1. Important People in the 1950's

2. Rosa Parks On December 1, 1955, she boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama and sat down in the “colored” section. Several white passengers then boarded and the driver asked her to give up her seat for one of them. She refused, and the driver called the police and she was arrested. “ People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” - Rosa Parks February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005

3. Martin Luther King Jr. January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968 assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee He organized and led marches for blacks’ rights to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other basic civil rights.

4. Elvis Presley January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977 he is considered a cultural icon, sometimes referred to as "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", or simply "The King" throughout his career he set records for concert attendance, television ratings, and recordings sales he is one of the best-selling and most influential artists in the history of popular music

5. Marilyn Monroe June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962 original name was ‘Norma Jeane Mortenson’ she is known for her comedic acting roles and screen presence Monroe became one of the most popular movie stars of the 1950s and early 1960s

6. Joseph McCarthy November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957 Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period of intense anti- communist suspicion inspired by the tensions of the Cold War. He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, McCarthy's tactics and his inability to substantiate his claims led to his being discredited and censured by the United States Senate. the term “McCarthyism" coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist pursuits

7. Harry S. Truman May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1974 the thirty-third President of the United States (1945–1953) many U.S. scholars today rank him among the top ten presidents Harry S. Truman’s signature

8. Queen Elizabeth II born on April 21, 1926 (still living) the Queen regnant of sixteen independent states and their overseas territories and dependencies, which are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and Saint Kitts and Nevis she became queen upon the death of her father on February 6, 1952 Elizabeth II also holds a variety of other positions, among them is Head of the Commonwealth, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Duke of Normandy, Lord of Mann, and Paramount Chief of Fiji. married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and has four children and eight grandchildren

9. James Dean February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955 two-time Oscar-nominated American film actor he was the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and remains the only person to have two such nominations posthumously Dean was driving west on U.S. Route 466 (later State Route 46) near Cholame, California when a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe, driven from the opposite direction by 23-year-old Donald Turnupseed, attempted to take the fork onto State Route 41 and crossed into Dean's lane without seeing him. The two cars hit almost head on.