World Statistics
Population: 2.556 billion
Nobel Peace Prize:
Ralph J. Bunche (US)
Korean War begins when North Korean
Communist forces invade South Korea.
Sino-Soviet friendship treaty signed.
Communist Chinese forces invade Tibet.
British atomic physicist Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for
the Soviet Union.
President: Harry S Truman
Vice President: Alben W. Barkley
Population: 152,271,417
Life expectancy: 68.2 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 5.3
Truman orders development of hydrogen bomb
(Jan. 31).
Assassination attempt on President Truman by Puerto Rican
nationalists (Nov. 1).
Era of McCarthyism begins.
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $294.6 billion
Federal spending: $42.56 billion
Federal debt: $256.9 billion
Consumer Price Index: 24.1
Unemployment: 5.9%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. Philadelphia Phillies (4-0)
NBA Championship
Minneapolis Lakers d. Syracuse (4-2)
Stanley Cup
Detroit d. NY Rangers (4-3)
Wimbledon
Women: Louise Brough d. M. duPont (6-1 3-6 6-1)
Men: Budge Patty d. F. Sedgman (6-1 8-10 6-2 6-3)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Middleground
NCAA Basketball Championship
CCNY d. Bradley (71-68)
NCAA Football Champions
Oklahoma (10-1-0)
World Cup
Uruguay d. Brazil (2-1)
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Way West, A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
Music: The Consul, Gian Carlo Menotti
Drama: South Pacific, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and
Joshua Logan
Oscars awarded in 1950
Academy Award, Best Picture: All the King's Men (Robert Rossen
Productions; Columbia)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Bertrand Russell (UK)
Events
Saturday morning children's programming begins.
Phonevision, the first pay-per-view service, becomes available.
Broadway classic Guys and Dolls debuts at the 46th Street Theatre
and becomes an instant hit. The show ran for three years and
became one of the Great White Way's longest-running shows, with
1,200 performances.
Charles Schulz introduces the Peanuts comic strip.
Movies
Sunset Boulevard,
All About Eve,
Born Yesterday,
The Third Man
Books
Paul Bowles, The Delicate Prey
Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles
Ernest Hemingway, Across the River and Into the Trees
Mary McCarthy, Cast a Cold Eye
Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Family Moskat
Wallace Stevens, The Auroras of Autumn
Lionel Trilling, The Liberal Imagination
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Otto Diels and Kurt Alder (both Germany), for discovery
of diene synthesis enabling scientists to study structure of organic
matter
Physics: Cecil Frank Powell (UK), for method of photographic study
of atom nucleus, and for discoveries about mesons
Physiology or Medicine: Philip S. Hench, Edward C. Kendall (both
US), and Tadeus Reichstein (Switzerland), for discoveries about
hormones of adrenal cortex
Col. David C. Schilling (USAF) makes the
first nonstop transatlantic jet flight in 10 hours and 1 minute
(Sept. 22).
The first Xerox machine is produced.
The first self-service elevator is installed by Otis Elevator in
Dallas.
Richard Lawler (US) performs the first successful kidney
transplant at Loyola University.
Deaths
Al Jolson
George Orwell
George Bernard Shaw