1954

Today in History 09/09 (California Statehood)

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California flag (© iStock/Getty Images)(1850) New state takes up most of the USA’s West Coast
The United States officially admits more than 160,000 square miles of West Coast territory, stretching from arid semi-desert lands near the Mexican border northwards to the evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest, as the new state of California.
California is a U.S. state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.5 million residents, California is the most populous state in the United States and the third largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation’s second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 8.8 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California’s most populous city, and the country’s second-most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation’s most populous county, Los Angeles County; its largest county by area, San Bernardino County; and its fifth most densely populated county, San Francisco.
Population: 39.54 million (2017)
Capital: Sacramento
Area: 163,696 sq miles
Colleges and universities: Stanford University · University of California, Berkeley · University of California, Los Angeles · University of Southern California · California Institute of Technology · University of California, Santa Barbara · University of California, Davis · California State University, Los Angeles · University of California, San Diego · University of Californi…
Senators: Dianne Feinstein · Kamala Harris
Governor: Jerry Brown

Location of state of California
Map of the United States with California highlighted
wiki/California
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(1850) New state takes up most of the USA’s West Coast.
Also on this day,

1839 | Inventor makes pioneering photograph
England’s John Herschel is a true Renaissance man, and now the mathematician, inventor, chemist, and discoverer of the stunningly beautiful cyanotype process, makes the first photograph on a glass plate.
1948 | Socialist state is created on the Korean Peninsula
Following post-WWII annexations by the USSR in the north and the US in the south, the country of Korea is further split as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is announced. The new socialist dictatorship, led by Kim Il Sung, takes over the north, and will close its borders and grow increasingly isolated.
1954 | Bell becomes the first person to swim Lake Ontario
Marilyn Bell arrives in Toronto, having swum across Lake Ontario from Youngstown, NY. The 16-year-old Canadian swimmer took off the night before with two other swimmers (including American Florence Chadwick), but after nearly 21 hours of swimming, only Bell completed the crossing.

Today in History 09/09/17

Kim Il Sung gives a broadcast speech in June 1950 to all North Korean citizens regarding the breakout of the Korean war (© Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)(1948) Socialist state is created on the Korean Peninsula
Following post-WWII annexations by the USSR in the north and the US in the south, the country of Korea is further split as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is announced. The new socialist dictatorship, led by Kim Il Sung, takes over the north, and will close its borders and grow increasingly isolated.
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is a country in East Asia constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang is the nation's capital and largest city. To the north and northwest the country is bordered by China and by Russia along the Amnok and Tumen rivers; it is bordered to the south by South Korea, with the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone separating the two. Nevertheless, North Korea, like its southern counterpart, claims to be the legitimate government of the entire Korean peninsula.
Population: 25.37 million (2016)
Official language: Korean
Capital: Pyongyang
GDP: $25 billion USD (2015)
Area: 46,541 sq miles (120,540 km²)
Calling code: 850
North Korea (orthographic projection)
Area controlled by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea shown in dark green; claimed but uncontrolled regions shown in light green.

wiki/North_Korea
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Today in History 06/09 (McCarthy has ‘No sense of decency?’)

Army counsel Joseph Welch during the McCarthy-Army hearing, when Welch engaged in a bitter verbal battle with Sen. Joseph McCarthy on June 9, 1954 in Washington (© AP Photo)(1954) Has the red-scare ringleader ‘no sense of decency’?
Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy’s relentless vendetta against supposed communist infiltration in the government and show biz enters a new stage of absurdity at hearings targeting the US Army. McCarthy’s groundless insinuations incite Joseph Welch, an Army lawyer, to utter his famous reproach.
Joseph Nye Welch was an American lawyer who served as the chief counsel for the United States Army while it was under investigation for Communist activities by Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, an investigation known as the Army–McCarthy hearings. His confrontation with McCarthy during the hearings, in which he famously asked McCarthy “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” is seen as a turning point in the history of McCarthyism.
Lived: Oct 22, 1890 – Oct 06, 1960 (age 69)
Nationality: American
Spouse: Agnes Rodgers Brown (m. 1957 – 1960) · Judith Lyndon (m. 1917 – 1956)
Education: Harvard Law School · Grinnell College
Parents: Martha Thyer (Mother) · William Welch (Father)
Children: Joe Welch (Son) · Lyndon Welch (Son)

Welch-McCarthy Hearings
Chief Senate Counsel representing the United States Army and partner at Hale and Dorr, Joseph Welch (left), with United States Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin (right), at the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations’ McCarthy-Army hearings, June 9, 1954.
wiki/Joseph_N._Welch
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(1954) Has the red-scare ringleader ‘no sense of decency’?
Also on this day,
68 CE | Emperor Nero commits suicide
Rome’s Julio-Claudian dynasty comes to an abrupt end as Emperor Nero, 30, commits suicide. After noblemen revolt at Nero’s tax policies, and he mistakenly believes the Roman Senate is sending troops to kill him, he takes his own life with the assistance of his personal secretary.
1946 | Thailand gets new king and an astonishingly long reign begins
After King Mahidol dies of gunshot wounds, his brother Bhumibol Adulyadej is the King of Siam, which will be renamed Thailand three years later. Bhumibol, a Massachusetts native, will reign for more than 60 years and amass great wealth, putting him on the list of world’s richest royals.
1973 | Secretariat ‘Big Red’ wins the first Triple Crown in 25 years
A chestnut colt runs the Belmont Stakes in record time and this victory, together with previous wins at the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, give Secretariat the first US Triple Crown in a quarter century. ESPN will later rank the thoroughbred the 35th best athlete of the 20th-century.

Today in History 05/17/18

(From left) George E.C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall and James M. Nabrit, the lawyers who led the fight before the US Supreme Court for abolition of segregation in public schools, descend the court steps in Washington, DC, on May 17, 1954 (© AP)(1954) US Supreme Court rules school segregation unconstitutional
A lawsuit against unfair segregation is heard before the Supreme Court, and the unanimous ruling finds that establishing separate public schools for black and white students is unconstitutional. ‘Brown v. Board of Education’ will be a major landmark in the growing civil rights movement.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. The decision effectively overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Warren Court’s unanimous decision stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This ruling paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the Civil Rights Movement, and a model for many future impact litigation cases. However, the decision’s fourteen pages did not spell out any sort of method for ending racial segregation in schools, and the Court’s second decision in Brown II only ordered states to desegregate “with all deliberate speed”.
Start date: 1951
End date: May 17, 1954
Majority: Warren, joined by unanimous

Judgment, Brown v. Board of Education
Judgment and order of the Supreme Court for the case
wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education
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(1954) US Supreme Court rules school segregation unconstitutional.
Also on this day,
1642 | Montreal founded
1875 | Derby debuts
1902 | Ancient computer found

Today in History 12/23/17

(From left) Richard Herrick and his twin brother, Ronald, in 1955 (© AP)(1954) First successful kidney transplant performed
A medical team described by one doctor as a “bunch of fools,” performs the procedure on 23-year-old identical twins, Richard and Ronald Herrick. The recipient will live for eight years; his donor brother will live until age 79. One of the doctors, Joseph Murray, will go on to win a Nobel Prize for his work in organ transplants.

Kidney transplantation or renal transplantation is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage renal disease. Kidney transplantation is typically classified as deceased-donor (formerly known as cadaveric) or living-donor transplantation depending on the source of the donor organ.

Living-donor renal transplants are further characterized as genetically related (living-related) or non-related (living-unrelated) transplants, depending on whether a biological relationship exists between the donor and recipient.

Exchanges and chains are a novel approach to expand the living donor pool. In February 2012, this novel approach to expand the living donor pool resulted in the largest chain in the world, involving 60 participants organized by the National Kidney Registry. In 2014 the record for the largest chain was broken again by a swap involving 70 participants.


Kidney Transplant
Kidney location after transplantation. Based on this image. Human figure adapted from this image by Connexions, which was licensed under CC BY 3.0.

wiki/Kidney_transplantation
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Today in History 12/02/17

Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy on December 2, 1954, after testifying on the Senate floor in Washington, DC (© AP)(1954) US Senate condemns McCarthy for Redbaiting
The Senate votes 65-22 to censure their colleague, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, for conduct unbecoming of a senator in his vitriolic campaign, known as McCarthyism, to root out suspected communists in the US. After the censure, his last traces of influence will evaporate, and he’ll die of alcoholism in 1957.
Joseph Raymond McCarthy was an American politician who served as U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread Communist subversion. He is known for alleging that numerous Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere. Ultimately, the smear tactics he used led him to be censured by the U.S. Senate. The term “McCarthyism”, coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy’s practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today, the term is used in reference to what are considered demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.
Lived: Nov 14, 1908 – May 02, 1957 (age 48)
Spouse: Jean Kerr (m. 1953 – 1957)
Movies: Point of Order
Parties: Republican Party · Democratic Party
Children: Tierney Elizabeth McCarthy (Daughter)
Previous office: United States Senator WI (1947 – 1957)
Highlights
  • 1950: The term “McCarthyism”, coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy’s practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities.

  • 1953: In 1953, McCarthy married Jean Kerr, a researcher in his office.

  • 1954: McCarthy subpoenaed Peress to appear before his subcommittee on January 30, 1954.

  • 1954: On March 9, 1954, Vermont Republican Senator Ralph E. Flanders gave a humor-laced speech on the Senate floor, questioning McCarthy’s tactics in fighting communism, likening McCarthyism to “housecleaning” with “much clatter and hullabaloo”.

  • 1954: To counter the negative publicity, McCarthy appeared on See It Now on April 6, 1954, and made a number of charges against the popular Murrow, including the accusation that he colluded with VOKS, the “Russian espionage and propaganda organization”.

  • 1957: McCarthy died in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of just 48.


Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy.

wiki/Joseph_McCarthy
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