THE YEARS 1945 AND 1963

1945:

How Much things cost in 1945:
Average Cost of new house $4.600.00         Average wages per year $2,400.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 15 cents                  Average Cost for house rent $60.00 per month
Average Cost New Car $1,020.00


Academy Awards 1945:

Best Motion Picture: Anchors Aweigh (MGM)
Best Actor Bing Crosby, The Bells of St. Mary's
Best Actress Ingrid Bergman, The Bells of St. Mary's

Technology 1945:

Percy Spencer accidentally discovers that microwaves can heat food

In 1945 only 5,000 homes have Television Sets

Assembly of the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer
(ENIAC), is completed.  It covers 1800 feet of floor space. The first set of calculations is run on the computer.

Invention Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use ) 1945
Atomic Bomb USA by Robert Oppenheimer's team

World War II 1945:

Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Fuhrerbunker

Nazis begin to evacuate from Auschwitz concentration camp

The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces

American B-29 bombers attack Japan with incendiary bombs . Tokyo is fire-bombed killing 100,000 citizens.

Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day, Eva Braun, commit suicide

Joseph Goebbels and his wife commit suicide after killing their 6 children

V-E Day (Victory in Europe, as Nazi Germany surrenders) commemorates the end of World War II in Europe.

 
William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw" is captured.   He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio.  He is hanged in January of 1946.

Germany is divided between Allied occupation forces

The United States detonates an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan

The United States detonates an atomic bomb nicknamed "Fat Man" over the city of Nagasaki, Japan

Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender on the radio.  The United States called this day V-J Day (Victory in Japan).

World War II ends

The first German war crimes trial begins in Nuremberg.

Events:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945) dies in office; Vice President Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) takes the Oath of Office.

United Nations founded.

A US Bomber Crashes into the 79th Floor of The Empire State Building



1963:

How Much things cost in 1963:
Average Cost of new house $12,650.00     Average Income per year $5,807.00
Gas per Gallon 29 cents                            Average Cost of a new car $3,233.00
Loaf of bread 22 cents

Academy Awards 1963:

Best Picture: Tom Jones
Best Actor: Sidney Poitier, Lilies of the Field
Best Actress: Patricia Neal, Hud

1963 News:

The biggest news from 1963 was the assassination of the US President Kennedy which thrust Lyndon Johnson into the role of president and the murder, two days later, of Lee Harvey Oswold by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

This was a difficult time to become president with the mounting troubles in Vietnam where the Viet Cong Guerrillas had now killed 80 American Advisors and the continued campaign for civil rights by the black community caused violent reactions from whites including Mississippi, Virginia and Alabama where the black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested.

Films included "The Birds" and "The Great Escape" and popular TV programs "The Virginian" and "Lassie".

Ladies fashion clothes and hairstyles included fir boots and towering hair do's for evening wear.

In music the beginning of Beatlemania after they release "I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There" and "Meet the Beatles".

Events 1963:

President John F Kennedy assassinated in the United States  Lyndon Johnson Becomes President

The Profumo Crisis in the UK causing resignations from the cabinet caused by war minister John Profumo having an affair with Christina Wheeler who was also involved with a Soviet Navy officer

Alcatraz closes

Pope John XXIII dies

Pope Paul VI is elected by College of Cardinals.

The Great Train Robbery takes place in Buckinghamshire, England

First US State Lottery in New Hampshire

Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech

Jack Ruby murders John F. Kennedy's suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald live on television.