Contemporary Voices (1950-Present)

Hasan Amjad, Brady Kaplan, Kevin Caulfield

Events in British Literature

1950s 1952- Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot published. 1953 - Winston Churchill wins Nobel Prize in literature. 1954- William Golding’s Lord of the Flies published. 1956- South African Nadine Gordimer’s Six Feet of the Country and Other Stories

published; poet Ted Hughes and American poet Sylvia Plath marry. 1957- Harold Pinter’s first one-act play, The Room is produced.

1960s 1962- Anthony Burgess’s satirical A Clockwork Orange published. 1965- Doris Lessing’s African Stories published. 1966- Poet Seamus Heaney publishes first collection, Death of a Naturalist

1970s 1975- Stevie Smith’s illustrated Collected Poems published. 1977- Penelope Lively, former children’s author, publishes first adult fiction.

1980s 1983- Golding wins Nobel Prize in literature. 1984-Ted Hughes named poet laureate.

1990s 1991- Gordimer wins Nobel Prize in literature. 1995- Heaney wins Nobel Prize in literature: Margaret Atwood’s first poetry collection

in ten years, Morning in the Burned House, published.

Events In Britain INTERNATIONAL 1956-Britain sends its troops to Egypt during the Suez crisis. 1957-Britain gives independence to Ghana, the first African colony in the Sahara to gain this

achievement. 1961-South Africa pulls itself from British Commonwealth. 1963-Britain is rejected from the Common Market. 1964-Beatles become famous internationally 1969-Attempts to grant civil rights to Catholic minority results in the eruption of violence in

Northern Ireland 1973-Britain is allowed into the Common Market 1970-Equal Pay Act results in women having equal pay as men in the same jobs. 1982-Britain wins Falklands War against Argentina 1987-”Chunnel” construction connecting Britain and France is begins. 1991-Britain joins the Persian Gulf War 1997-Hong Kong returns to China after 155 years of rule DOMESTIC 1952-George VI dies and is succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II. Britain becomes an atomic

power. 1979- Margaret Thatcher becomes first female prime minister. 1981-Prince Charles marries Diana. 1997-Princess Diana dies in car accident.

Events In The World

1950 PRESENT

First TV broadcasting in color begins in U.S. (1953)

Soviets launch the “Sputnik” into space. (1957)

Cuban missile crisis ends with removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba. (1962)

American Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. (1969)

First home computer, Apple II, hits the market. (1977)

Berlin Wall falls, uniting two Germanys. (1989)

Soviet Union breaks up in 15 republics. (1991)

Nelson Mandela becomes South African president in nation's first all-race election. (1994)

Fidel Castro takes control of Cuba. (1959)