1950 – CBS’s mechanical color system was the first to be licensed for broadcast by the FCC. Color TV would not become widespread until the late 1960s.
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/timeline/1946-1950/
1957 – The Jodrell Bank observatory, with the world’s largest radio telescope, designed by Sir Bernard Lovell, began operation. It’s first job was to track the just-launched Sputnik satellite.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9307367/Queens-Diamond-Jubilee-60-crowning-glories.html
1958 – NASA launched the lunar probe Pioneer 1 the first of the Pioneer program. It didn’t get very far, falling back to Earth and burning up in the atmosphere.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2372.html
Read Tom’s science fiction and other fiction books at Merritt’s Books site.