-- New Jersey Timeline 1950-1999
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1950 - After the USS New Jersey is re-commissioned at Bayonne on November 21, it sees extensive action in the Korean War until the signing of the armistice in 1953. Its missions include supporting ground troops and targeting North Korean ports and ammunition depots. During the War, there are 836 military deaths from New Jersey of the total 36,574 who die from combat, illness or accident. - In July, the US Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee begins an investigation in Atlantic City as part of its national probe of organized crime, later issuing a report finding widespread corruption and ties between political and criminal leaders.
 Delaware Memorial Bridge. Image: Delaware River and Bay Authority
1951 - On February 6, a Pennsylvania Railroad train from Jersey City to Bay Head derails crossing a temporary wooden trestle in Woodbridge, killing 85. It is the deadliest train wreck in New Jersey, the third worst train disaster in US history, and the deadliest since 1918. - On August 16, the Delaware Memorial Bridge, dedicated to the dead of the armed forces and connecting southern New Jersey and the Wilmington-New Castle area of Delaware, is opened to traffic. In December 1969, a second parallel span is opened. - On November 30, the first 53-mile section of the New Jersey Turnpike is opened to traffic between its southern terminus and Woodbridge, with Governor Driscoll leading a mile-long motorcade from the War Memorial in Trenton to the Hightstown interchange where he cut a ribbon and declared the road open. - On December 16, an airliner operated by Miami Airlines crashes in Elizabeth shortly after taking off from nearby Newark Airport, killing all 56 on board. At the time, it is the second most deadliest aviation accident in US history.  Selman Waksman. Image: Rutgers University
- Professor Selman Waksman, director of the Rutgers Institute for Microbiology, wins the Nobel Prize in medicine for research that led to the discovery of streptomycin--the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis, which he discovered with graduate students Albert Schatz and Elizabeth Bugie.
1952 - On January 22, just three weeks after the crash which killed 56, an American Airlines plane crashes into a house in Elizabeth on its approach to land at Newark Airport, killing all 23 on board along with seven people on the ground.
- A National Airlines flight to Miami crashes on February 11 shortly after takeoff from Newark Airport into an apartment building in Elizabeth, killing 29 of the 59 people on board and four people on the ground. It is the third fatal accident in Elizabeth within a month involving flights using Newark Airport, and results in the closing of the Airport following the accident until November 15, when it was determined after an investigation that airport procedures were not causes of the three accidents. |
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 Letter of Governor Byrne to NJ Supreme Court advising of approval of income tax and requesting withdrawal of order closing the public schools. Image: NJ State Archives
- New Jersey public schools close on July 1 pursuant to the state Supreme Court's order after the legislature fails to increase funding to poorer school districts to comply with Court's Robinson v. Cahill decision. Following approval of legislation enacting an income tax, the Court vacates its order on July 8.
- Liberty State Park opens in July after its development by the Department of Environmental Protection from prior waste dumps and landfills and becomes the focus of the state's celebration of the nation's Bicentennial on July 4.
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1984 - The USS New Jersey is ordered to deploy off the coast of Lebanon to support US troops who had been sent to aid the Lebanese government, and on February 8 begins bombardment of Druse and Syrian gun batteries in the mountains which had been firing on the city of Beirut.
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USS New Jersey shown firing 16-inch guns off coast near Beirut. Image: US Navy
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