World War II Timeline: January 12, 1950-July 5, 1950
The threat of Communism was just one issue facing the post-World War II world in 1950. The following timeline details more event from the first half of 1950.
World War II Timeline: January 12-July 5
January 12: A speech by Dean Acheson, U.S. secretary of state, is interpreted as implying that South Korea is not under the protection of the United States.
January 23: Israel's Knesset proclaims Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
January 25: U.S. government official Alger Hiss, an alleged Soviet Union spy who escaped a treason trial due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, is sentenced to five years for perjuring himself while under investigation.
January 27: Klaus Fuchs, a German who had helped the U.S. and Great Britain build atomic bombs, confesses to passing nuclear secrets to the Soviets.
February 9: In a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) asserts that Communists have infiltrated the State Department.
April: Former Nazi scientist Wernher von Braun is appointed director of development operations of Redstone Arsenal's Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama.
June 6: Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur bans Communists from public service positions in Japanese government.
June 25: The Korean War begins as the army of Communist North Korea crosses the 38th parallel and storms toward Seoul, South Korea.
June 30: President Truman orders U.S. troops into Korea.
July 5: The Law of Return, which opens Israel to worldwide Jewish immigration, is passed by the Israeli Knesset.
World War II Headlines
The headlines below summarize more post-war happenings that helped shape modern history.
Britain's builds postwar housing for the homeless: One major issue confronting the British Parliament was adequate shelter for those displaced by the war. Millions of housing units, including apartments and single homes, had been destroyed by German bombs, leaving large numbers of British citizens homeless. Many non-British victims of the war were also seeking shelter in Britain. Parliament passed the New Towns Act of 1946 and the Town and Country Planning Act in 1947. Single-family units were constructed and many aluminum, prefabricated houses were built in Cheltenham, outside of London, in 1946.
Allies' division of Germany and resulting blockade by the Soviet Union: Before the war ended, the Big Three Allied leaders signed an agreement to divide postwar Germany into four zones and Berlin into four sectors, each administered by an Allied nation, until Germany was eventually reunified. Berlin sat well within the Soviet Union's zone. Stalin did not agree with the other Allies' plan to rebuild Germany's economy. He therefore blocked access to the western sectors of Berlin on June 24, 1948. Truman rejected a plan to send trucks across the Soviet border because of the threat of war. Instead, the Allies airlifted supplies to West Berlin until well after the blockade was revoked by Stalin in May 1949.
Although the fighting had ended years before, World War II was formally ended in 1951. The next section has a timeline of more postwar events for 1950-1951.