1953 saw the growth of the buy now pay later mentality with car makers leading the way by allowing longer and longer periods to pay for your new car. The unions gained strength with more and more workers belonging to unions, with wage and price controls ended and unemployment at 2.9% the increases in standard of living continued to grow and appear to have no boundaries. A teachers average salary was $4,254 and a pound of round steak was 90 cents. The first color television sets appear selling for $1,175, and transistor radios start to appear for sale.





Cost of Living 1953

How Much things cost in 1953
Yearly Inflation Rate USA 0.82%
Yearly Inflation Rate UK 2.2%
Average Cost of new house $9.550.00
Average wages per year $4,000.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 20 cents
Average Cost of a new car $1,650.00
Kodak Brownie Flash Six-20 Camera History $13.00
Chain Saw $225.00
Below are some Prices for UK guides in Pounds Stirling

Average House Price 2,006



What Events Happened in 1953

  • Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest.
  • Death of Stalin
  • Dweight D Eisenhower President of the United States
  • President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450 on 27th April which defined controversial hiring and firing rules for Government Employment
  • The FBI rounds up communist leaders who were advocating overthrow of the Government
  • The U.S. Supreme Court gave power to enforce right-to-work laws
  • Shah of Iran is restored to power in Iran with help from the CIA
  • Dr. Jonas E. Salk, announced a vaccine had been used safely and successfully used in preliminary trials on 90 children and adults as a polio vaccine
  • Royal Yacht Britannia Launched
  • The strongest storms ever recorded break through flood defenses across the UK leaving 150 dead
  • Queen Elizabeth II crowned queen of England on June 2nd in UK
  • Four million workers go on a massive strike in France
  • The Soviet Union crushes protests against the communist government of East Germany
  • North Sea flood of 1953 kills 1,835 people in the southwestern Netherlands
  • An earthquake hits western Turkey killing 250
  • Jomo Kenyatta the future leader of Kenya is sentenced to seven years hard labour
  • Hurricane in South-East Asia - over 1000 dead
  • Rationing of sugar ends in the United Kingdom







Popular Culture

  • Ian Fleming publishes his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale in the United Kingdom


  • Playboy Magazine's 1st issue features Marilyn Monroe as its first cover girl and nude centerfold.


  • New York Yankees win fifth world series in a row


What do you remember ? was this the year you graduated ?, what music was being played the year you were born?

Popular Films

  • Peter Pan premieres
  • The Robe
  • From Here to Eternity
  • Shane
  • How to Marry a Millionaire
  • The War of The Worlds
  • Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe




Technology 1953

  • Albert Schweitzer was given the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize.


  • The first color television sets go on sale for about $1,175 in the US


  • New York adopts three color traffic lights


  • The Corvette the all American sports car goes on sale


  • Cigarette Smoking is reported as causing Lung Cancer


  • British Physicist Francis Crick and US Biologist James Watson unveil their famous Double Helix Model of DNA the materials in Chromosomes that control heredity




    • Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use )
    Transistor Radio USA from Texas Instruments