1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for passing information about the nuclear bomb to the Soviet Union. Two years later, they were executed.

1999: Wen Ho Lee, a scientist at Los Alamos, was accused of giving the United States' nuclear secrets to the Chinese. Although both the press and the FBI drew comparisons between this case and that of the Rosenbergs, Wen Ho Lee has not been charged.

1951: Color television was made popularly available, and in June CBS began producing color broadcasts.

1975: Sony introduced the first practical VCR to the United States, radically expanding the role of television.

1997: DVD players reached the American market, providing cinematic viewing quality at home.