September 1950

September 1, 1950 (Friday)

• The Great Naktong Offensive and the Battles of Ka-san, Tabu-dong and Yongsan began as part of the larger Battle of Pusan Perimeter in the Korean War.
• The Federal Communications Commission released a statement that it favored the CBS technology for color television broadcasting. The FCC said also that the other two proposed systems "fell short" of the FCC requirements, and recommended television set manufacturers to build sets that could receive both the CBS system and standard black-and-white analog signals. Television manufacturers declined to make sets that accommodated the CBS system, and eventually a different system by RCA would become the industry standard.
• Mao Zedong, the Chairman of China's Communist Party, gave a public warning that the People's Republic of China would not tolerate an invasion of any of its neighbors, which included North Korea.
• Both houses of the United States Congress passed the "Doctors' Draft" bill, authorizing any physician under the age of 50 to be inducted into the U.S. armed forces, but with priority on residents and interns.
• John Crabb, a 59-year-old immigrant from Denmark, was freed from the Topeka State Hospital, where he had been held since 1930 after being mistakenly adjudged insane. Crabb's confinement was blamed on his inability to clearly speak English and his bad temper. He was finally freed by the efforts of several insurance executives who spoke the Danish language and returned to Denmark.
• Born:
• *Phil McGraw, American TV personality and psychologist, host of Dr. Phil; in Vinita, Oklahoma
• *Mikhail Fradkov, Prime Minister of Russia 2004–2007; in Samara, Russian SFSR, USSR

  September 2, 1950 (Saturday)

• Israel forcibly relocated 4,000 Bedouin from its territory to its border with Egypt, and sent them into the Sinai Peninsula.
• Born:
• *Rosanna DeSoto, Mexican-American actress; in San Jose, California
• *Yuen Wah, Hong Kong born action-film star and stuntman; in Hong Kong

  September 3, 1950 (Sunday)

• The sale of "Israel bonds" was proposed by Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion as a means for getting immediate funds for the two-year-old Jewish nation.
• Communist China's Prime Minister Zhou Enlai sent word to the United Nations and the United States, by way of K. N. Panikkar, that China would intervene in the Korean War if U.S. forces invaded North Korea.

  September 4, 1950 (Monday)

• The comic strip Beetle Bailey, created by Mort Walker, made its debut in 12 newspapers. In the first strip, "Beetle" began his first day as a student at "Rockview University", arriving with only his toothbrush. On March 12, 1951, Beetle would go to a U.S. Army recruiting station, begin a new career, and his strip would soar in popularity.
• The first NASCAR 500-mile race was held, as the Southern 500 took place at Darlington Raceway, at Darlington, South Carolina. Johnny Mantz won the event, which attracted 75 cars.
• A Soviet Air Force bomber was shot down off the coast of North Korea by two U.S. Navy fighter planes, after reportedly firing at UN naval forces. All of the crewmen on the downed aircraft were killed, while two other bombers escaped.
• The U.S. Fifth Air Force carried out the first rescue of a downed American pilot from behind enemy lines.
• Died: Max Davidson, 75, German-born American silent film comedian

  September 5, 1950 (Tuesday)

• The Battle of Yongsan ended in United Nations victory.
• Syria adopted its first Constitution, proclaiming itself a "Sovereign Arab Republic", providing for a democratically elected government and declaring that "Islamic law shall be the main source of legislation".
• Died: Al Killian, 33, American jazz trumpet player, was shot to death, along with his wife, by the janitor of the Los Angeles apartment house where the Killians resided. Killian and Roy Parker were arguing over payment of $15 when Parker fired four shots and fatally wounded the Killians.

  September 6, 1950 (Wednesday)

• Former librarian Beverly Cleary launched her career as a writer of popular children's fiction with the publication of Henry Huggins by the William Morrow Company, with illustrations by Louis Darling. The publisher asked Cleary to change the name of the dog to "Ribsy" and revised the title from its original name of Spareribs and Henry.
• Demolition of the Royal Hohenzollern Palace began in East Berlin, as part of a campaign by the government of East Germany's Communist government to remove symbols of Germany's former imperialism. Reconstruction of the palace would be approved by the Bundestag of a reunited Germany on July 4, 2002.
• Died: Olaf Stapledon, 64, British science fiction author

  September 7, 1950 (Thursday)

• The Nikkei 225 index, a measure of stock price rises and falls on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, was introduced.
• Qian Xuesen, a Chinese-born professor at Caltech and one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a few days before he was scheduled to travel to the People's Republic of China to visit his sick father. Earlier in the year, his security clearance had been revoked when his name appeared in a document of the Communist Party USA. The United States Customs Service searched his luggage and found technical papers that appeared to have been accumulated from his work in aircraft and missile design. Qian would be returned to Communist China in 1955 as part of an exchange of prisoners of war, and would go on to found China's ballistic missile program.
• The first fiction by Ernest Hemingway, in more than a decade, was seen with the publication of Across the River.
• The game show Truth or Consequences made its debut on the CBS television network at 10:00 pm Eastern Time, after having been a successful radio program.
• Born:
• *Julie Kavner, American comedian, voice artist and TV actress, who voices Marge Simpson on The Simpsons, in Los Angeles
• *John Friedrich, "Australia's greatest conman", as Johann Friedrich Hohenberger, in Munich, West Germany

  September 8, 1950 (Friday)

• The Defense Production Act was signed into law by U.S. President Truman, authorizing the President "to build—and maintain at perpetual readiness—U.S. industrial and military mobilization bases in case of an all-out war with the Soviet Union."
• The Canadian Forces Act was passed in Canada, authorizing the government to use military forces as necessary "to answer the needs of collective security" and paving the way for Canadian participation in the Korean War.
• Featherweight boxer Sandy Saddler knocked out champion Willie Pep to win the Featherweight Boxing Title with a TKO when Pep was unable to answer the bell for the 8th round due to a separated shoulder suffered at the end of the 7th round. Saddler avenged a lopsided decision he had lost 18 months earlier challenging for Pep's title.
• The science fiction short story collection The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A. E. van Vogt was published.

  September 9, 1950 (Saturday)

• The "laugh track" was introduced to television viewers with the premiere of The Hank McCune Show, a situation comedy, on the NBC television network. Although the short-lived show was not filmed in front of an audience, viewers could hear laughter and applause coming from an invention by sound engineer Charley Douglass. The laugh track would become a feature of most television comedies of the next few decades.
• China transferred its 9th Army Corps away from plans to attack Taiwan, moving it to the border with North Korea.
• U.S. President Harry S. Truman announced that four U.S. Army divisions would be sent to Europe to join the two divisions that were assigned to NATO.
• After more than eight years, soap rationing ended in the United Kingdom. The limitations on purchases of soap had been in effect since February 1942. Sugar rationing would end on September 12, 1953.
• Yolande Betbeze, Miss Alabama, was crowned Miss America 1951.

  September 10, 1950 (Sunday)

• Five days before the U.S. counterattack at Inchon in South Korea, 43 American warplanes dropped napalm canisters over Wolmido Island to clear ground for American troops, without warning the civilians living on the island. Other planes fired guns "strafing children, women, and old people". Declassified U.S. documents on the operation would be made public by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2008.
• George Bernard Shaw, the 94-year-old British playwright, slipped from a ladder while trying to prune a tree and fractured his thigh. He would die less than eight weeks later, on November 2.
• The Colgate Comedy Hour premiered on the NBC television network as a direct competitor to Ed Sullivan's variety show on CBS. The Colgate show, which alternated hosts each week among Eddie Cantor, Martin and Lewis, and Fred Allen, would run for six seasons, ending in 1955.
• Born:
• *Joe Perry, American rock guitarist for Aerosmith; in Lawrence, Massachusetts
• *Rosie Flores, American country music singer; in San Antonio, Texas
• Died: Annie Montague Alexander, 82, American philanthropist

  September 11, 1950 (Monday)

• President Truman signed NSC81, the recommendation of the National Security Council, expanding the original goal for the U.S. response in the Korean War. Rather than liberating South Korea, the plan became one of conquering North Korea in order to reunite the peninsula, with American troops to cross the 38th parallel that divided the two nations.
• The case of Bolling v. Sharpe began when 11 African-American students were denied enrollment in Washington, D.C.'s new John Philip Sousa Junior High School, because the U.S. Congress had voted years earlier for racial segregation of District of Columbia schools. The denial led to a suit which would be consolidated with the Kansas case Brown v. Board of Education, and on May 17, 1954, the striking down state and federal laws requiring racial segregation of schools.
• Thirty-three people were killed when a train, carrying U.S. Army recruits, stalled on the tracks in Ohio, and was struck by the Spirit of St. Louis express operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
• The New York Times crossword puzzle proved to be so popular that the Times began running it daily. The newspaper had refused to run a crossword at all until February 15, 1942, when it began a puzzle in its Sunday edition, though the paper continued to avoid running comic strips.
• Born: Eijun Kiyokumo, Japanese footballer with 42 caps for the Japan national team; in Kōshū, Yamanashi prefecture
• Died: Jan Smuts, 80, South African Field Marshal and former Prime Minister of South Africa