The alternative jubilee: 50 other reasons to remember and celebrate 1952

The Queen's reign wasn't the only thing that began 50 years ago. With the Second World War receding from the collective memory, the country was ready to move on. From music, medicine and design to food, sport and film, it was a time of innovation and social progress

1 The Les Paul guitar

The stage for this week's Golden Jubilee rock concert at Buckingham Palace will be adorned with huge models of two guitars. Not many of the audience might be able to identify them as Les Paul guitars, an instrument that first appeared in 1952 and numbers among its exponents some of the greatest names in rock.

Although an American invention – Les Paul was a California guitarist and sound engineer, and the guitar was manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Company – the guitar came to be associated with British rhythm 'n' blues, which in the 1960s was instrumental in rediscovering the Les Paul after a period in which it had fallen out of favour and ceased production.

Les Pauls returned, to be played by, among others, Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, and Peter Green. Noel Gallagher kept the tradition alive in more recent times. Ornate and weighing a ton, the Les Paul came to epitomise rock'n'roll at its most uncompromising.

There are moves in San Francisco to have a street named after Les Paul, who is now 83.

2 Thorazine

Its arrival marked the birth of psychopharmacology. In 1952, chlorpromazine (which became known by the proprietary names Largactil and Thorazine) was tested in France as a revolutionary "cure" for schizophrenia, anxiety and depression. Many thought this was the way to clear the mental wards. Freudian analysts were sceptical and one, Jules Masserman, dismissed Thorazine as "a glorified sedative". But the journey to drug-induced contentment had started.

3 Huntingdon Life Sciences

Set up by Professor Alistair Worden of Cambridge University, it began by researching into food and biology. As the pharmaceutical industry grew, its role expanded into all areas of bio-chemistry. Animal-testing brought it to public attention 25 years ago, when protesters set fire to two vans, and the controversy has continued. HLS is marking its golden jubilee with lectures around the world.

4 The Friends of St Paul's Cathedral

Fire-watchers formed a tight community in London during the Blitz, none more so than the group of 40 lovers of St Paul's who watched over Wren's masterpiece. In 1952 they formed the basis of the Friends of St Paul's. To mark its jubilee, the 3,300-strong organisation produced a book recording its history – Who Would Have Thought – and held an anniversary eucharist last month.

5 UK singles chart

Came into being on 14 November 1952, when the music promoter Maurice Kinn set up New Musical Express, rang round big music shops and scraped together a Top 12, which featured at No 1 Al Martino's "Here in my Heart". The insitution's golden era was in the Sixties, of course, when in one week in 1966, Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones, Mamas and the Papas, Percy Sledge, the Beatles and Bob Dylan were all jostling for space in the Top 20. Its credibility was threatened when the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" failed to make No 1 in 1977. These days, is considered the domain of tweenies and cynical record execs.

6 Babycham

The Somerset cider-maker Francis Showering initially called his 6-per-cent alcohol pear cider Champagne de la Poire. The product is currently enjoying a revival.

7 Vernacular Architecture Group

Set up to further the study of traditional buildings, it has 600 members and its own journal. 'Detached Kitchens in Eastern-Sussex' is one of many papers it has published.

8 Bill and Ben

Some icons of children's TV are celebrating their 50th anniversaries. Flobberdop entered the language, but the original classic of children's TV was repeated over and again until a new series was made in 1971. Sooty made his TV debut 50 years ago.

9 The Spastics Society, now called Scope

Established to help people with cerebral palsy, the charity's launch by three parents and a social worker was helped by the Daily Mirror, which used its cartoon strip Ruggles to tell its 15 million readers about cerebral palsy. Scope now campaigns for the rights of millions of disabled people and their families. It has marked its anniversary by producing a book on the experiences of disabled people.

10 Paul McCartney's Liverpool home

The homely vernacular style of No. 20 Forthlin Road in Liverpool would not have made it an obvious acquisition for the National Trust but for the identity of a former resident, Paul McCartney, who lived in the council house from 1955 to 1964. McCartney was 13 when he moved in, and it was where he and his fellow Beatles would write and rehearse. The interior has now been restored to 1950s period style and Beatles memorabilia are on display. For more information call 0870 900 0256.

11 TV detector vans

The first TV detector vans were Orwellian contraptions of bedstead-sized aerials fastened to Hillman vans. They were less threatening on the inside since, as urban myth has it, most were dummies intended to frighten us into paying our licences. Detection remains an inexact science, with inspectors relying on more obvious visual clues.

12 Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club

A masked ball for 120 guests, due to take place last night, is the highlight of the club's Golden Jubilee celebrations. With its own marina, the club is proud to be the only yacht club in Cowes that can offer berths to its members, who number about 1,000.

13 International Planned Parenthood Federation

The largest voluntary organisation in sexual and reproductive health care and rights in the world was founded by a group of pioneering women in Bombay.

14 Anti-polio vaccine

Dr Jonas Salk, at the University of Pittsburgh in the US, was the first man to develop a polio vaccine, and by 1954 cases of polio were falling spectacularly. But is still rife in the developing world.

15 The Good Food Guide

The founder of the Good Food Guide was the remarkable figure of author and activist Raymond Postgate. "Rationing was still in force and the food in Britain was pretty dire," says current editor Jim Ainsworth. "It started with a coterie of people submitting entries, but soon expanded." There were 46 London restaurants in the original guide; the 2002 guide offers about 350. The only ever-present is the restaurant at the Connaught Hotel.

16 The Bentley R-type Continental (Fearn)

The Bentley R-Type Continental was the first four-seater car capable of reaching 120mph. Only two types of tyre could withstand this speed. A 50th anniversary reunion for the R-Type is planned for August at Silverstone.

17 Omega's chronometer watch

Omega sold 14,000 of its Constellation certified chronometer self-winding wrist watches in the year they were introduced. It's now a design classic, with anniversary models for men and women released this year.

18 Cinerama cinema projection

Wide-screen film with directional sound came in with the the multi-camera/projector system of filming known as 'Cinerama'. Twentieth Century-Fox purchased the rights to the process which had cinema-goers queing round the block.

19 The Deep Blue Sea

Terence Rattigan's play reflects its era's preoccupations in the character of Freddie, a former fighter pilot floundering to find himself in peacetime. The play came 20th in a 1998 poll of the 20th century's 100 best plays.

20 The Golf Foundation

In 1951, a man called Jack Burroughs of British Steel Golf Shafts was worrying about the state of British golf. Participation was falling off, standards were dropping. By the following year he had generated enough support to create the Golf Foundation, the organisation devoted to giving schoolchildren the chance to learn golf.

The idea of targeting children was that of golf writer Henry Longhurst. Schools responded enthusiastically, and the Foundation soon found that the demand for instruction was outstripping the means to supply it.

The Golf Foundation now funds professionals to teach children in schools and clubs, and runs competitions. Just about every leading British golfer of the recent past has benefited from its work. It had a Golden Jubilee golf day last Monday at the Berkshire club in Ascot. A pro-celebrity event featured Jimmy Tarbuck, Russ Abbott and the former Open winner Paul Laurie, and about £27,000 was raised.

21 Hodgkin and Huxley's Nerve Cell

A breakthrough that laid the foundations of modern neuroscience began at Cambridge in the 1940s, when Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley investigated how nerve fibres were able to transmit electrical impulses rapidly over long distances. Human nerve cells were too small to be effectively scrutinised by the instruments of the time, so the pair hit upon the idea of looking into tissue from a variety of squid instead. Published in a series of papers in 1952, their work earned Hodgkin and Huxley the Nobel Prize.

22 The National Motor Museum

Lord Montagu of Beaulieu's passion for cars led to the creation of one of the country's top tourist attractions, featuring 250 historic cars. A party to mark the anniversary was cancelled because Lord Montagu, now 75, was ill.

23 Jet travel

The jet age in civil aviation began on 2 May 1952 when the world's first scheduled passenger jet service flew from Heathrow to Johannesburg. The de Havilland Comet flew at twice the altitude and speed of its predecessors.

24 The Pill

First licensed as a contraceptive in the US in 1960, the Pill will forever be associated with that decade, but its origins lie in the Apple Pie Fifties. Dr Gregory "Goody" Pincus, a chemist, was at work in the States creating the drug that meant sex need never result in an unwanted pregnancy again,facilitating the sexual revolution. While he gets star billing as inventor, the Pill was a joint venture. Pincus started after being approached by Margaret Sanger, a Catholic who had scandalised America by campaigning for access to contraception for more than 50 years; she raised $150,000 for research and stipulated that the new pill had to be "harmless and reliable, simple and practical... to both husband and wife".

25 'The Borrowers'

Mary Norton's tale of a tiny family who borrow all they need from the unsuspecting "human beans" became a children's classic. There were five books in the series, which have made the transition to stage and screen, most recently in the 1999 film, The Borrowers.

26 Givenchy's Bettina blouse

The puff-sleeved blouse was named after Bettina Graziani – Hubert de Givenchy's favourite model of the 1950s. It was an instant hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Bettina is still very much alive today, and the garment she inspired enjoyed a revival at the hands of Julien Macdonald.

27 Southampton University

In the vanguard of fibre optics research in the 1960s, Southampton has celebrated its golden jubilee with concerts, an all-day party and the opening of a Jubilee Garden. Alumni include actor John Nettles and model Stella Tennant.

28 Recording of wild salmon stocks began

Stocks are at an all-time low after declining falling since 1973, with an 80 per cent decline in North Atlantic salmon over the past 30 years. They have disappeared from seven of the 76 salmon-bearing rivers of England and Wales.

29 House price statistics

They are 54 times higher than in 1952, when the Nationwide Building Society began to publish its quarterly home price reports. The Society cites record employment levels and low interest rates to explain an annual house price inflation rate for May of 17.9 per cent – the highest since 1989.

30 College of General Practitioners

A diatribe in The Lancet against low standards by an Australian GP, Joseph Collings, led to the formation of the college, which is marking its anniversary with the introduction of a new rose.

31 Estée Lauder's Youth Dew

In New York, a gritty second-generation immigrant born Josephine Ester Mentzer was to strike a sidelong blow for feminism. Estée Lauder's first big perfume was designed to break the rules: women would no longer wait for a man to buy them scent, they'd do so themselves. Dark and oriental, Youth Dew was a big departure from delicate, floral scents. A best-seller, it launched a global cosmetics empire.

32 Electricity comes to Hindringham in Norfolk

Imagine the joy as the lights went on in this quiet village four miles from the sea, where candles and oil lamps had been in daily use. "There was this wonderful sense that things were improving," says local historian Philip West. "But the post office, two pubs and shops we had have gone."

33 Pembrokeshire Coast National Park

A 1949 Act of Parliament created the national parks. Pembrokeshire's is the only one to comprise a largely coastal region. A two-week jubilee walk of the 176-mile coastal path has attracted walkers from as far as the United States.

34 Recording

Still available is the classic version of Vaughan Williams' London Symphony with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.

35 Nuclear bunker

A relic of the Cold War, Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker in Essex, to which ministers would have fled, is now open to the public.

36 National Film Theatre

The success of film at the 1951 Festival of Britain inspired the creation of the NFT a year later. A gala dinner will mark the anniversary.

37 'New Musical Express'

Formerly Musical and Accordion Express, the rock weekly always did go for newer, younger sounds. A glossy revamp marks the anniversary.

38 US military cemetery

Glenn Miller and one of President Kennedy's brothers are among those commemorated in Madingley, a village in Cambridgeshire.

39 The naming of plants

Ever wondered how plants are named? The official system began thanks to WT Stearn of the Royal Horticultural Society.

40 'Cosh Boy'

Film that included a part for the 18-year-old Joan Collins, and one of the first to document the rise of a new social phenomenon: the teenager.

41 The Mousetrap

Agatha Christie dashed this off for radio. It received poor reviews on transferring to the stage, but became the longest-running play in history – 20,000-plus performances and still counting.

42 The BBC Concert Orchestra

The lightest of the BBC orchestras and the sound of Friday Night is Music Night, it marked its anniversary with a tour of the US earlier this year.

43 Lotus Engineering

Colin Chapman produced a few cars each year. In the 1960s they were raced by Graham Hill. Now it produces about 3,000 a year.

44 Conran furniture

Having studied textile design, 21-year-old Terence Conran went into business designing and selling furniture. He followed with a string of restaurants, then opened Habitat in Fulham in 1964.

45 Freud on Bacon

Lucian Freud painted a tiny portrait of fellow-artist Francis Bacon on copper. It was stolen from a gallery in Italy in 1988, and Freud's appeal to have it returned has gone unheeded.

46 Coronation chicken

The buffet lunch stalwart in curried mayowas created by Constance Spry.

47 Bamber Bridge FC

The Northern Premier League club's biggest crowd – 2,600 – came in 1996 when they provided the opposition for the Czech Republic in the build-up to Euro 96.

48 Stoke Mandeville Games

Under the pioneering Ludwig Guttman the forerunner to the modern Paralympics had started life at the Buckinghamshire hospital in 1948. But in 1952 it went international.

49 'Past and Present'

Published by Oxford University Press and designed to appeal not just to specialists, Past and Present is reckoned to be one of the liveliest historical journals around.

50 'Men at Arms' published

Evelyn Waugh's reputation had begun to decline in the 1950s, and his hostility to the Angry Young Men made him look a crusty old fogey. Yet the decade saw his last mighty achievement, the trilogy Sword of Honour, the first of which, Men at Arms, appeared in 1952.Cyril Connolly – satirised here as Everard Spruce – described them as "unquestionably the finest novels to have come out of the War".