1950
Gwendolyn Brooks is awarded a Pulitzer Prize for poetry in Chicago. She is the first black so honored.
1950
Edith Sampson is appointed an alternate delegate to the United Nations.
1950
Ralph Bunche wins the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
1950
The U.S. Census puts net 10-year black emigration from South at 1.6 million. Various U.S. Supreme Court decisions open university facilities to blacks. A special committee reports to President Truman that black servicemen
are still barred from many military specialties and training programs, but that the Armed Forces has largely been desegregated.
1950
The black U.S. 24th Infantry Regiment recaptures the city of Yech'on, Korea, the first American victory in the Korean War.
1950
Senator Joseph McCarthy advises President Truman that the U.S. State Department is riddled with Communists and Communist sympathizers.
1950 January
Great Britain officially recognizes Communist China.
1950 January 21
Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury for denying under oath that he passed U.S. State Department secrets to a Communist courier. Hiss is later sentenced to five years in prison, but will only serve three. The Hiss case makes Richard Nixon famous and brings him national recognition.
1950 January 31
President Truman announces he has ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.
1950 May 9
The establishment of a single authority for the production of coal, iron, and steel in France and Germany is officially announced. The organization, founded two years later, is a forerunner of the European Economic Community, and years later will become the European Union.
1950 June 25
North Korean forces invade South Korea and capture the capital at Seoul. In response, the UN sanctions military aid for South Korea and General Douglas McArthur is appointed commander of the combined UN forces.
1950 June 27
President Truman orders the U.S. Air Force and Navy into the Korean conflict following a call from the United Nations Security Council for member nations to help South Korea repel an invasion from the North.
1950 June 28
North Korean armed forces capture Seoul, South Korea.
1950 August 1
King Leopold of Belgium abdicates and Baudouin becomes King.
1950 December 16
President Truman proclaims a national state of emergency in order to fight "Communist imperialism."
1950 December 19
General Eisenhower is named Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Europe, and given operational command of U.S. Forces, Europe.
B.C. 1950
Egypt conquers lower Nubia. The Sumerian empire falls to Western Amorites and Guti.
