1950: Encyclopedia II - 1950 - Events

1950 - Events

1950 - January

• January 5 - U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for examination of organized crime in the U.S.
• January 6 - The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response.
• January 9 - The Israeli government recognizes the People's Republic of China.
• January 11 - Huk guerrillas attack the town of Hermosa in Bataan, Philippines.
• January 12 - Huk guerillas attack the town of Tuyn, kill two and torch the city of Staingnacan.
• January 12 - British submarine Truculent collides with a Swedish oil tanker in River Thames - 64 dead.
• January 13 - Finland forms diplomatic relations to People's Republic of China
• January 15 - Volcanic cloud kills 5000 in Mount Lamington, New Guinea
• January 17 - The Great Brinks Robbery - 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car in Boston, Massachusetts
• January 21 - Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury
• January 23 - The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
• January 24 - Cold War: Klaus Fuchs confesses his wartime espionage at Los Alamos to British interrogators - formally charged February 2
• January 26 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president.
• January 28 - Somaliland is put under Italian mandate
• January 29 - Lord Balfour criticizes the fact that rationing is still in force in Britain
• January 31 - President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb
• January 31 - Last Kuomintang troops surrender in continental China

1950 - February

• February 1 - Chiang Kai-shek re-elected as a president of the Republic of China
• February 4 - Ingrid Bergman's illegitimate child arouses ire in USA
• February 9 - Red scare: In his speech to the Republican Women's Club at the McClure Hotel in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with 205 Communists.
• February 11 - Two Vietcong battalions attack a French base in Indochina
• February 11 - Finland recognizes Indonesia
• February 12 - Pro-communist riots in Paris
• February 12 - European Broadcasting Union founded
• February 13 - In USA army begins to deploy anti-aircraft cannons to protect nuclear stations and military targets
• February 14 - The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty
• February 15 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi re-elected president of Finland
• February 19 - Konrad Adenauer tries unsuccessfully to negotiate with East Germany to begin unification.
• February 12 - Albert Einstein warns that nuclear war could lead to mutual destruction
• February - British Labour Party forms a new government.

1950 - March

• March 1 - 7.25 PM West South Baptist Church(negro) in Bestridge, Nebraska blows up - all the choir is late for rehearsals
• March 1 - Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by giving them top secret atomic bomb data.
• March 1 - Acting Chinese President Li Tsung-jen ends his term in office
• March 1 - Chiang Kai-shek resumes his duties as Chinese president after moving his government to Taipei, Taiwan
• March 3 - Poland states that it intends to exile all Germans.
• March 8 - The Soviet Union claims to have an atomic bomb.
• March 12-March 13 - In Belgium, the referendum over the monarchy shows 57.7% support the return of king Léopold III, 42.3% against.
• March 14 - Ship Cygnet hits mine off the Dutch coast.
• March 17 - University of California, Berkeley researchers announce the creation of element 98 which they have named "californium".
• March 20 - Government of Poland decides to confiscate the property of Polish church
• March 22 - Egypt demands that Britain remove all its troops in Suez Canal

1950 - April

• April 15 - King Léopold III of Belgium announces that he is ready to abdicate in favor of his son Baudouin
• April 24 - Jordan formally annexes West Bank
• April 27 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
• April 27 - Britain formally recognizes Israel

1950 - May

• May 6 - Tollund Man found
• May 9 - Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
• May 11 - Kefauver Committee hearings about US organized crime begin
• May 25 - Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is formally opened to traffic
• May 29 - St. Roch, first ship to circumnavigate North America arrives in Halifax Nova Scotia.

1950 - June

• June 3 - First ascent of Annapurna I, 10th highest mountain in the world.
• June 6 - Turkey: The Adhan in Arabic is legalized
• June 8 - Sir Thomas Blamey becomes the only Field Marshal in Australian history.
• June 10 - French police capture escaped murderer Emile Buisson in Paris restaurant
• June 24 - 58 persons were killed when a commercial airliner crashed into Lake Michigan. The reason for the disaster is unknown. Only fragments of the plane and the bodies of passengers were ever found.
• June 25 - Beginning of Korean War. In the USA, people began to hoard supplies in case of rationing and shortages.
• June 25 - NSC-68 enacted by President Truman, setting US foreign policy for the next twenty years.
• June 28 - Korean War - North Korean forces capture Seoul
• June 29 - United States defeats England 1-0 in the 1950 World Cup. For more details, see England v United States (1950).

1950 - July

• July 5 - Sicilian bandit leader Salvatore Giuliano killed in a shootout with carabinieri
• July 5 - Korean War: Task Force Smith - First clash between American and North Korean forces.
• July 5 - Zionism: The Knesset passes the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.
• July 6 - East Germany agrees with Poland on the Oder-Neisse line - West Germany does not at this time
• July 16 - Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1 to win 1950 World Cup
• July 17 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg arrested
• July 19 - 15 SS-men sentenced to death in East Germany
• July 20 - Tydings committee report to US senate denounces Joe McCarthy - he begins a public attack on members of the committee standing for election in 1950
• July 20 - In Belgium, the United Chambers adopt a decree which reinstates King Léopold III in his royal dignity.
• July 23 - King Léopold III of Belgium returns to Brussels
• July 24 - Hoax by J. Bam Morrison begins the tradition of "Sucker Day" in Wetumka, Oklahoma
• July 25 - Walter Ulbricht elected the general secretary of the communist party of East Germany
• July 28 - In Belgium, demonstrations and strikes break out as a result of King Léopold III's return. In Liège, three labourers are shot.

1950 - August

• August 5 - Florence Chadwick swims over English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes
• August 5 - A bomb-laden B-29 Superfortress crashes into a residential area in California. 17 dead, 68 injured.
• August 6 - Riot in Brussels in monarchist demonstrations
• August 8 - Winston Churchill supports idea of pan-European army allied with Canada and USA
• August 15 - Earthquake and floods in Assam, India - 574 deaths, 5,000,000 believed homeless

1950 - September

• September 1 - Hungarian major general Laszlo Viragen defects to Austria and applies for political asylum
• September 3 - Beetle Bailey comic strip started.
• September 7 - Coal mine collapses in New Cumnock, Scotland - 13 miners dead. 116 rescued.
• September 7 - The gameshow Truth or Consequences debuts on television.
• September 12 - Communist riots in Berlin
• September 13 - First main-line diesel-electric locomtives run in Australia
• September 15 - Allied troops land in Inchon, occupied by North Korea, to begin the Battle of Inchon.
• September 19 - West Germany decides to fire all its communist officials
• September 26 - Indonesia admitted to the United Nations

1950 - October

• October 1 - The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in seven US newspapers.
• October 3 - Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, elected president of Brazil, for a five-year term.
• October 5 - Indonesian government quells riots in the Moluccas
• 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 - In East Germany, communists win 99.7% of the vote
• October 20 - Australia passes the Communist Party Dissolution Act, later struck down by the High Court.
• October - Sister Mary Teresa begins her charity work in Calcutta and becomes known as Mother Teresa

1950 - November

• November 1 - Pope Pius XII defines a new dogma of Roman Catholicism: that God assumed Mary's body into Heaven after her death.
• November 1 - Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman, who is staying at the Blair-Lee House in Washington, D.C. during White House repairs.
• November 4 - United Nations ends the diplomatic isolation of Spain
• November 8 - Korean War: While in an F-80, United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown intercepts two North Korean MiG-15s near the Yalu River and shoots them down in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history.
• November 11 - The Mattachine Society founded in Los Angeles as the first Gay liberation organization
• November 13 - Colonel Carlos Delgado Chalbaud is kidnapped and murdered in Caracas.
• November 18 - United Nations accepts the formation of Libyan national council
• November 20 - T. S. Eliot speaks against television in the UK
• November 22 - Anti-British riots in Egypt
• November 22 - Shirley Temple announces her retirement from show business
• November 23 - George Robb was born in Aylth, Scotland
• November 25 - Phenomenal winter storm ravages the Northeast 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, ending any thought of a quick end to the conflict.
• November 28 - Greece and Yugoslavia reform diplomatic relations
• November 29 - Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force a desperate retreat of United Nations forces from North Korea.
• November 30 - Truman threatens to use nuclear weapons in Korea

1950 - December

• December 3 - Etna volcano erupts in Sicily
• December 12 - Paula Ackerman becomes the first woman in the United States to serve a congregation as a Rabbi, a few weeks after the death of her husband.
• December 24-December 25 - Scottish nationalists take the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey
• December 28 - The Peak District becomes Britain's first National Park.

1950 - Unknown date

• Ralph Schneider founds Diners Club - it initially only works in 27 restaurants in New York City.
• United Nations building finished.
• First pagers developed.
• Antihistamine discovered.
• First TV remote control, Zenith Radio's Lazy Bones is marketed.
• IBM Israel begins operating in Tel Aviv
• Japanese soldier Yuichi Akitsu surrenders in the Philippines
• President Harry Truman sends United States military personnel to Vietnam to aid French forces.
• National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA founded.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Events", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki