Philippine Exchange Rate P2.00 = US$1.00

U.S.A. COST OF LIVING

Annual inflation rate 3.34%

Average cost of new house $12,220.00

Average monthly rent $90.00

Average annual wages $4,550.00

Gasoline per gallon 24 cents

Bacon per pound 60 cents

Eggs per dozen 28 cents

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

- March 17, 1957, the 7th President of the Philippines Ramon Magsaysay and 24 other passengers die in a PAF C-47 plane crash on the slopes of Mount Manunggal in Cebu

- March 27th, the Ilocos Sur High School holds its 42nd Commencement Exercises for the Graduating Class of 1957 at the high school campus, Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Wednesday at 6:00 P.M.

- October 4th, the USSR launches the first space satellite Sputnik 1 marking the start of the Space Age and the Space Race

- Martin Luther King Jr. heads nationwide resistance to racial segregation and discrimination in the U.S.

- Federal troops charge defiant protestors with fixed bayonets to ensure 9 African-American students can attend Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas

- Viet Cong guerrillas attack South Vietnam

- Singapore gains self-rule

- Malaya and Ghana gain independence from Great Britain

- Asian Flu pandemic claims over 150,000 lives worldwide

- Foot and Mouth disease in England reaches epidemic proportions with 30,000 animals slaughtered

- Toyota starts selling cars in the U.S. with the Toyopet Crown

- Scotland pioneers Ultrasound Scanning

- First Nuclear Reactor plant for electricity opens in Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

- The Soviet Union and Great Britain test the H Bomb

POPULAR FILMS

• The Ten Commandments
• Around the World in Eighty Days
• 12 Angry Men
• Jailhouse Rock (by Elvis Presley)
• The Bridge on the River Kwai
• The Three Faces of Eve

The music continued to be Rock and Roll with artists like Little Richard and Elvis Presley. 

The popular toys were Slinkys and Hula Hoops.  American cars sported bigger and taller tail fins, more lights and more powerful engines.  The average new car sold for $2,749.