1950

Events from the year 1950 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Harry S. Truman (D-MO)
* Vice President: Alben W. Barkley (D-KY)
* Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson (KY)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
* Senate Majority Leader: Scott W. Lucas (D-IL)
* Congress: 81st
==Events==
===January - March===
* January 5 – U.S. Senator Estes 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.
* 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.
* 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; formally charged February 2.
* January 31 – President Harry S. Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb, in response to the detonation of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb in 1949.
* 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, Senator Joseph 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 secret atomic bomb data.
* March 17 – University of California, Berkeley researchers announce the creation of element 98, which they have named "californium".
* March 22 – Frank La Salle is arrested in California for the abduction of Florence Sally Horner since 1948.
* 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===
* 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".
* May 25 – The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel is formally opened to traffic.
* June 1 – Mauna Loa in Hawaii starts erupting.
* 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.
* 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 strip Peanuts 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 15 – The second Tacoma Narrows Bridge opens.
* 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 – 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.
==Memoriam==
* January 2 – Anthony Prusinski, politician (aged 48; Chicago, IL, USA)
* January 15 – Henry H. Arnold, five-star general (aged 63; Sonoma, CA, USA)
* January 17 – Henry Justin Allen, 21st Governor of Kansas (aged 81; Wichita, KS, USA)
* January 22 – Alan Hale Sr., actor (aged 57; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* February 7 – William Murphy, Roman Catholic bishop (aged 64; Saginaw, MI, USA)
* February 11 – Kiki Cuyler, baseball player (Chicago Cubs) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (aged 51; Ann Arbor, MI, USA)
* February 13 – Gilbert Nations, lawyer and judge (aged 83; Park Ridge, IL, USA)
* February 25 – George Minot, physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (aged 64; Brookline, MA, USA)
* February 27 – Harold Clarke Goddard, Shakespearean scholar (aged 71; Ware, MA, USA)
* March 11
** Heinrich Mann, German writer (aged 78; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
** Algie Martin Simons (aged 80; New Martinsville, WV, USA)
* March 12 – Howard Sutherland, U.S. Senator from West Virginia from 1917 to 1923 (aged 84; Washington, DC, USA)
* March 19 – Arthur LeSueur, newspaper editor, politician, and lawyer (aged 82; Minneapolis, MN, USA)
* April 1 – Charles R. Drew, African American physician, pioneer in blood transfusion, died as result of automobile accident (aged 45; Burlington, NC, USA)
* April 7 – Walter Huston, actor (aged 67; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* April 11 – Bainbridge Colby, United States Secretary of State (aged 80; Bemus Point, NY, USA)
* April 16 – Henry J. Knauf, politician (aged 59; Des Moines, IA, USA)
* April 26 – George Murray Hulbert, politician (aged 68; Bayport, NY, USA)
* April 27 – Hobart Cavanaugh, character actor (aged 63; Woodland Hills, CA, USA)
* May 1 – Lothrop Stoddard, eugenicist (aged 66; Washington, DC, USA)
* May 10
** John Gould Fletcher, poet (aged 64; Little Rock, AR, USA)
** Belle da Costa Greene, librarian, bibliographer and archivist (aged 70; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 30 – William Lemke, politician (aged 71; Fargo, ND, USA)
* June 22 – Jane Cowl, actress (aged 66; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* July 7 – Fats Navarro, jazz trumpet player (aged 26; New York City, NY, USA)
* July 8 – Helen Holmes, actress (aged 58; Burbank, CA, USA)
* July 10 – Richard Maury, American naturalized Argentine engineer (aged 67; Córdoba, Argentina)
* July 11 – Buddy DeSylva, songwriter (aged 55; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 12 – Elsie de Wolfe, socialite and interior decorator (aged 90; Versailles, France)
* July 21 – Rex Ingram, director (aged 58; North Hollywood, CA, USA)
* August 19 – Black Elk, Wičháša Wakȟáŋ (Medicine Man or Holy Man) of the Ogala Teton Lakota (Western Sioux) (aged 86; Pine Ridge, SD, USA)
* August 22 – Kirk Bryan, geologist (aged 62; Cody, WY, USA)
* August 23 – Frank Phillips, oil executive (aged 76; Atlantic City, NJ, USA)
* August 26 – Ransom E. Olds, automotive pioneer (aged 86; Lansing, MI, USA)
* September 10 – Raymond Sommer, race car driver (aged 44; Circuit de Cadours, France)
* September 16 – Pedro de Cordoba, actor (aged 68; Sunland, CA, USA)
* October 7 – Willis Carrier, engineer of air-conditioning (aged 73; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 11 – Pauline Lord, actress (aged 60; Alamogordo, NM, USA)
* October 13 – Ernest Haycox, writer (aged 51; Portland, OR, USA)
* October 19 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet (aged 58; Austerlitz, NY, USA)
* October 20 – Henry L. Stimson, United States Secretary of State (aged 83; West Hills, NY, USA)
* October 23 – Al Jolson, musician and actor (aged 64; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* October 28 – Maurice Costello, actor (aged 73; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* November 4 – Grover Cleveland Alexander, baseball player (Philadelphia Phillies) and a member of the MLB Hall of Fame (aged 63; St. Paul, NE, USA)
* November 8 – Bernice Herstein, socialite (aged 32; Scarsdale, NY, USA)
* November 9 – Maude Fulton, playwright and actress (aged 69; San Fernando, CA, USA)
* December 4 – Jesse L. Brown, first African-American aviator in the United States Navy (killed in action) (aged 24; Chosin Reservoir, North Korea)
* December 7 – Evelyn Selbie, actress (aged 79; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* December 28 – Max Beckmann, German painter and graphic artist (aged 66; New York City, NY, USA)
==External links==
* 1950 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 18