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.

For more timelines and information on World War II events, see:

The Marshall Plan

By June 1947, Europe had suffered through a catastrophic war and one of its worst winters in history. Much of its industrial infrastructure had been destroyed. Major cities were still in ruins, and millions of people across Europe were homeless. There was little hope for a swift economic recovery. It became obvious to President Harry Truman that relief must reach these countries soon if they were to escape Soviet Union expansion.

In a commencement speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall unveiled a plan to rebuild the nations of Europe, strengthen their economies, and reduce economic rivalry between them. Sixteen countries met in Paris in July 1947 to discuss the implementation of the Marshall Plan, officially called the European Recovery Program. Each of the 16 nations lobbied for a large piece of the aid package. They finally sent a request for $22 billion in aid to Truman. In an attempt to ward off Republican opposition to the plan, Truman reduced the request to $17 billion in the bill he sent to Congress. After much debate by both sides of the House, Congress approved an appropriation of $5 billion for the first year and a total of more than $12 billion during the four-year life of the program.

The Soviet Union was extended an invitation to participate in the plan by the Allied leaders, but Joseph Stalin refused when he learned that it would require him to approve economic freedoms for Eastern European countries under postwar Soviet Union control. Stalin brought his opposition to the Marshall Plan to the United Nations. Finding few sympathetic ears, Stalin initiated the Molotov Plan, named after Soviet Union foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov. This plan provided financial assistance to the Eastern European countries, which increased Soviet Union control.