TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL OF SPRINGFIELD MA Class of 1957 - 1957 in Review
World Statistics
Population: 2.888 billion
Nobel Peace Prize:
Lester B. Pearson (Canada)
World events
Russia launches Sputnik I, first earth-orbiting satellite—the Space Age begins (Oct. 4).
The USSR tests its first successful ICBM.
U.S. Events
President: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Vice President: Richard M. Nixon
Population: 171,984,130
Life expectancy: 69.5 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.5
Eisenhower Doctrine calls for aid to Mideast countries that resist armed aggression from Communist-controlled nations (Jan. 5).
The 'Little Rock Nine' integrate Arkansas high school. Eisenhower sends troops to quell mob and protect the students after Gov. Orval Faubus defies federal order (Sept. 24).
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $461 billion
Federal spending: $76.58 billion
Federal debt: $272.3 billion
Consumer Price Index: 28.1
Unemployment: 4.1%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
Milwaukee Braves d. NY Yankees (4-3)
NBA Championship
Boston d. St. Louis Hawks (4-3)
Stanley Cup
Montreal d. Boston (4-1)
Wimbledon
Women: Althea Gibson d. D. Hard (6-3 6-2)
Men: Lew Hoad d. A. Cooper (6-2 6-1 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Iron Liege
NCAA Basketball Championship
North Carolina d. Kansas (54-53 3OT)
NCAA Football Champions
Auburn (AP) (10-0-0) & Ohio St. (UP, FW, INS) (9-1-0)
Entertainment
Top hits of 1957
1) 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On,' Jerry Lee Lewis
2) 'Jailhouse Rock,' Elvis Presley
3) 'Peggy Sue,' Buddy Holly
4) 'You Send Me,' Sam Cooke
5) 'Come Go With Me,' The Del-Vikings
6) 'School Day,' Chuck Berry
7) 'Lucille,' Little Richard
8) 'Little Darlin',' The Diamonds
9) 'Blue Monday,' Fats Domino
10) 'Wake Up Little Susie,' The Everly Brothers
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: No award
Music: Meditations on Ecclesiastes, Norman Dello Joio
Drama: Long Day's Journey Into Night, Eugene O'Neill
Oscars awarded in 1957
Academy Award, Best Picture: Around the World in 80 Days, Michael Todd, producer (United Artists)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Albert Camus (France)
Miss America: Marian McKnight (SC)
Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story debuts on Broadway and brings violence to the stage.
Eugene O'Neill's A Long Day's Journey Into Night is produced posthumously and wins both the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize.
Columbia University professor Charles Van Doren becomes a media sensation by winning $129,000 on the quiz show Twenty One.
Leave It to Beaver premieres on CBS, ushering in an era of television shows that depict the ideal American.
Movies
The Bridge on the River Kwai, Twelve Angry Men, Sayonara, Peyton Place, Witness for the Prosecution
Books
James Agee, A Death in the Family
John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle
Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures
Lawrence Durrell, Justine
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Denise Levertov, Here and Now
Bernard Malamud, The Assistant
Robert Penn Warren, Promises: Poems 1954—56
Theater
West Side Story
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Sir Alexander Todd (UK), for research with chemical compounds that are factors in heredity
Physics: Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang (China), for disproving principle of conservation of parity
Physiology or Medicine: Daniel Bovet (Italy), for development of drugs to relieve allergies and relax muscles during surgery
Temporary artificial heart invented by Willem Kolff.
Interferon invented by Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindemann (England and Switzerland).
Clarence W. Lillehie and Earl Bakk (US) invent the internal pacemaker. Background: Health & Nutrition
Bardeen, Cooper, and Scheiffer (US) propose a theory of superconductivity.
First round-the-world nonstop jet plane flight. Maj. Gen. Archie J. Old, Jr. (USAF) led a flight of three Boeing B-52 bombers around the world in 45 hours, 19 minutes (completed Jan. 18). Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
