianetics employed by the Church of Scientology to have sound scientific basis. Ten years after its founding, Scientology is the fastest-growing religion in America.

1964

First meeting of the Pan African Congress in Nairobi.

Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam and announces he is forming a black nationalist party.

English rock band The Beatles denied visas to enter the US for a concert scheduled appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. President Nixon intervenes and meets personally with the ban when they arrive in New York City, a move which shifts the youth vote from Stevenson to Nixon.

October 19 - Apollo 1 lands successfully on the lunar surface. Astronaut Gus Grissom becomes the first American to set foot on the Moon. The mission lasts nearly two weeks, with the lunar capsule successfully returning on October 31.

On October 20, former President and US Army General Douglas MacArthur dies at Bethesda Hospital. By Presidential order and Congressional resolution, a week of national mourning is declared. MacArthur's body is allowed to lie in state for public viewing at the White House. Millions of people travel to Washington, some driving cross country to pay their respects. The funeral, which is televised internationally, takes place on October 31, three days before the national election. President Nixon delivers a stirring eulogy at the same moment the astronauts of Apollo 1 are returning to Earth.

November 3 - President Nixon is re-elected in a landslide against former Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson.