February 1950

The following events occurred in February 1950:

February 1, 1950 (Wednesday)

• U.S. President
  top secret" — was used for the first time.^[1]
• The United States Senate voted 64–27 in favor of a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would change the method of selecting the
  Electoral College. Under the proposal, which received the required 2/3rds majority, a state's electoral votes would be divided in proportion to the percentage of the popular vote that a presidential candidate received, rather than the winner in an individual receiving all of the electoral votes in that state.^[2] The "Lodge-Gossett" bill failed a few months later to get approval in the U.S. House of Representatives.^[3]

• The
  Bao Dai.^[4]
• The game show What's My Line? began a 17-year run on the CBS television network, and would continue until September 3, 1967.^[5]
• Died: Constantin Carathéodory, 74, Greek mathematician

February 3, 1950 (Friday)

• Nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs was arrested by agents of Scotland Yard and charged with having provided American atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union.^[6]
• Born:
  • Morgan Fairchild (stage name for Patsy Ann McClenny), American actress known for the TV series Falcon Crest; in Dallas^[7]
  • Zaynab Alkali, Nigerian novelist; in Biu
• Died:
  • Sir Lionel Cripps, 86, Rhodesian politician and the first Speaker of Rhodesia's colonial legislative assembly
  • Sid Field, 45, British comedian, died of a heart attack.^[8]
  • Émile Borel, 85, French mathematician

February 4, 1950 (Saturday)

• U.S. Army Lieutenant General
  hydrogen bomb.^[9]
• Died:
  Montagu Collet Norman, 78, British financier, Governor of the Bank of England 1920–1944, nicknamed "The Sphinx of Threadneedle Street".^[10]

• The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China signed a treaty in Moscow, for the return of the
  Port Arthur naval base territory to Chinese control. Located in Manchuria, Port Arthur had been under Russian control until 1905, when it was captured by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War and renamed Ryojun. The U.S.S.R. recaptured the port in 1945 during World War II, and it would finally be turned over to China in 1955.^[11]
• Italian lire for predicting all 12 of that weekend's matches correctly. The amount, worth $123,000 American at the time, would be equivalent to $1.1 million (or €850,000) in 2010.^[12]

• The Air Force of the
  Republic of China, flying from the island of Taiwan made a successful bombing raid on the Communist Chinese mainland, striking the People's Republic's largest city, Shanghai; the 17 aircraft, including two B-29 bombers, targeted Shanghai's electrical power plants, shutting down the electricity in 90% of the city.^[13] According to the PRC, 500 people were killed, 600 were injured and 50,000 were left homeless by the raid.^[14]
• Born: Natalie Cole, American singer; in Los Angeles (d. 2015)^[15]
• Died: Georges Imbert, 65, German chemist

February 7, 1950 (Tuesday)

• The United States gave diplomatic recognition to the newly established French-supported governments in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with the aim to help "the establishment of stable, non-Communist governments in areas adjacent to Communist China".^[16]
• Iceland was admitted to the Council of Europe. ^{[citation needed]}
• In Chile After the General Strike of January 24,President Gabriel González Videla carried out a cabinet change, the National Concentration, created in July 1948, was dissolved, and the government ends with less than 19% popularity, the Radical Party being greatly affected.
• Died: D. K. Broster, 72, British historical novelist

February 8, 1950 (Wednesday)

• The
  Frank X. McNamara and lawyer Ralph E. Schneider persuaded 14 New York City restaurants to accept the Diners Club card rather than cash. The 200 Diners Club members who had cards would be billed each month by the club, which would pay the participating restaurants for the debt incurred.^[17] Journalist Matty Simmons accompanied McNamara and Schneider to what is called, in credit card histories, "The First Supper" (actually, lunch) at Major's Cabin Grill, adjacent to the Empire State Building. At the end of the mail, McNamara handed the waiter a piece of cardboard, Diners Club card #1,000 and charged the meal; Schneider carried #1,001 and Simmons #1,002.^[18]
• In East Germany, the Ministerium fur Staatssicherhetsdienst, a secret police organization more commonly known as the "Stasi" rather than the MfS, was established. For nearly 40 years, the Stasi would spy, and maintain files, on every resident of the German Democratic Republic.^[19]
• The comedy film Francis starring Donald O'Connor, Patricia Medina and the voice of Chill Wills premiered in New Orleans, launching the Francis the Talking Mule film series which would consist of seven films through 1956.

February 9, 1950 (Thursday)

• In a speech to the Ohio County Republican Women's Club at the McClure Hotel in Wheeling, West Virginia, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy opened the era of "McCarthyism" as he told listeners that Communists had infiltrated the U.S. State Department. Underscoring his point, McCarthy held up a piece of paper and said, "While I cannot take the time to name all of the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205- a list of names that were known to the Secretary of State, and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping the policy in the State Department."^[20] The speech had been written by Ed Nellor of the Washington Times-Herald, whom McCarthy had approached to compose a short talk. Nellor had a list, obtained from Congressional staffer Robert Lee, of 57 State Department employees who were still being investigated by the House Appropriations Committee as possible security risks.^[21][22]
• Element 98 was created for the first time by a team of physicists at the University of California at Berkeley.
  Stanley G. Thompson and Kenneth Street Jr., having named Element 97 berkelium, gave the name californium to the new element.^[23]

• The
  Maudheim Station was established, by the Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition, on a floating thick ice shelf at Queen Maud Land.^[24]
• The CIA sent a report to U.S. President Truman that concluded that the Soviet Union would have a stockpile of 100 atomic bombs by the end of 1953, and 200 by the end of 1955. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had estimated that the Soviets would have as many as 20 A-bombs by the end of the year, and between 70 and 135 by mid-1953.[25]
• Born:
  • Mark Spitz, American Olympic swimmer who won 7 gold medals in 1972 in Munich, and two at Mexico City in 1968; in Modesto, California
  • Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican presidential nominee; in Magdalena de Kino
    (assassinated in 1994)

• Author Kurt Vonnegut was published for the first time, as his story "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" appeared in Collier's magazine.^[26]
• "Rag Mop" by The Ames Brothers hit #1 on the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.
• Died: Kiki Cuyler, 51, American MLB baseball player who led the National League in stolen bases four times between from 1926 to 1930, died of a heart attack caused by a blood clot.^[27] He would be enshrined in the Hall of Fame posthumously.

February 12, 1950 (Sunday)

• The European Broadcasting Union was founded at a conference in the English coastal resort of Torquay, by representatives of 23 Western European broadcasting stations. In 1993, the EBU would incorporate OIRT, the International Radio and Television Organization^[28]
• Born:
  • Michael Ironside, Canadian film and TV actor known for Total Recall and for seaQuest DSV; in Toronto^[29]
  • Steve Hackett, British songwriter and guitarist, former member of rock group Genesis; in the City of Westminster

February 13, 1950 (Monday)

• A U.S. Air Force B-36 bomber with a nuclear weapon crashed off of Canada's Pacific coast near Vancouver.^[30] According to reports declassified and released in 1977, the Mark 4 nuclear bomb casing contained "no functional nuclear explosive" and exploded on impact with the ocean.^[31] Twelve of the 17 crewmen were rescued by a fishing boat, while the others were missing and presumed dead.^[32][33]
• Helen Wills Moody was a distant second.^[35]
• Born:
  Chobham, Surrey
• Died: Rafael Sabatini, 74, Italian novelist

February 14, 1950 (Tuesday)

• The
  People's Republic of China, the two largest Communist nations on Earth, signed a 30-year mutual defense treaty, pledging to come to each other's aid in the event either nation was attacked.^[36] The treaty also contained a provision that it would renew for an additional five years if not cancelled one year prior to its expiration.^[37]

• Walt Disney released his 12th animated film, Cinderella, with a premiere in Boston, followed on February 22 in other major cities. The very successful film marked a "profitable return to the fairy tale" for Disney after the losing money on Fantasia and Bambi.^[38]
• The Italian-American neorealist film Stromboli premiered in American theaters, accompanied by a great deal of controversy surrounding an extramarital affair between director Roberto Rossellini and star Ingrid Bergman during the film's production.
• Sardi's, a restaurant in the Theater District of Manhattan, began the tradition of hosting opening-night parties for plays premiering on Broadway, starting with a celebration for the cast and crew following Come Back, Little Sheba.^[39]
• Come Back, Little Sheba made its debut on Broadway, as the first play for William Inge. Actors Shirley Booth and Sidney Blackmer would both win Tony Awards for their performances in the play, which ran for 190 performances, and Booth would win an Academy Award two years later when she reprised her role as "Lola" in the film version of the play.^[40]
• Born: Tsui Hark (stage name for Tsui Man-kong), Hong Kong film director; in Haifeng, China

February 16, 1950 (Thursday)

• Electoral reform was enacted by Turkey's Grand National Assembly, adopting for the first time the secret ballot, open counting of ballots, and oversight of the selection of election judges. In the next election three months later, the Republican People's Party would lose its majority in Parliament after 27 years.^[41]
• France requested American economic and military assistance to aid French efforts in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.^[42]
• Born: Peter Hain, British cabinet minister, Leader of the House of Commons 2003 to 2005; in Nairobi, Kenya, British East Africa
• Died:
  • Charles "Mile-a-Minute" Murphy
    , 79, American cyclist who was the first person (in 1899) to ride a bicycle at more than 60 miles an hour
  • S. Otis Bland, 67, U.S. Representative for Virginia since 1918

February 17, 1950 (Friday)

• In the worst railroad accident in the New York metropolitan area, 29 commuters were killed and 105 injured in the collision of two Long Island Railroad trains. At 10:38 pm, eastbound Train No. 192 ran through a red light signal and crashed head on into the westbound Train No. 175 at Rockville Centre, New York. Together, the two trains carried "about 1,000 passengers" and were ripped down the center of the cars.^[43][44]
• King Abdullah I of Jordan and Mossad Director Reuven Shiloah of Israel met at the King's winter palace at El Shuneh, where the King presented a seven-point treaty proposal.^[45]
• Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China, returned home from the Soviet Union after a stay of two months. Mao had arrived in Moscow on December 16, 1949, and remained there for nine weeks.^[46]
• Died:
  pointer dog for the British ship HMS Grasshopper
  , credited with saving the lives of its crew during World War II

• U.S. businessman Robert A. Vogeler, a telephone company executive in Hungary, pleaded guilty to charges of espionage and told a Budapest court that he had tried to help atomic scientists escape from the Communist-controlled nation.[47] Three days later, Voegeler, who had asked the court for mercy, was given a 15-year prison sentence.^[48] Vogeler was released on April 27, 1951, after "concessions" were made by the United States, and wrote a book (with Leigh White) about the experience, I Was Stalin's Prisoner.^[49]
• "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy" by Red Foley topped the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.
• Born:
  • John Hughes, American film director, producer, and writer known for Home Alone, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and National Lampoon's Vacation and its sequels; in Lansing, Michigan (d. 2009)
  • Cengage
    . Retrieved January 28, 2022.</ref>
  • Bebe Moore Campbell, American novelist; in Philadelphia (d. 2006)

February 19, 1950 (Sunday)

• The United States broke diplomatic relations with Bulgaria in the first American withdrawal of representatives from the Balkan nation since World War II. The move followed Bulgaria's refusal to drop espionage charges against American foreign officer Donald R. Heath. The 12 members of the Bulgarian mission in Washington were ordered to leave, and the 38 American diplomats in Sofia were directed to leave as soon as possible.^[50]
• The demotion of Soviet Communist Party Politburo member Andrey Andreyevich Andreyev began when an unsigned editorial appeared in the official Party newspaper, Pravda. Entitled "Against Distortions in the Organization of the Kolkhoz", the article criticized Andreyev for his attempt to change the format of collective farming by advocating smaller groups of laborers ("links") instead of the larger "brigades", making him the scapegoat for a policy that had been in place since 1939.^[51]
• The New York Times Fiction Best Seller list
  .