Explore 1426 historical events from 1950–1959.
The Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, nicknamed "Old Shaky", is a retired American heavy-lift cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California.
A Douglas C-124 Globemaster II aircraft crashed just after takeoff from Tachikawa, Japan, killing all 129 people on boar
Margaret Grace Bondfield was a British Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be …
Margaret Bondfield, English politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (born 1873)
Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg were an American married couple who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, including providing top-secret information about American ra…
Ethel Rosenberg, American spy (born 1915)
Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg were an American married couple who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, including providing top-secret information about American ra…
Julius Rosenberg, American spy (born 1918)
The Pinewood Derby is the wood car racing event of the Cub Scout Program of Scouting America. Pinewood derbies are often run by packs of the Cub Scouts program. With the help of ad…
Don Murphy organized the first pinewood derby, an event for Cub Scouts of the Boy Scouts of America where wooden cars bu
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers con…
The mountaineers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (both pictured) became the first people to reach the summit of Mount
Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lif…
Queen Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers con…
The mountaineers Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest
During the evening hours of Monday, June 8, 1953, a large and extremely violent tornado struck the north side of Flint, Michigan and the northern suburb of Beecher, causing catastr…
An F5 tornado struck Flint and Beecher, Michigan, causing 116 fatalities, 844 injuries and $19 million in damage during
Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg were an American married couple who were convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, including providing top-secret information about American ra…
Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (pictured) were executed as spies for passing nuclear weapons secrets to the Soviet
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. A General of the Army, Eisenhower was the supreme commander of the Allied Expe…
Dwight D
The Kentucky Derby is an American Grade I stakes race run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The race is run by three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of 1+1⁄4 miles. …
The Kentucky Derby is televised nationally for the first time, on the CBS network
The Catalina affair was a military confrontation and Cold War-era diplomatic crisis in June 1952, in which Soviet Air Force fighter jets shot down two Swedish aircraft over interna…
Catalina affair: A Swedish Douglas DC-3 is shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter
Administrative Professionals Day is a day observed yearly in a small number of countries. It is not a public holiday in any of them. In some countries, it falls within Administrati…
Secretary's Day (now Administrative Professionals' Day) is first celebrated
The Treaty of San Francisco, also called the Treaty of Peace with Japan, re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allies on behalf of the United Nations by ending th…
The Treaty of San Francisco comes into effect, restoring Japanese sovereignty and ending its state of war with most of t
The Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty, formally the Treaty of Peace between the Republic of China and Japan and commonly known as the Treaty of Taipei, was a peace treaty between Japan an…
The Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty (Treaty of Taipei) is signed in Taipei, Taiwan between Japan and the Republic of China to
Michel Blanc was a French actor, writer and director. He is noted for his roles of losers and hypochondriacs. He is frequently associated with Le Splendid, which he co-founded, alo…
Michel Blanc, French actor and director (died 2024)
Esther Roth-Shahamorov is a former Israeli track and field athlete. She specialized in the 100-meter hurdles and the 100-meter sprint.
Esther Roth-Shahamorov, Israeli sprinter and hurdler
Pierre Guité is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 377 games in the World Hockey Association. He played for the Quebec Nordiques, Michigan Stags, Baltimore…
Pierre Guité, Canadian ice hockey player
General Sir John Chalmers McColl, is a retired senior British Army officer and a past Lieutenant Governor of Jersey. McColl previously served as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Eur…
John McColl, English general and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
Pan American World Airways Flight 202 was a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser aircraft that crashed in the Amazon Basin about 281 nautical miles southwest of Carolina, Brazil, on April 29, …
Pan Am Flight 202 crashes into the Amazon basin near Carolina, Maranhão, Brazil, killing 50 people
The de Havilland DH.106 Comet is a four-engine narrow body aircraft developed and manufactured by de Havilland in the United Kingdom. The world's first commercial jet airliner, the…
A De Havilland Comet makes the first jetliner flight with fare-paying passengers, from London to Johannesburg
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces …
Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O
An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a compact assembly of electronic circuits formed from various electronic components, such as transistors, r…
The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer