February 9: Joseph McCarthy rises to prominence after claiming the State Department employs communists
January 5 – U.S. SenatorEstes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for an investigation of organized crime in the U.S.
January 7 – A fire consumes Mercy Hospital in Davenport, Iowa, killing 41 patients.[1]
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 $2,000,000 from an armored car in Boston, Massachusetts.
January 21 – Accused communist spy Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.[2]
January 24 – Cold War: Klaus Fuchs, German émigré and physicist, walks into London's War Office and confesses to being a Soviet spy: for seven years, he passed top secret data on American and British nuclear weapons research to the Soviet Union;[3] formally charged February 2.
January 31 – PresidentHarry S. Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb, in response to the detonation of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb in 1949.[3]
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 Hotel in Wheeling, West Virginia, SenatorJoseph 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.
The U.S. Air Force loses a Convair B-36 bomber carrying an Mk-4 atomic bomb off the west coast of Canada, producing the world's first Broken Arrow.
February 15 – Walt Disney releases his twelfth animated feature film, Cinderella, in Hollywood. It is the first singular feature project his studio has produced since 1942's Bambi, following a string of six anthology films released to recoup losses due to World War II, and Disney's biggest commercial hit since 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
March 1 – Klaus Fuchs is convicted in London of spying against both the UK and the United States for the Soviet Union, by giving to the latter top secretatomic 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, hosted by Paul Douglas, is held at RKO Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Robert Rossen's All The King's Men wins Best Picture, while Joseph L. Mankiewicz wins Best Director for A Letter to Three Wives. William Wyler's The Heiress receives and wins the most respective nominations and awards, with eight and four.
April–June[]
June 25: North Korea invades South Korea beginning the Korean War
May 1 – First African American winner of a Pulitzer Prize: Gwendolyn Brooks wins the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her 1949 volume Annie Allen.
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".
June 5 – Sweatt v. Painter decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, challenging the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation in education.
June 22 – Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television is published.
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 v England (1950 FIFA World Cup): The United States men's national soccer team defeats England 1–0 in the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil (Group 2 round).
July–September[]
July 8 – G. Mennen Williams, the Governor of Michigan, is attacked and briefly held hostage while visiting Marquette Branch Prison, as part of an inmate escape plot.
August 5 – A bomb-laden B-29 Superfortress crashes into a residential area in California; 17 are killed and 68 injured.
August 8 – Winston Churchill expresses support for the idea of a pan-European army allied with Canada and the United States.
August 23 – Legendary African American 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.
August 25 – Althea Gibson becomes the first African American woman to compete at the U.S. National Championships (tennis).
September 4
The comic strip Beetle Bailey is created by Mort Walker.
Darlington Raceway is the site of the inaugural Southern 500, the first 500-mile NASCAR race.
September 7 – The game show Truth or Consequences debuts on television.
September 8 – The Defense Production Act is enacted into law in the United States, shaping American military contracting for the next sixty 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 approved by President Harry S. Truman, setting United States foreign policy for the next 20 years.
October–December[]
October 2 – The comic stripPeanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in seven U.S. newspapers.
October 7
The Agate Pass Bridge opens for traffic in Washington State.
The New York Yankees defeat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4 games to 0, to win their 13th World Series Title.
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 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 two 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 24–25 – Great Appalachian Storm of 1950: 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.
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 S. 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 (1947–1991)
Second Red Scare (1947–1957)
Marshall Plan (1948–1951)
Korean War (1950–1953)
Births[]
January 1 – Steve Ripley, country singer (d. 2019)