In 1951, "Too Young" topped the charts, Quo Vadis packed theaters, a stamp cost 3¢, the average home went for about $7,850.
🎵 Top songs of 1951
"Too Young" — Nat King Cole
"Because of You" — Tony Bennett
"How High the Moon" — Les Paul and Mary Ford
🎬 In theaters
Quo Vadis
An American in Paris
A Streetcar Named Desire
What things cost in 1951
$0.27
Gallon of gas
3¢
Postage stamp
$0.43
Movie ticket
$0.92
Gallon of milk
$7,850
Average home
$1,580
New car
$3,709
Household income
That $0.27 gallon of gas in 1951 has the buying power of roughly $3.25 in 2024 dollars, while the 92-cent gallon of milk translates to about $11 — dairy was a serious line item in the family budget.
The biggest moments of 1951
I Love Lucy premiered on CBS on October 15, 1951, and quickly became America's favorite show.
The first live coast-to-coast television broadcast connected viewers from New York to San Francisco.
UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer in the U.S., was delivered to the Census Bureau.
President Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his command in April, and MacArthur told Congress that "old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
The 22nd Amendment was ratified in February 1951, limiting future presidents to two terms.
In November, the mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, dialed the mayor of Alameda, California, directly — the first customer-dialed long-distance call in America.
Toys, TV & trends of 1951
The paint-by-numbers craze swept the country, letting everyone feel like an artist.
Kids tuned in to The Roy Rogers Show, which galloped onto NBC in December 1951.
Les Paul and Mary Ford's layered guitar recordings sounded like nothing anyone had heard before.
Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace burst into newspapers in March 1951 — the very same week, by pure coincidence, that a completely different Dennis the Menace debuted in a British comic.
Colorforms, the stick-and-restick vinyl playset, was invented in 1951 in a New York apartment.
Search for Tomorrow premiered in September 1951 and became one of television's first enduring soap operas.
The music scene
In March 1951, Jackie Brenston and Ike Turner's band cut "Rocket 88" at Sam Phillips' Memphis studio, and many historians call that hard-driving number the first rock and roll record. That July, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed launched his late-night "Moondog Show," spinning rhythm and blues for a fast-growing radio audience and helping popularize the phrase "rock and roll." The Dominoes' "Sixty Minute Man" jumped from the R&B charts onto pop playlists — an early hint that musical walls were coming down.
At the movies
At the Oscars, An American in Paris waltzed off with Best Picture, while A Streetcar Named Desire swept three of the four acting awards. Humphrey Bogart chugged down the river in The African Queen, the role that finally won him his only Academy Award. And with atomic-age jitters in the air, The Day the Earth Stood Still brought thoughtful science fiction — and the towering robot Gort — to the big screen.
Cartoons kids loved
Alice in Wonderland (Disney)
Mr. Magoo theatrical shorts
Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts
The flat, modern look of the UPA studio was shaking up animation — its Gerald McBoing-Boing won the Oscar for best animated short in early 1951, proving a cartoon didn't need talking animals to charm audiences. Disney's Alice in Wonderland, by contrast, underwhelmed at the box office on first release; it took later re-releases and television for audiences to fall in love with it.
The world in 1951
World population: about 2.5 billion
U.S. President: Harry S. Truman
The first live transcontinental television broadcast aired in September 1951.
Forty-eight nations signed the Treaty of San Francisco in September 1951, formally making peace with Japan.
Winston Churchill, at 76, returned to 10 Downing Street as British prime minister in October 1951.
Libya became an independent kingdom in December 1951, one of the first African nations to gain independence after the war.
1951 birthday questions
How old is someone born in 1951?
Someone born in 1951 turns 75 in 2026 (74 if their birthday has not come round yet).
What was the number one song in 1951?
"Too Young" by Nat King Cole was among the biggest hits of 1951.
What movie came out in 1951?
Quo Vadis was one of the films packing theaters in 1951.
How much did gas cost in 1951?
A gallon of gas ran about $0.27 in 1951, and a postage stamp cost 3¢.
How much did a house cost in 1951?
The average home went for roughly $7,850 in 1951, against a typical household income of about $3,709.