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 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 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 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 2 - The comic stip Peanuts by Charles Schulz is first published in seven US newspapers.
- 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, communist win 99.7% of the vote
- October 20 - Australia declares communist party illegal
- November 1 -- Pope Pius XII defines a new dogma of Roman Catholicism: that God assumed Mary's body into Heaven after her death
- November 2 - Oscar Collazzo and Griselio Torresola try to assassinate US president Truman
- November 4 - United Nations 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
- 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 16 - Peter Hain, British politician
- 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
- February 26 - Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 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 11 - Gennidy Nikonov- Designer of the AN-94 assault rifle
- August 15 - Anne Elizabeth Alice Windsor, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II
- September 21 - Charles Clarke, British politician
- 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)
- August 11 - Gennidy Nikonov- Designer of the AN-94 assault rifle
- September 10 - Raymond Sommer, Grand Prix motor racing driver
- September 11 - Jan Christian Smuts
- September 21 - Arthur Milse, British space physicist
- October 23 - Al Jolson, US movie musician
- October 29 - Gustav V of Sweden
- November 2 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish-born playwright
- December 5 - Shri Aurobindo, guru
- December 27 - Max Beckmann, painter