TIMELINE: 90 YEARS OF HISTORY 1950s

1952 - San Jacinto Plaza alligator   1954 - ROTC Rifle Team-National Champions   1955 - Dysert Edgar Holcomb

Significant events in UTEP history * Significant events in El Paso history ** Significant events in national or world history 1950 KVOF-FM becomes first FM station in El Paso Miners beat Georgetown 33-20 in 15th annual Sun Bowl * El Paso County population: 195,000 * Bataan Memorial Trainway dedicated ** Korean War begins 1951 Magoffin Auditorium, Science Building, Women's Gym, Miners Hall and a dormitory constructed * ASARCO builds smokestack, said to be world's tallest * Providence Memorial Hospital opens ** I Love Lucy premieres   1952 Student pranksters relocate San Jacinto Plaza alligator to geology Professor Howard Quinn's office Texas Western Press established * CBS affiliate KROD-TV is first El Paso television station on air ** Polio vaccine created 1953 Schellenger Research Laboratories established Kidd Seismic Observatory opened ** Korean War ends ** IBM introduces IBM 701 computer 1954 ROTC Rifle Team wins national championship Miners beat Southern Mississippi 37-14 in 19th annual Sun Bowl * El Paso Natural Gas building (Blue Flame building) opens ** Elvis Presley makes his first recordings with Sun Records 1955 Dysert Edgar Holcomb named TWC president TWC becomes first white Texas public college to admit black students Miners beat Florida State University 47-20 in the 20th annual Sun Bowl ** Ray Kroc founds McDonald's restaurant 1956 ** Minimum wage raised to $1 per hour ** Suez Canal crisis 1957 Miners lose 13-0 to George Washington University in 22nd annual Sun Bowl * Raymond L. Telles becomes first Hispanic mayor of El Paso. * Fort Bliss becomes U.S. Army Air Defense Center ** USSR launches world's first satellite, Sputnik 1 1958 Joseph Royall Smiley named TWC president ** Civil-rights tensions in Little Rock, Arkansas 1959 * Sunland Park Race Track opens ** Alaska and Hawaii become 49th and 50th states, respectively