Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Also, 1950 is the index year, or year 0, that scientists use for before present figures.

Events of 1950

January

• January 1 - Sir Adrian Boult is appointed principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
• January 5 - U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for examination of organized crime in the U.S.
• January 6 - The United Kingdom recognizes the People\'s Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response.
• January 9 - The Israeli government recognizes the People\'s Republic of China.
• January 11 - Huk guerrillas manhandle the town of Hermosa in Bataan, Philippines.

January 1: Adrian Boult heads LPO.

January 15: Mount Lamington erupts in New Guinea.

January 26: India forms a republic.

• January 12 - British submarine Truculent collides with a Swedish oil tanker in the Thames Estuary and sinks - 64 dead.
• January 13 - Finland forms diplomatic relations to People\'s Republic of China.
• January 15 - Volcanic cloud kills 5000 in Mount Lamington, New Guinea.
• 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, a German émigré and physicist, walked into London\'s War Office and confessed to being a Soviet spy: for 7 years, he passed top secret data on U.S. and British nuclear weapons research to the Soviet Union;"Year by Year 1950" -- History Channel International formally charged February 2.
• January 26 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president.
• January 28 - Somaliland is put under Italian mandate
• January 29 - Lord Balfour criticizes the fact that rationing is still in force in Britain.
• 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."Year by Year 1950" -- History Channel International
• January 31 - Last Kuomintang troops surrender in mainland China.

February

• February - British Labour Party forms a new government.
• 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 - Second Red Scare: In his speech to the Republican Women\'s Club at the McClure Hote 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 French Indochina.
  • Finland recognizes Indonesia.
• February 12
  • Pro-communist riots in Paris.
  • European Broadcasting Union founded.
  • Albert Einstein warns that nuclear war could lead to mutual destruction.
• February 13
  • The US army begins to deploy anti-aircraft cannons to protect nuclear stations and military targets.
  • The US Air Force loses a B-36 bomber that carried an Mk-4 atomic bomb off the west coast of Canada, and produced the world\'s first Broken Arrow.
• February 14 - The Soviet Union and the People\'s Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty.
• February 15 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi re-elected president of Finland
• February 19 - Konrad Adenauer tries unsuccessfully to negotiate with East Germany to begin unification.

March

• March 1 - Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by giving them top secret atomic bomb data.
• March 1 - Acting Chinese President Li Tsung-jen ends his term in office
• March 1 - Chiang Kai-shek resumes his duties as Chinese president after moving his government to Taipei, Taiwan.
• March 3 - Poland states that it intends to exile all Germans.
• March 8 - The Soviet Union claims to have an atomic bomb.
• March 8 - The first Volkswagen Type 2 van - also known as the Volkswagen Microbus - rolls off the assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany.
• March 12 - A plane carrying returning rugby fans from Ireland to Wales crashes near Llandow with the loss of 80 lives.
• March 12-March 13 - In Belgium, the referendum over the monarchy shows 57.7% support the return of king Léopold III, 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 20 - Government of Poland decides to confiscate the property of the Polish church.
• March 22 - Egypt demands that Britain remove all its troops in Suez Canal.

April

• April 15 - Belgian king Leopold III announces that he is ready to abdicate in favor of his son Baudouin.
• April 24 - Jordan formally annexes the West Bank.
• April 27 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed, formally segregating races.
• April 27 - Britain formally recognizes Israel.

May

• May 6 - "Cazin uprising" in town of Cazin (Bosnia) against Communist agrarian reforms.
• May 6 - Tollund Man is found.
• 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 9 - L. Ron Hubbard publishes Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.
• May 11 - Kefauver Committee hearings about US organized crime begin.
• May 13 - The first race in the inaugural FIA Formula One World Championship was held at Silverstone, England.
• May 14 - The Huntsville Times runs the headline, "Dr. von Braun Says Rocket Flights Possible to Moon."
• May 25 - Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is formally opened to traffic.
• May 29 - St. Roch, first ship to circumnavigate North America arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

June

• June 3 - First ascent of Annapurna I, 10th highest mountain in the world.
• June 6 - Turkey: The Adhan in Arabic is legalized.
• June 8 - Sir Thomas Blamey becomes the only Field Marshal in Australian history.
• June 25 - Beginning of Korean War: Americans begin hoarding supplies in case of rationing and shortages.
• June 28 - Korean War - North Korean forces capture Seoul.
• June 29 - United States defeats England 1-0 in the 1950 FIFA World Cup.

July

• July 16 - Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1 to win the 1950 World Cup.

August

• August 5 - Florence Chadwick swims across English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes.
• August 5 - A bomb-laden B-29 Superfortress crashes into a residential area in California: 17 dead, 68 injured.
• August 6 - Riot in Brussels in monarchist demonstrations.
• August 8 - Winston Churchill supports idea of pan-European army allied with Canada and USA.
• August 12 - In his Encyclical Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII declares evolution to be a serious hypothesis that did not contradict essential Catholic teachings.
• August 15 - Earthquake and floods in Assam, India: 574 deaths, 5,000,000 believed homeless.
• August 22 - Foundation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, Tagbilaran City, Philippines.
• August 23 - Legendary 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.

September

• September 4 - Darlington Raceway is the site of the inaugural Southern 500, the first 500-mile NASCAR race. Beetle Bailey comic strip started.
• September 7
  • Coal mine collapses in New Cumnock, Scotland - 13 miners dead. 116 rescued.
  • The gameshow Truth or Consequences debuts on television.
• September 8 - The Defense Production Act is enacted into law in the U.S., shaping American military contracting for the next 60 years.
• September 9 - The U.S. state of California celebrates its centennial anniversary.
• September 12 - Communist riots in Berlin.
• September 15 - Allied troops land in Inchon, occupied by North Korea, to begin the Battle of Inchon.
• September 19 - West Germany decides to purge communist officials.
• September 26 - Indonesia admitted to the United Nations.
• September 28 - Ray Bradbury releases famous short story "The Veldt"
• September 30 - NSC-68 enacted by President Truman, setting US foreign policy for the next twenty years.

October

• October 2 - The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in seven US newspapers.
• October 3 - Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, elected president of Brazil, for a five-year term.
• October 5 - Indonesian government quells riots in the Moluccas.
• October 7
  • The 1950-1951 invasion of Tibet by China begins.
  • Agate Pass Bridge opens for traffic.
• 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, communists win 99.7% of the vote.
• October 20 - Australia passes the Communist Party Dissolution Act, later struck down by the High Court.
• October 26 - Sister Mary Teresa begins her charity work in Calcutta and becomes known as Mother Teresa.
• October 28 - Torcida Split was founded.
• October 30 - The Jayuya Uprising/revolt is started by Puerto Rican Nationalists against the United States.

November

• November 1
  • Pope Pius XII witnesses the "Miracle of the Sun" at the VaticanJoseph Pelletier "The Sun Danced at Fatima", Doubleday, New York (1983),pp150,151 and defines a new dogma of Roman Catholicism: that God assumed Mary\'s body into Heaven after her death.
  • Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman, who is staying at the Blair-Lee House in Washington, D.C. during White House repairs.
• November 4 - United Nations ends the diplomatic isolation of Spain.
• 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 US Air Force B-50 bomber, experiencing an in-flight emergency, jettisoned and detonated 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 13 - Colonel Carlos Delgado Chalbaud is kidnapped and murdered in Caracas.
• November 18 - The United Nations accepts the formation of Libyan national council
• November 20 - T. S. Eliot speaks against television in the UK.
• November 22
  • Anti-British riots in Egypt.
  • Shirley Temple announces her retirement from show business.
• November 25 - 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, ending any thought of a quick end to the conflict.
• November 28 - Greece and Yugoslavia reform diplomatic relations.
• November 29
  • Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force a retreat of United Nations forces from North Korea.
  • National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA founded.
• November 30 - Douglas MacArthur threatens to use nuclear weapons in Korea.

December

• December 3 - Mt Etna erupts in Sicily.
• December 11-December 13 - The Maria Hertogh riots occur in Singapore, leaving 18 dead and 173 injured.
• 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.
• December 24-December 25 - Scottish nationalists take the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey.
• December 28 - The Peak District becomes Britain\'s first National Park.

Undated

• Ralph Schneider founds Diners Club - it initially only works in 27 restaurants in New York City.
• United Nations building is finished.
• First pagers are developed.
• First TV remote control, Zenith Radio\'s Lazy Bones is marketed.
• Myxomatosis is introduced into Australia in an attempt to control the escalating rabbit population.
• IBM Israel begins operating in Tel Aviv.
• President Harry Truman sends United States military advisers to Vietnam to aid French forces.
• France institutes a government-guaranteed minimum wage.

Ongoing

• Computer Age, and Cold War

World population

• Total world population: 2,518,629,000
  • Africa: 221,214,000
  • Asia: 1,398,488,000
  • Europe: 547,403,000
  • Latin-America: 167,097,000
  • Northern America: 171,616,000
  • Oceania: 12,812,000.

Births

January-February

• January 5
  • John Manley, Canadian politician
  • Charlie Richmond, Canadian entrepreneur and inventor
• January 12 - Sheila Jackson Lee, American politician
• January 12 - Dorrit Moussaieff, First Lady of Iceland
• January 16 - Debbie Allen, American actress, dancer, and choreographer
• January 17
  • Cristina Galbó, Spanish actress
  • Luis López Nieves, Puerto Rican writer
• January 18 - Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (d. 1982)
• January 20 - Edward Hirsch, American poet
• January 21 - Billy Ocean, West Indian-born musician
• January 23 - Richard Dean Anderson, American actor
• January 24 - Gennifer Flowers, Accused President Clinton of sexual misconduct
• January 24 - Benjamin Urrutia, Ecuadoran author and scholar
• January 26 - Janet Lupo, American model
• January 27
  • Amos Grunebaum, Israeli-born obstetrician and gynecologist
  • Derek Acorah, Spiritualist medium
• January 29 - Jody Scheckter, South African race car driver
• January 30 - Trinidad Silva, American actor (d. 1988)
• February 1 - Kazimierz Nycz, Polish clergyman
• February 3 - Morgan Fairchild, American actress
• February 4 - Pamela Franklin, British actress
• February 6 - Natalie Cole, American singer
• February 10 - Mark Spitz, American swimmer
• February 12 - Michael Ironside, Canadian actor
• February 13 - Peter Gabriel, British musician
• February 15 - Tsui Hark, Hong Kong film director
• February 16 - Peter Hain, British politician
• February 18 - John Hughes, American film director, producer, and writer
• February 19 - Andy Powell, British musician (Wishbone Ash)
• February 20
  • Ken Shimura, Japanese television performer and actor
  • Tony Wilson, English impresario (d. 2007)
• February 22
  • Julius Erving, American basketball player
  • Julie Walters, English actress
  • Miou-Miou, French actress
  • Ellen Greene, American actress
• February 25
  • Neil Jordan, Irish film director, writer, and producer
  • Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina
• February 26
  • Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand
  • Bill Ritter, ABC TV News Anchor

March-April

• March 2 - Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer (d. 1983)
• March 4 - Rick Perry, Governor of Texas
• March 9
  • Doug Ault, baseball player (d. 2004)
  • Danny Sullivan, American race car driver
• March 11
  • Bobby McFerrin, American singer
  • Jerry Zucker, American film producer, director, and writer
• March 13 - William H. Macy, American actor
• March 18
  • Brad Dourif, American actor
  • Richard Kretchmer, English artist and historian
• March 20 - William Hurt, American actor
• March 26
  • Teddy Pendergrass, American singer
  • Martin Short, Canadian-born comedian
• March 29 - Bud Cort, American actor
• March 30 - Robbie Coltrane, British actor and comedian
• April 3 - Sally Thomsett, British actress
• April 4 - Christine Lahti, American actress
• April 5 - Agnetha Fältskog, Swedish singer and songwriter (ABBA)
• April 10
  • Steven Seagal, American actor
  • Ken Griffey, Sr., baseball player
• April 12 - Kari Palaste, Finnish architect
• April 14 - Ian Gordon, Scottish Gentleman & Scholar of Edinburgh
• April 20 - Steve Erickson, American novelist
• April 22 - Peter Frampton, English musician
• April 25 - Lenora Branch Fulani, American Presidential candidate
• April 28 - Jay Leno, American comedian and talk show host
• April 29 - Paul Holmes, New Zealand radio and television broadcaster

July-August

• July 11
  • Pervez Hoodbhoy, Pakistani Nuclear physicist and social activist
  • J. R. Morgan, British classical scholar
• July 18
  • Sir Richard Branson, British entrepreneur
  • Glenn Hughes, American vocalist (d. 2001)
• July 19
  • Per-Kristian Foss, Norwegian Minister of Finance
  • Simon Cadell, British actor
• July 26 - Susan George, British actress
• August 11 - Erik Brann, American Musician, Guitarist (d. 2003)
• August 11 - Gennadiy Nikonov, Russian weapon designer
• August 14 - Bob Backlund, American professional wrestler
• August 15
  • Anne, Princess Royal
  • Neil J. Gunther Australian/American physicist and computer scientist
• August 16
  • Hasely Crawford, West Indian athlete
• *Marshall Manesh, Persian actor
• August 26 - Jerome "Pop" Pentsky, American entrepreneur
• August 27 - Charles Fleischer, American actor

September-October

• September 1 -Dr. Phil McGraw, tv psychologist
• September 1 - Mikhail Fradkov, a Russian politician, the current Prime Minister of Russia
• September 2 - Rosanna DeSoto, American actress
• September 6 - Lewis Knight Famous British Courier Sales Manager
• September 7 - Julie Kavner, American actress
• September 10 - Joe Perry (musician), American guitarist Aerosmith
• September 14
  • Paul Kossoff, British guitarist (Free) (d. 1976)
  • Masami Kuwashima, Japanese race car driver
• September 16 - Loyd Grossman, American television presenter and chef
• September 17 - Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat
• September 21
  • Charles Clarke, British politician
  • Bill Murray, American actor and comedian
• September 22 - Kirka, Finnish singer
• September 24 - Kristina Wayborn, Swedish actress
• September 27 - Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Japanese actor
• September 28 - John Sayles, American director and screenwriter
• October 1 - Randy Quaid, American actor
• October 5
  • Jeff Conaway, American actor
  • Edward P. Jones, American writer
• October 9 - Jody Williams, American teacher and aid worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• October 12
  • Caroline Ellis, British actress
  • Kaga Takeshi, Japanese actor
• October 18 - Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright (d. 2006)
• October 20 - Tom Petty, American singer
• October 22 - Bill Owens, Governor of Colorado
• October 28 - Sihem Bensedrine, Tunisian human rights activist
• October 31
  • John Candy, Canadian comedian and actor (d. 1994)
  • Jane Pauley, American television broadcaster and journalist

November-December

• November 1 - Robert B. Laughlin, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• November 3
  • Joe Queenan, American humorist and social critic
  • Massimo Mongai, Italian author
• November 4 - Charles Frazier, American author