The following events occurred in July 1950:
July 1, 1950 (Saturday) Two companies of the U.S. Army First Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division departed from the U.S. base in Japan at Kyushu under the name "Task Force Smith", designated because of its 34-year-old commander, Lt. Col. Charles "Brad" Smith. After leaving at 3:00 am, the task force arrived near Pusan at 11:00 am, becoming the first set of American ground troops to be deployed in the Korean War.Maurice Isserman, America at War: Korean War, Updated Edition (Infobase Publishing, 2009) pp 5-10 The 8055th M.A.S.H. became the first Mobile Army Surgical Hospital to be activated in South Korea. On July 6, its physicians, nurses and support staff would be sent from Sasebo to Pusan, initially to be set up at Taejon. It was followed by the 8063rd M.A.S.H. (often referenced in the television show M*A*S*H), which was activated July 17 and sent on July 18 to Pohang to support the U.S. 1st Cavalry, and the 8076th M.A.S.H. (activated July 19, and sent to Taejon on July 25)"Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals in the Korean Conflict", Military Medicine: From Ancient Times to the 21st Century, Jack E. McCallum, ed. (ABC-CLIO, 2008) p210; Otto F. Apel M.D. and Pat Apel, MASH: An Army Surgeon in Korea (University Press of Kentucky, 2001) Twenty-three American soldiers became the first to die in the Korean War when their C-54 transport plane crashed into a 2000 foot high hill, forty miles northwest of Pusan, upon arrival from Japan."23 YANKS DIE ON KOREA AIRLIFT", Pittsburgh Press, July 1, 1950, p1 Eleven men were killed and 26 injured when a gas leak at the iron works in Consett, England, felled them while they were working at a loading dock."Gas Leak Kills 11, Fells 26 in Plant", The Milwaukee Sentinel, July 2, 1950, p1 ARAADCOM, the ARmy AntiAircraft COMmand, began operations to coordinate U.S. Army defenses against a foreign bomber attack. The unit would be deactivated on January 4, 1975.John A. Hamilton, Blazing Skies: Air Defense Artillery on Fort Bliss, Texas, 1940-2009 (Government Printing Office, 2009) p239 The city of Gainesville, Florida renamed all of its main streets using a system of numbers and directions.Rob Hicks, Images of America: Gainesville (Arcadia Publishing, 2008) p50 Unto These Hills, which bills itself as "America's most popular outdoor drama", was given its first performance. It continues to be seen on Saturday evenings during the summer at Cherokee, North Carolina.Amy H. Sturgis, The Trail of Tears and Indian Removal (Greenwood Publishing Group) p1 Born: David Duke, American politician and Ku Klux Klan leader; in Tulsa, Oklahoma
July 2, 1950 (Sunday) The Battle of Chumonchin Chan, the first and only naval battle of the Korean War, took place when HMS Jamaica, USS Juneau and HMS Black Swan fought the North Korean Navy and sank three torpedo boats and two gunboats off of the east coast of South Korea, near Jumunjin.Korean War Almanac, Paul M. Edwards, ed. (Infobase Publishing, 2006) p527
The John Bunyan novel Pilgrim's Progress, first published in 1678, was named the most boring classic book in a survey of literary critics by the Columbia University Press. Rounding out the list were Moby Dick, Paradise Lost (by John Milton), The Faerie Queene, Life of Samuel Johnson, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, Silas Marner, Ivanhoe, Don Quixote and Faust."'Pilgrim's Progress' Named World's Most Boring Book", Milwaukee Journal, July 3, 1950, p1 General Manuel A. Odria was elected President of Peru. He was the only candidate on the ballot."Enemy of Reds Chosen President by Peruvians", Milwaukee Journal, July 3, 1950, p1
July 3, 1950 (Monday) The Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act was signed into law by U.S. President Truman, giving Puerto Rico the authority to establish its own government to administer "matters of purely local concern".Edwin Meléndez and Edgardo Meléndez, Colonial Dilemma: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Puerto Rico (South End Press, 1993) p21 New Zealand dispatched its first troops to the Korean War, as the ships HMNZS Pukaki and HMNZS Tutira departed to aid the UN war effort.Michael Varhola, Fire and Ice: The Korean War, 1950-1953 (Basic Books, 2000) pp127-147 An express train crashed into an excursion bus near Bourg-en-Bresse in France, killing 23 people on the bus."Train Hits Bus, 23 French Die", Milwaukee Journal, July 3, 1950, p1 In a cablegram sent from North Korea's Foreign Minister, Pak Hen Nen, to United Nations Secretary General Trygve Lie, North Korea announced that it had no intention of agreeing to the UN Security Council resolution 82, calling for an end to hostilities and withdrawal of troops."Red Korea Defies United Nations", Pittsburgh Press, July 3, 1950, p1 The first U.S. Navy jet attack in the Korean War took place when a Grumman F9F Panther took off from the USS Valley Forge to attack North Korean troops. Ensign Eldon W. Brown Jr., made the first kill, downing a Yak-9 fighter near Pyongyang, before returning to the Valley Forge.Robert F. Dorr, Air Combat: A History of Fighter Pilots (Penguin, 2007)
The Hazel Scott Show made its debut on the DuMont Television Network, becoming the first television program to be hosted by an African-American woman. Singer Hazel Scott appeared live on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings from 7:45 pm to 8:00 pm Eastern Time on DuMont stations.Historical Dictionary of African-American Television, Kathleen Fearn-Banks, ed. (Scarecrow Press, 2005) p xvi The CBS Radio Network show Granby's Green Acres, created by Jay Sommers, made its debut as a summer replacement series. Starring Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet as John and Martha Granby, two big city residents who became farmers. Though the radio show ran only eight episodes, it would be adapted to television 15 years later as Green Acres"Granby's Green Acres", in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, ed. by John Dunning (Oxford University Press, 1998) p289 The Swedish State Railways luxury cruise train Sunlit Nights Land Cruises departed from Stockholm toward northern Sweden on its inaugural run. The service would operate until 1969. Died: Lucy Deane Streatfeild, 84, Indian-born British social worker and civil servant
July 4, 1950 (Tuesday) Radio Free Europe began its first broadcasts, transmitting 30 minutes of American programming to Czechoslovakia from a 7,500 watt short wave transmitter located at Lampertheim in West Germany.Richard H. Cummings, Radio Free Europe's "Crusade for Freedom": Rallying Americans Behind Cold War Broadcasting, 1950-1960 (McFarland, 2010) pp24-25 French Premier Henri Queuille, in office for three days, resigned after losing in a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly, by a margin of 336–221."New French Premier Out", Milwaukee Journal, July 5, 1950, p1 A baseball fan at New York's Polo Grounds was killed by a sniper as he sat in the stands along with 40,000 other people at a doubleheader between the Giants and the Dodgers. Bernard Doyle, 54, was struck in the eye while sitting in the second deck in deep left field. New York Police concluded that the bullet had been fired from one of the apartment buildings half a mile away from the ballpark."Mystery Killing At Ball Game", Milwaukee Journal, July 5, 1950, p1 Turkey and Israel signed a trade agreement, their first treaty since Turkey's official recognition of Israel in 1949.
July 5, 1950 (Wednesday) At 8:16 a.m., American and North Korean troops engaged in combat for the first time, at the Battle of Osan, 20 miles south of Seoul. Task Force Smith, with 406 U.S. Army troops led by Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Smith, was far outnumbered when it encountered a column of 33 North Korean T-34 tanks and a large infantry force of 4,000. Four of the T-34 tanks were destroyed and three damaged, while 20 U.S. Marines became the first Americans to die in combat during the Korean War."YANKS BATTLE REDS!", Milwaukee Sentinel, July 4, 1950, p1; Maurice Isserman, America at War: Korean War (Infobase Publishing, 2009) pp7-8 The Americans sustained 120 deaths and 36 more were taken prisoner. Officially, Kenneth R. Shadrick, an 18-year-old native of Harlan, Kentucky, was the first American serviceman to be killed in action in the Korean War."18 Mos. Later He's 1st GI to Die in Korea", Milwaukee Sentine, July 8, 1950, p1 The Law of Return (Hok Hashvut) was passed unanimously by the Knesset, the Parliament of Israel, providing that "An immigrant's visa shall be granted to every Jew who has expressed his desire to settle in Israel", with exceptions.Paul R. Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, eds., The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History (Oxford University Press, 1995) p633 Although one author comments that "Israel is the only country in the world which confers citizenship on an immigrant automatically at the moment he steps off the boat or plane""Israel and the Jewish Diaspora", by Walter Eytan, in Israel in the Middle East: Documents and Readings on Society, Politics, and Foreign Relations, Pre-1948 to the Present (University Press of New England, 2008) p153
The first "Flying Pigeon", a bicycle devised by Huo Baoji at a former artillery plant at Tianjin, was presented to officials of the Chinese Communist Party. Approved as the "People's Bicycle", millions of the bikes were produced and served as the personal vehicle for citizens of the People's Republic of China.Thomas J. Campanella, The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What it Means for the World (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008) p320 Huo Baoji based his bicycle model on the 1932 English Raleigh Roadster. FlyingPigeon.com Flying Pigeon Bicycle Co., LTD. - History Prime Minister of Belgium Jean Duvieusart narrowly survived a vote of confidence in the Belgian Senate, winning 90–83. Duvieusart was a supporter of exiled King Leopold III, and the vote was seen as a narrow approval of Leopold's return."Leopold Nearer Return to Throne", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 5, 1950, p1 The Australian Department of Defence ordered the drafting of 14,000 men into its armed forces in order to fight in Korea."Conscription of 15,000 in Australia Ordered", Milwaukee Journal, July 5, 1950, p1 Born: Huey Lewis (stage name for Hugh Anthony Cregg III), American musician and frontman of Huey Lewis and the News; in New York City Died: Salvatore Giuliano, 27, Sicilian crime boss who had been charged with 117 counts of murder, was killed in a gunbattle with Italian carbinieri at Castelvetrano."Sicilian 'Robin Hood' Slain In Gun Battle With Police", Pittsburgh Press, July 5, 1950, p1
July 6, 1950 (Thursday) U.S. and North Korean forces clashed for the second time at the Battle of Pyongtaek. The engagement resulted in a North Korean victory as the Americans were unable to stop their advance south. The Goerlitz Agreement (also called the Zgorzelec Agreement), marking the separation of the two cities of Görlitz in East Germany and Zgorzelec in Poland, was signed at Warsaw. It set the border between the two nations as the Oder (Odra) River and the Neisse (Nysa) River.Robert M. Slusser and Jan F. Triska, A Calendar of Soviet Treaties: 1917-1957 (Stanford University Press, 1959) p186 The border would be confirmed on November 14, 1990, in a treaty signed between a reunified Germany and PolandPaul B. Stares, The New Germany and the New Europe (Brookings Institution Press, 1992) p307 on the reunification of Germany by the "Two plus Four Treaty" on September 12, 1990, David Greenglass became the second American atomic worker to be indicted for espionage."Former A-Bomb Worker Indicted as Red Spy", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 7, 1950, p1 Born: John Byrne, British-born American comic writer and artist for Marvel and DC Comics; in Walsall
July 7, 1950 (Friday)