1957 — This was the year that Dr. Seuss, pen name of children’s book writer Theodor Seuss Geisel, published the Cat in the Hat and The Grinch That Stole Christmas. Other events that year:

• Israel withdraws troops from the Gaza strip and the Sinai Peninsula. U.N. emergency forces patrol the Gaza border to keep peace.
• America’s first nuclear power plant opens in Shippingport, Penn.
• Russia launches Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. One month later Sputnik 2 is launched with a dog, Laika, aboard. Based on studies of Sputnik’s orbit, Robert Jastrow determines that the Earth’s atmosphere is 40 times denser than originally thought.