Disney popularizes talking animated cartoons. Fluorescent lights enter the workplace. Vinyl LP records, invented by Peter Goldmark, usher in a new era of pop music. RCA introduces color TV to American living rooms. Bonanza becomes first TV Western with brown horses instead of gray.
Financial derivatives let treasurers, banks, and hedge funds bet on almost anything.
Women everywhere start to leverage existing assets. Burgers Ray Kroc sells America a new dietary staple. Ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach's soft-sell campaign turns the Volkswagen Beetle into a national icon. Until repealed in 1933, it makes bootlegging a growth industry. They go bankrupt instead.