Topics
Understanding our world and that of our enemies
South Pacific on Broadway
In 1949 the book Tales of the South Pacific by James Michener was adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein into the Broadway musical South Pacific. https://youtu.be/6H3hVAfFcZY In 1958 it was produced as the movie South Pacific starring Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor....
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Yangtze Incident
In April 1949, the HMS Amethyst was en route on the Yangtze River from Shanghai to Nanking China to replace another ship guarding the British Embassy during the Civil War between the Nationalist and Communist Chinese. Early in he morning, the Amethyst received a...
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James Forrestal Dies
James Vincent Forrestal (February 1892 – May 1949) was a strong supporter of naval battle groups centered on aircraft carriers. In 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Forrestal for the newly established position of Undersecretary of the Navy....
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First North Korean Movie
https://youtu.be/Y-UPCSf6WkQ In 1949, with Soviet financial and technical assistance, Kang Hong-sik directed My Home Village, the first film made in the new Democratic People’s People’s Republic of Korea. Gwan Pil, a poor farmer is deprived of his land by an...
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Hopalong Cassidy
In 1904 Clarence E. Mulford created the fictional cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy, in a series of popular short stories and novels based on the character. Early on, Mulford portrayed Cassidy as a rude, dangerous, rough-talking man with a wooden leg that caused him to...
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Kim Il Sung and Joseph Stalin
Did Joseph Stalin approve Kim Il Sung's plan to attack South Korea in June 1950 because he wanted the US to become entangled in a limited conflict in Asia -- or was he reassured by Kim that the South would be rapidly overrun before the US could intervene?...
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Joe DiMaggio $100K
In 1949 Joe DiMaggio of the NY Yankees became the first $100,000/year baseball player. Joe DiMaggio, known as the "Yankee Clipper," was a supreme baseball player - an excellent fielder as well as hitter. Hall of Fame player, owner and manager Connie Mack called...
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TV Soap Operas
Irna Phillips (Old Magazine Articles) In January 1949 NBC broadcast the first TV daytime soap opera entitled "These Are My Children." Written by long-time radio and screen writer Irna Phillips, the show was broadcast live from Chicago for just fifteen minutes at...
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Volkswagen in America
https://youtu.be/VUPCl1WUF-E VW Beetle In 1933 Adolf Hitler demanded the production of an inexpensive automobile capable of transporting two adults and three children at 100 km/hr. After WWII British occupation forces in Germany ordered 20,000 Type I VW beetles...
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Soviet Atomic Bomb
https://youtu.be/sXwSbkdVQro In August 1949 the USSR successfully tested its first atomic bomb at a remote site in Kazakhstan with the codename “First Lightning.” Buildings, bridges, other structure and caged animals were placed nearby to measure the effects of...
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The Tragedy of Billie Holiday
https://youtu.be/tZJoVPFoYPM In January 1949 Police broke into a room in the Mark Twain Hotel in San Francisco and arrested Billie Holiday and her manager John Levy on charges of possession of opium. Her defense attorney Jake Erlich, fingered Levy as an informer and...
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Alger Hiss
https://youtu.be/HvBpuPMNuaA In 1948 Whittaker Chambers, ex-communist and editor with Time magazine, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that Alger Hiss was a communist who had passed him top secret documents during his work in the...
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Martians Land in Ecuador
https://youtu.be/zJIHi78T5lA In February 1949 an Ecuadorian folk song was interrupted by a Radio Quito announcer with urgent news: Martian flying saucers had landed and used death rays to destroy a town 25 miles south of Quito.Soon a "reporter" breathlessly reported...
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Death of a Salesman
#Death of a Salesman, a play by Arthur Miller, won the Pulitzer prize for drama in 1949.
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NATO
https://youtu.be/8MQ59Ij5fkM The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 as an intergovernmental military alliance between 12 North American and European countries including: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the...
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Monkeys Into Outer Space
https://youtu.be/VOzEGRH1548 The first living beings sent into outer space were fruit flies. Sent to test the effects of radiation on DNA, they flew in a V2 rocket to a height of 106 miles and returned to earth alive. In 1948 Albert, the first monkey to be sent, only...
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Bollywood
https://youtu.be/o7A16HvlbQw This clip is from Barsaat, a 1949 Bollywood film directed by Raj Kapoor. The film stars the famous duo of Kapoor and Nargis as well as Prem Nath. Barsaat, one of the first major hit films directed by Kapoor,...
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Cardinal Mindszenty
https://youtu.be/IH7rFQWP0Lk In February 1949 Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty was convicted of treason by the Hungarian Communist People’s Court. The Cardinal had been an outspoken critic of the persecution of Jews by the Hungarian fascist government during WWII....
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Nonstop Around-the-World
https://youtu.be/OXf1fSiOYPs Flying out of Fort Worth, Texas, a United States Air Force Boeing B-50 Superfortress named Lucky Lady II made the first non-stop around-the-world flight in February 1949. With in-flight refueling, the 94-hour trip covered 23,452 miles...
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45 RPM RECORDS
https://youtu.be/jKlIwvKYIzI In March 1949, RCA Victor released 7- inch 45 revolutions per minute (RPM) records as smaller, higher-fidelity replacements for the 78 rpm shellac discs. The first 45 rpms were monaural and recorded on both sides. Almost all 45 rpms were...
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Civil Rights 1949
The Law of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: A Handbook of Your Basic Rights, by Edwin S. Newman, Oceana Publications 1949. In 1949, racism was still firmly rooted in the laws of many individual statest in the United States of America. States without stripes or...
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Network Television
https://youtu.be/yX4Cea5pIlE In January 1949 WDTV on Channel 3 (owned and operated by the DuMont Television Network, a TV equipment and set manufacturer) became the first American "networked" television station, providing a link between thirteen Midwestern and East...
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Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
https://youtu.be/dx2IUWXBcoQ In 1949, in response to the 1947 U.S.-backed Marshall Plan, eastern European countries established the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance...
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Pingjin Campaign
https://youtu.be/wdTPFW6RZPo Pingjing Campaign (Wikipedia) People's Liberation Army enters Peking January 1949 (Wikipedia) The Pingjin Campaign was part of the three major campaigns launched by the People's Liberation Army during the late stage of the Chinese Civil...
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Recession
https://youtu.be/cORVhtz0zIg Following "Fair Deal" economic reforms and monetary tightening by the Federal Reserve, the U.S. economy took an 11-month downturn from November 1948 to October 1949. https://www.thebalance.com/unemployment-rate-by-year-3305506...
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