1950

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s - 1950s - 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

Years: 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 - 1950 - 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955

Events

• January 6 - The United Kingdom recognizes the Peoples Republic of China.
• January 11 - Huk guerilla[?] attack the town of Hermosa[?] in Bataan, Philippines
• January 12 - Huk guerilla[?] attack the town of Tuyn[?], kill two and and torch the city of Staingnacan[?]
• January 12 - British submarine Truculent collides with a Swedish ship in River Thames - 65 dead
• January 17 - The Great Brinks Robbery[?] - 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from a 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 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
• 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 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 19 - Konrad Adenauer tries unsuccessfully to negotiate with East Germany to begin unification
• February 22 - Albert Einstein warns that the nuclear war could lead to mutual destruction
• February - British Labour Party forms a new government
• March 1 - West South Baptist Church[?] in Bestridge, Nebraska[?] blows up
• March 1 - Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by giving them top secret[?] atomic bomb data.
• March 3 - Poland states that it intends to exile all the Germans
• March 8 - The Soviet Union claims to have an atomic bomb.
• March 12 - March 13 - In Belgium, the referendum about the monarchy shows 57.7% support the return of the king, 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 22 - Egypt demand that Britain remove all its troops in Suez Canal
• April 15 - King Leopold III of Belgium announces that he is ready to abdicate in favor of his son Baudoin
• April 24 - Jordania[?] formally annexes West Bank
• April 27 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act[?] is passed formally segregating races.
• 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 29 - St. Roch[?], first ship to circumnavigate North America arrives in Halifax Nova Scotia.
• June 25 - beginning of Korean War. In the USA, people begun to hoard supplies in case of rationing and shortages.
• July 4 - 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 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 23 - Leopold III of Belgium returns to Brussels
• July 25 - Walter Ulbricht elected the general secretary of the communist party of East Germany
• July 31 - First battle between North Korean and US troops in Korean War
• August 1 - Leopold III of Belgium formally abdicates for crown prince Baudoin
• August 5 - Florence Chadwick[?] swims over English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes
• August 6 - Riot in Brussels in monarchist demonstrations
• August 7 - Flying fortress[?] crashes into a residential area in California
• August 8 - Winston Churchill supports idea of pan-European army allied with Canada and USA
• August 11 - Baudouin of Belgium sworn in as a king - communists protest and one right-wing extremist throws a smoke grenade.
• August 15 - Earthquake in Assam, India - 20.000-30.000 believed dead
• September 1 - Hungarian major general Laszlo Viragen[?] defects to Austria and applies for political asylum
• September 8 - Coal mine[?] collapses in Scotland - 128 dead
• September 12 - Communist riots in Berlin
• September 15 - US and South Korean troops land in Inchon, then occupied by North Korea
• September 19 - West Germany decides to fire all its communist officials
• September 26 - Indonesia admitted to the United Nations
• October 5 - Indonesian government quells riots in the Moluccas
• October 15 - In East Germany, communist win 99.7% of the vote
• October 20 - Australia declares communist party illegal
• November 2 - Oscar Collazzo[?] and Griselio Torresola[?] try to assassinate US president Truman[?]
• November 4 - United Nation[?] ends the diplomatic isolation of Spain
• November 18 - United Nations accepts the formation of Libyan national council
• November 22 - Anti-British riots in Egypt
• November 20 - T. S. Eliot speaks against television in the UK
• November 22 - Shirley Temple announces her retirement from show business
• November 30 - Truman threatens to use nuclear weapons in Korea
• December 25 - Scottish nationalists take the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey
• December 28 - The Peak District becomes Great Britain's first National Park.

• Ralph Schneider founds Diner's Club[?] - first it works only in 27 restaurants in New York City
• United Nations building[?] finished
• First pagers
• Antihihistamin[?]

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 1950 in film
  • All About Eve
  • Father of the Bride
  • John Ford's Rio Grande[?] starring John Wayne
  • Harvey starring Jimmy Stewart
• 1950 in literature
  • Thor Heyerdahl - Kon Tiki[?]
• 1950 in music
  • January 3 - Sam Phillips opened Sun Records
• 1950 in sports
• 1950 in television
  • February 2 - What's My Line[?] debuts on CBS.
  • February 25 - Your Show of Shows premieres on NBC.
  • July 10 - Your Hit Parade premieres on NBC.
  • October 5 - First television bordcast of You Bet Your Life[?] on NBC
  • October 10 - The FCC approves CBS color TV system, effective Nov. 20.
  • The Burns and Allen Show[?]
  • Truth or Consequences
  • The number of homes in the U.S. that own a television set reaches the one million mark.

Births

• January 16 - Debbie Allen[?], actress, dancer, choreographer
• January 21 - Billy Ocean, musician
• February 2 - Barbara Sukowa[?], actress
• February 3 - Morgan Fairchild[?], actress
• February 6 - Natalie Cole[?], singer
• February 10 - Mark Spitz, Olympic Games swimming gold medalist
• February 11 - Earnest Jim Istook[?], US-American politician
• February 11 - Johanna E. Beerens[?], actress
• February 11 - Rochelle Fleming[?], soul music vocalist
• February 12 - Michael Ironside[?], US actor
• February 13 - Peter Gabriel, British musician
• February 18 - John Hughes, director, producer, writer
• February 22 - Julius Erving[?], Basketball Hall of Famer
• February 22 - Julie Walters, actress
• February 22 - Miou-Miou[?], actress
• February 25 - Neil Jordan[?], director, writer, producer
• March 2 - Karen Carpenter[?], singer and drummer (+ 1983)
• March 9 - Danny Sullivan[?], automobile racer
• March 11 - Bobby McFerrin[?], US singer
• March 11 - Jery Zucker[?], producer, director, writer
• March 13 - William H. Macy[?], actor
• March 18 - Brad Dourif[?], actor
• March 20 - William Hurt, US actor
• March 26 - Teddy Pendergras[?], singer
• March 29 - Bud Cort[?], actor
• March 30 - Robbie Coltrane, British actor, comedian
• April 4 - Christine Lahti[?], US actress
• April 22 - Peter Frampton, musician

• May 7 - Randall 'Tex' Cobb[?], boxer, actor
• May 13 - Stevie Wonder, singer, pianist, bassist, drummer
• May 16 - J. Georg Bednorz[?], physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1987
• May 17 - Janez Drnovsek, Slovene politician
• May 18 - Mark Mothersbaugh, composer & musician
• May 18 - Thomas Gottschalk, show master
• May 22 - Bernie Taupin, songwriter
• July 17 - Michel Lotito[?], Frenchman who eats everything
• August 15 - Anne Elizabeth Alice Windsor, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II
• September 28 - John Sayles director, screenwriter
• October 31 - John Candy, US comedian and actor
• December 1 - Keith Thibodeaux, US drummer and actor ("Little Ricky" on I Love Lucy)
• December 13 - Tom Vilsack, Iowa Governor

Deaths

• January 3 - Emil Jannings, actor
• January 21 - George Orwell, British writer (tuberculosis)
• March 19 - Edgar Rice Burroughs, US author

• April 1 - Charles R. Drew, physician
• April 3 - Kurt Weill, composer
• April 7 - Walter Huston, Academy Award winning actor
• April 8 - Vaslav Nijinsky, Russian ballet dancer
• July 5 - Salvatore Giuliano[?], Sicilian bandit leader (shot by police)
• September 11 - Jan Christian Smuts
• September 21 - Arthur Milse[?], British space physicist
• October 23 - Al Jolson, US movie musician
• October 29 - Gustaf V of Sweden[?]
• November 2 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish-born playwright
• December 5 - Shri Aurobindo, guru
• December 27 - Max Beckmann, painter

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Cecil Frank Powell[?]
• Chemistry - Otto Paul Hermann Diels[?], Kurt Alder[?]
• Medicine - Edward Calvin Kendall, Tadeus Reichstein[?], Philip Showalter Hench
• Literature - Earl (Bertrand Arthur William) Russell
• Peace - Ralph Bunche[?]