Timeline: Merlyn Matthew Banwart: Gerber Family of Langnau

1947 - 1964 (17 years)

	Date	Event(s)
1	1947	1947: USA - Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier 1947: Egypt - Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered 1947: UK - Jewish Refugees Aboard the Exodus Turned Back by British 1947: USA - Marshall Plan 1947: UK - British/Hungarian scientist, Dennis Gabor, developed holography 1947: USA - Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invent the transistor. 1947: USA - Earl Silas Tupper patented the Tupperware seal.
2	1948	1948: USA - Life magazine makes painter Jackson Pollock an overnight celebrity by devoting a three-page spread with color photographs to him and his paintings under the headline, Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?; Abstract Expressionism becomes a subject of widespread popular ridicule. 1948: Berlin, Germany - Berlin Airlift 1948: UK - Big Bang Theory Formulated 1948: India - Gandhi Assassinated 1948: South Africa - Policy of Apartheid Begun 1948: Israel - State of Israel Founded 1948: USA - The Frisbee® invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni. 1948: USA - Velcro® invented by George de Mestral. 1948: USA - Robert Hope-Jones invented the Wurlitzer jukebox
3	1949	1949: China - Mao Zedong proclaims Peoples Republic of China - China Becomes Communist 1949: First Non-Stop Flight Around the World 1949: UK - George Orwell Publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four 1949: USA - NATO Established 1949: USSR - Soviet Union Has Atomic Bomb 1949: USA - Cake mix invented.
4	1950	1950: UK - UK's longest running soap, The Archers, first airs on BBC Midlands Home Service 1950: USA - First Modern Credit Card Introduced 1950: UK - First Organ Transplant 1950: USA - First Peanuts Cartoon Strip 1950: Korea - Korean War Begins: United States (as part of the United Nations) and South Korea vs. North Korea and Communist China 1950-1953. 1950: USA - Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt 1950: USA - President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb 1950: USA - The first credit card (Diners) invented by Ralph Schneider. 26 May 1950: UK - Drivers cheer end of fuel rations.
5	1951	1951: USA - The word brainwashing is coined 1951: USA - Color TV Introduced 1951: South Africa - Citizens Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race 1951: USA - Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending World War II 1951: UK - Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister 1951: UK - Super glue invented. 1951: USA - Power steering invented by Francis W. Davis. 1951: USA - Charles Ginsburg invented the first videotape recorder (VTR).
6	1952	1952: UK - Car Seat Belts Introduced 1952: UK - Jacques Cousteau Discovers Ancient Greek Ship 1952: UK - Polio Vaccine Created 1952: UK - Mr. Potato Head patented. 1952: USA - The first patent for bar code (US Patent #2,612,994) issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver. 1952: USA - The first diet soft drink, the No-Cal Beverage, a ginger ale sold by Kirsch. 1952: USA - Edward Teller and team build the hydrogen bomb. 6 Feb 1952: UK - Elizabeth II, ruler of England 1952-present. House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Elder daughter of George VI 25 Nov 1952: London, UK - The Mousetrap opens. It will become the world's longest-running play
7	1953	1953: Paris, France - Waiting for Godot debuts 1953: Cambridge, UK - DNA Discovered 1953: UK - Hillary and Norgay Climb Mount Everest 1953: USSR - Joseph Stalin Dies 1953: USA - Dwight Eisenhower president 1953-1961. 1953: UK - Radial tyres invented. 1953: USA - The first musical synthesizer invented by RCA. 1953: USA - Transistor radio invented by Texas Instruments.
8	1954	1954: USA - Raymond Kroc buys McDonald's franchise rights and begins the global proliferation of the golden arches. 1954: UK - Britain Sponsors an Expedition to Search for the Abominable Snowman 1954: USA - First Atomic Submarine Launched 1954: UK - Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer 1954: UK - Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile 1954: USA - Segregation Ruled Illegal 1954: UK - Oral contraceptives invented. 1954: UK - The first non-stick pan produced. 1954: UK - The solar cell invented by Chaplin, Fuller and Pearson.
9	1955	1955: UK - ITV formed 1955: USA - Disneyland Opens 1955: USA - James Dean Dies in Car Accident 1955: USA - Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus 1955: UK - Warsaw Pact Signed 1955: UK - Optic fiber invented.
10	1956	1956: UK - Eurovision Song Contest starts 1956: USA - Elvis Gyrates on Ed Sullivan's TV Show 1956: Monaco - Grace Kelly Marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco 1956: Hungary - Hungarian Revolution 1956: USSR - Khrushchev Denounces Stalin 1956: UK - Suez Crisis - Britain, Israel and France invade Egypt 1956: UK - TV Remote Control Invented 1956: UK - The first computer hard disk used. 1956: UK - The hovercraft invented by Christopher Cockerell. 1956: USA - Bette Nesmith Graham invented Mistake Out, later renamed Liquid Paper, to paint over mistakes made with a typewriter.
11	1957	1957: USSR - The Space Age begins with the launch of Sputnik 1 - the first satellite 1957: USA - Dr. Seuss Publishes The Cat in the Hat 1957: Europe - European Economic Community Established 1957: USSR - Laika Becomes the First Living Animal in Space 1957: USA - Fortran (computer language) invented.
12	1958	1958: USA - UNIMATE is first industrial robot 1958: UK - Boris Pasternak Refuses Nobel Prize 1958: China - Mao Zedong Launches the Great Leap Forward 1958: USA - Hope Diamond is Donated to the Smithsonian 1958: UK - Lego Toy Bricks First Introduced 1958: USA - NASA Founded 1958: UK - The modem is invented. 1958: USA - Gordon Gould invents the laser. 1958: USA - The Hula Hoop is invented by Richard Knerr and Arthur 'Spud' Melin. 1958: CA, USA - The integrated circuit is invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.
13	1959	1959: Edinburgh, Scotland - Beyond the Fringe debuts 1959: Cuba - Fidel Castro Becomes Dictator 1959: Antarctica - International Treaty Makes Antarctica Scientific Preserve 1959: UK - Kitchen Debate Between Nixon and Khrushchev 1959: USA - The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway 1959: USA - U.S. Quiz Shows Found to be Fixed 1959: UK - The internal pacemaker invented by Wilson Greatbatch. 1959: UK - Barbie Doll invented.
14	1960	1960: Vietnam - Vietnam War Begins 1960: USA - The halogen lamp invented 21 Apr 1960: Brazil - Capital moved to a brand new city called Brasília 16 Jun 1960: USA - Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho Released 9 Dec 1960: UK - Launch of Coronation Street
15	1961	1961: Hague, Netherlands - Adolf Eichmann on Trial for Role in Holocaust 1961: Cuba - Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961: Berlin, Germany - Berlin Wall Built 1961: USA - Peace Corps Founded 1961: Baikonaur, USSR - Yuri Gagarin is First Man in Space 1961: USA - John F. Kennedy president 1961-1963. 1961: UK - Valium invented. 1961: UK - Non-dairy creamer invented.
16	1962	1962: USA - Movie Actress Marilyn Monroe dies of an overdose of sleeping pills. 1962: New York, NY, USA - Andy Warhol Exhibits His Campbell's Soup Can 1962: Cuba - Cuban Missile Crisis 1962: Berlin, Germany - First Person Killed Trying to Cross the Berlin Wall 1962: USA - Rachel Carson Publishes Silent Spring 1962: USA - The audio cassette invented. 1962: Japan - The fiber-tip pen invented by Yukio Horie. 1962: USA - Spacewar, the first computer video game invented. 1962: USA - Dow Corp invents silicone breast implants.
17	1963	1963: USA - Betty Friedan Publishes The Feminine Mystique 1963: USA - Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His I Have a Dream Speech 1963: USA - Lyndon B. Johnson president 1963-1969. Vice president under John F. Kennedy, he is sworn in as president aboard Air Force One upon death of Kennedy. 1963: UK - The first videodisc invented. 22 Nov 1963: Dallas, TX, USA - President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald
18	1964	1964: USA - The Beatles Become Popular 1964: UK - Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) Becomes World Heavyweight Champion 1964: USA - Civil Rights Act Passes 1964: USA - Hasbro Launches GI Joe Action Figure 1964: South Africa - Nelson Mandela Sentenced to Life in Prison 1964: UK - Acrylic paint invented. 1964: UK - Permanent-press fabric invented. 1964: USA - BASIC (an early computer language) is invented by John George Kemeny and Tom Kurtz.