by Patrick Hayes, Dramaturg
Like most of Madeleine L’Engle’s works, A Wrinkle in Time depicts time travel and dimension hopping. In particular, Wrinkle covers a time period between the years 1950 – 1969. Most of the important historical events during this time period had direct correlation in her writing, represented by events in the narrative and the fictional science used within the book series. Listed below are some of the major events occurring during that twenty-year period.
1950
- First Organ Transplant
- First “Peanuts” Cartoon Strip
- Korean War Begins
- Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt
1951
- Color TV Introduced
- Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending WWII
- Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister of Great Britain
1952
- Car Seat Belts Introduced
- The Great Smog of 1952
- Polio Vaccine Created
- Princess Elizabeth Becomes Queen at Age 25
1953
- DNA Discovered
- Hillary and Norgay Climb Mt. Everest
- Joseph Stalin Dies
1954
- First Atomic Submarine Launched
- Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer
- Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile
- Segregation Ruled Illegal in U.S.
1955
- Disneyland Opens
- James Dean Dies in Car Accident
- McDonald’s Corporation Founded
- Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus
- Warsaw Pact Signed
1956
- Elvis Gyrates on Ed Sullivan’s Show
- T.V. Remote Control Invented
- Velcro Introduced
1957
- Dr. Seuss Publishes The Cat in the Hat
- Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age
1958
- Hula Hoops Become Popular
- LEGO Toy Bricks First Introduced
- NASA Founded
- Peace Symbol Created
1959
- Castro Becomes Dictator of Cuba
- The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway
1960
- Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho Released
- First Televised Presidential Debates
- Lasers Invented
- Walsh and Piccard Become the First to Explore the Deepest Place on Earth
1961
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
1961
- Bay of Pigs Invasion
- Berlin Wall Built
- JFK Gives “Man on the Moon” Speech
- Peace Corps Founded
- Soviets Launch First Man in Space
- Tsar Bomba, the Largest Nuclear Weapon to Ever Be Exploded
1962
- Andy Warhol Exhibits His Campbell’s Soup Can
- Cuban Missile Crisis
- First James Bond Movie
- Johnny Carson Takes Over the Tonight Show
- Marilyn Monroe Found Dead
1963
- 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
- Betty Friedan Publishes The Feminine Mystique
- First Dr. Who Episode Airs
- First Woman in Space
- JFK Assassinated
- March on Washington
- Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His “I Have a Dream” Speech
1964
- Beatles Become Popular in U.S.
- Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) Becomes World Heavyweight Champion
- Civil Rights Act Passes in U.S.
- Hasbro Launches GI Joe Action Figure
- Nelson Mandela Sentenced to Life in Prison
1965
- Los Angeles Riots
1965
- Los Angeles Riots
- Malcolm X Assassinated
- Miniskirt First Appears
- New York City Great Blackout
- The Rolling Stones’ Mega Hit Song, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
- U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam
1966
- Black Panther Party Established
- Mao Zedong Launches the Cultural Revolution
- Mass Draft Protests in U.S.
- National Organization for Women (NOW) Founded
- Two Multi-Ton Chunks of the Mundrabilla Meteorite Found
1967
- First Heart Transplant
- Six-Day War in the Middle East
- Three U.S. Astronauts Killed During Simulated Launch
1968
- Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
- My Lai Massacre
- Nerve Gas Leak in Utah Kills 6,000 Sheep
- Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated
- Tet Offensive
1969
- ARPANET, the Precursor of the Internet, Created
- Neil Armstrong Becomes the First Man on the Moon
- Rock-and-Roll Concert at Woodstock
- Sesame Street First Airs
