U.S. Census
For the first time, the 1950 U.S. census counted a population in the United States >150 million people. State rankings RankStatePopulation1New...
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R.I.P. Doris Day
https://youtu.be/D0MtzQDltr0 Doris Day, the freckle-faced movie actress whose irrepressible personality and golden voice made her America’s top box-office star in the early 1960s, died on Monday at her home in Carmel Valley, Calif. She was 97. ~ NY Times May 13, 2019...
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What’s My Line
What's My Line? was a game show on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967. Blindfolded celebrity panelists questioned a weekly "mystery guest" to determine his/her employment. Moderated by John Charles Daly, regular panelists included Dorothy Kilgallen, Arlene...
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Joseph McCarthy
Speech of Joseph McCarthy, Wheeling, West Virginia, February 9, 1950 ...The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because our only powerful potential enemy has sent men to invade our shores . . . but rather because of the traitorous actions of...
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Your Show of Shows
Premiering on NBC TV in February 1950, Your Show of Shows was a weekly, variety show featuring comedians Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. https://youtu.be/ZmCCxEUfEsE https://youtu.be/e0iMF6DWpo8
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The Great Brinks Robbery
The great Brinks robbery In January 1950 eleven men pulled off the greatest robbery up to that time at the Brinks Armed Car depot in Boston Massachusetts. Vanishing after stealing $2.7 million, the masked men left few clues (a chauffeur’s cap and adhesive tape and...
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Review of The Year
https://youtu.be/9RIJ4HkAaeg This interesting review of the year 1949 seeps Cold War energy. Cost of Living 1949 Average Cost of new house $7,450.00 Average wages per year $2,950.00 Cost of a gallon of Gas 17 cents Average Cost of a new car...
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SO LONESOME I COULD CRY
Hear that lonesome whippoorwill He sounds too blue to flyThat means he's lost the will to live I'm so lonesome I could cryDid you ever see a night so slow As time goes draggin' byThe moon just went behind the cloudsTo hide its face and cryThe silence of...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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