The following events occurred in February 1950:
February 1, 1950 (Wednesday) U.S. President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 10104, adding another level of nondisclosure to United States government information. The first three levels ("restricted", "confidential" and "secret") were kept, but an even higher classification — "top secret" — was used for the first time.Herbert N. Foerstel, Free Expression and Censorship in America: An Encyclopedia (Greenwood Publishing, 1997) p159 The United States Senate voted 64–27 in favor of a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would change the method of selecting the Electoral College. Under the proposal, which received the required 2/3rds majority, a state's electoral votes would be divided in proportion to the percentage of the popular vote that a presidential candidate received, rather than the winner in an individual receiving all of the electoral votes in that state. The "Lodge-Gossett" bill failed a few months later to get approval in the U.S. House of Representatives."Electoral college reform plans", in Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections (Infobase Publishing, 2009) p137
February 2, 1950 (Thursday) The French Assembly approved the Saigon Convention, granting sovereignty and promising eventual independence to the State of Vietnam, under the leadership of former Emperor Bao Dai.Nicholas Tarling, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: From World War II to the Present, Volume 2 (Cambridge University Press, 2000) p39 The game show What's My Line? began a 17-year run on the CBS television network, and would continue until September 3, 1967. Died: Constantin Carathéodory, 74, Greek mathematician
February 3, 1950 (Friday) Nuclear physicist Klaus Fuchs was arrested by agents of Scotland Yard and charged with having provided American atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. Born: Morgan Fairchild (stage name for Patsy Ann McClenny), American actress known for the TV series Falcon Crest; in Dallas Zaynab Alkali, Nigerian novelist; in Biu Died: Sir Lionel Cripps, 86, Rhodesian politician and the first Speaker of Rhodesia's colonial legislative assembly Sid Field, 45, British comedian, died of a heart attack. Émile Borel, 85, French mathematician
February 4, 1950 (Saturday) U.S. Army Lieutenant General Leslie R. Groves testified in a closed hearing before a joint congressional committee in Washington that, as a result of the secrets that Dr. Klaus Fuchs had provided to the U.S.S.R., the Soviet Union had not only begun development of an atomic bomb arsenal, but that the U.S. was in a race against the Soviets on the development of the hydrogen bomb. Died: Montagu Collet Norman, 78, British financier, Governor of the Bank of England 1920–1944, nicknamed "The Sphinx of Threadneedle Street".
February 5, 1950 (Sunday) The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China signed a treaty in Moscow, for the return of the Port Arthur naval base territory to Chinese control. Located in Manchuria, Port Arthur had been under Russian control until 1905, when it was captured by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War and renamed Ryojun. The U.S.S.R. recaptured the port in 1945 during World War II, and it would finally be turned over to China in 1955."Port Arthur", in Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements: N to S, by Edmund Jan Osmańczyk and Anthony Mango (Taylor & Francis, 2003) p1823 Totocalcio, the football pool for betting on soccer football matches in Italy, had its first big winner, when a miner from Sardinia, Giovanni Mannu, won 77,000,000 Italian lire for predicting all 12 of that weekend's matches correctly. The amount, worth $123,000 American at the time, would be equivalent to $1.1 million (or €850,000) in 2010.Simon Martin, Sport Italia: The Italian Love Affair with Sport (I.B.Tauris, 2011) p130
February 6, 1950 (Monday) The Air Force of the Republic of China, flying from the island of Taiwan made a successful bombing raid on the Communist Chinese mainland, striking the People's Republic's largest city, Shanghai; the 17 aircraft, including two B-29 bombers, targeted Shanghai's electrical power plants, shutting down the electricity in 90% of the city.Martin L. Lasater and Peter Kien-hong Yu, Taiwan's Security in the Post-Deng Xiaoping Era (Frank Cass Publishers, 2000) p177 According to the PRC, 500 people were killed, 600 were injured and 50,000 were left homeless by the raid.Paul Pickowicz, Dilemmas of Victory: The Early Years of the People's Republic of China (Harvard University Press, 2007) p71 Born: Natalie Cole, American singer; in Los Angeles (d. 2015) Died: Georges Imbert, 65, German chemist
February 7, 1950 (Tuesday) The United States gave diplomatic recognition to the newly established French-supported governments in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with the aim to help "the establishment of stable, non-Communist governments in areas adjacent to Communist China".Michael J. Lacey, ed., The Truman Presidency (Cambridge University Press, 1991) p353 Iceland was admitted to the Council of Europe. In Chile After the General Strike of January 24, President Gabriel González Videla carried out a cabinet change, the National Concentration, created in July 1948, was dissolved, and the government ends with less than 19% popularity, the Radical Party being greatly affected. Died: D. K. Broster, 72, British historical novelist
February 8, 1950 (Wednesday) The credit card was used for the first time, after loan company executive Frank X. McNamara and lawyer Ralph E. Schneider persuaded 14 New York City restaurants to accept the Diners Club card rather than cash. The 200 Diners Club members who had cards would be billed each month by the club, which would pay the participating restaurants for the debt incurred."A historical look at the origins of the credit card", by Brian Milner, Toronto Globe and Mail, August 22, 1950 Journalist Matty Simmons accompanied McNamara and Schneider to what is called, in credit card histories, "The First Supper" (actually, lunch) at Major's Cabin Grill, adjacent to the Empire State Building. At the end of the mail, McNamara handed the waiter a piece of cardboard, Diners Club card #1,000 and charged the meal; Schneider carried #1,001 and Simmons #1,002.Matty Simmons, Fat, Drunk, and Stupid: The Inside Story Behind the Making of Animal House (Macmillan, 2012) p10; In East Germany, the Ministerium fur Staatssicherheitsdienst, a secret police organization more commonly known as the "Stasi" rather than the MfS, was established. For nearly 40 years, the Stasi would spy, and maintain files, on every resident of the German Democratic Republic.Jeffrey Herf, Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys (Harvard University Press, 1997) p108 The comedy film Francis starring Donald O'Connor, Patricia Medina and the voice of Chill Wills premiered in New Orleans, launching the Francis the Talking Mule film series which would consist of seven films through 1956.
February 9, 1950 (Thursday) In a speech to the Ohio County Republican Women's Club at the McClure Hotel in Wheeling, West Virginia, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy opened the era of "McCarthyism" as he told listeners that Communists had infiltrated the U.S. State Department. Underscoring his point, McCarthy held up a piece of paper and said, "While I cannot take the time to name all of the men in the State Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205- a list of names that were known to the Secretary of State, and who, nevertheless, are still working and shaping the policy in the State Department.""State Department Run By Reds, Says Senator", Oakland Tribune, February 10, 1950, p2; Curt Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets (W. W. Norton & Company, 2001) p377 The speech had been written by Ed Nellor of the Washington Times-Herald, whom McCarthy had approached to compose a short talk. Nellor had a list, obtained from Congressional staffer Robert Lee, of 57 State Department employees who were still being investigated by the House Appropriations Committee as possible security risks.Arthur Herman, Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator (Simon and Schuster, 1999) pp97-98Edwin R. Bayley, Joe McCarthy and the Press (University of Wisconsin Press, 1981) Element 98 was created for the first time by a team of physicists at the University of California at Berkeley. Glenn T. Seaborg, Albert Ghiorso, Stanley G. Thompson and Kenneth Street Jr., having named Element 97 berkelium, gave the name californium to the new element.Glenn T. Seaborg, The Transuranium Elements (Taylor & Francis, 1958) p157
February 10, 1950 (Friday) The Maudheim Station was established, by the Norwegian–British–Swedish Antarctic Expedition, on a floating thick ice shelf at Queen Maud Land.Tom Griffiths, Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica (Harvard University Press, 2007) p100 The CIA sent a report to U.S. President Truman that concluded that the Soviet Union would have a stockpile of 100 atomic bombs by the end of 1953, and 200 by the end of 1955. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had estimated that the Soviets would have as many as 20 A-bombs by the end of the year, and between 70 and 135 by mid-1953.Raymond P. Ojserkis, Beginnings of the Cold War Arms Race: The Truman Administration and the U.S. Arms Build-Up (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003) p180 Born: Mark Spitz, American Olympic swimmer who won 7 gold medals in 1972 in Munich, and two at Mexico City in 1968; in Modesto, California Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican presidential nominee; in Magdalena de Kino (assassinated in 1994)
February 11, 1950 (Saturday) Author Kurt Vonnegut was published for the first time, as his story "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" appeared in Collier's magazine.Jerome Klinkowitz, Vonnegut in Fact: The Public Spokesmanship of Personal Fiction (University of South Carolina Press, 1998) p2 "Rag Mop" by The Ames Brothers hit #1 on the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart. Died: Kiki Cuyler, 51, American MLB baseball player who led the National League in stolen bases four times between 1926 and 1930, died of a heart attack caused by a blood clot. He would be enshrined in the Hall of Fame posthumously.
February 12, 1950 (Sunday) The European Broadcasting Union was founded at a conference in the English coastal resort of Torquay, by representatives of 23 Western European broadcasting stations. In 1993, the EBU would incorporate OIRT, the International Radio and Television Organization"European Broadcasting Union", Encyclopedia of Television, Horace Newcomb, ed. (CRC Press, 2004) p820 Born: Michael Ironside, Canadian film and TV actor known for Total Recall, seaQuest DSV, and the voice of Sam Fisher from Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell; in Toronto Steve Hackett, British songwriter and guitarist, former member of rock group Genesis; in the City of Westminster
February 13, 1950 (Monday) A U.S. Air Force B-36 bomber with a nuclear weapon crashed off of Canada's Pacific coast near Vancouver. According to reports declassified and released in 1977, the Mark 4 nuclear bomb casing contained "no functional nuclear explosive" and exploded on impact with the ocean."Fat Man", in The A to Z of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare, Benjamin C. Garrett and John Hart, eds. (Scarecrow Press, 2009) p74 Twelve of the 17 crewmen were rescued by a fishing boat, while the others were missing and presumed dead.Dirk Septer, Lost Nuke: The Last Flight of Bomber 075 (Heritage House Publishing, 2012)