1950

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Today in History 09/15/17

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General Douglas MacArthur is shown after he stepped ashore at Inchon, South Korea, Sept 17, 1950 (© Frank Noel/AP)(1950) General MacArthur lands US Marines at Inchon, Korea
General Douglas MacArthur commands a joint US-United Nations force in a bold invasion of South Korea 25 miles from communist-held Seoul. The amphibious landing of some 50,000 troops 100 miles south of the 38th parallel will end North Korea’s string of victories and cut their forces in two.
The Battle of Inchon was an amphibious invasion and battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations. The operation involved some 75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels, and led to the recapture of the South Korean capital of Seoul two weeks later. The code name for the operation was Operation Chromite.
Start date: Sep 10, 1950
End date: Sep 19, 1950
Incheon SK
Incheon, South Korea, in pink coloring.
Inchon landing map
The landing at Incheon.

wiki/Battle_of_Inchon
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Today in History 08/25/17

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Drawing of a man-bat from an edition of the Moon series (Public domain)(1835) The New York Sun publishes a story of utter lunacy
‘Great Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made,’ reads the New York Sun’s headline, claiming the discovery, via an enormous telescope, of a surreal civilization on the moon. Reports of man-bats, unicorns, and goats living in a verdant paradise are unfortunately later proven to be a hoax.

The “Great Moon Hoax” refers to a series of six articles that were published in The Sun, a New York newspaper, beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and even civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel, one of the best-known contemporary astronomers of that time.

The story was advertised on August 21, 1835, as an upcoming feature allegedly reprinted from The Edinburgh Courant. The first in a series of six was published four days later on August 25.


Great-Moon-Hoax-1835-New-York-Sun-lithograph
A lithograph of the hoax’s “ruby amphitheater”, as printed in The Sun

wiki/Great_Moon_Hoax
Painting of John Birch (Courtesy of The John Birch Society)(1945) Chinese communists kill a US intelligence officer
US missionary and intelligence officer John Birch is shot near Xi’an while traveling to meet with Allied POWs 10 days after Japan’s WWII surrender. Considered the first fatality of the Cold War, he will inspire American conservatives 13 years later to establish the John Birch Society in his honor.
John Morrison Birch was an American Baptist minister, missionary, and United States Army Air Forces captain who was a U.S. military intelligence officer in China during World War II. Birch was killed in a confrontation with Chinese Communist soldiers a few days after the war ended. He was posthumously awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal.
Born: May 28, 1918 · Landour, India
Died: Aug 25, 1945 · Xi’an, China
Education: Mercer University
Highlights
  • 1939: He graduated from Gore High School in Chattooga County, followed by Georgia Baptist–affiliated Mercer University in 1939 magna cum laude.

  • 1940: Arriving in Shanghai which was in Japanese occupied territory in July 1940, he began an intensive study of Mandarin Chinese.

  • 1941: In October 1941, he left Hangzhou for Shangrao in “Free China.”

  • 1942: In April 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his crew bailed out in China after the Tokyo raid.

  • 1943: Birch served with the China Air Task Force, which became the Fourteenth Air Force on 5 March 1943, and was later seconded to the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

  • 1945: U.S. Senator William F. Knowland attempted unsuccessfully to obtain posthumous awards for Birch which included the Distinguished Service Cross, but these were not approved on the grounds that the United States was not at war with the Communist Chinese in 1945.

wiki/John_Birch_(missionary)
Althea Gibson during a tennis match in 1958 (© AP)(1950) A tennis trailblazer breaks a racial barrier
Tennis player Althea Gibson celebrates her 23rd birthday on the same day she makes history as the first African American to play in the US National Championship. A record crowd watches as she competes in Forest Hills, New York, in the tournament that will be later called the US Open.
Althea Gibson was an American tennis player and professional golfer, and the first black athlete to cross the color line of international tennis. In 1956, she became the first person of color to win a Grand Slam title. The following year she won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals, then won both again in 1958, and was voted Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in both years. In all, she won 11 Grand Slam tournaments, including six doubles titles, and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame. “She is one of the greatest players who ever lived,” said Robert Ryland, a tennis contemporary and former coach of Venus and Serena Williams. “Martina couldn’t touch her. I think she’d beat the Williams sisters.” In the early 1960s she also became the first black player to compete on the women’s professional golf tour.
Lived: Aug 25, 1927 – Sep 28, 2003 (age 76)
Height: 5′ 11″ (1.80 m)
Grand Slam titles (singles): 6
Spouse: Sydney Llewellyn (m. 1983 – 1988) · Will Darben (m. 1965 – 1976)
Movies: The Horse Soldiers
Education: Florida A&M University
Highlights
  • 1941: In 1941 she entered—and won—her first tournament, the American Tennis Association (ATA) New York State Championship.

  • 1957: On opening night of the 2007 U.S. Open, the 50th anniversary of her first victory at its predecessor, the U.S. Championships, in 1957, Gibson was inducted into the US Open Court of Champions.

  • 1959: In 1959 she signed to play a series of exhibition matches against Karol Fageros before Harlem Globetrotter basketball games.

  • 1960: In 1960 her first memoir, I Always Wanted to Be Somebody, written with sportswriter Ed Fitzgerald, was published.

  • 1980: In 1980 Gibson became one of the first six inductees into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, placing her on par with such pioneers as Amelia Earhart, Wilma Rudolph, Gertrude Ederle, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and Patty Berg.

  • 1983: In 1983 she married Sydney Llewellyn, her coach during her peak tennis years.

wiki/Althea_Gibson
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Today in History 06/25/17

Painting entitled 'The Death Of General Custer At The Battle Of The Little Big Horn' (© Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)(1876) Native tribes battle Custer’s 7th Cavalry in Montana
A coalition of Native American tribes, resisting a forced move onto reservations, array themselves against George Armstrong Custer’s US 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana Territory. A vastly overconfident Custer advance is met and wiped out in a matter of an hour.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass and commonly referred to as Custer’s Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which occurred June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, was the most significant action of the Great Sioux War of 1876.
Start date: Jun 25, 1876
End date: Jun 26, 1876

wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn
A copy of 'The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank' on display at the Anne Frank Center USA in New York City (© Andrew Burton/Getty Images)(1947) Anne Frank’s ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’ is released
Two years after her death at 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Anne Frank’s account of her time hiding from the Nazis with her Jewish family in Amsterdam is published. The diary, which Frank began on her 13th birthday, is heartbreaking and hopeful in equal measure.
The Diary of a Young Girl, also known as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. The diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the family’s only known survivor, just after the war was over. The diary has since been published in more than 60 languages.
Author: Anne Frank
First published: 1947
ATOS reading level: 6.50
Number of pages: 283
Adaptations: The Diary of Anne Frank · Anne Frank Remembered (1995) · The Diary of Anne Frank · Anne no nikki (1995) · Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank (2016) · Dagboek van Anne Frank (1962) · Episode #1.2 · Episode #1.4 · The Diary of Anne Frank: Echoes from the Past · Anne Frank’s Diary · Episode #1.3 · Episode #1.1
Genres: Biography · Children’s literature · High fantasy

wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl
American howitzer team in action in Korea on July 24, 1950 (© AP)(1950) North invades south and the Korean War begins
After Japan surrendered at the end of World War II and relinquished control of Korea, the nation has been divided between communist and capitalist powers. With support from the Soviet Union, North Korea now invades US-supported South Korea in a bid to reunify the country, and a bloody 3-year war ensues.
The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance.
Start date: Jun 25, 1950
End date: Jul 27, 1953

wiki/Korean_War
Prince performing on stage during the Purple Rain Tour on Sept. 13, 1984. (© Richard E. Aaron/Redferns/Getty Images)(1984) ‘Purple Rain’ album hits stores
Prince releases his sixth album, which also serves as the soundtrack to his film debut. ‘Purple Rain’ will boost The Purple One to new levels of stardom, producing five hit singles, winning two Grammys and an Oscar, and eventually selling more than 20 million copies.
Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Prince, the first to feature his backing band The Revolution, and is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film of the same name. It was released on June 25, 1984 by Warner Bros. Records. To date, it has sold over 22 million copies worldwide, making it the sixth-best-selling soundtrack album of all time.
Release year: 1984
Genre: Pop music, Contemporary Pop
Label: Rhino/Warner Bros.
Artists: The Revolution · The Purple Ones
Movie: Purple Rain
Awards: Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media · Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal · Grammy Hall of Fame · American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Album · American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Album · Brit Award for Best Soundtrack/Cast Recording

wiki/Purple_Rain_(album)
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Today in History 05/09/17

Illustration of Colonel Thomas Blood (G Scott)(1671) Captain Blood tries to pinch England’s Crown Jewels
Following an elaborate ruse played on the Tower of London’s custodian, Captain Thomas Blood and his henchmen attempt to steal the Crown Jewels. The Sceptre is sawn in two, the Crown flattened, and the Sovereign’s Orb hidden down a pair of trousers. Blood will be captured, but pardoned by King Charles II.
Colonel Thomas Blood was an Anglo-Irish officer and self-styled colonel best known for his attempt to steal the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London in 1671. Described in an American source as a “noted bravo and desperado,” he was known for his attempt to kidnap and, later, to kill, his enemy, the Duke of Ormonde. He had switched allegiances from Royalist to Roundhead during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and despite his subsequent notoriety received a Royal free pardon and found favour at the court of King Charles II.
Born: 1618 · County Meath, Ireland
Died: Aug 24, 1680 · Westminster, England
Buried: St Margaret’s, Westminster
Highlights
  • 1642: At the outbreak of the First English Civil War in 1642, Blood returned to England and initially took up arms with the Royalist forces loyal to Charles I. As the conflict progressed he switched sides and became a lieutenant in Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads.

  • 1653: In 1653 at the cessation of hostilities Cromwell awarded Blood land grants as payment for his service and appointed him a justice of the peace.

  • 1660: Following the Restoration of King Charles II to the Crowns of the Three Kingdoms in 1660, Blood fled with his family to Ireland.

  • 1670: In 1670, despite his status as a wanted man, Blood returned to England and is believed to have taken the name Ayloffe and practised as a doctor or an apothecary in Romford Market, east of London.

  • 1671: On 9 May 1671, in furtherance of the deception, Blood convinced Edwards to show the jewels to him, his supposed nephew, and two of his friends while they waited for a dinner that Mrs Edwards was to put on for Blood and his companions.

  • 1674: He died in 1674 and his tomb rests in the chapel of St Peter’s Ad Vincula, at the Tower of London.

wiki/Thomas_Blood
Anna M. Jarvis, founder of Mother's Day (© Bettmann/CORBIS)(1914) President Wilson makes Mother’s Day a federal holiday
Since 1905, Anna Jarvis has lobbied various officials to adopt a holiday honoring mothers, and she’s succeeded in convincing many US states to take part. Today, President Woodrow Wilson proclaims the second Sunday in May to be Mother’s Day and a US federal holiday.
Mother’s Day in the United States is an annual holiday celebrated on the second Sunday in May. Mother’s Day recognizes mothers, motherhood and maternal bonds in general, as well as the positive contributions that they make to society. It was established by Anna Jarvis, with the first official Mother’s Day was celebrated at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, on May 10, 1908.
wiki/Mother’s_Day_(United_States)
L. Ron Hubbard addresses the first national meeting of Dianetics Auditors in 1951. (© AP)(1950) ‘Dianetics’ self-help book published
L. Ron Hubbard publishes ‘Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health,’ a system of self-help psychology. Though the American Psychological Association and other organizations will criticize Hubbard’s work, his book will go on to sell millions of copies and become the basis for Scientology.
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, better known as L. Ron Hubbard and often referred to by his initials, LRH, was an American author and the founder of the Church of Scientology. In 2014, Hubbard was cited by the Smithsonian magazine as one of the 100 most significant Americans of all time, as one of the eleven religious figures on that list. After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a system called Dianetics which was first expounded in book form in May 1950. He subsequently developed his ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and practices as part of a new religious movement that he called Scientology. His writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such diverse topics as business administration, literacy and drug rehabilitation. The Church’s dissemination of these materials led to Hubbard being listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most translated and published author in the world. The Guinness World Record for the most audio books published for one author is also held by Hubbard.
Website: www.lronhubbard.org
Lived: Mar 13, 1911 – Jan 24, 1986 (age 74)
Height: 6′ 0″ (1.83 m)
Spouse: Mary Sue Hubbard (m. 1952 – 1986) · Sara Northrup Hollister (m. 1946 – 1951) · Margaret Grubb (m. 1933 – 1947)
Parents: Harry Ross Hubbard (Father) · Ledora May (Mother)
Children: Quentin Hubbard (Son) · Ronald DeWolf (Son) · Arthur Hubbard (Son) · Diana Hubbard (Daughter) · Suzette Hubbard (Daughter) · Alexis Valerie Hubbard (Daughter)
Education: George Washington University · Helena High School

wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard
James Stewart in 'Vertigo,' 1958 (© Everett Collection/REX)(1958) Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ premieres in San Francisco
A tale of manic obsession and cruel deception, Alfred Hitchcock’s latest thriller has its world premiere. ‘Vertigo’ will disappoint at the box office and receive lukewarm reviews, but will grow in stature to be considered one of history’s greatest films.
A San Francisco detective suffering from acrophobia investigates the strange activities of an old friend’s wife, all the while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.
Release date: May 09, 1958 (United States)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Gross revenue: $7.30 million USD
Music by: Bernard Herrmann
Screenwriters: Maxwell Anderson · Samuel A. Taylor · Alec Coppel
Story by: Pierre Boileau · Thomas Narcejac

wiki/Vertigo_(film)
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Today in History 04/25/17

Illustration of Spartan admiral and politician Lysander circa 390 BC (© Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)(404 BCE) Spartans rout the Athenians to win the Peloponnesian War
Raging for 27 years, the conflict between the city-state of Athens and the Peloponnesian League ends after Spartan leader Lysander destroys most of the Athenian fleet, and Athens finally surrenders. The war is over, as is the golden age of Greece.
The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first phase, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the coast of the Peloponnese and attempt to suppress signs of unrest in its empire. This period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was soon undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched a massive expeditionary force to attack Syracuse in Sicily; the attack failed disastrously, with the destruction of the entire force, in 413 BC. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from Persia, supported rebellions in Athens’ subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens’ empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy. The destruction of Athens’ fleet at Aegospotami effectively ended the war, and Athens surrendered in the following year. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved, but Sparta refused.
Start date: 431 BC
End date: 404 BC

wiki/Peloponnesian_War
Staged photo of U.S. and Soviet troops shaking hands on a wrecked bridge over the Elbe River at Torgau, Germany in April 1945 (© Allan Jackson/Getty Images)(1945) WWII nears end as US and Soviet forces meet in Germany
East meets West when Soviet and American patrols make contact along Germany’s River Elbe, dividing the Nazi’s remaining military force, and forging a personal alliance between the two Allied countries. Five days later Hitler will commit suicide.

Elbe Day, April 25, 1945, is the day Soviet and American troops met at the Elbe River, near Torgau in Germany, marking an important step toward the end of World War II in Europe. This contact between the Soviets, advancing from the East, and the Americans, advancing from the West, meant that the two powers had effectively cut Germany in two.

Elbe Day has never been an official holiday in any country, but in the years after 1945 the memory of this friendly encounter gained new significance in the context of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The first contact between American and Soviet patrols occurred near Strehla, after First Lieutenant Albert Kotzebue, an American soldier, crossed the River Elbe in a boat with three men of an intelligence and reconnaissance platoon. On the east bank they met forward elements of a Soviet Guards rifle regiment of the First Ukrainian Front, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Gardiev. The same day, another patrol under Second Lieutenant William Robertson with Frank Huff, James McDonnell and Paul Staub met a Soviet patrol commanded by Lieutenant Alexander Silvashko on the destroyed Elbe bridge of Torgau.

On April 26, the commanders of the 69th Infantry Division of the First Army and the 58th Guards Rifle Division of the 5th Guards Army (Soviet Union) met at Torgau, southwest of Berlin. Arrangements were made for the formal “Handshake of Torgau” between Robertson and Silvashko in front of photographers the following day, April 27.

The Soviet, American, and British governments released simultaneous statements that evening in London, Moscow, and Washington, reaffirming the determination of the three Allied powers to complete the destruction of the Third Reich.


Happy 2nd Lieutenant William Robertson and Lt. Alexander Sylvashko, Russian Army, shown in front of sign
wiki/Elbe_Day
Chuck Cooper playing for the Boston Celtics (© Getty Images)(1950) NBA team drafts first African American player
The Boston Celtics select Chuck Cooper in the second round, making him the first African American drafted in the NBA. He will make his debut on Nov 1, 1950 and play for six seasons. After retiring, Cooper will get his master’s in social work and work in education and urban affairs in Pittsburgh.
Charles Henry “Chuck” Cooper was an American professional basketball player. He and two others, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton and Earl Lloyd, became the first African-American players in the NBA in 1950. Cooper was also the first African American to be drafted by a National Basketball Association team, as the first pick of the second round by the Boston Celtics.
Born: Sep 29, 1926 · Pittsburgh, PA
Died: Feb 05, 1984 · Pittsburgh, PA
Height: 6′ 5″ (1.96 m)
Education: Duquesne University · West Virginia State University · Westinghouse High School
Parents: Daniel
Highlights
  • 1944: He attended Pittsburgh’s Westinghouse High School and graduated in 1944.

  • 1950: He and two others, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton and Earl Lloyd, became the first African-American players in the NBA in 1950.

  • 1950: Coming out of college in 1950, he signed onto the Harlem Globetrotters.

  • 1950: On April 25, 1950, he became the first African American drafted into the NBA when the Boston Celtics chose him with the 14th overall pick.

  • 1950: He made his NBA debut on November 1, 1950, against the Fort Wayne Pistons.

  • 1984: He also helped the Pittsburgh’s National Bank’s affirmative action program as an urban affairs officer until he died at the age of 57 on February 5, 1984, of liver cancer at Forbes Hospice.

wiki/Chuck_Cooper_(basketball)
Robert Noyce in 1989 (© David Breslauer/AP)(1961) Robert Noyce receives a patent for the microchip
MIT graduate and cofounder of Fairchild Semiconductor, Robert Noyce is granted a patent for the integrated circuit, or microchip, an essential computer building block. Noyce will later found Intel and be nicknamed “the Mayor of Silicon Valley.”
Robert Norton Noyce, nicknamed “the Mayor of Silicon Valley,” co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968. He is also credited with the realization of the first integrated circuit or microchip that fueled the personal computer revolution and gave Silicon Valley its name.
Lived: Dec 12, 1927 – Jun 03, 1990 (age 62)
Spouse: Ann Schmeltz Bowers (m. 1974 – 1990) · Elizabeth Noyce (m. 1953 – 1974)
Founded: Intel · Semiconductor Industry Association
Inventions: Integrated circuit
Education: Grinnell College · Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Awards: National Medal of Technology and Innovation (1987) · Charles Stark Draper Prize (1989) · IEEE Medal of Honor (1978) · John Fritz Medal (1989) · Faraday Medal (1979) · National Medal of Science for Engineering (1979)
Highlights
  • 1945: He graduated from Grinnell High School in 1945 and entered Grinnell College in the fall of that year.

  • 1959: In July 1959, he filed for U.S. Patent 2,981,877 “Semiconductor Device and Lead Structure”, a type of integrated circuit.

  • 1968: Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel in 1968 when they left Fairchild Semiconductor.

  • 1974: On November 27, 1974, Noyce married Ann Schmeltz Bowers.

  • 1978: He was awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1978 “for his contributions to the silicon integrated circuit, a cornerstone of modern electronics.”

  • 1990: Noyce suffered a heart attack at age 62 at home on June 3, 1990, and later died at the Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas.

wiki/Robert_Noyce
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