(Visual art) 1946-Detroit photographer Harry Callahan comes to Chicago to teach at the Institute of Design and embarks on a series of masterpieces that becomes chamber music for the eye.
(Music) 1946-Herman “Sonny” Blount, who evetually renames himseIf Sun Ra, becomes the pianist for Fletcher Henderson’s band at Chicago’s Club DeLisa, laying the groundwork fot his ground-breaking Arkestra.
(Television) 1946-“Hour Glass,” the first major television series, debuts and runs for 10 months.
(Performance) 1946-Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis team, beginning a decade-long partnership.
(Performance) 1946-George Balanchine and arts patron Lincoln Kirstein form the Ballett Society, which became the New York City Ballet, home to7 Balanchine’s unparalleled works of genius and the premiere ballet company of the U. S. for the rest of the century.
(Performance) 1947-Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” directed by Ella Kazan, opens on Broadway.
(Architecture) 1947-the first Levittown opens in the former potato field of suburban Long Island, and postwar suburban takes shape.
(Performance) 1947-Maria Tallchief, who would later found and run the Chicago City Ballet, is the first American to perform at the Paris Opera in more than a century.
(Visual art) 1947-Jackson Pollock creates the first of his seeming random “drip” abstractions that will become some of the most extravagantly praised — and denounced — paintings of the century.
(Television) 1947-“Kraft Television Theater” premieres in May, the first reqularly scheduled drama series on a network.
(Television) 1947-The World Series draws TV’s first mass audience (an estimated 3.9 million people, most of them in bars).
(Television) 1947-“Kukla, Fran and Ollie,” produced in Chicago, begins its 10- year run becoming one of the most popular shows in television history.
(Television) 1948-Milton Belie hosts the first telecast of “Texaco Star Theater,” his new-found fame transforming the program into “The Milton Berle Show” and giving TV it fist star.
(Television) 1948-Cable television begins as a service to homes in mountainous or geographically remote areas.
(Music) 1948-John Lee Hooker makes his debut with “Boogie Chillen,” one of the most influential blues recordings of all time.
(Music) 1948-Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis is and his nonet record session that eventually will be released as “Birth of the Cool,” a recording that set the stage for Davis’ many influential releases.
(Visual art) 1948-Dutch-American artist Willem de Kooning presents at his first one-man exhibition in New York black-and-white abstractions that immediately establish him as a leader among postwar painters.
(Performance) 1948-“Kiss Me, Kate,” the biggest Broadway success of composer Cole Porter’s long career, opens on Broadway.
(Music) 1948-The 33-r.p.m. long-playing vinyl record is introduced.
(Visual art) 1948-Painter Mark Rothko arrives at the floating rectangles of color that become characteristic of his mature style.
(Television) 1948-“The Ed Sullivan Show” premieres on CBS, becoming an American Sunday night institution for the next 23 years, bringing Broadway, the Bolshoi, Elvis and the Bealtes into living rooms.
(Performance) 1949-“Death of a Salesman,” Arthur Miller’s classic American family tragedy, open on Broadway.
(Music) 1950-Electronic music that is music formed from electronically synthesized sound or natural sounds been altered through electronic means – is created in Cologne, German.
(Movies) 1950-The huge success of Akira Kuosawa’s Japanese “Rashomon” and Luis Bunuel’s Mexican “Los Olvidados” opens up Asian and Latino cinema to the world.
(Literature) 1950-Illinois Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks wins the Pulitzer Prize for “Annie Allen,” a volume of poetry published in 1949.
1951-Singer Tony Bennett releases “Because of You” “Cold, Cold Heart,” two hits that launch an enduring career.
(Architecture) 1951-Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s 860 and 880 Lake Shore Drive apartment high-rises are completed Chicago and influence the shape skylines around the world with their deceptively simple steel and glass architecture.
(Television) 1951″I Love Lucy” premieres and sets the standard in TV sitcoms.
(Music) 1952-John Cage debuts “4`33,” which he called “a piece in three movements in which no sounds are intentionally produced.” The piece launched a hew way of thinking about art, with the concept given as much, if not more, importance than the work or object produced.
(Movies) 1952-Due to pressure from TV, movie 3D makes its bow in “Bwana Devil.”
(Performance) 1952-Merce Cunningham, a revolutionary figure in modern dance, forms his own troupe.
(Music) 1952-Bassist-songwriter Willie Dixon signs on as chief house producer at Chicago’s Chess Records, eventually overseeing recordings by Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.
(Performance) 1953-SamuelBeckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” the most influential drama of the 20th Century, opens in Paris.
(Music) 1953-Hank Williams Sr. dies at the 29. A few months later, his “Your Cheatin’ Heart” becomes a No. 1 hit.
(Movies) 1953-The anamorphic (or wide-screen) lens and film, first invented and exhibited by France’s Henri Chretien in 1927, is finaly used for a major studio movie when “The Robe” is released in the newly named “CinemaScope.”
(Performance) 1953-Mattiwilda Dobbs, a coloratura soprano from Atlanta becomes the first African-American to sign a principal role at La Scala in Milan.
(Performance) 1954-“Calling card” season of the new Lyric Theatre of Chicago forerunner of today’s Lyric Opera of Chicago.
(Performance) 1954-The Robert Joffrey Ballet officially debuts at the 92nd Street Y in New York, with a program including Joffrey’s “Pas des Deesses,” a work still in the now Chicago-based company’s repertoire.
(Music) 1954-Elvis Presley records with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black for the first time, together creating a driving rhytmic sound steeped in country and blues that would become, the blueprint for rock ‘n’roll. )
(Visual art) 1954-Jasper Johns’ paints “Flag,” a work that attempts to eliminate the distinction between representation and reality.
(Music) 1954-Pianist John Lewis, vibist Milt Jackson, drummer Connie Kay and bassist Percy Heath perform under the name Modern Jazz Quartet, an ensemble that for 40 years will bring new sophistication, refinement anti understatement to the art of jazz composition and improvisation.
(Music) 1955-Ray Charles’ “I Got a Woman” brings the exuberant vocals of gospel music to a secular theme and defines soul music.
(Visual art) 1955-Rober Rauschenberg creates the first of his “combine painting,” which have large three-dimensional objects affixed to the canvas.
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(Literature) 1955-William Gaddis publishes his dazzling first novel: “The Recognitions.”
(Music) 1955-Chuck Berry cuts his first hit, “Maybellene,” at Chess Studio in Chicago.
(Music) 1956-Pianist Ramsey Lewis establishes his own trio, with bassist Eldee Young and drummer Red Holt, by the mid-’60s becoming one of most popular acts in jazz.
(Performance) 1956-Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first black soloist to sing at the Metropolitan Opera, paving the professional way for other singers of color.
(Performance) 1956–“My Fair Lady” a musical adaptation of G. B. Shawls “Pygmalion” by librettist Alan Jay Werner and composer Frederick Loewe, opens on Broadway.
(Architecture) 1956-The Interstate Highway Act becomes law when Congress provides for a 41,000-mile system of roads that transform the American landscape into an interchanglble network of shopping malls, hotels and fast-food franchises.
(Architecture) 1956-The concept of the closed, climate-controlled mall is introduced at the Southdale Shopping Center near Minneapolis.
(Architecture) 1956-Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s temple of steel and glass, Crown Hall. is completed at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
(Performance) 1956-The premiere of John Osborne’s “Look Back in Anger” at the Royal Court Theatre in London sets off a mighty wave of “angry young men” and “kitchen sink” dramas in English theater.
(Music) 1957-Composer and conductor Gunther Schuller originates the term “third stream” to denote music that is neither classical nor jazz but that absorbs elements of both traditions.
(Performance) 1957-Director-choreographer Jerome Robbins, composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim and co-producer Harold Prince, all men who will have immense influellce on the American musical theater, combine to stage “West Side Story.”
(Literature) 1958- “Lolita,” Vladimir Nabokov’s notorious novel of one man’s burning desire for a 12-year old “nymphet.” is published in thr, U.S.
(Performance) 1958-“The Birthday Party,” the first full-length play by Harold Pinter, one of the masters of 20th Century English drama, opens in Cambridge, England.
(Performance) 1958-Modern dancer and choreographer Alvin Alley forms his own group, still a popular repository for his work and other African-American choreographers to this day.
(Music) 1958-Premiere of La Monte Young’s Trio for Strings, a landmark in the history of 20th Century music and the virtual fountainhead of American musical minimalism.
(Music) 1958-Texas pianist Van Cliburn shocks the world when h becomes the first American to win the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
(Visual art) 1958-Swiss-born photographer Robert Frank publishes “Les Americains,” a devastating pictorial assessment of life in the United States at mid century that influenced the casual look of photographs to this day.
(Television) 1958-One of modernism’s most supremely elegant statements, the Seagram Building, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with Philip Johnson, opens in New York.
(Performance) 1959-The Second City a cabaret offering a satirical revue by a group of bright young Chicagoans, opens in a former Chinese laundry on the North Side.
(Performance) 1959-Allan Kaprow’s “18 Happenings in 6 Parts” sparks New York’s era of happenings and live and street events.
(Music) 1959-Buddy Holly dies in a plane crash.
(Music) 1959-Ornette Coleman begins releasing a series of influential albums (“The Shape of Jazz to Come,” “Change of the Century” “Free Jazz”) that ushers in a new era in jazz experimentation.
(Architecture) 1959-Frank Lloyd Wright’s corkscrewing Guggenheim Museum opens in New York, shortly after the architect’s death.
(Visual art) 1960-Artist Romare Bearden switches his work from social realism to the more abstract world of collage, becoming one of the best known collagists in the world.
(Movies) 1960-Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” changes the face of movie horror.
(Music) 1960-Jazz saxophonist-visionary John Coltrane presides over a classic quartet (with pianist McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones and, eventually, bassist Jimmy Garrison) that extends the sonic, harmonic and creative of boundaries of small-group jazz.
(Performance) 1961-Siberian-born Rudolf Nureyev, who was to usher the male ballet dancer into the era of pop stardom, defects in Paris.
(Performance) 1961-“The Dutchlllan,” by Leroi Jones (now Imamu Amiri Baraka), opens at the Cherry Lane Theatre, introducing the black revolutionary play to theater audiences and heralding the start of an African-Americau renaissance in American theater.
(Performance) 1961-Suzanne Farrell, regarded by many as the Balanchine ballerina par excellence, joins his New York City Ballet.
(Music) 1961-The U.S. imposes an economic and cultural embargo on Cuba, isolating Cuban arts and culture and depriving musicians in the States of one of the great fountains of musical creativity.
(Architecture) 1961-Jane Jacobs’ “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” explodes modernist planning ideals and sets the stage for the creation of more human-scaled developments.
(Visual art) 1962-Greek-American sculptor Chryssa Vardea Mavromichali, known simply as Chryssa, creates the first neon light sculpture.
(Movies) 1962-Sean Connery stars as James Bond in “Dr. No,” launching the most successful film series ever.
(Performance) 1962-Premiere of Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem,’ celebrating the consecration of the restored St. Michael’s Cathedral at Coventry; it later takes its place among the greatest, most deeply eloquent musical meditations on war, suffering end spiritual rebirth.
(Architecture) 1962-Playwright Edward Albee makes his Broadway debut with the sensational “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
(Performance) 1962- “Aureole,” a breakthrough work by choreographer Paul Taylor, one of the greatest choreographers of the latter 20th Centur, premieres.
(Architecture) 1962-Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn partner in “Giselle,” launching the most legendary ballet team of the 20th Century.
(Architecture) 1962-Architect Eero Saarinen’s terminal at Dulles Airport in Chantilly Va., lyricall evokes flight.
(Architecture) 1963-New York City’s grant Beaux-Arts gateway, Penn Station, is destroyed, sparking a national movement to preserve architectural landmarks from wanton destruction.
(Performance) 1963-Director Bob Sickinger opens the Hull House Theatre in the Jane Addams Center at 3212 N. Broadway, a little theater that, in of effect, heralds the dawn of the historic Off-Loop theater movement in Chicago.
(Performance) 1963-The National Theatre Great Britain, a concept for a century becomes a reality when it opens in the Old Vic Theatre in London, under the artistic leadership of Laurence Olivier.
(Performance) 1963-Tyrone Guthrie director and founder of the Stratford (Ontario) Festival, opens a resident festival theater in Minneapolis, Minn., with “Hamlet” featuring George Grizzard, Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy.
(Visual art) 1963-Andy Warhol establishes The Factory, his New York studio that attracts young artists outside the mainstream. With Warhol as father figure, creaters such as the Velvet Underground and Joe Dalessandro produced music, films and art that helped define the rebellious youth culture that defined the second half of the 20th Century.
(Music) 1964-The Beatles come to America.
(Music) 1964-The premiere, in San Francisco, of Terry Riley’s “In C” gives musical Minimalism its first critical acclaim.
(Architecture) 1964-The corncob-shaped towers of Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina City in Chicago challenge the right-angled orthodoxy of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
(Visual art) 1965-Nam June Paik exhibits tapes at New York’s Cafe a Go-Go and gives birth to video art.
(Architecture) 1965-Cecil Taylor emerges as one of the most influential iconoclasts of jazz piano, his heaven-storming waves of dissonance imitated by younger pianists around the world.
(Performance) 1965-“The Odd Couple,” the most popular comedy of Nell Simon, the most popular American comic playwright of his era, opens on Broadway. It will spawn a TV series, in reruns forever, and an unsuccessful movie sequel.
(Architecture) 1965-“Like a Rolling Stone” becomes Bob Dylan’s first major hit, and sets a new standard for rock songwriting.
(Music) 1965-The Temptations’ “My Girl” becomes a No. 1 hit. and Motown becomes “the sound of young America.”
(Music) 1965-American inventor Robert A. Moog creates the Moog electronic synthesizer, which made widespread electronic music al composition and performance possible.
(Architecture) 1966-“Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture” by Philadelphia architect Robert Venturi launches the revolt against modern architecture and presages the era of postmodern design.
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(Music) 1966-The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” album and “Good Vibrations” single inaugurate the era of studio experimentation that would overtake rock.
(Music) 1967-“The Velvet Underground and Nico” is released, launching the careers of Lou Reed. John Cale and Nico, who would influence everybody from David Bowie to punk.
(Music) 1967 The Beatles release “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Though it is neither the first rock concept album nor the best, it is arguably the first work by a rock band to be taken seriously by the mainstream. Rock is no longer regarded as just a fad.
(Music) 1967 The then-relatively unknown Jimi Hendrix burns his guitar at the Monterey Pop festival.
(Music) 1967-Aretha Franklin’s call for “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” becomes feminist manifesto.
(Performance) 1967-“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” a last-minute entry in the season schedule of the National Theatre in London, dazzlingly launches the career of the brilliant Czech-born playwright Tom Stoppard.
(Performance) 1967-“Hair,” thelove-and-peace rock musical and one of the pop culture sensations of the anti-Vietnam War protest movement, opens on Broadway, completed with nude scene.
(Visual art) 1967- The Museum of Contemporary Art, a showplace without a permanent collection opens in Chicago.
(Literature) 1967-Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez publishes “A Hundred Years of Solitude,” an inventive novel that chronicles life in the mythical town of Macondo.
(Performance) 1967-“Astarte,” Robert Joffrey’s innovative blending of `60s counterculture and mythic format, to a rock montage score premieres in New York, destined to become the first ballet in history to grace Time Magazine’s cover.
(Performance) 1967- The Negro Ensemlle Company is formed in New York, nurturing the careers of Ntozake Shange, Esther Rolle and Denzel Washington, among many other African-American playwrights and actors.
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Next week: Part 3, 1968-1999
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Sources: American Architecture and Urbanism; Frank Lloyd Wright; I.M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture; AIA Guide to Chicago; The Landmarks of New York For the Glory of Washingston; Art: A History of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright: The Masterworks, Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States; The Master Builders: Le Corbusier/Mies van der Rohe/Frank Lloyd Wright; The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows; the Encyclopedia of Literature, Masterpieces of World Literature”; “African America: Portrait of a People; Africans In America: America’s Journey Through Slavery; Black Genius and the American Experience: Timelines of the Arts and Literature; The Timeslines of Histony; Calendar of Creative Man; The Oxford Companion to Art.