GEOPHYSICAL YEAR:

From June 1957 to December 1958, the United States and the Soviet Union participated in a period of international scientific exploration of the Earth, a period known as The International Geophysical Year.

Global geophysical activities undertaken at this time included studies of the arctic regions, the upper atmosphere and the start of the orbiting satellite programs, as well as investigations of meteors, cosmic rays, gravity, glaciers and the oceans.

It was during this period that NASA was formed in the U.S.

But the real important experiments came when Walt Kelly had his characters take part in this international scientific research in his Pogo strips of '57 and '58, calling it the G.O. Fizzickle Year.

More information on the Geophysical Year is available online, for example at http://www.nas.edu/history/igy and http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/igy.html.