1950
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3 January 1950 In retaliation for the arrest of an American citizen, the United States orders Hungary to close its consulates in New York and Cleveland.
4 January 1950 Pakistan recognizes the People’s Republic of China.
William Schuman’s (39) choreographic poem Judith to a scenario by Graham is performed for the first time, in Louisville, Kentucky.
5 January 1950 President Truman announces that the United States will take no overt steps to defend Chiang Kai-shek on Taiwan.
6 January 1950 Great Britain, Ceylon, and Norway recognize the People’s Republic of China.
Four western journalists are expelled from Czechoslovakia.
Piano Concerto by Francis Poulenc is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston the composer at the keyboard on the eve of his 51st birthday.
7 January 1950 Ioannis Georgiou Theotokis replaces Alexandros Nikolaou Diomidis as Prime Minister of Greece.
8 January 1950 The President’s Loyalty Review Board announces that 2,800,000 federal employees have been screened over the last two years. 10,359 were turned over to the FBI for investigation. Of those, only 139 were sacked.
9 January 1950 Denmark and Israel recognize the People’s Republic of China.
10 January 1950 All books published in Czechoslovakia before 5 May 1948 are banned by the government.
When the Security Council refuses to seat the Peoples Republic of China, the Soviet delegation walks out.
The Argentine government orders that all musical programs must be at least 50% by native composers.
11 January 1950 Carlos Chávez (50) is awarded the Commander of the Order of the Crown of Belgium.
Orchestral excerpts from Hugo Weisgall’s (37) ballet Outpost are performed for the first time, in Baltimore conducted by the composer.
12 January 1950 Mondi celesti e infernali, an opera by Gian Francesco Malipiero (67) to his own words after Shakespeare, is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of RAI. See 2 February 1961.
13 January 1950 At a meeting of British Commonwealth countries in Colombo, Ceylon a plan is adopted to help southeast Asian economies. It is seen as an anti-Communist measure and will be known as the Colombo Plan.
Finland and Afghanistan recognize the People’s Republic of China.
France expels 35 Polish citizens for “meddling in French political life.”
The Soviet delegation walks out of the UN Security Council for a second time over the refusal to seat the Peking government.
14 January 1950 China seizes the United States, French, and Dutch compounds in Peking.
Sweden recognizes the People’s Republic of China.
The United States recalls all official personnel from mainland China.
Down in the Valley, an opera by Kurt Weill (49) to words of Sundgaard, is broadcast over the airwaves of NBC television. Although only 40 minutes long, it is still the first opera to be televised. See 15 July 1948.
15 January 1950 France denies West German requests to return the Saar to Germany.
16 January 1950 Abdul Halim replaces Muhammad Hatta as Prime Minister of Indonesia.
Poland expels 21 French citizens.
17 January 1950 Announcement is made of the creation of a new element, no.97, in the University of California cyclotron. It is tentatively named Berkelium.
An orchestral suite from Virgil Thomson’s (53) opera The Mother of Us All is performed for the first time, in the Bijou Theatre, Knoxville, Tennessee the composer conducting.
18 January 1950 Werner Egk (48) is named Professor of Composition and Director of the Hochschule für Musik in West Berlin.
19 January 1950 The Peoples Republic of China recognizes the Vietnamese government led by Ho Chi Minh.
21 January 1950 Former State Department official Alger Hiss is convicted of two counts of perjury in a federal court in New York.
Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) dies in London, at the age of 46.
The Fall of Berlin, a film with music by Dmitri Shostakovich (43), is shown for the first time. See 10 June 1950.
22 January 1950 Solstice, a dance for flute, oboe, two cellos, bass, tack-piano, and celesta by Lou Harrison (32), is performed for the first time, in Hunter Playhouse, New York.
23 January 1950 Prime Minister Vasil Kolarov of Bulgaria dies in Sofiya.
The Knesset declares that Jerusalem has always been the capital of Israel.
Tre episodi dal Balletto “Marsia” for piano by Luigi Dallapiccola (45) is performed for the first time, in Turin. See 9 September 1948.
24 January 1950 Percy Spencer receives a US patent for a microwave oven.
25 January 1950 Former State Department official Alger Hiss is sentenced to five years in prison for perjury by a federal judge in New York.
The US administration announces that the current coal shortage due to strikes is reaching emergency proportions.
26 January 1950 India is proclaimed a republic. Rajendra Prasad becomes its first President. Jawaharlal Nehru continues as Prime Minister. By the new constitution, untouchability and noble titles are abolished.
Morton Feldman (24) meets John Cage (37) for the first time, in the lobby of Carnegie Hall after a performance of Anton Webern’s (†4) Symphony.
27 January 1950 The antibiotic tetramycin is offered by Chas. Pfizer & Co. of Brooklyn and is announced in Science magazine.
In London, Klaus Fuchs, a German-born physicist, admits to British intelligence that he passed information to the Soviet Union while working on the Manhattan Project.
Französische Suite nach Rameau for orchestra by Werner Egk (48) is performed for the first time, in Munich.
31 January 1950 US President Truman orders the development of a thermonuclear fusion bomb.
The USSR recognizes the Viet Minh regime of Ho Chi Minh as the legitimate government of Vietnam.
1 February 1950 Vulko Velyov Chervenkov replaces his father-in-law Vasil Petrov Kolarov as Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
Timon of Athens, a symphonic poem by David Diamond (34), is performed for the first time, in Louisville.
2 February 1950 German-born British physicist Klaus Fuchs is formally arrested by British authorities. A veteran of the Manhattan Project and presently head of the British Theoretical Physics Division, Fuchs is accused of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
The first three movements of the Symphony for brass and percussion by Gunther Schuller (24) are performed for the first time, at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.
4 February 1950 Jonathon and the Gingery Snare for narrator and orchestra by Robert Ward (32) with words by Stambler is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
6 February 1950 US President Truman invokes the Taft-Hartley law in the national coal strike. He appoints a three-man fact finding board to report to him by 13 February.
The Oboe Concerto of Lukas Foss (27) is performed for the first time, in a broadcast concert.
7 February 1950 Great Britain and the United States recognize the French-backed governments of Bao Dai in Vietnam, King Sisavang Vong in Laos and Prince Norodom Sihanouk in Cambodia.
A survey in the United States published today shows that people who own television sets see fewer films, read less, and listen to the radio less. Going to movies is down 72% for adults, 46% for children.
8 February 1950 At Major’s Cabin Grille in New York, Frank McNamara (along with Ralph Schneider and Matty Simmons the founders of Diners Club) makes the first purchase ever with the device they invented, the credit card.
9 February 1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy, speaking in Wheeling, West Virginia, announces that he has a list in his hand of 205 communist employees of the US State Department. In later versions of the speech, the number will be 57.
10 February 1950 British police produce a statement signed by Klaus Fuchs that he passed atomic secrets to the Soviets for seven years.
Ballade pour piano et orchestra op.50 by Charles Koechlin (82) is performed for the first time, in Brussels.
Symphony no.3 by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (44) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Bayerischer Rundfunk, originating in Munich.
Dylan Thomas arrives in New York to read his poetry in the United States.
Concerto for violin and orchestra by William Schuman (39) is performed for the first time, in Boston. The audience is lukewarm, the press generally positive.
A Night Song, a song by Charles Ives (75) to words of Moore, is performed for the first time, at the Juilliard School of Music, New York.
11 February 1950 United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis obeys two court injunctions and orders his striking miners back to work by 13 February. They refuse.
12 February 1950 String Quartet no.10 by Heitor Villa-Lobos (62) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
13 February 1950 President Truman’s fact-finding board finds both sides at fault in the national coal strike.
Aaron Copland (49) writes a conciliatory letter to Arnold Schoenberg (75).
Duo for viola and cello by Walter Piston (56) is performed for the first time, in Los Angeles.
14 February 1950 The USSR and the People’s Republic of China announce a treaty of alliance, friendship, and mutual assistance.
Debate in the Italian Chamber of Deputies dissolves into fisticuffs. A riot then ensues, lasting over an hour.
15 February 1950 Sonata for violin and piano by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (31) is performed for the first time, at the Musikhochschule, Cologne.
Come Back Little Sheba by William Inge opens in New York.
17 February 1950 The city council of San Diego, California decides to delete two of President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms from a plaque on the Veterans Memorial Building. Admiral William H. Standley complained that “freedom from want” is a “Russian communistic slogan” and “freedom from fear” is a “political slogan.”
18 February 1950 Igor Stravinsky (67), his wife and Robert Craft arrive in New York, having driven for twelve days and over 6,000 km from Los Angeles by way of Key West.
19 February 1950 Barba Garibo op.298 for chorus and orchestra by Darius Milhaud (57) to words of Lunel is performed for the first time, in Menton.
20 February 1950 On the floor of the US Senate, Senator Joseph McCarthy, amidst frequent interruptions, presents 81 cases of communists within the State Department. The list is largely a rehash of a House committee list made two years ago. After investigation, only one person on the list will ever be indicted, but he will never be brought to trial.
Don Quixote, a ballet by Roberto Gerhard (53) to his own scenario after Cervantes, is performed for the first time, in Covent Garden.
21 February 1950 A Hungarian court sentences two Hungarians to death for espionage and three others receive prison terms. Along with them, two western officials of International Telephone and Telegraph Co., an American and a Briton, are sentenced to prison for 15 and 13 years respectively.
The United States breaks relations with Bulgaria after a “campaign of systematic persecution” by the Bulgarian government against the US minister and his wife.
After trading insults in the New York Herald Tribune, Arnold Schoenberg (75) in Los Angeles, writes to Aaron Copland (49) in New York, stating “I am always ready to live in peace.”
22 February 1950 Luigi Dallapiccola (46) wins the prize for best film score at the Second International Congress of Art Films in Brussels for his music to the film L’esperienza del cubismo.
23 February 1950 General elections are held in Great Britain. The ruling Labour Party loses 78 seats and maintains only a small majority. The election returns are televised for the first time in Britain.
24 February 1950 Assets of citizens of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania are frozen by the US Justice Department. The US says these countries have not acted on claims by Americans against them.
Quatre monocantes op.115 for voice and piano by Florent Schmitt (79) are performed for the first time, in Paris.
25 February 1950 Chinese communists take Namoa Island (Nan’ao), 320 km west of Taiwan.
26 February 1950 The anti-communist periodical Counterattack names Leonard Bernstein (31) as a subversive.
27 February 1950 Sonata for cello and piano by Elliott Carter (41) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
1 March 1950 Chiang Kai-shek resumes the presidency of the Republic of China on Taiwan. He takes it back from acting President Li Tsung-jen who is receiving medical treatment in New York.
After a trial of 90 minutes in London, Klaus Fuchs is found guilty of handing atomic secrets to the USSR and is sentenced to the maximum 14 years imprisonment.
Poland withdraws from the International Monetary Fund.
Sonata for cello and piano op.119 by Sergey Prokofiev (58) is performed for the first time, at Moscow Conservatory. The soloist is Mstislav Rostropovich. It has been played three times already, privately for various committees of the artistic establishment.
Gian Carlo Menotti’s (38) musical drama The Consul to his own words is performed for the first time, in the Shubert Theatre, Philadelphia. See 15 March 1950 and 1 May 1950.
Sinfonietta in E by Paul Hindemith (54) is performed for the first time, in Louisville the composer conducting.
2 March 1950 British and American information offices in Bucharest are closed by the government on charges of espionage.
3 March 1950 Expulsion of the last 125,000 Germans from new Polish territory begins.
Romania orders Great Britain and the United States to close their information services in Bucharest.
An agreement between France and the Saar is signed in Paris. France gains a 50-year lease on Saar coal mines, control of Saar customs and foreign affairs, and links between the economies of the Saar and France. The Saar gains domestic autonomy and the right to ask French troops to leave.
Piano Concerto no.4 by Darius Milhaud (57) is performed for the first time, in Boston.
4 March 1950 A Czechoslovak court gives a 15-year jail term to a Dutch businessman convicted of espionage.
A coalition of French vintners and Communists sues the French distributor of Coca-Cola® for misrepresenting their product. They charge that the soft drink contains phosphoric acid.
Piano Sonata no.2 op.293 by Darius Milhaud (57) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC originating in London.
Fantasy Suite no.1 by Peter Maxwell Davies (15) is performed for the first time, by the composer over the airwaves of the BBC originating in Manchester.
5 March 1950 In the first election since the conservative-fascist victory in the Greek Civil War, 63% of the voters choose centrist and leftist parties.
Soft coal miners in the US sign a contract with mine operators ending nine months of strikes.
6 March 1950 German workers rioting against the dismantling of a steel works in Watenstedt-Salzgitter destroy the British offices there.
7 March 1950 Three Dutch diplomats are expelled from Czechoslovakia for helping the businessman convicted on 4 March.
Judith Coplon, a former employee of the US Justice Department, is convicted of conspiring to pass classified documents to a Soviet agent, Valentin A. Gubitchev. She was convicted of stealing the documents last June. Gubitchev is convicted of conspiracy and receiving stolen documents. The convictions will be overturned because the FBI used illegal wiretaps during the investigation.
8 March 1950 Dmitri Shostakovich (43) wins a Stalin Prize for his Song of the Forests and music to the film The Fall of Berlin.
Five Bulgarians convicted of spying for the United States are sentenced to prison.
Two Czechoslovak diplomats are expelled from the Netherlands in reprisal for the actions of yesterday.
A committee of the United States Senate opens hearings in Washington to investigate charges of communists in the State Department. Senator Joseph McCarthy begins naming those on his list of 57 communists in the State Department. First on the list is Dorothy Kenyon, former employee of the US mission to the UN. In New York, Kenyon called McCarthy “a lowdown worm…a coward…a liar.”
9 March 1950 Chinese Communists complete the capture of Weichow Island (Weizhou Dao).
10 March 1950 Song of Anguish for baritone and orchestra by Lukas Foss (27) to words of the Bible is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston the composer conducting. An earlier incarnation for baritone, dancer, and piano was performed in 1948 as Voice in the Wilderness.
11 March 1950 Three US and two UK diplomatic personnel are expelled from Hungary.
Three works by Stefan Wolpe (47) are performed for the first time, in New York: Battle Piece for piano, Saxophone Quartet for trumpet, tenor saxophone, piano, and percussion, and Excerpt from Dr. Einstein’s Address about Peace in the Atomic Era for voice and piano. The second of these is in honor of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The third expresses the composer’s opposition to atomic weapons.
12 March 1950 57% of the Belgian electorate vote in favor of the return of King Leopold III from exile in Switzerland.
Ricardo Balbin, opposition candidate for Governor of Buenos Aires, is arrested after voting. He is charged with insulting President Juan Perón. A close friend of the President wins the election.
13 March 1950 Over the next two days, Senator Joseph McCarthy names eight more on his list of communists. Seven are formerly or presently connected with the State Department. All deny his charges.
Tre Poemi for soprano and chamber ensemble by Luigi Dallapiccola (46) to words of Joyce, Michelangelo, and M. Machado is performed for the first time, in Teatro Verdi, Trieste.
Four Piano Blues by Aaron Copland (49) are performed completely for the first time, in Carl Fischer Hall, New York.
Five Czech Madrigals for chorus by Bohuslav Martinu (59) to traditional words are performed for the first time, in New York.
Assobio a jato for flute and cello by Heitor Villa-Lobos (63) is performed for the first time, in the Auditório do Ministério da Educação e Cultura, Rio de Janeiro.
14 March 1950 Steingrimur Steinthorsson replaces Olafur Thors as Prime Minister of Iceland.
With the Soviet Union absent, the UN Security Council votes to demilitarize Kashmir and prepare the province for a plebiscite on its future.
Music for Claudel’s play Le repos du septième jour by Darius Milhaud (57) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Radio France originating in Paris conducted by the composer.
15 March 1950 Kurt Weill (50) suffers a recurrence of his constant ailment, psoriasis, this time covering his back, at Brook House, his home in New City, New York.
Gian Carlo Menotti’s (38) musical drama The Consul, to his own words, is performed for the first time on Broadway, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. See 1 March 1950 and 1 May 1950.
16 March 1950 The only Vatican diplomat in Czechoslovakia is expelled from the country.
Kammer-Sonate for piano, violin, and cello by Hans Werner Henze (23) is performed for the first time, in Cologne.
Bidule en ut for tape by Pierre Schaeffer (40) and Pierre Henry (22) is performed for the first time, in Amphithéâtre Richelieu at the Sorbonne.
Music divinas laudes for three voices and optional brass by Paul Hindemith (54) to words of Griselius is performed for the first time, at Harvard University conducted by the composer.
Symphony no.5 by Ernst Krenek (49) is performed for the first time, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
During the night, Kurt Weill (50) is kept awake by severe chest pain.
17 March 1950 Urho Kekkonen replaces Karl August Fagerholm as Prime Minister of Finland.
300,000 Belgian workers stage a one-day strike in opposition to the return of King Leopold.
The University of California at Berkeley announces the creation of element no.98 in their cyclotron. It is tentatively named Californium.
18 March 1950 In the first public concert devoted to electronic music, in the École normale de musique, Paris, Symphonie pour un homme seul by Pierre Schaeffer (39) and Pierre Henry (22) is performed for the first time. It is the first major work of musique-concrète. In the audience are Irving Fine (35) and his wife.
19 March 1950 4,000 workers and students carrying Viet Minh flags riot in the marketplace of Saigon, protesting the presence of two US warships.
After Kurt Weill’s (50) condition, diagnosed as coronary thrombosis, worsens, he is transported by ambulance to Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospital, New York, and put in an oxygen tent.
20 March 1950 1,800 sq km of farmland owned by the Roman Catholic Church is confiscated by the Polish government.
Valentin A. Gubitchev, convicted on 7 March of receiving stolen classified documents, sails on a Polish ship from New York. His sentence was suspended for a promise to leave the country and never return.
They Have a Native Country, a film with music by Aram Khachaturian (46), is released.
23 March 1950 Sophoklis Eleftheriou Venizelos replaces Ioannis Georgiou Theotokis as Prime Minister of Greece.
The World Meteorological Organization is established.
Aaron Copland (49) wins an Academy Award® for his score to the film The Heiress, in Los Angeles.
24 March 1950 Concerto for cello and orchestra by Virgil Thomson (53) is performed for the first time, at the Philadelphia Academy of Music.
26 March 1950 US Senator Joseph McCarthy names Prof. Owen J. Lattimore of Johns Hopkins University, once peripherally connected to the State Department, as the “top Soviet espionage agent in America.”
In elections today in El Salvador, women vote for the first time.
27 March 1950 String Quartet no.2 by Ralph Shapey (29) is performed for the first time, in Times Hall, New York.
28 March 1950 Five Piano Pieces by Peter Mennin (26) are performed for the first time, in New York.
Two songs by Charles Ives (75) are performed for the first time, at the Milwaukee Art Institute: At Parting to words of Peterson, and Ich grolle nicht to words of Heine.
29 March 1950 The Washington Post publishes a cartoon by Herblock (Herbert Block) which contains the first appearance of the word “McCarthyism.”
The Duke Ellington (50) band departs New York aboard the Île de France for an extended tour of Europe.
30 March 1950 Senator McCarthy iterates his charges against Owen Lattimore and claims to have six affidavits attesting to his communist activities. He refuses to hand them over to the committee investigating the claims, but says he will give them to the FBI. In Key West, President Truman calls Senator McCarthy “the greatest asset the Kremlin has.”
Bell Telephone Laboratories of Murray Hill, New Jersey announces the invention of a phototransistor (activated by light rather than electricity) by Dr. Northrup Shive.
31 March 1950 Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl is published in English, two years after its original publication in Norwegian.
Symphony no.3 by Robert Ward (32) is performed for the first time, at Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, conducted by the composer.
1 April 1950 Three of the Melodies passagères for voice and piano by Samuel Barber (40) to words of Rilke, are performed for the first time, in Washington. See 21 January 1952.
Dr. Charles Richard Drew, world-famous authority on the preservation of blood, is injured in a car accident while on his way to a scientific meeting. He is taken to the nearest hospital in desperate need of a blood transfusion but is turned away because he is black. He dies on his way to another hospital, near Burlington, North Carolina.
2 April 1950 Symphony no.5 by Peter Mennin (26) is performed for the first time, in Dallas.
The Duke Ellington (50) band play the first of a five-day engagement at the Théâtre National, Paris.
3 April 1950 Somaliland is transferred to Italy under a UN trusteeship for ten years.
Two piano works by Charles Ives (75) are performed for the first time, in New York: The Anti-Abolitionist Riots and Some Southpaw Pitching (studies nos.9 and 21), over 40 years after they were composed.
19:00 After a period of recovery, Kurt Weill (50) suffers a relapse of his heart ailment and dies of a cerebral embolism at Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospital, New York, aged 50 years, one month, and one day.
4 April 1950 Harry Bridges, the president of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, is found guilty of perjury in a San Francisco court. He is convicted of lying on his citizenship application when he said he had never been a Communist. Two other union officials are convicted of conspiracy.
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley receive a US patent for a “semiconductor amplifier” as part of their invention of the transistor.
5 April 1950 The Republican chairman of the US Loyalty Review Board testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that after 10,000 field investigations “not one single case” of espionage has been found in the federal government. The Republican chairman of the State Department Loyalty Security Board testifies that no communists were found at the State Department.
Incidental music to Hay’s play God, Caesar, and Peasant by Witold Lutoslawski (37) is performed for the first time, in Teatr Polski, Warsaw.
The earthly remains of Kurt Weill are laid to rest at Mount Repose Cemetery, Haverstraw, New York attended by a small group of family and friends.
The Ballad of the Railroads for voice and piano by Ernst Krenek (49) to his own words is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
6 April 1950 Owen Lattimore appears before the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate and calls his accuser, Senator Joseph McCarthy, a “base and contemptable liar.” He dares the Senator to make his accusations off the Senate floor where he has no immunity. McCarthy refuses.
Harry Partch (48) is informed that he has been awarded a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation for “studies toward the development of an electronic instrument with electronic tone and manual keyboard.”
8 April 1950 The prime ministers of India and Pakistan sign an agreement in New Delhi designed to protect the religious minorities in their respective countries.
Vaclav Nijinsky, after years of madness, dies in a London hospital of the effects of nephritis.
12 April 1950 The Duke Ellington (50) band play the first of a five-day engagement at the Théâtre National, Paris.
13 April 1950 The Arab League threatens sanctions against Jordan if it annexes any part of Palestine.
Dark Devotion for band by Roy Harris (52) is performed for the first time, in Memorial Auditorium, Louisville.
14 April 1950 General Nikolaos Plastiras replaces Sophoklis Eleftheriou Venizelos as Prime Minister of Greece.
15 April 1950 Suite for cello and harp by Lou Harrison (32) is performed for the first time, in McMillin Theatre, Columbia University. Also premiered are two movements from Harrison’s Seven Pastorales for chamber orchestra. See 25 November 1951.
18 April 1950 The Czechoslovak government confiscates all monasteries and convents.
19 April 1950 The Czechoslovak government orders that the United States Information Service libraries in Prague and Bratislava be closed and the director of the USIS in the country be expelled.
Sonata no.1 for piano by Karel Husa (28) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
20 April 1950 Communist forces achieve two beachheads on Hainan Island.
Louis Budenz, former editor of the Daily Worker, testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Owen Lattimore was once a member of a communist cell. He says that he never met Lattimore at any meetings and could not produce any documents to support his claim. He also disputed Senator Joseph McCarthy that Lattimore was the “top Soviet agent in America.”
Louisville University announces that they will admit African-Americans.
21 April 1950 The United States orders Czechoslovakia to close its consulate in Chicago.
The Duke Ellington (50) band play the first of a five-day engagement in Brussels.
Piano Concerto no.2 by Heitor Villa-Lobos (63) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, the composer conducting.
22 April 1950 Two Czechoslovaks are sentenced to death for espionage in Prague. Nine others receive prison terms. In other courts in the country, 47 “enemies of the state” are sentenced.
23 April 1950 Communist forces occupy Hoihow (Haikou), the capital of the island of Hainan without resistance. Chiang Kai-shek orders Nationalist forces on Hainan to evacuate the island.
24 April 1950 Jordan annexes land it has conquered west of the Jordan River, including East Jerusalem.
Soldiers begin unloading food in London after a five-day-old dockworkers strike paralyzes the port.
Incidental music to Leonard Bernstein’s (31) Peter Pan after Barrie is performed for the first time, in the Adelphi Theatre, New York.
25 April 1950 Five Madrigals for small choir and ensemble by Hans Werner Henze (23) to words of Villon is performed for the first time, in Frankfurt.
26 April 1950 A Sonata for double bass by Paul Hindemith (54) is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
27 April 1950 The Communist Party is outlawed in Australia.
The South African government passes the Group Areas Act, assigning separate homelands to separate racial groups.
Earl Browder, former head of the Communist Party of the US, testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Owen Lattimore was never a communist and that he considers Lattimore an anti-communist.
Senator Joseph McCarthy states on the Senate floor that secret testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee showed that State Department official Haldore Hanson is a communist. Another committee member, Brien McMahon, denies that any such testimony ever took place.
28 April 1950 French President Georges Bidault dismisses Dr. Frederic Joliot-Curie as High Commissioner for Atomic Energy. Joliot-Curie is a Communist who recently stated that no progressive scientist would ever give his knowledge for war against the Soviet Union.
The Duke Ellington (50) band perform in The Hague.
Journey to the End of Night for soprano, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, and bassoon by Morton Feldman (24) to words of Céline is performed for the first time, in the Museum of National History Auditorium of the University of Minnesota.
29 April 1950 Five Romanians are convicted of espionage and given prison sentences of from 15 years to life.
Four present and former US Secretaries of State announce that Owen Lattimore never influenced US Asian policy as charged by Senator McCarthy. Two said they never met Lattimore.
Piano Sonata no.2 by Pierre Boulez (25) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Symphony no.6 “Sobre a linha das montanhas do Brasil” by Heitor Villa-Lobos (63) is performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro, conducted by the composer.
30 April 1950 The Duke Ellington (51) band perform in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
1 May 1950 On the first May Day in the Peoples Republic of China, a new marriage law is announced. “The New-Democratic marriage system, which is based on the free choice of partners, on monogamy, on equal rights of both sexes, and on the protection of the lawful interests of women and children, shall be put into effect…Bigamy, concubinage, child betrothal, interference with the remarriage of widows, and the exaction of money or gifts in connection with marriage, shall be prohibited.” Women are granted equal rights with men in working and in status in and outside the home, in property rights and in divorce. Women are now allowed to keep their maiden names.
London dockworkers end a two-week strike after a government ultimatum to fire them.
Gian Carlo Menotti (38) wins the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his The Consul. See 1 March 1950 and 15 March 1950.
Harry Partch (48) enters the hospital of the University of California for surgery. A cyst is removed from his adrenal gland. He will be hospitalized for three weeks.
2 May 1950 Pursuant to a recent referendum, France hands Chandernagore over to India.
3 May 1950 Nationalist China announces the fall of Hainan Island.
The Duke Ellington (51) band perform in Victoria Hall, Geneva.
4 May 1950 The USSR announces that it has repatriated all German POWs it holds, almost two million. West German officials claim that there are hundreds of thousands still unaccounted for.
US President Truman allows the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to see loyalty files on 81 government employees charged by Senator McCarthy with being communists. All of the files have already been seen by four congressional committees in 1947-48. All were cleared.
Seconde Sonate pour piano and Barcarolles for piano by Ned Rorem (26) are performed for the first time, in the United States Embassy, Paris.
L’allegra brigata, an opera by Gian Francesco Malipiero (68) to his own words after Sacchetti, is performed for the first time, in Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
5 May 1950 Phumiphon Adundet is officially crowned King Rama IX in Bangkok.
The Asi-Gonia Festival, a ballet by Mikis Theodorakis (24), is performed for the first time, at Athens Conservatory. It is a smashing success with the public and press. The composer, a member of the armed forces and a recent graduate of the conservatory, is called to the stage, but he refuses. His only belt fell apart this morning and he has to hold his pants up.
The Duke Ellington (51) band play the first of five days in the Teatro Odeon, Milan.
6 May 1950 Danish ship captains report that five Danish fishing boats have been seized by the Soviets off Kaliningrad over the past two weeks.
President Victor Manuel Romano y Reyes of Nicaragua, a close associate of Anastasio Somoza, dies in Philadelphia following surgery on his stomach and lung.
7 May 1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy charges that a State Dept. file showing that a US minister abroad has been engaging in espionage for the Soviet Union has been “throroughly raped.” The State Dept. says it has no evidence to substantiate such a charge.
somewhere i have never trampled for voice and piano by Ben Johnston (24) to words of ee cummings is performed for the first time, at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. Also premiered is Johnston’s Le Gout de Néant for voice and piano to words of Beaudelaire.
8 May 1950 Sándor Rónai replaces Arpád Szakasits as President of Hungary.
US Secretary of State Dean Acheson announces in Paris that his country will send military aid to the French client states in Indochina.
Pampeana no.2 op.21 for cello and piano by Alberto Ginastera (34) is performed for the first time, in Buenos Aires.
9 May 1950 French foreign minister Robert Schuman proposes placing all German and French coal and steel production under a single authority, allowing for the participation of other nations.
The Canadian Parliament votes down a proposal to ban the Communist Party.
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is published by L. Ron Hubbard.
10 May 1950 A bill creating the National Science Foundation is signed by US President Truman.
Over the last two days, a committee of the California State Senate has heard testimony that Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, leader of the Manhattan Project, attended communist meetings in 1941.
11 May 1950 The Cherubic Hymn op.37 for chorus and orchestra by Howard Hanson (53) to the Greek Catholic Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is performed for the first time, in Eastman Theatre, Rochester, New York.
12 May 1950 The Czechoslovak government orders that the British Information Office and British Council offices be closed.
Bolivar, an opera by Darius Milhaud (57) to words of M. Milhaud and Supervielle, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra.
The Duke Ellington (51) band play the first of five days in Teatro Quirino, Rome.
13 May 1950 The United States orders Czechoslovakia to close its consulates in Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
15 May 1950 By today, two-thirds of the US diplomatic employees in Czechoslovakia have left after the host government refused to guarantee their safety.
The Democratic Party defeats the Republican Peoples Party by winning 470 of 539 seats in Turkish parliamentary elections.
Piano Trio no.2 by Bohuslav Martinu (59) is performed for the first time, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Lukas Foss’ (27) cantata Behold! I Build an House for chorus and organ to words of the Bible is performed for the first time, at the dedication ceremonies for Marsh Chapel, Boston University.
When stars are in the quiet skies, a song by Charles Ives (75) to words of Bulwer-Lytton, is performed for the first time, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
15 May 1950 The British government orders the closure of Czechoslovak information missions in the country.
Venezuela bans the Communist Party.
Speaking in Atlantic City, Senator Joseph McCarthy calls Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Ambassador-at-large Philip C. Jessup “the Pied Pipers of the Politburo.”
String Quartet no.4 by Dmitri Shostakovich (43) is performed before a small gathering including the composer and his wife, other composers and Alyeksandr Kholodilin, chairman of the music division of the state Committee for Artistic Affairs. The decision is made to withhold the quartet from performance, probably because of Jewish elements in the music and a climate unfavorable to absolute chamber music. See 3 December 1953.
16 May 1950 The Nationalist government on Taiwan announces they have abandoned the Chusan (Zhousan) Islands 150 km southeast of Shanghai. It was their base for blockade operations against the mainland.
The Soviet Union announces it will cut East Germany’s reparations debt by 50%.
The head of the Czechoslovak delegation to the United Nations resigns and seeks asylum in the United States for himself and his family.
Three Songs op.48 for low voice and piano by Arnold Schoenberg (75) to words of Haringer, are performed for the first time, in Los Angeles.
17 May 1950 Three pieces for piano by Peter Maxwell Davies (15) are performed for the first time, by the composer over the airwaves of the BBC originating in Manchester: Spring Pastorale, Fantasy Suite no.2 and Das ausgebildete Geschöpf.
18 May 1950 Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson for voice and piano by Aaron Copland (49) is performed for the first time, at the McMillan Memorial Theatre, Columbia University, New York, the composer at the keyboard.
Redondilha for chorus by Heitor Villa-Lobos (63) to words of de Anchieta, is performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro.
The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, an opera by Lukas Foss (27) to words of Karsavina after Twain, is staged for the first time, in Bloomington, Indiana. It was broadcast on radio in 1949.
20 May 1950 Chinese nationalists withdraw from Saddle and Parker Islands in the mouth of the Yangtze.
Il prigioniero, an opera by Luigi Dallapiccola (46) to his own words after Villers de l’Isle Adam and de Coster, is staged for the first time, at the Teatro Comunale, Florence. See 1 December 1949.
Symphony no.1 by William Bergsma (29) is performed for the first time, on a radio broadcast originating in New York.
21 May 1950 Yugoslavia and Greece exchange diplomatic representatives for the first time in three years.
Nicaraguans go to the polls and reelect the US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza Garcia as President. Each voter marks the ballot in the presence of two members of the ruling party.
Leonard Bernstein (31) writes to Aaron Copland (49) that his efforts to convince Serge Koussevitzky to premiere Copland’s Clarinet Concerto at Tanglewood have come to naught. “Benny [Goodman] and Tanglewood don’t mix in his mind.”
Suite for orchestra by Ulysses Kay (33) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
22 May 1950 Mahmud Celâl Bayar replaces Mustafa Ismet Inönü as President of Turkey. He appoints Adnan Menderes to replace Mehmet Semsettin Günaltay as Prime Minister. Bayar’s party won election on 14 May in the first free election in Turkey’s history.
The Supreme Court of South Africa rules that apartheid rules separating the races in railroad cars are unconstitutional.
Vier letzte Lieder for voice and orchestra by Richard Strauss (†0) to words of Eichendorff and Hesse, are performed for the first time, in Royal Albert Hall, London.
23 May 1950 Czechoslovakia requires that the United States cut its diplomatic personnel in the country to twelve.
Biochemist Harry Gold is arrested in Philadelphia by the FBI on charges that he assisted Klaus Fuchs commit espionage.
24 May 1950 The Parliament of Austria votes to abolish the death penalty.
A committee of the US Senate approves $25,000 to investigate and root out “homosexuals and other perverts” who may be working for the federal government.
25 May 1950 Israel agrees to pay $54,628 in damages to the UN for the murder of Count Folke Bernadotte in 1948. Countess Bernadotte has waived all personal claims.
26 May 1950 Wartime rationing of gasoline is ended in Great Britain.
Reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association show that lung cancer is far more common among heavy smokers than among light smokers or non-smokers.
27 May 1950 Chinese communists take the Wanshan Islands 60km southwest of Hong Kong.
The United States orders Czechoslovakia to close its New York consulate.
Georgi Purvanov Damyanov replaces Mincho Kolev Neychev as Chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly of Bulgaria.
The Duke Ellington (51) band play the first of two days at the Althof Bau, Frankfurt.
28 May 1950 500,000 members of East German organizations parade through Berlin in support of the USSR and denouncing the West, but they make no attempt to take over the entire city.
Music for a Dancer for piano by Stefan Wolpe (47) is performed for the first time, at Hunter College, New York.
Lieder for solo voice and piano by Ernst Krenek (49) to words of Verhaeren are performed for the first time, in Los Angeles, 26 years after they were composed.
30 May 1950 The first completely independent election in Korean history takes place in the southern Republic of Korea. President Rhee’s supporters are dealt a stinging rebuke.
Concerto for piano and orchestra by Claude Champagne (59) is performed for the first time, in Hermitage Hall, Montreal.
31 May 1950 Czechoslovak socialist leader Milada Horaková is hanged for spying.
The Duke Ellington (51) band play two concerts in Copenhagen.
1 June 1950 France announces that all countries intending to join the European Coal and Steel Community must do so by tomorrow at 20:00.
Ireland nationalizes all shipping systems by truck, rail, and canal.
Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine rises on the floor of the US Senate and, with the support of seven other Republicans, makes a “Declaration of Conscience.” She accuses certain members of her party of using fear of Communism for political gain. “As a United States Senator, I am not proud of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible sensationalism. I am not proud of the reckless abandon in which unproved charges have been hurled from this side of the aisle. I am not proud of the obviously staged, undignified countercharges that have been attempted in retaliation from the other side of the aisle. I don't like the way the Senate has been made a rendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity. I am not proud of the way we smear outsiders from the Floor of the Senate and hide behind the cloak of congressional immunity and still place ourselves beyond criticism on the Floor of the Senate.” One of the people to whom she is referring, Senator Joseph McCarthy, calls them “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
2 June 1950 The British government rejects the French ultimatum of yesterday.
3 June 1950 The Duke Ellington (51) band begin two days in Stockholm.
4 June 1950 Parliamentary elections in Belgium leave the positions of the parties relatively unchanged.
5 June 1950 The US Supreme Court makes three rulings concerning apartheid rules in several states. It says that the University of Texas Law School must admit a black student, that the University of Oklahoma could not force a black student to sit apart from white students, and that the Southern Railway may not deny a dining car seat to a black passenger.
6 June 1950 General Douglas MacArthur orders the Japanese government to remove 24 members of the Communist Party from civic life, including seven members of Parliament.
Senator Joseph McCarthy claims that three persons listed by the FBI as Communist agents still hold high positions in the State Department. The State Department denies the charges.
7 June 1950 East German officials sign an agreement in Warsaw making the Oder-Neisse border permanent. West German officials call the action “traitorous”.
8 June 1950 Four Czechoslovaks receive death sentences in a Prague court for plotting with western diplomats to overthrow the government. Nine others receive long prison terms.
Jean Pierre Duvieusart replaces Gaston Eyskens as Prime Minister of Belgium.
Paul Hindemith’s (54) French Horn Concerto is performed for the first time, in Baden-Baden the composer conducting.
10 June 1950 An orchestral suite from music for the film The Fall of Berlin by Dmitri Shostakovich (43) is performed for the first time, in Moscow. See 21 January 1950.
Centennial Ode for baritone, speaker, chorus, and orchestra by Howard Hanson (53) is performed for the first time, at the University of Rochester conducted by the composer.
11 June 1950 Ein Sommertag, a ballet by Werner Egk (49) to his own story, is performed for the first time, in the Städtische Oper, Berlin.
Sonata for violin and piano no.1 by Robert Ward (32) is performed for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
12 June 1950 Philip Jaffe, former editor of Amerasia, refuses to tell a US Senate committee whether or not he has ever been a communist, or the answer to about 100 other questions.
14 June 1950 String Quartet no.4 by Peter Sculthorpe (21) is performed for the first time, in the British Music Society Rooms, Melbourne.
Whispers from Heavenly Death, a cantata for high voice and piano by Hans Werner Henze (23) to words of Whitman, is performed for the first time, in Stuttgart.
15 June 1950 The Federal Republic of Germany joins the Council of Europe.
FBI agents arrest chemist Alfred Slack in Syracuse for passing defense secrets to the Soviet Union through Harry Gold.
Folksongs of the Four Seasons, a cantata for female chorus and orchestra by Ralph Vaughan Williams (77), is performed for the first time, in Royal Albert Hall, London.
Cinq rechants for twelve solo voices by Olivier Messiaen (41) to his own words is performed for the first time, in Paris.
16 June 1950 FBI agents arrest David Greenglass for passing secrets from the Manhattan Project to Soviet agent Harry Gold in 1945. Greenglass confesses and names his brother-in-law, Julius Rosenberg, as an accomplice.
Plupart du temps, six songs for voice and piano by Betsy Jolas (23) to words of Reverdy, is performed for the first time before a live audience, in Paris. It was heard over the radio last year.
Two works for band are performed for the first time, in Central Park, New York: Tunbridge Fair by Walter Piston (56), and Divertimento op.42 by Vincent Persichetti (35).
17 June 1950 Charles, Count of Flanders ends his regency for the absent King Leopold III of Belgium.
The first human kidney transplant is performed by Dr. Richard Harold Lawler in Chicago. The patient will live five more years.
Old American Songs, Set I for voice and piano by Aaron Copland (49) is performed for the first time, at Aldeburgh by Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten (36).
18 June 1950 Saudade de juventude suite no.1 for orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (63) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Santa Isabel, Recife the composer conducting.
20 June 1950 Lachrymae op.48, reflections on a song of Dowland for viola and piano by Benjamin Britten (36), is performed for the first time, in Aldeburgh the composer at the keyboard.
The Duke Ellington (51) band play two concerts in the Salle Wagram, Paris. These are the last performances of their European tour.
21 June 1950 The chairman of a US Senate investigating committee, Millared Tydings, announces that a check by the FBI failed to substantiate any of Senator McCarthy’s charge that 81 loyalty files at the State Department have been tampered with.
22 June 1950 Former State Dept. official John S. Service testifies before a US Senate committee that he has never been a Communist, despite charges by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television is issued by American Business Consultants of New York, a self-appointed blacklisting group. They name 151 broadcasting personalities who they consider at least sympathetic to communism.
23 June 1950 Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, having seen 81 State Department loyalty files, announce that there is no conclusive evidence that anyone charged by Senator McCarthy ever was a communist.
The University of California Board of Regents votes to sack 157 employees for refusing to sign statements that they are not communists. 100 of them are teachers.
Bitter Springs, a film with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (77), is shown for the first time, in Adelaide, South Australia.
An orchestral suite from the ballet Jack Pudding by Hans Werner Henze (23) is performed for the first time, in Heidelberg. See 30 December 1950.
Cantata no.2 by Anton Webern (†4) to words of Jone is performed for the first time, in Brussels.
25 June 1950 The Republic of Korea is invaded by over 60,000 North Korean troops. Within hours they capture Kaesong, northwest of Seoul.
The UN Security Council orders a cease-fire in Korea and calls on member states to enforce it.
27 June 1950 President Truman orders American air and naval forces into Korea, orders American naval forces to prevent any attack on Taiwan, sends a 35-man military advisory team to aid the French in their attempt to control their colony in Indochina, and orders General Douglas MacArthur to organize the defense of South Korea.
The United Nations Security Council (the USSR boycotting) names North Korea as aggressor, imposes military sanctions, and asks member nations to carry out its plan to defend the Republic of Korea.
The British House of Commons cheers when hearing of President Truman’s announcement.
The US State Department Loyalty Security Board clears John S. Service of any suspicion, for the fourth time. Senator McCarthy has accused Service of being a communist.
28 June 1950 The South Korean government moves to Taejon, 120 km south of Seoul.
At the request of US President Truman, the nationalist government on Taiwan ceases all military operations against the mainland.
Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand place their naval vessels in Japanese waters at the disposal of General MacArthur.
President Truman signs a bill abolishing the US Cavalry.
A subcommittee of the US Senate investigating Senator McCarthy’s charges of communists in the State Department votes to suspend its investigation, having found no evidence to substantiate any of the claims.
Earle Brown (23) marries Carolyn Rice, a dancer. In 1953 she will become the principal dancer of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
29 June 1950 North Korean troops capture Seoul.
The Netherlands offers its East Indies fleet in defense of South Korea.
Eight of the “Hollywood Ten” are convicted of contempt of Congress in a Washington court. The other two have already been convicted.
30 June 1950 President Truman authorizes the use of US ground troops in Korea.
Henri Queuille replaces Georges Bidault as Prime Minister of France.
The Duke Ellington (51) band return to New York aboard the Île de France after a three-month tour of Europe.
1 July 1950 US ground troops land in Korea.
The USSR cuts off electricity and water to West Berlin. The electricity is kept going by a West German power plant.
All copying machines in Romania must be registered with police.
2 July 1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy claims that Americans are dying in Korea because of communists in the State Department.
Plan 9 from Outer Space, directed by Ed Wood, premieres today. It will one day be voted “the worst movie ever made.”
4 July 1950 North Korean forces capture Suwon, south of Seoul.
The People’s Assembly of Albania adopts a new constitution along Soviet lines.
Radio Free Europe begins broadcasting to eastern Europe from Lampertheim, West Germany. The first broadcast is directed towards Czechoslovakia.
Concertante for piano left-hand and orchestra by Arnold Bax (66) is performed for the first time, in Cheltenham.
Six Irish Poems, a cycle for voice and orchestra by Ned Rorem (26) to words of Darley, is performed for the first time, in Paris.
5 July 1950 Msgr. Gerald Patgrick O’Hara, the last Vatican diplomat in eastern Europe, is ordered expelled from Romania for espionage. His two assistants are also ordered out.
A confidential informant tells the FBI that Aaron Copland (49) “has been a member of every communist front which expressed a change of line...”
6 July 1950 North Koreans take Pyongtaek, Chungju and Umsong.
East Germany and Poland sign a treaty recognizing the Oder-Neisse border.
7 July 1950 The United Nations Security Council votes to create a unified military command in Korea, chosen by the United States, under the flag of the United Nations.
8 July 1950 At the request of the United Nations, President Truman designates an overall commander in the defense of South Korea: General Douglas MacArthur.
9 July 1950 The USSR restores water to West Berlin.
Brazil defeats Sweden 7-1 in Rio de Janeiro to win the fourth FIFA World Cup™.
10 July 1950 Rationing of soap ends in Great Britain.
11 July 1950 René Pleven replaces Henri Queuille as Prime Minister of France.
12 July 1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy claims that the State Department removed incriminating evidence about the loyalty of its employees in 1946. The State Dept. says that the reorganization of files in 1946 dealt with personnel files, not loyalty files which are kept separately.
Solemn Music for the Masque of Charterhouse for winds and percussion by Ralph Vaughan Williams (77) is performed for the first time, in Founder’s Court, Charterhouse School, Godalming.
13 July 1950 UN troops withdraw across the River Kum.
14 July 1950 Secretary-General Trygve Lie makes a plea to UN member states for troops to support South Korea.
16 July 1950 Tarquin, an opera by Ernst Krenek (49) to a new German text by Schute-Strathaus and Funk, is staged for the first time, in Cologne. See 13 May 1941.
Boston newspapers report that Irving Fine (35) has been appointed Composer-in-Residence and Lecturer in Music at Brandeis University.
17 July 1950 Bernd Alois Zimmermann (32) marries Sabine von Schablowsky in the Altenberg Cathedral.
Three Democratic members of a US Senate Foreign Affairs subcommittee investigating Senator McCarthy’s charges call them “the most nefarious campaign of half-truths and untruth in the history of this republic. For the first time in our history, we have seen the totalitarian technique of the big lie employed on a sustained basis.” The two Republican members do not sign the report.
FBI agents arrest Julius Rosenberg in New York on charges of espionage.
18 July 1950 Charles Théodore Henri Antoine Meinrad, Prince of Belgium, Count of Flanders ends his regency for the Belgian crown.
Over the last four days, 13 union leaders have been charged with contempt of Congress by the House Un-American Activities Committee for failing to answer questions about communist activities.
Le soleil des eaux, a cantata for soprano, tenor, bass and chamber orchestra by Pierre Boulez (25) to words of Char, is performed live for the first time, in Paris. It was broadcast in April 1948.
20 July 1950 North Korean forces capture Taejon, the temporary South Korean capital.
The army of the Netherlands East Indies is officially disbanded.
The Belgian Parliament votes 198-0 to recall King Leopold III from exile. All communists, socialists, and almost all liberals walk out before the vote.
Lachrymae op.48, reflections on a song of Dowland for viola and piano by Benjamin Britten (36), is performed for the first time, in Aldeburgh Parish Church the composer at the keyboard.
21 July 1950 UN troops recapture Yangdok on the east coast, 110 km north of Pusan.
Bolivia offers troops to the United Nations effort in Korea.
At the Beach for trumpet and band by Virgil Thomson (53) is performed for the first time, in New York.
22 July 1950 North Korean troops recapture Yangdok.
Amidst heavy security, King Leopold III of Belgium returns to Brussels from six years of exile in Switzerland.
23 July 1950 Thailand offers troops to the United Nations effort in Korea.
Five Flower Songs op.47 for chorus by Benjamin Britten (36) to various authors is performed for the first time, privately in Dartington. See 24 May 1951.
24 July 1950 North Korean forces take Haenam and Mokpo in the extreme southwest of the peninsula, against little opposition.
25 July 1950 North Korean troops capture Yongdong, 150 km northwest of Pusan, in heavy fighting.
A temporary South Korean capital is set up in Taegu.
Turkey offers troops to the United Nations effort in Korea.
The European premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s (39) Turangalîla-Symphonie takes place in Aix-en-Provence. At the conclusion, members of the audience with differing opinions set upon each other. Arthur Honegger (58) and Roland-Manuel mix it up, as do Francis Poulenc (51) and Georges Auric.
Senator Joseph McCarthy claims that a State Department economist, Edward G. Posniak, is a “Moscow-born Communist.” Posniak denies the claim and says he was cleared by the State Department in 1948.
26 July 1950 North Korean forces capture Sunchon on the south coast.
UN troops counterattack in the area of Hadong, 100 km west of Pusan.
Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand offer troops to the United Nations effort in Korea.
Strikes in protest to the return of King Leopold begin in Belgium.
27 July 1950 North Korean forces capture Yosu on the south coast.
Riots break out near the King’s residence in Brussels when socialists attack conservatives.
28 July 1950 An Almanac of the Seasons for voice, speaker, and chamber orchestra by Lou Harrison (33) to words of Breton and Hymes is performed for the first time, at Reed College, Oregon the composer conducting.
29 July 1950 In Cliffwood, New Jersey, FBI agents arrest Abraham Brothman, a chemical engineer, and Miriam Moskowitz, an officer in his firm, on charges of espionage.
30 July 1950 Police in Liège fire into a group rioting against the return of King Leopold. Three people are killed.
William Schuman’s (39) George Washington Bridge for band is performed for the first time, at Interlochen, Michigan.
31 July 1950 North Koreans take Chinju, 70 km west of Pusan.
US President Truman begins calling National Guard units to active service.
1 August 1950 UN forces counterattack between Masan and Chinju west of Pusan, driving ahead 15 km. In the north, North Koreans take Yechon and Andong.
King Leopold III of Belgium works out an agreement with Parliament that he will abdicate in favor of his son when his son reaches his 21st birthday (7 September 1951).
The Soviet delegation returns to the Security Council after a six-and-a-half month boycott.
US President Truman signs a bill granting limited self-government and United States citizenship to the residents of Guam.
2 August 1950 North Korean troops take Kumchon, northwest of Taegu, after a week of fighting. UN forces retake Yangdok on the east coast.
String Quartet no.16 by Darius Milhaud (57) is performed for the first time, in the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara.
3 August 1950 North Koreans counterattack west of Pusan.
The passport of vocalist Paul Robeson is cancelled by the US State Department. He is ordered to surrender the passport but has refused until he is given a reason. The US government dislikes Robeson’s political views.
5 August 1950 A federal judge revokes the bail of Harry Bridges, President of the Longshoremen’s Union in the United States. Bridges is out on bail pending appeal of his conviction for perjury. The judge rules that since the beginning of the Korean War, Bridges’ activities endanger national security.
Pièce pour orgue op.226 by Charles Koechlin (82) is performed for the first time, in Paris. It is his last known composition.
7 August 1950 UN forces counterattack west towards Chinju. They advance 20 km in four days.
8 August 1950 Ernst Krenek (49) marries his third wife Gladys Nordenstrom, a former student at Hamline University, in Los Angeles City Hall.
9 August 1950 North Korean troops retake Yangdok.
10 August 1950 The Southern Railway in the United States announces new rules whereby blacks and whites may use the same dining car, blacks at one end, whites at the other.
Billy Wilder’s film Sunset Boulevard is shown for the first time, in New York.
Tone Roads no.1 for orchestra by Charles Ives (75) is performed for the first time, in San Francisco.
11 August 1950 North Korean troops capture Pohang on the east coast.
The Netherlands offers troops to the United Nations effort in Korea.
Baudouin, son of King Leopold III of Belgium, assumes the title of Prince-Royal in front of Parliament. He is king in all but name and is to assume that title on his 21st birthday, 7 September 1951. During the swearing in, Julien Lahaut, leader of the Communists, shouts “Vive la republique!”
FBI agents arrest Ethel Rosenberg in New York for conspiracy to commit espionage. She joins her husband, Julius Rosenberg, and her brother, David Greenglass, in prison.
The US House of Representatives cites 56 people for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
12 August 1950 A UN counterattack halts just east of Chinju, having driven the North Koreans back 45 km.
A bomb explodes in Brussels damaging Communist Party headquarters.
String Quartet in Four Parts by John Cage (37) is performed for the first time, at Black Mountain College, North Carolina.
15 August 1950 A unified state, the Republic of Indonesia, replaces the United States of Indonesia. A new constitution is adopted.
An earthquake in Assam, India causes at least 5,000 deaths.
Joseph Pholien replaces Jean Pierre Duvieusart as Prime Minister of Belgium.
Since the beginning of the month, nine newspapers have been shut down in West Germany for criticizing the Allies.
17 August 1950 Chinese shore batteries fire on a British destroyer as it approaches Hong Kong. The destroyer returns fire. No damage is reported.
A papal decree, Humani generis, attacking existentialism and various scientific theories, is promulgated by the Vatican.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on charges of conspiracy.
18 August 1950 UN forces recapture Pohang on the east coast. A North Korean drive toward Taegu is halted by UN troops.
Julien Lahaut, head of the Belgian Communist Party, is shot to death by two men at his home near Liège.
The Zato Concrete Co. of Teaneck, New Jersey announces the formation of the A-Bomb Shelter Corp. Clients may have an atomic bomb shelter in their yard for as little as $1,500.
Morton Sobell, a radar and electronics expert, is taken into custody by FBI agents in Laredo, Texas as he is being deported from Mexico. He is implicated in the same alleged plot which includes David Greenglass and the Rosenbergs.
20 August 1950 UN forces eliminate a North Korean bridgehead across the Naktong River southwest of Taegu.
21 August 1950 Sophoklis Eleftheriou Venizelos replaces Nikolaos Plastiras as Prime Minister of Greece.
Secret Mission, a film with music by Aram Khachaturian (47), is released.
The first employees of the UN Secretariat take up their offices in the new UN building in New York.
22 August 1950 France offers troops to the United Nations effort in Korea.
100,000 people attend the funeral of Belgian Communist leader Julien Lahaut in Seraing. Lahaut was murdered on 18 August.
24 August 1950 Over the next three days, Cuba closes two leftist newspapers and a radio station.
25 August 1950 Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon is released in Japan.
US President Truman orders the army to seize the nation’s railroads in advance of a strike planned for 28 August. The two unions involved announce that they will cooperate with the government and postpone the strike.
The Board of Regents of the University of California sack 31 professors because they did not sign statements that they have never been communists.
26 August 1950 Eight former Nazi leaders, along with several other important political and business leaders, are released from Landsberg Prison, west of Munich.
A public statement on US foreign policy by General Douglas MacArthur, not cleared by the State Department, Defense Department, or the White House, is ordered withdrawn by President Truman. This causes an outcry among opponents of the President.
Composizione no.2 for orchestra by Bruno Maderna (30) is performed for the first time, in Darmstadt.
27 August 1950 Variazioni canoniche sull serè dell’op.41 di A. Schoenberg for chamber orchestra by Luigi Nono (26) is performed for the first time, in Darmstadt.
28 August 1950 Actress Jean Muir is cut from the US television show The Aldrich Family after its sponsor, General Foods Corp., received complaints that she is a Communist. She denies the charge.
29 August 1950 British troops arrive in Korea.
Madison Square Garden refuses a request by the Council on African Affairs for a performance by Paul Robeson.
Toccata for piano by Roy Harris (52) is performed in a concert for the first time, at the Drake Hotel, Chicago. It was first performed in a radio broadcast last Autumn.
31 August 1950 North Korean forces begin an offensive to collapse the Pusan perimeter.
Mexico City television station XHTV goes on the air. Mexico is the first Spanish-speaking country to inaugurate television service.
1 September 1950 North Korean forces gain bridgeheads across the Naktong River and reach to within 50 km of Pusan.
Six high-ranking members of the East German Communist Party are expelled from the party and arrested on charges of “lacking trust in the Soviet Union.”
El Puente, a film with music by Alberto Ginastera (34), is released in Argentina.
2 September 1950 Greece offers troops to the United Nations effort in Korea.
5 September 1950 Muhammad Natsir replaces Abdul Halim as Prime Minister of Indonesia.
In voting for the Danish Folketing, the biggest gains are made by the Conservative Peoples Party at the expense of their conservative allies, the Left-Liberals. The ruling Social Democrats gain two seats.
6 September 1950 North Korean troops capture Pohang on the east coast after four days of fighting.
Three black students are admitted to the University of Delaware for the first time, under a state court ruling.
Fantasia on the Old 104th for piano, chorus, and orchestra by Ralph Vaughan Williams (77) to words from the Bible, is performed publicly for the first time, in Gloucester Cathedral under the baton of the composer. See 20 November 1949.
7 September 1950 The government of Hungary bans almost all religious orders.
Over the next three days, French officials arrest 288 foreign leftists (mostly Spanish) in preparation for deportation.
8 September 1950 The East German government razes the Imperial Castle in Berlin to produce a Moscow-type Red Square.
10 September 1950 Turkey closes its border with Bulgaria to halt the flood of ethnic Turks desiring refuge.
Guatemalan authorities close the leftist newspaper Octubre.
Symphony no.2 (Adagio for large orchestra) by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (45) is performed for the first time, in Donaueschingen.
12 September 1950 The US filmmakers Monogram Studios drops a plan to make a film about Hiawatha, the Onondaga hero of the poem by Longfellow. They are afraid that Hiawatha’s peace making might be seen as Communist propaganda.
13 September 1950 Studi per “Il Processo” di Kafka for speaker, soprano, and orchestra by Bruno Maderna (30) is performed for the first time, in Venice.
14 September 1950 A week-long North Korean attempt to take Taegu is repulsed by UN troops.
North Korean attacks are thrown back near Pohang on the east coast.
Suite opus300 for two pianos and orchestra by Darius Milhaud (58) is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
15 September 1950 United Nations forces succeed in a daring landing at Inchon, 35 km west of Seoul and 250 km behind the battle front. 40,000 troops go ashore today and tomorrow.
The University of Virginia admits its first black student, Gregory Swanson, under a federal court order. Swanson is attending the law school.
18 September 1950 Television service begins in Brazil.
19 September 1950 UN forces gain bridgeheads across the Naktong River and capture Waegwan, northeast of Taegu.
The British Labour government wins a vote of confidence (306-300) on the nationalization of steel, due to commence next year.
The North Atlantic foreign ministers meeting in New York announce that they will increase troop levels in West Germany and West Berlin.
20 September 1950 UN forces capture Pohang on the east coast above Pusan.
21 September 1950 The USSR again cuts off water to West Berlin.
23 September 1950 The United States Congress overrides President Truman’s veto of the McCarran Act, which provides for restrictions over political groups disliked by the state.
24 September 1950 The first stock exchange in Central America opens in San José, Costa Rica.
George Washington Variations for piano by Ernst Krenek (50) is performed for the first time, in Wilshire Ebell Theatre, Los Angeles.
25 September 1950 Governor Herman Talmadge of Georgia says that attempts by blacks to desegregate the state’s schools “would create more confusion, disorder, riots, and bloodshed than anything since the War Between the States.”
26 September 1950 After a three-day battle, UN forces complete the recapture of Seoul.
UN troops driving north from the Pusan perimeter meet the Inchon forces at Changji, south of Seoul. This traps about 35,000 North Koreans in the southwest of the country.
French forces abandon Pakha near the Chinese border of Vietnam.
The Snowslide, a song for voice and piano by Witold Lutoslawski (37) to words of Pushkin, is performed for the first time, in Kraków.
27 September 1950 Two Pieces for violin and piano by William Walton (48) is performed for the first time, in London.
28 September 1950 UN forces capture Taejon.
Over the last week, UN troops have driven 125 km up the east coast of the peninsula.
The Republic of Indonesia is admitted to the United Nations.
29 September 1950 South Korean President Syngman Rhee enters Seoul and reconstitutes his government there.
Duke Ellington (51) meets with President Truman at the White House and presents him with a manuscript copy of his Harlem.
30 September 1950 (Tale) in Seven Wags for piano by Peter Maxwell Davies (16) is performed for the first time, by the composer over the airwaves of the BBC originating in Manchester.
1 October 1950 The lead elements of the UN forces cross the 38th Parallel into North Korea.
A subway begins operations in Stockholm.
2 October 1950 The Legal Aid and Advice Law goes into effect in Britain. It provides free legal services at government expense for impoverished citizens.
A comic strip named Peanuts by a free-lance cartoonist named Charles Schulz appears for the first time, in seven newspapers.
Scènes de la vie moyenne en quatre parties op.124 for orchestra by Florent Schmitt (79) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
3 October 1950 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley receive a U.S. patent for a “Three-Electrode Circuit Element Utilizing Semiconductive Materials”, a transistor.
A law is enacted in California requiring all state employees to sign loyalty oaths within 30 days.
Elections in Brazil result in the election of former President Getúlio Vargas, representing the left wing Brazilian Labor Party and the right wing Social Progressive Party. The liberal Social Democratic Party wins the most seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
4 October 1950 French forces abandon Caobang, north of Hanoi.
The UN General Assembly (47-5) gives General MacArthur the authority to invade the north if he deems it necessary “to ensure conditions of stability throughout Korea.”
6 October 1950 The Loyalty and Security Board of the US State Dept. clears John S. Service of disloyalty or Communist associations, for the seventh time. Senator Joseph McCarthy accused Service of being a Communist earlier this year.
7 October 1950 The South Korean National Assembly convenes in Seoul.
Chinese forces invade Tibet, defeating a Tibetan army at Chamdo.
The UN General Assembly votes 47-5 to unify and pacify Korea after the cessation of hostilities.
9 October 1950 Over the last four days, most of a 3,500-man French force retreating south from Caobang were wiped out by the Viet Minh. A few hundred managed to make it to Thatkhe.
10 October 1950 UN forces capture Wonsan on the coast due east of Pyongyang.
11 October 1950 Mayor John B. Hines of Boston bans the display of any portraits of Paul Robeson anywhere in the city.
12 October 1950 The USSR vetoes a Security Council resolution favoring the reelection of Trygve Lie as Secretary-General.
13 October 1950 French forces abandon their post at Thatkhe, north of Hanoi.
Joseph Mankiewicz’s film All About Eve is shown for the first time, in Paris.
17 October 1950 UN forces capture Hamhung on the northeast coast of Korea.
18 October 1950 David Greenglass pleads guilty in federal court in New York of passing secrets to a Soviet spy ring while he worked at Los Alamos.
19 October 1950 UN troops fight their way into Pyongyang. The North Korean government reconstitutes itself in Huichon.
20 October 1950 United Nations forces capture Pyongyang, capital of North Korea. General Douglas MacArthur visits the city and proclaims the war is “definitely coming to an end.”
Pastorale for oboe, strings, and harp op.38 by Howard Hanson (53) is performed for the first time in its original setting, in Philadelphia. See 3 October 1949.
21 October 1950 French troops abandon Langson, their last important base on the Chinese border with Vietnam.
23 October 1950 The US Justice Dept. begins a roundup of 86 leftist aliens for deportation.
Senator Joseph McCarthy states that of the 50,000 people listed in American Men of Science, 500 have “openly associated” with Communist groups. He names seven. All deny the charge.
Scientists from the University of Toronto describe an “electrical artificial pacemaker” which has been successful in restarting hearts in animal tests.
24 October 1950 China announces that troops have been ordered into Tibet to “liberate three million Tibetans from imperialist aggression, to complete the unification of the whole of China, and to safeguard the frontier region of the country.”
Television service begins in Cuba.
26 October 1950 UN troops reach Chosan and the Yalu River, the border with China.
The repaired chamber of the British House of Commons is opened for business. The Commons have been using the Lords chamber since a German bomb damaged theirs on 11 May 1941.
27 October 1950 Chinese and North Korean troops counterattack across the Yalu River and retake Choson.
28 October 1950 General MacArthur’s spokesman announces entry of Chinese troops into the Korean War, but he states that this is only a “face-saving” operation and no cause for alarm.
Erik Eriksen replaces Hans Hedtoft as Prime Minster of Denmark.
String Quartet no.4 by William Schuman (40) is performed for the first time, at the Library of Congress in Washington.
29 October 1950 King Gustaf V of Sweden dies in Stockholm and is succeeded by his son Gustaf VI Adolf.
Quartet for piano and strings by Aaron Copland (49) is performed for the first time, at the Library of Congress, Washington.
30 October 1950 A revolt against US rule breaks out in Puerto Rico. Nationalist Party members try to kill Governor Luis Muñoz Marín in San Juan. Attacks on police stations and other buildings take place throughout the island. The National Guard is called out to deal with the unrest.
Luigi Dallapiccola’s (46) sacra rappresentazione Job, to his own words after the Bible, is performed for the first time, in the Teatro Eliseo, Rome.
Romancillo (Por mayo era, por mayo) for voice and piano by Joaquín Rodrigo (48) to anonymous words is performed for the first time, in Teatro de la Comedia, Madrid.
1 November 1950 Electricity is restored to Seoul for the first time in four months.
Pope Pius XII pronounces dogma on the bodily Assumption of the Virgin.
The UN General Assembly votes to extend the term of Secretary-General Trygve Lie for three years.
Two Puerto Rican nationalists attack Blair House, the temporary presidential quarters, in Washington, in an attempt to kill President Truman. The attackers kill one guard and wound two others before one attacker is killed and the other captured. The president is unharmed.
In Puerto Rico, the revolt is effectively over. 31 people have been killed. Leading members of the Nationalist and Communist Parties are arrested.
La Fraîcheur et le feu, a cycle for voice and piano by Francis Poulenc (51) to words of Eluard, is performed for the first time, in Birmingham, the composer at the keyboard.
2 November 1950 George Bernard Shaw dies in Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire at the age of 94.
3 November 1950 Symphony no.3 by David Diamond (35) is performed for the first time, in Boston.
4 November 1950 The European Convention on Human Rights is signed in Rome by representatives of the members of the Council of Europe, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, and West Germany.
The UN General Assembly votes to lift the diplomatic embargo against Spain.
6 November 1950 Quatre études de rythme for piano by Olivier Messiaen (41) are performed for the first time, in Tunis, the composer at the keyboard.
Concerto for clarinet and string orchestra with harp and piano by Aaron Copland (49) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the NBC radio network. The soloist is Benny Goodman.
7 November 1950 In Congressional elections in the United States, the Democratic Party of President Truman loses five seats in the Senate and 28 in the House of Representatives, but hold on to control of both.
11 November 1950 Vulko Chervenkov is elected as leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party.
13 November 1950 A note from the government of the Dalai Lama reaches United Nations headquarters in New York, requesting aid in fighting the Chinese invasion of Tibet.
Lt. Col. Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, President of the ruling junta of Venezuela, is beaten and shot to death by about 20 men in Caracas. By the end of the day, most of the killers, including its leader Rafael Simón Urbina, are in custody.
14 November 1950 Rafael Simón Urbina, the leader of yesterday’s murder of the Venezuelan President, is killed by a prison guard while trying to escape.
15 November 1950 UN bombers drop 40,000 incendiaries on Hoeryong, near China.
Serenade no.5 op.43 for timpani and strings by Vincent Persichetti (35) is performed for the first time, in Louisville, Kentucky.
16 November 1950 UN troops reach within 30 km of the Chinese border at Kapsan, in the northeast of Korea.
Hungarian violinist Joseph Szigeti, who has lived in the United States for nine years, is detained on Ellis Island under the McCarran Act. He will be released on 20 November. The charges are never defined.
18 November 1950 Concerto Grosso by Ralph Vaughan Williams (78) is performed for the first time, in London.
19 November 1950 The American Red Cross announces that its blood will no longer be identified by the race of the donor.
Flight for Heaven, a cycle for bass and piano by Ned Rorem (27) to words of Herrick, is performed for the first time, in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
20 November 1950 Twelve people are indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington for contempt of Congress. They refused to answer questions about Communism.
Complete Poems by Carl Sandburg is released for sale.
21 November 1950 UN troops capture Hyesanjin on the Yalu River.
22 November 1950 Chemical engineer Abraham Brothman and his associate Miriam Moskowitz are found guilty by a federal court in New York of conspiring to mislead an espionage grand jury in 1947.
24 November 1950 In contravention of directives from Washington which require him to halt about 80 km north of Pyongyang, General Douglas MacArthur orders his troops to drive through the mountains of North Korea to the Yalu River. An offensive begins on the west side of the line.
UN troops take Chongjin in the far northeast of the country.
The UN Security Council votes not to respond to Tibet’s request for aid against China.
In the midst of a coast-to-coast United States tour, Benjamin Britten (37) and Peter Pears meet Igor Stravinsky (68) in his Hollywood home.
Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls opens at the 46th Street Theatre, New York.
25 November 1950 UN troops take Chongju near the west coast of Korea.
The new Libyan state created by the UN inaugurates an appointed National Constituent Assembly in Tripoli.
26 November 1950 200,000 Chinese attack in strength against United Nations forces on the western side of the front in Korea.
27 November 1950 Six more people are indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington for contempt of Congress. They refused to answer questions about Communism.
28 November 1950 The Colombo Plan for Co-operative Economic and Social Development in South and South-East Asia is signed by Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Ceylon, and the United Kingdom. It will come into force next 1 July.
US President Truman seems to suggest at a press conference that his government might use nuclear weapons in Korea.
29 November 1950 About 15,000-20,000 UN troops surrounded at the Changjin Reservoir begin fighting their way towards Hungnam on the east coast of Korea.
30 November 1950 The Chinese offensive in Korea pauses within 50 km of Pyongyang. They have driven 65 km in four days.
The USSR casts three vetoes on a Security Council resolution to require the Chinese to withdraw from Korea.
1 December 1950 Henry Cowell’s (53) dance music A Full Moon in March to a story by Lippincott and Yeats is performed for the first time, in Fargo, North Dakota.
2 December 1950 Turkey opens its border with Bulgaria closed 10 September. The flood of refugees resumes.
The UN General Assembly votes to unite Eritrea with Ethiopia to be effected by 15 September 1952.
Scherzo fantastique for piano and orchestra by Ernest Bloch (70) is performed for the first time, in Chicago.
3 December 1950 The new National Constituent Assembly for Libya votes in Tripoli to name Sayed Mohammed Idris el Senussi as King of Libya.
Dr. Charles P. Bailey of Philadelphia, speaking to a medical convention in Cleveland, describes the successful use of a heart-lung machine in animal tests.
The Hour Glass, a choral song cycle for chorus by Irving Fine, to words of Jonson, is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York on the composer’s 36th birthday.
4 December 1950 Chinese forces retake Pyongyang, abandoned by the UN.
Five people, including atomic scientists, are indicted by federal grand juries in Washington on charges of contempt of Congress for failing to respond to questions about communism.
5 December 1950 Sri Aurobindo dies in Pondicherry at the age of 78.
A federal court of appeals in New York throws out the conviction of Judith Coplon for espionage. Among other things, she was arrested without a warrant and the government could not prove that illegal wiretaps were not used.
The University of Tennessee refuses to accept five black students, in spite of a ruling by the state’s Attorney-General that they must be admitted.
6 December 1950 UN forces create a new defensive line south of Pyongyang.
After reading a negative review in the Washington Post of a song recital by his daughter Margaret, President Harry Truman writes to the reviewer, Paul Hume. “Mr. Hume: I have just read your lousy review of Margaret’s concert. I’ve come to the conclusion that you are an eight-ulcer man on four-ulcer pay...Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens, you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below.”
7 December 1950 Due to the approaching Chinese army, Seoul is placed under martial law.
A Gallup Poll published today shows that 55% of US citizens believe that World War III has begun.
Lento in Due Movimenti for piano by Toru Takemitsu (20) is performed for the first time, in Yomiuri Hall, Tokyo. It is the first work of Takemitsu to be publicly performed.
8 December 1950 Sinfonia concertante for violin, oboe, basoon, cello, and orchestra by Bohuslav Martinu is performed for the first time, in Basel, on the composer’s 60th birthday.
Concertino for flute, viola, and strings by Ernest Bloch (70) is performed for the first time, in New York.
Kentucky Jazz Piece for dance band by Roy Harris (52) is performed for the first time, at Western Kentucky State College, Bowling Green the composer conducting.
9 December 1950 The evacuation of 150,000 citizens begins from Seoul.
Festive Poem for orchestra by Aram Khachaturian (47) is performed for the first time, in Moscow Conservatory Bolshoy Hall.
10 December 1950 Dr. Ralph Bunche receives the Nobel Prize for peace in a ceremony in Oslo.
Concerto for violin and orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (32) is performed for the first time, in Baden-Baden.
Ceremonial Fanfare for orchestra by David Diamond (35) is performed for the first time, in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York.
11 December 1950 60,000 surrounded UN troops begin evacuating from Hungham after fighting their way to the sea for 13 days.
Three days of rioting by Moslems begins in Singapore. They object to a court ruling returning the 13-year-old wife of a Moslem to her Roman Catholic mother.
Paul Hindemith’s (55) Clarinet Concerto is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia. The solo part is played by the commissioner, Benny Goodman.
12 December 1950 The name of Aaron Copland (50) is placed in the Prominent Individuals Subsection of the Security Index. These are American citizens who will be arrested without due process in the case of a national emergency. His name will be removed on 2 August 1955.
Second Sonata in C for cello and piano by Ross Lee Finney (43) is performed for the first time, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
At a Washington affair, a well-lubricated Senator Joseph McCarthy physically attacks columnist Drew Pearson twice during the evening. The second time, they are broken up by Richard Nixon.
13 December 1950 The governments of the UK and the US announce that Marshall Plan aid for Britain will be ended 1 January. It is no longer necessary.
Improvisation for piano by Henry Cowell (53) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
14 December 1950 The UN General Assembly votes to ask China for a cease-fire in Korea.
15 December 1950 New laws in Romania limit freedom of speech.
On the Senate floor, Senator Joseph McCarthy calls columnist Drew Pearson a “Moscow-directed character assassin” who speaks for “international Communism.” He calls advertising executive David Karr, a former associate of Pearson, “a most active member” of the Communist Party and “carries instructions and orders to Pearson.” Pearson and Karr ask McCarthy to repeat his allegations outside of the Senate so they can sue him.
16 December 1950 UN forces evacuate Hamhung as their perimeter around the evacuation port of Hungnam shrinks.
Chinese representatives at the UN reject a cease-fire proposal.
US President Truman announces the existence of a “national emergency” as a result of events in Korea and “the increasing menace of Communist aggression.” He declares a three-day wildcat rail strike “unlawful” and orders the strikers to return to work immediately. He reimposes price controls on some items.
All mainland Chinese assets in the US are frozen. All trade with mainland China is prohibited by the US government.
18 December 1950 NATO foreign and defense ministers meeting in Brussels approve the integration of their military forces, including some West German troops.
Merlin, an opera by Isaac Albéniz (†41) to words of Money-Coutts, is staged for the first time, in Spanish, in Teatro Tívoli, Barcelona 48 years after it was composed. See 13 February 1905 and 20 June 1998.
David Tudor plays the American premiere of the Piano Sonata no.2 by Pierre Boulez (25) in New York. John Cage (38) turns pages.
19 December 1950 NATO ministers meeting in Brussels appoint Dwight D. Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
Helmut Rauca, the organizer of a massacre of Jews in Kovno (Kaunas), sails from Bremerhaven for St. John, New Brunswick where he will become a Canadian citizen. In 1983 he will be extradited to Germany and die in prison awaiting trial.
Vocalist Paul Robeson sues US Secretary of State Dean Acheson to prevent the cancellation of his passport. He is planning a European tour.
Two large choral works by Sergey Prokofiev (59) to words of Marshak are performed for the first time, in the Home of the Unions, Moscow: On Guard for Peace op.124, an oratorio for mezzo-soprano, speakers, boys’ chorus, chorus, and orchestra, and Winter Bonfire op.122, a suite for boys’ chorus and orchestra.
23 December 1950 A treaty is signed in Saigon making Vietnam an independent nation within the French Union.
Pope Pius XII announces that the tomb of St. Peter has been discovered beneath the basilica which bears his name.
Aaron Copland (50) leaves New York aboard the Queen Elizabeth for Rome with a Fulbright fellowship.
24 December 1950 The last UN troops evacuate northeast Korea through Hungnam completing a withdrawal of over 100,000 soldiers and 91,000 Korean civilians.
25 December 1950 The Stone of Scone, symbol of the union of England and Scotland, is stolen from under the coronation throne in Westminster Abbey where it has been for 655 years. Scottish Nationalists are suspected.
Incidental music to Shakespeare’s play King Lear by Marc Blitzstein (45) is performed for the first time, in New York.
26 December 1950 French troops recapture Daphuc, 45 km north of Hanoi.
27 December 1950 US President Truman appoints a new ambassador to Spain. This is the first person in that position in five years, and is a result of the removal of Spain from the UN diplomatic black list.
28 December 1950 UN forces abandon Kaesong on the 38th Parallel and take up positions within 45 km of Seoul.
China orders the seizure of all US assets within its borders.
29 December 1950 A Viet Minh offensive reaches to within 15 km of Hanoi before being held by the French.
In Superior Court in Newark, New Jersey, Dr. Selman A. Waksman conceded that his former student, Dr. Albert Schatz, was co-discoverer with him of streptomycin.
Intermezzo for orchestra by Bohuslav Martinu (60) is performed for the first time, in Louisville.
30 December 1950 Jack Pudding, a ballet by Hans Werner Henze (24) to a story by Sivori after Molière, is performed for the first time, in a concert setting in the Hessisches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden.
31 December 1950 President Karl Renner of Austria dies in Vienna. Chancellor Leopold Figl replaces him ad interim.
Charles Louis Eugène Koechlin dies at his home in Le Canadel, Var, aged 83 years, one month, and four days.
©2004-2011 Paul Scharfenberger
20 September 2011
Last Updated (Tuesday, 20 September 2011 08:59)