A Look Back to 1950
Take a look at notable events that took place in the year 1950.
January
- In January of 1950, Jackie Robinson signed the highest paying contract in Dodger history…at just $35,000
- - US President publicly announces support for the development of a hydrogen bomb
February
- - Green Bay Packers founder, player and coach resigns after 31 seasons and 6 NFL titles to his credit
- - United States formally recognizes the State of Vietnam as the legitimate government of Vietnam
- Feb 9 - Senator Joe McCarthy charges State Department infested with 205 communists
- - warns against the hydrogen bomb
- - animated film "Cinderella" premieres in Boston. Massachusetts
- - Longest-running prime-time game show, "What's My Line" begins on CBS
March
- - resumes the presidency of the Republic of China on Taiwan
- - Silly Putty goes on sale in the US
- - reports record net earnings of $656,434,232
- - 22nd Academy Awards: "All The King's Men", and win
- - Bell Telephone Laboratories announces invention of the phototransistor in Murray Hill, New Jersey
April
- - first TV appearance
- Apr 24 - Jordan formally annexes the West Bank
- - Chuck Cooper becomes the first African American to be drafted into the NBA (for Boston Celtics)
May
- - Pulitzer prize awarded to and Oscar Hammerstein II for the musical "South Pacific"
- - Diner's Club issues its first credit cards
- May 13 - First ever race of the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship is run at Silverstone, England and won by Giuseppe Farina of Italy in an Alfa Romeo
- - Vietnamese troops of Ho Chi-Minh attack Cambodia
- - Brooklyn Battery Tunnel opens in NYC
June
- - US Supreme Court undermines legal foundations of segregation
- - First kidney transplant (Chicago)
- - gets his 2,000th hit, a 7th-inning single off Chick Pieretti, in a 8-2 victory over Cleveland
- Jun 23 - Swiss parliament refuses voting rights for women
- - North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War
- - North Korean troops reach Seoul, causing the UN to ask member states to aid South Korea. orders the US Air Force and Navy into the Korean conflict.
- Jun 27 - US sends 35 military advisers to South Vietnam
July
- Jul 5 - US forces enter combat in the Korean War for the first time, in the Battle of Osan
- - French/Vietnamese offensive against Viet Minh
- - NY Yankees sign their first black players, and Frank Baines
- - V-2/WAC Corporal rocket launch; first launch from Cape Canaveral
August
- - swims the English Channel in a record time of 13 hours and 23 minutes
- August 11 - Steve Wozniak born
- - testifies before grand jury on allegations of spying for the Soviet Union
- - US President gives military aid to Vietnamese regime of B岷 膼岷
- - becomes first black competitor in a US national tennis competition
- Aug 22 - First patent for controlling vehicle speed (cruise control) granted to American inventor Ralph Teetor
- - "Rashomon", Japanese film directed by , starring and Machiko Ky艒, is released (Honorary Academy Award 1952)
- - Knocks out Jose Basora to win middleweight boxing title
- Aug 25 - US President Harry Truman orders army to take control of railroad to avert a strike
- - First transmission of a TV programme from continental Europe shown on BBC
September
- Sep 11 - Dick Tracy TV show sparks uproar concerning violence
- - Western allies rearm West Germany
- Sep 15 - East German premier Grotewohl pleads for German reunification
- - San Francisco 49ers (formerly AAFC) play first NFL game, lose 21-17
- Sep 19 - Great Three (England, US, and France) acknowledge Bonn Government as the only German government
- - promoted to rank of 5-star general in the United States Army
- - Nobel peace prize awarded to for mediation in Israel - First African American winner
- Sep 26 - UN troops in Korean War recapture South Korean capital of Seoul
- - Heavyweight champion defeats Joe Louis in 15 in Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York
- Sep 29 - Telephone Answering Machine created by Bell Laboratories
- - Yanks clinch second consecutive pennant under
- Sep 30 - Radio's "Grand Ole Opry" is broadcast on TV for first time
October
- - First strip of Charlie Brown, "Li'l Folks", later "Peanuts", by published in seven nationwide papers
- - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS
- - The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show debuts on CBS television, airs until 1958
- - The first edition of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is released in London
- - Chinese forces occupy Tibet
- - founds Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India
November
- - Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President at Blair House in Washington D.C.; attack thwarted by White House Police, including Officer Leslie Coffelt who was killed in the line of duty
- - Nobel Prize for literature awarded to "for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel"
- - Egyptian King Faruk demands departure of all British troops
- Nov 16 - US President Harry Truman proclaims emergency crisis caused by communist threat
- - US General becomes supreme commander of NATO-Europe
- Nov 24 - UN troops begin an assault intending to end Korean War by Christmas
- - China enters Korean conflict, sends troops across Yalu River
- - US President Harry Truman threatens China with atom bomb
December
- - "I Robot" collection of sci-fi short stories by published by Gnome Press in the US
- - begins his career with an appearance in a Pepsi commercial
- - Child star announces her retirement from films at age 22
- - US President proclaims state of emergency against "Communist imperialism"
- - Chinese invasion of Tibet forces the Tibetan spiritual leader the to flee Lhasa for Yadong on the Tibetan-India border
- - "Harvey" starring premieres in New York
- - "Tennessee Waltz" sung by hits #1 on the Billboard Pop Chart (stays for 9 weeks)
- Dec 30 - Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia become Independent states within the French Union
- Harry Truman was president of US
- Joseph Stalin was Soviet General Secretary
- Mao Zedong was Chairman of Communist Party China