Holidays
In the 50s and 60s there were several official holidays. It is interesting, decades later, to see how some of those dates have changed, some names have changed and some traditions are less observed
In the 50s and 60s we had
New Year’s Day- Jan 1
Good Friday- the Friday before Easte
Victoria Day- in 1952 was made the Monday before May 25
Dominion Day – July 1- later was called Canada Day
Civic Holidays – some communities made August 1 a holiday. Calgary often made the day of the Stampede Parade also a noted civic event and a lot of people were not expected to go to their paid job that morning
Labor Day- the first Monday in September
Thanksgiving- as of 1957 was made the second Monday in October
Remembrance Day- Nov 11
Christmas Day- December 25
Politics
I was not aware of politics as a child, not local, not provincial, not national and not international. My world was small. I think that is true for most little kids. If their world does involve effects of world war that’s a sad thing. However there were developments in our era that did affect us. Looking back a person might recognize names we heard on radio
1946 – Calgary mayor is J. C. Watson
1946 – Canadian Citizenship Act- Canadians are no longer British citizens
1948 – Jewish state of Isreal is formed
1948 – John Humphrey of Canada helps from UN Declaration of Human Rights
1949 – Berlin blockade is lifted
1949 – Mao tse-tung proclaims Communist republic
1949 – NATO is formed
1949 – South Africa practices apartheid
1949 – US withdraws from S. Korea
1949 – Vietnam becomes sovereign from France
1950 – Calgary mayor is Don MacKay
1950- White Hat Tradition when Mayor Don McKay greets visiting celebrities with this symbol. The white felt cowboy hat was created by Smithbilt Hats Inc in 1946 , designed by Morris Shumiatcher. It was worn by Bill Herron in the 1947 Stampede Parade and was worn a lot in 1948 at the Grey Cup in Toronto.
1950 – world population is 2.3 billion
1951 – Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Calgary ( we were two years old)
1951 – King Abdullah of Jordan is assassinated
1952 – King George VI dies. Queen Elizabeth II is new monarch
1952 – 16,000 people flee East Berlin to get to West Berlin
1952 – Britain makes an atomic bomb
1952 – Princess Elizabeth becomes queen of England after death of her father King George VI
1953 – Chief David Crowchild was head of the Sarcee nation nearby
1953- Dag Hammarskjold is secretary general of UN
1954 – racial segregation is ended in US public schools
1954 – Senator Joseph McCarthy pursues alleged Communists in US
1954 – The US Nautilus is the world’s first atomic powered vessel
1954 – US and Canada agree to build DEW line northern defence system
1955 – bus boycotts over race segregation in Alabama
1955 – Calgary mayor was Don MacKay
1955 – Italy, West Germany and France form European Union
1955 – Peron resigns in Argentina
1955 – US and Russia developed Intercontinental ballistic missiles that can deliver nuclear warheads
1956 – Canada’s External affairs minister Lester Pearson suggests a UN emergency force, is given the Nobel Peace Prize and sets Canada up for a major role as an international peace keeper after the Suez Crisis
1956 – Fidel Castro overthrows dictator Battista
1956 – Lester Pearson introduces UN peacekeeping
1956 – Nasser becomes president of Egypt and seizes Suez Canal
1956 – Pakistan becomes an Islamic republic
1956 – Soviet troops enter Hungary
1957 – Jimmy Hofa and teamsters conflict in US
1957 – President Eisenhower deals with race riots in Little Rock Arkansas
1957 – Queen Elizabeth visits Canada
1958 – Alaska becomes 49th state
1958 – DeGaulle becomes president of France
1958 – St. Lawrence Seaway opens replacing 22 small locks with 7 large locks
1959 – Calgary Mayor is H. W. Hays
1959 – Castro now leads Cuba
1959 – Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visit Calgary ( we were 10)
1959- President Bandaranaika of Ceylon is assassinated
1960 – Adolf Eichmann, former head of Gestapo, is arrested
1960 – Belgian Congo gains independence
1960 – Brezhnev is President in USSR
1960 – Students have sit ins at lunch counters for racial righs in North Carolina
1960 – A U2 spy plane was shot down over Russia ( we were 11)
1961 – Freedom riders in US are attacked for racial activism
1961 – the Berlin Wall is built
1961 – UN condemns apartheid
1962 – the Cuban missile crisis happened and the world seemed teetering on the brink of war ( We were 13)
1962 – Uganda and Tanganyika gain independence
1962 – USSR sends arms to Cuba
1962 – world population is 3.1 billion. 44% of adults are illiterate
1963 – Alabama riots about racial equality
1963 – assassination of US president Kennedy. We were in high school when the PA broadcast this shocking news. (We were 14).
1963 – Calgary mayor is Grant Mac Ewan
1963 – US and USSR agree to have emergency land phone line in crisis
1963 – Vietnam government falls
1964 – Kenya becomes a republic
1964 – Queen Elizabeth visits Canada
1964 – Race riots in Harlem
1964 – UN peacekeepers enter Cyprus
1965 – Calgary major is Jack Leslie
1965 – Ku Klux Klan is active in US
1965 – Malcolm X is shot in New York
1965 – Martin Luther King leads protest march in Alabama
1965 – Rhodesia gets independence
1965 – The Vietnam war is waging. The US was deeply involved and many people our age were going. As it went on some draft dodgers came to Canada and were students at our university.
1967 – Expo 67 is celebrated in Montreal
1967 – many demonstrations in US against and for Vietnam War
1967 – People’s Republic of China explodes hydrogen bomb
1967 – President DeGaulle visits Canada and says “Long live free Quebec”
1967 – Queen Elizabeth visits Canada
1967 – Six day war between Israel and Arab nations
1968 – Senator Robert Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis
1969 – Golda Meir becomes prime minister of Israel
1969 – Protestants and Catholics fight in northern Ireland
1969 – world population is 3.5 billion, growing 2% a year
1969- Calgary mayor is Rod Sykes
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