Is their a chart or something?
Try searching Fluther, I already asked this question a while ago and got some great responses.
Fluther should really show related questions in real time as you type yours, so you can know for sure if it’s already been asked.
This might help.
And what you want to look into is called the consumer price index. I don’t really have the time right now to help you figure out how to get from one point to another. Maybe someone else can.
http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm
$1.00 in 1955 had about the same buying power as $7.91 in 2008. Annual inflation over this period was about 3.98%.