Editing 1950s (section)

===Prominent political events===
* [[European Common Market]] – The [[European Communities]] (or Common Markets), the precursor of the [[European Union]], was established with the [[Treaty of Rome]] in 1957.
* On November 1, 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists staged an [[Attempted assassination of Harry S. Truman|attempted assassination]] on U.S. President [[Harry S. Truman]]. The leader of the team [[Griselio Torresola]] had firearm experience and [[Oscar Collazo]] was his accomplice. They made their assault at the [[Blair House]] where President Truman and his family were staying. Torresola mortally wounded a White House policeman, [[Leslie Coffelt]], who shot Torresola dead before expiring himself. Collazo, as a co-conspirator in a felony that turned into a homicide, was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to death in 1952 but then his sentence was later commuted to life in prison.
* On July 7, 1950, the first [[Group Areas Act]] was promulgated by the [[Parliament of South Africa]] and implemented over a period of several years. The passing of the Act contributed significantly to the period of institutionalised [[racial segregation]] and [[discrimination]] in [[South Africa]] known as [[Apartheid]], which lasted from 1948 to 1991. One of the most famous uses of the Group Areas Act was the destruction of [[Sophiatown]], a suburb of [[Johannesburg]], which began on 9 February 1955.
* Establishment of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]], through the [[Bandung Conference]] of 1955, consisting of [[Member states of the United Nations|nations]] not formally aligned with or against any [[Cold War|major power bloc]].

[[File:Soviet empire 1960.png|thumb|The maximum territorial extent of countries in the world under [[Soviet Empire|Soviet]] [[Sphere of influence|influence]], after the [[Cuban Revolution]].]]

====Asia====
* The U.S. ended its occupation of Japan, which became fully independent. Japan held democratic elections and recovered economically.
* Within a year of its establishment, the People's Republic of China had reclaimed Tibet and intervened in the Korean War, causing years of hostility and estrangement from the United States. Mao admired Stalin and rejected the changes in Moscow after Stalin's death in 1953, leading to growing tension with the Soviet Union.
* In 1950–1953, France tried to contain a growing communist insurgency led by [[Ho Chi Minh]]. After their defeat in the [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]] in 1954 France granted independence to the nations of [[Cambodia]], [[Laos]], and [[Vietnam]]. At the [[Geneva Conference of 1954]] France and the Communists agreed to divide Vietnam and hold elections in 1956. The U.S. and South Vietnam rejected the Geneva accords and the division became permanent.
* The [[Chinese Civil War]], which had started officially in 1927 and continued until the [[Second World War]] had ended on May 7, 1950. It resulted in the previous incumbent government in China, the [[Republic of China]], retreating to the islands of Taiwan and [[Hainan]] until the [[Landing Operation on Hainan Island]].

====Africa====
* Africa experienced the beginning of large-scale top-down economic interventions in the 1950s that failed to cause improvement and led to charitable exhaustion by the [[Western world|West]] as the century went on. The widespread corruption was not dealt with and war, disease, and famine continued to be constant problems in the region.
* Egyptian general [[Gamel Abdel Nasser]] overthrew the Egyptian monarchy, establishing himself as President of [[Egypt]]. Nasser became an influential leader in the Middle East in the 1950s, leading Arab states into war with [[Israel]], becoming a major leader of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]] and promoting [[Pan-Arabism|pan-Arab unification]].
* In 1957, [[Kwame Nkrumah|Dr. Kwame Nkrumah]], after a series of negotiations with the then British empire, secured the independence of Ghana. Ghana was hitherto referred to as Gold Coast, a colony of the [[British Empire]].

====Americas====
[[File:Dwight D. Eisenhower, official photo portrait, May 29, 1959.jpg|thumb|Official portrait of [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], [[president of the United States]] for a majority of the 1950s]]
[[File:Eduardo Lonardi y Pedro Eugenio Aramburu Revolución Libertadora.png|thumb|Presidents [[Eduardo Lonardi]] and [[Pedro Eugenio Aramburu|Pedro Aramburu]], the first and second leader of the "Revolución Libertadora" dictatorship in Argentina.]]
* In 1950, [[Colony of Greenland|Greenland]] (27 May) became a [[Danish colonial empire|Colony]] of the [[Kingdom of Denmark]]. [[North Greenland]] and [[South Greenland]] were united with one [[list of governors of Greenland|governor]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Greenland.html|title=Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat)|publisher=World Statesmen|language=en|access-date=30 June 2016}}</ref> 
* In 1953, [[County of Greenland|Greenland]] (5 June) was made an equal and integral part of [[Denmark]] as an [[amt#Denmark|amt]].
* In 1954, the [[CIA]] [[Operation PBSUCCESS|orchestrated the overthrow of the Guatemalan government]] of [[Jacobo Arbenz]] and installed [[Carlos Castillo Armas]].
* In 1955, [[Juan Perón]]'s government is overthrown by military officers in the self-proclaimed ''[[Revolución Libertadora]]'' in [[Argentina]].
* In 1956, the [[Montgomery bus boycott]] occurred against the policy of [[racial segregation]] on the public transit system of [[Montgomery, Alabama]], US. It was a foundational event in the [[civil rights movement]], sparked by activist [[Rosa Parks]], and officially ended when the federal ruling ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'' took effect and led to a Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis55.htm#1955mbb |title=Montgomery Bus Boycott |website=Civil Rights Movement Archive }}</ref>
* In 1957, Dr. [[François Duvalier]] came to power in an election in [[Haiti]]. He later declared himself president for life, and ruled until his death in 1971.
*In 1958, the military dictatorship of Venezuela was overthrown.
* In 1959, [[Alaska]] (3 January) and [[Hawaii]] (21 August) became the 49th and 50th states respectively of the United States.
* In 1959, [[Fidel Castro]] overthrew the regime of [[Fulgencio Batista]] in [[Cuba]], establishing a [[Communism|communist]] government in the country. Although Castro initially sought aid from the US, he was rebuffed and later turned to the Soviet Union.
* [[NORAD]] signed in 1959 by Canada and the United States creating a unified North American air defense system.
* [[Brasília]] was built in 41 months, from 1956, and on April 21, 1960, became the capital of Brazil

====Europe====
* With the help of the [[Marshall Plan]], post-war reconstruction succeeded, with some countries (including West Germany) adopting free market capitalism while others adopted Keynesian-policy welfare states. Europe continued to be divided into ''Western'' and ''Soviet bloc'' countries. The geographical point of this division came to be called the [[Iron Curtain]].
* Because previous attempts for a unified state failed, Germany remained divided into two states: the capitalist [[Federal Republic of Germany]] in the west and the socialist [[German Democratic Republic]] in the east. The Federal Republic identified itself as the legal successor to the [[Nazi Germany|fascist dictatorship]] and was obliged in paying war reparations. The GDR, however, denounced the fascist past completely and did not recognize itself as responsible for paying reparations on behalf of the Nazi regime. The GDR's more harsh attitude in suppressing [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] and [[Russophobia|Russophobic]] sentiment lingering in the post-Nazi society resulted in increased emigration to the west.
* While the United States military maintained its bases in western Europe, the Soviet Union maintained its bases in the east. In 1953, [[Joseph Stalin]], the leader of the Soviet Union, died. This led to the rise of [[Nikita Khrushchev]], who denounced Stalin and pursued a more liberal domestic and foreign policy, stressing peaceful competition with the West rather than overt hostility. There were anti-Stalinist uprisings in East Germany and Poland in 1953 and Hungary in 1956.
* The [[Coronation of Elizabeth II]] took place on June 2, 1953, months after the death of her father King [[George VI]]. [[Elizabeth II]] was crowned Queen of the [[United Kingdom]] and other [[Commonwealth realms]] at [[Westminster Abbey]] in [[London]] in a first ever televised broadcast.