1950 Newspaper Headlines Summary
Find out which important things that happened in 1950 that would be remembered for years to come. Key 1950 events include the introduction of the credit card, which would change the lives of people all over the world. It was the year the Korean war began, after the country had been divided during WWII when the North became communist and the south remained capitalist.
This was the year that James Dean got his big break in a Pepsi commercial; the Belgian King Leopold III was reinstated to the throne after giving Belgium’s unconditional surrender to Nazi Germany; and the mummified body of the Tollund Man was found in a peat bog in the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark. 1950 newspapers feature plenty of exciting tales from the past. Take a trip back through history with an original newspaper written by people who lived at the time; we even have regional archives such as our Indianapolis Star and Chicago Daily Tribune archives.
January 21, 1950
George Orwell, English author of 1984 and Animal Farm (b. 1903) dies.
January 26, 1950
India formally declares its own constitution, forming a republic. Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president.
February 12, 1950
Albert Einstein warns that nuclear war could lead to mutual destruction.
March 1, 1950
Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying against both the United States and Britain for the Soviet Union. Fuchs had given top secret atomic bomb data to the Soviet Union, which had led to his arrest.
May 13, 1950
The first race in the inaugural FIA Formula One World Championship is held at Silverstone, England.
June 25, 1950
North Korean troops cross the 38th parallel into South Korea. The Korean War officially begins.
July 16, 1950
Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1 to win the 1950 FIFA World Cup.
August 5, 1950
Florence Chadwick swims across the English Channel in thirteen hours and twenty-two minutes.
August 15, 1950
An earthquake and terrible flooding kills 574 people in Assam, India, and leaves 5,000,000 homeless.
September 7, 1950
A coal mine collapses in New Cumnock, Scotland, killing thirteen miners; 116 are rescued.
November 1, 1950
An assassination attempt is made on President Truman and fails.
November 20, 1950
Iconic war poet T. S. Eliot speaks-out against television in the United Kingdom.
November 22, 1950
Shirley Temple announces her retirement from show business.
November 26, 1950
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. Any hopes of a quick end to the Korean War are dashed.
December 3, 1950
Mount Etna erupts in Sicily. The eruption lasts for 371 days, causing damage to vineyards and orchards.
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