1950 in the United States

1950 in the United States
Decades:	1930s 1940s – 1950s – 1960s 1970s
Years:	1947 1948 1949 – 1950 – 1951 1952 1953
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Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1945–1964)

Events from the year 1950 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Harry S. Truman (Democratic)
• Vice President: Alben W. Barkley (Democratic)
• Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn (D-Texas)
• Senate Majority Leader: Scott W. Lucas (D-Illinois)
• Congress: 81st

Events

January–March

February 9: Joseph McCarthy rises to prominence after claiming the State Department employs communists

• January 5 – U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of organized crime in the U.S.
• January 12 – Cold War: U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson delivers his 'Perimeter Speech', outlining the boundary of U.S. security guarantees.
• January 17 – Great Brinks Robbery: 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car in Boston, Massachusetts.
• January 21 – Accused communist spy Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
• January 24 – Cold War: Klaus Fuchs, German émigré and physicist, walks into London's War Office and confesses to being a Soviet spy: for 7 years, he passed top secret data on U.S. and British nuclear weapons research to the Soviet Union;^[1] formally charged February 2.
• January 31 – President Harry S. Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb, in response to the detonation of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb in 1949.^[1]
• February 4 – Ingrid Bergman's illegitimate child arouses ire in the U.S.
• February 9 – Second Red Scare: In his speech to the Republican Women's Club at the McClure Hote in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the U.S. State Department of being filled with 205 Communists.
• February 12 – Albert Einstein warns that nuclear war could lead to mutual destruction.
• February 13 – The U.S. Army begins to deploy anti-aircraft cannons to protect nuclear stations and military targets.
• February 13 – The U.S. Air Force loses a Convair B-36 bomber that carried an Mk-4 atomic bomb off the west coast of Canada, and produces the world's first Broken Arrow.
• February 15 – Walt Disney releases his 12th animated film, Cinderella in Hollywood.
• March 1 – Klaus Fuchs is convicted in London of spying against both Britain and the United States for the Soviet Union, by giving to the latter top secret atomic bomb data.
• March 17 – University of California, Berkeley researchers announce the creation of element 98, which they have named "californium".
• March 23 – The 22nd Academy Awards ceremony is held.

April–June

June 25: North Korea invades South Korea beginning the Korean War

• May 9 – L. Ron Hubbard publishes Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.
• May 11 – The Kefauver Committee hearings into U.S. organized crime begin.
• May 14 – The Huntsville Times runs the headline, "Dr. von Braun Says Rocket Flights Possible to Moon".
• May 25 – The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is formally opened to traffic.
• June 1 – Mauna Loa in Hawaii starts erupting.
• June 25 – Korean War: North Korean troops cross the 38th parallel into South Korea.
• June 27 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman orders American military forces to aid in the defense of South Korea.
• June 28 – Korean War: North Korean forces capture Seoul.
• June 29 – United States defeats England 1–0 in the 1950 FIFA World Cup.

July–September

• August 5 – A bomb-laden B-29 Superfortress crashes into a residential area in California; 17 are killed, 68 injured.
• August 8 – Winston Churchill supports idea of a pan-European army allied with Canada and the U.S.
• August 23 – Legendary singer-actor Paul Robeson, whose passport has recently been revoked because of his alleged Communist affiliations, meets with U.S. officials in an effort to get it reinstated. He is unsuccessful, and it is not reinstated until 1958.
• September 4 – The comic strip Beetle Bailey is created by Mort Walker.
• September 4 – Darlington Raceway is the site of the inaugural Southern 500, the first 500-mile NASCAR race.
• September 5 – Viking Press publishes On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
• September 7 – The game show Truth or Consequences debuts on television.
• September 8 – The Defense Production Act is enacted into law in the U.S., shaping American military contracting for the next 60 years.
• September 9 – The U.S. state of California celebrates its centennial anniversary.
• September 15 – Korean War – Battle of Inchon: Allied troops commanded by Douglas MacArthur land in Inchon, occupied by North Korea, to begin a U.N. counteroffensive.
• September 30 – NSC-68 is enacted by President Truman, setting U.S. foreign policy for the next 20 years.

October–December

• October 2 – The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in 7 U.S. newspapers.
• October 7 – The Agate Pass Bridge opens for traffic in Washington State.
• October 11 – The Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS (RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however).
• October 15 – The second Tacoma Narrows Bridge opens.
• October 30 – The Jayuya Uprising is started by Puerto Rican Nationalists against the United States.
• November 1 – Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who is staying at the Blair-Lee House in Washington, D.C. during White House repairs.
• November 8 – Korean War: While in an F-80, United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown intercepts 2 North Korean MiG-15s near the Yalu River and shoots them down in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history.
• November 10 – A U.S. Air Force B-50 Superfortress bomber, experiencing an in-flight emergency, jettisons and detonates a Mark 4 nuclear bomb over Quebec, Canada (the device lacked its plutonium core).
• November 11 – The Mattachine Society is founded in Los Angeles as the first gay liberation organization.
• November 22 – Shirley Temple announces her retirement from show business.
• November 25 – A phenomenal winter storm ravages the northeastern United States, brings 30 to 50 inches of snow, temperatures below zero, and kills 323 people.
• November 26 – Korean War: Troops from the People's Republic of China move into North Korea and launch a massive counterattack against South Korean and American forces at Chosin, dashing any hopes for a quick end to the conflict.
• November 29 – Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force a retreat of United Nations forces from North Korea.
• November 29 – The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA is founded.
• November 30 – Douglas MacArthur threatens to use nuclear weapons in Korea.
• December 12 – Paula Ackerman becomes the first woman in the United States to serve a congregation as a Rabbi.
• December 16 – The Office of Defense Mobilization is established in the United States.

Undated

• President Harry Truman sends United States military advisors to Vietnam to aid French forces.
• The first TV remote control, Zenith Radio's Lazy Bones, is marketed.

Ongoing

• Cold War (1945–1991)
• Second Red Scare (1947–1957)
• Marshall Plan (1948–1951)
• Korean War (1950–1953)

Births

This section requires expansion.

• August 25 – Charles Fambrough, jazz musician and composer (died 2011)

Deaths

This section requires expansion.

• March 11 – Heinrich Mann, German writer who lived in exile in the United States (born 1871)
• December 28 – Max Beckmann, German painter and graphic artist who moved to the United States (born 1884)

References

External links

• Media related to 1950 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons