Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959. Alaska became the 49th state and Hawaii the 50th.
    The Korean War started in 1950 and ended in 1953.  Korea was split in half. The communist North Korea invaded the democratic South Korea. The Americans helped fight for the southern part of the the country.  The Americans tried to take territories from North Korea, which backfired. It resulted in Korea becoming 100% communist.
    In the year of 1953, two people named Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norkay reached the very top of Mt. Everest.  Mt. Everest is located in the country of Napal.  Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain was crowned. The 27th year old girl pledged herself to service her country.
    In 1954, the French were defeated in the Vietnam. The Vietnamese finally won control of Vietnam.

    In 1955, one of the most famous scientist, Albert Einstein died. He was 76 years old and had a brilliant mind. He invented many inventions, including the equation E=mc2 which was the key to the development of nuclar energy.

    Finally, in the fifties, the unhappiness of the blacks was still ongoing. Blacks had no freedom to have their own judgement or vote. They even had certain seats on cities buses where only whites could sit. Until December 1, 1955 when a black woman named Rosa Parks stood up for her rights.  She refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus system.  Even though she was arrested, she showed the people of that time they could stand up to the whites.  She continued to fight for civil rights, along with Dr. Martin Luther King, a pastor in Montgomery.  After this incident, he led a bus boycott that ended segregration on city buses in Montgomery.
 

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