January
6th	The United Kingdom recognises the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response
9th	The Israeli government recognises the People's Republic of China
12th	British submarine Truculent collides with a Swedish oil tanker in the Thames Estuary and sinks leaving 64 dead
15th	Volcanic cloud kills 5000 in Mount Lamington, New Guinea
17th	The Great Brinks Robbery - 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car in Boston, Massachusetts
23rd	The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel
24th	Klaus Fuchs, a German émigré and physicist, walked into London's War Office and confessed to being a Soviet spy: for 7 years, he passed top secret data on U.S. and British nuclear weapons research to the Soviet Union
29th	Lord Balfour criticizes the fact that rationing is still in force in Britain
31st	President Harry S. Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb in response to the detonation of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb in 1949.

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February
1st	Chiang Kai-shek re-elected as a president of the Republic of China
9th	In his speech to the Republican Women's Club at the McClure Hote in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with 205 Communists
11th	Two Viet Minh battalions attack a French base in French Indochina
12th	Pro-communist riots in Paris
12th	Albert Einstein warns that nuclear war could lead to mutual destruction
13th	The US Air Force loses a Convair B-36 bomber that carried an Mk-4 atomic bomb off the west coast of Canada, and produced the world's first Broken Arrow
14th	The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty
19th	Konrad Adenauer tries unsuccessfully to negotiate with East Germany to begin unification
24th	British Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee, defeats conservative challenger, Winston Churchill to win the General Election and form a new government

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March
1st	Klaus Fuchs is convicted in London of spying against both Britain and the United States for the Soviet Union by giving to the latter top secret atomic bomb data
3rd	Poland states that it intends to exile all Germans
8th	The Soviet Union claims to have an atomic bomb
8th	The first Volkswagen Type 2 van (also known as the Volkswagen Microbus) rolls off the assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany
12th	A plane carrying returning rugby fans from Ireland to Wales crashes near Llandow with the loss of 80 lives
20th	Government of Poland decides to confiscate the property of the Polish church
22nd	Egypt demands that Britain remove all its troops in Suez Canal
23rd	The 22nd Academy Awards ceremony take place in Los Angeles, California

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April
15th	Belgian King Leopold III announces that he is ready to abdicate in favour of his son Baudouin
24th	Jordan formally annexes the West Bank
27th	In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed, formally segregating races
27th	Britain formally recognises Israel

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May
6th	The "Cazin uprising" in town of Cazin (Bosnia) protests against Communist agrarian reforms
6th	Tollund Man is found
9th	L. Ron Hubbard publishes Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
10th	Arsenal won the FA Cup
13th	The first race in the inaugural FIA Formula One World Championship was held at Silverstone, England
25th	The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is formally opened to traffic

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June
3rd	First ascent of Annapurna I, 10th highest mountain in the world
24th	The football World Cup Finals begin in Brazil
25th	Americans begin hoarding supplies in case of rationing and shortages as the Korean War begins
28th	North Korean forces capture Seoul

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July
16th	Uruguary win the football World Cup, beating hosts Brazil 2 - 1 in the deciding match of the four-team final group (this was the only tournament not decided by a one-match final)

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August
5th	Florence Chadwick swims across English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes
5th	A bomb-laden B-29 Superfortress crashes into a residential area in California: 17 dead, 68 injured
8th	Winston Churchill supports idea of pan-European army allied with Canada and USA
12th	In his Encyclical 'Humani Generis', Pope Pius XII declares evolution to be a serious hypothesis that did not contradict essential Catholic teachings
15th	Earthquake and floods happen in Assam, India: 574 deaths, 5,000,000 believed homeless
23rd	Legendary singer-actor Paul Robeson, whose passport has recently been revoked because of his alleged Communist affiliations, meets with U.S. officials in an effort to get it reinstated. He is unsuccessful, and it is not reinstated until 1958

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September
7th	Coal mine collapses in New Cumnock, Scotland leaving 13 miners dead
12th	Communist riots take place in Berlin
15th	Allied troops land in Inchon, occupied by North Korea, to begin the Battle of Inchon
26th	Indonesia admitted to the United Nations
28th	Ray Bradbury publishes his famous short story "The Veldt"

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October
2nd	The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in seven US newspapers
3rd	Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, elected president of Brazil, for a five-year term
7th	The 1950-1951 invasion of Tibet by China begins
11th	The Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS (RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however)
15th	The second Tacoma Narrows Bridge opens
15th	In East Germany, communists win 99.7% of the vote
26th	Sister Mary Teresa begins her charity work in Calcutta and becomes known as Mother Teresa

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November
1st	Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman, who is staying at the Blair-Lee House in Washington, D.C. during White House repairs
4th	United Nations ends the diplomatic isolation of Spain
8th	While in an F-80, United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown intercepts two North Korean MiG-15s near the Yalu River and shoots them down in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history
10th	A US Air Force B-50 Superfortress bomber, experiencing an in-flight emergency, jettisoned and detonated a Mark 4 nuclear bomb over Quebec, Canada. The device lacked its plutonium core
13th	Colonel Carlos Delgado Chalbaud is kidnapped and murdered in Caracas
13th	A Curtiss Reid Flying Services plane crashes while enroute to Paris from Rome killing all 52 on board
18th	The United Nations accepts the formation of Libyan national council
20th	T. S. Eliot speaks against television in the UK
22nd	Shirley Temple announces her retirement from show business
25th	Phenomenal winter storms ravage the Northeastern United States, bringing 30 to 50 inches of snow, temperatures below zero, and kills 323 people
26th	Troops from the People's Republic of China move into North Korea and launch a massive counterattack against South Korean and American forces at Chosin, ending any thought of a quick end to the conflict
28th	Greece and Yugoslavia reform diplomatic relations
29th	North Korean and Chinese troops force a retreat of United Nations forces from North Korea
30th	Douglas MacArthur threatens to use nuclear weapons in Korea

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December
3rd	Mount Etna erupts in Sicily
11th	The Maria Hertogh riots start in Singapore, leaving 18 dead and 173 injured
12th	Paula Ackerman becomes the first woman in the United States to serve a congregation as a Rabbi
24th	Scottish nationalists take the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey
28th	The Peak District becomes Britain's first National Park