How Well Do You Know These Events of 1951?

General Douglas MacArthur was recognized as a hero of World War II, and appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Japan. When North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, Truman appointed MacArthur to lead American troops in the South. MacArthur assured Truman the conflict would be over quickly, but when Truman wanted a ceasefire, MacArthur ignored the President and ordered troops to invade the North. Truman fired MacArthur soon after the invasion.

Virologist Max Theiler was born in South Africa and immigrated to the United States to do research at Harvard University. He worked as the director of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Virus Laboratory beginning in 1930. In 1937 he developed a vaccine for yellow fever, and in 1951 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work fighting the disease. The foundation produced 28 million doses of the vaccine, eventually helping bring an end to yellow fever.

Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg should have coordinated their marketing better: In 1951, Frost released “The Complete Poems,” and Sandburg released “Complete Poems” — two acclaimed works of literature. The Pulitzer for best volume of verse by an American author went to Sandburg’s collection. “Complete Poems” won Sandburg his third and final Pulitzer, after his wins in 1919 (for “Cornhuskers”) and 1940 (for “The War Years”).

The Universal Automatic Computer, or UNIVAC, was first used by the U.S. Census Bureau on June 14, 1951. UNIVAC I weighed 16,000 pounds, used over 5,000 vacuum tubes, and could perform 1,000 calculations per second. On November 4, 1952, the computer correctly predicted Dwight D. Eisenhower’s landslide victory in the U.S. presidential election after only a small percentage of the votes were counted.

In 1945, a year after being elected to his fourth term in office, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in office at the age of 63. Two years later, Congress passed a bill limiting presidential terms to two, and on February 27, 1951, the 22nd Amendment was ratified.

“All About Eve,” starring Bette Davis as an aging Broadway star, and Anne Baxter as a young fan who becomes an ambitious and ruthless actress herself, dominated the 1951 Oscars. It earned 14 nominations, a record matched only by 1997’s “Titanic,” and it is still the only film to earn four female acting nominations. In addition to Davis and Baxter, Celeste Holm and Thelma Ritter also got Supporting Actress nods, although none of the four actually took home the trophy.

The home run known as the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” resulted in one of the most famous calls of all time, by sportscaster Russ Hodges: “There’s a long drive, it’s gonna be, I believe… The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” Giants star Bobby Thomson hit the homer off an exhausted, overworked Ralph Branca of the Dodgers to send the Giants to the World Series, where they eventually lost to the Yankees.

Why is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame located in Cleveland? Well, one reason is because a Cleveland DJ named Alan Freed coined the phrase “rock ‘n’ roll” — at least publicly — on a 1951 radio broadcast. Freed hosted “The Moondog Rock & Roll House Party,” which popularized the name for the new uptempo sound.

“I Love Lucy” ran from 1951 to 1957, and it was the highest-rated show on television for four of its six seasons. The show centered on Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), a housewife who desperately wanted to work in showbiz, and her husband Ricky, who was played by Ball’s real-life husband, Desi Arnaz. “I Love Lucy” won the Emmy for Best Comedy twice, and Ball herself won the Emmy for Best Actress in 1956.

In 1951, CBS, RCA, and Color Television, Inc. were all racing to become the first network to broadcast color TV across the United States. The FCC originally gave approval only to CBS, as picture quality of the other two networks was deemed too low-quality for broadcast. CBS began color broadcasting on June 25, 1951, with a program appropriately called “Premiere.” The show starred Ed Sullivan, Arthur Godfrey, and Faye Emerson, among others.