:: wikimiki.org ::

Cesare Pavese

Cesare Pavese

Cesare Pavese (September 9, 1908 – August 27, 1950) was an Italian poet and novelist. Born in San Stefano Belbo, in the province of Cuneo, he moved very early to Torino. As a young man of letters, Pavese had a particular interest in English-language literature, graduating with a thesis on the poetry of Walt Whitman and translating American and British authors that were then new to the Italian public. In 1935 he was arrested on charges of anti-fascism and served almost one year. After the war he joined the Italian Communist Party, but love frustrations and political disillusions led him to his suicide, by an overdose of barbiturates, in 1950. One of his most famous quotes reads "We don't remember days; we remember moments."

Poetry, Novels, Novellas, Short Stories, Essays and Letters

- Lavorare stanca (Work's tiring), poems 1936
- Paesi Tuoi (Your Villages), 1941
- La Spiaggia (The Beach),1941
- Feria d'agosto (August Holiday) 1946
- Il Compagno (The comrade), novel 1947
- Dialoghi con Leucò (Dialogues with Leucò), 1947
- Prima che il gallo canti (Before the Cock Crows), two novellas La casa in collina (The house on the hill) and Il carcere (The Prison), 1949
- La bella estate (The Fine Summer), Three novellas including Tra donne sole (Women on their own), 1949
- La luna e i falò (The moon and the bonfires), novel 1950
- Verrà la morte ed avrà i tuoi occhi (Death will come and will have your eyes), poems, 1951
- Il mestiere di vivere: Diario 1935–1950, 1952
- Saggi Letterari
- Racconti – two volumes of short stories
- Lettere 1926-1950 – two volumes of letters Pavese,Cesare Pavese,Cesare Pavese,Cesare Pavese,Cesare

September 9

September 9 is the 252nd day of the year (253rd in leap years). There are 113 days remaining.

Events

- 1000 - Battle of Swold somewhere in the Baltic Sea between Norway and other Scandinavians.
- 1087 - William the Conqueror dies near Rouen, France.
- 1379 - Treaty of Neuberg, splitting the Austrian Habsburg lands between the Habsburg Dukes Albert III and Leopold III.
- 1513 - James IV of Scotland is defeated and dies in the Battle of Flodden Field, ending Scotland's involvement in the War of the League of Cambrai.
- 1543 - Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is officially crowned "Queen of Scots" in the central Scottish town of Stirling.
- 1739 - Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in Britains mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupts near Charleston, South Carolina.
- 1776 - The Continental Congress officially names their new country the United States.
- 1839 - John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph.
- 1850 - California is admitted as the thirty-first U.S. state.
- 1850 - The Compromise of 1850 strips Texas of a third of its claimed territory (now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) in return for the U.S. federal government assuming $10 million of Texas's pre-annexation debt.
- 1863 - American Civil War: The Union Army enters Chattanooga, Tennessee.
- 1870 - Redmond, Washington, founded
- 1886 - The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is finalized.
- 1914 - World War I: The creation of the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade, the first fully mechanized unit in the British Army.
- 1922 - Greek-Turkish war has ended with Turkish victory over the Greeks. The largest part of the city of Smyrna (on the Minor Asia coast, now Izmir) is burned. Non-Turkic population flees.
- 1923 - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, founds the Republican People's Party (CHP).
- 1924 - Hanapepe Massacre occurs on Kauai, Hawaii.
- 1926 - The U.S. National Broadcasting Company formed.
- 1942 - World War II: A Japanese floatplane drops an incendiary bomb on Oregon.
- 1943 - World War II: The Allies land at Salerno and Taranto, Italy.
- 1944 - World War II: Bulgaria is occupied by Soviet Union.
- 1945 - Second Sino-Japanese War: Japan formally surrenders to China.
- 1947 - "First actual case of (a computer) bug being found": a moth lodges in a relay of a Mark II computer at Harvard University.
- 1948 - The Republic Day of Democratic People's Republic of Korea
- 1954 - Marilyn Bell swims for 20 hours and 57 minutes under grueling conditions to become the first person to swim across Lake Ontario.
- 1956 - Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.
- 1965 - The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development is established.
- 1965 - Sandy Koufax throws a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs
- 1966 - The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson.
- 1970 - Elvis Presley begins a 6 city tour at the Phoenix Veterans Memorial Coliseum. This show is filmed for inclusion in the movie Elvis: That's The Way It Is.
- 1971 - Attica Prison riots
- 1983 - Aaron Pryor beats Alexis Arguello by knockout in round ten of a rematch of their 1982 controversial fight, dubbed The Battle of The Champions.
- 1991 - Tajikstan gains independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1995 - The Sony Playstation is released in North America.
- 1999 - The Sega Dreamcast is released in North America.
- 2001, 01:46:40 UTC - the Unix billennium.
- 2001 - Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated in Afghanistan.
- 2004 - 2004 Jakarta embassy bombing: A bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 people.
- 2004 - Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica reverses a decision by Minister of Education and Sport Ljiljana Čolić to require the teaching of both creationism and evolution in schools, and announces that Čolić will be replaced.
- 2004 - Friends spin off Joey premieres.

Births

- 1349 - Duke Albert III of Austria (d. 1395)
- 1427 - Thomas de Ros, 10th Baron de Ros, English politician (b. 1464)
- 1466 - Ashikaga Yoshitane, Japanese shogun (d. 1523)
- 1558 - Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Mercoeur, French soldier (d. 1602)
- 1585 - Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, French statesman (d. 1642)
- 1629 - Cornelis Tromp, Dutch admiral (d. 1691)
- 1711 - Thomas Hutchinson, American colonial governor of Massachusetts (d. 1780)
- 1737 - Luigi Galvani, Italian physician and physicist (d. 1798)
- 1754 - William Bligh, British naval officer (d. 1817)
- 1755 - Benjamin Bourne, American politician (d. 1808)
- 1828 (N.S.) - Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist (d. 1910)
- 1855 - Anthony Francis Lucas Croatian-born oil exploration pioneer (d. 1921)
- 1868 - Mary Hunter Austin, American writer (d. 1934)
- 1873 - Max Reinhardt, German film director and actor (d. 1943)
- 1878 - Adelaide Crapsey, American poet (d. 1914)
- 1887 - Alf Landon, American politician (d. 1987)
- 1890 - Colonel Harland Sanders, American fast food entrepreneur (d. 1980)
- 1894 - Arthur Freed, American songwriter and film producer (d. 1973)
- 1894 - Bert Oldfield, Australian cricketer (d. 1976)
- 1898 - Frankie Frisch, baseball player (d. 1973)
- 1899 - Waite Hoyt, baseball player (d. 1984)
- 1903 - Phyllis Whitney, American writer
- 1904 - Feroze Khan, Pakistani field hockey player (d. 2005)
- 1908 - Cesare Pavese, Italian poet and novelist (d. 1950)
- 1911 - John Gorton, nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 2002)
- 1918 - Jimmy Snyder, American bookmaker and sports commentator (d. 1996)
- 1922 - Hans Georg Dehmelt, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1923 - Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, American virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1924 - Jane Greer, American actress (d. 2001)
- 1924 - Rik Van Steenbergen, Belgian cyclist (d. 2003)
- 1925 - Cliff Robertson, American actor
- 1928 - Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, American musician (d. 1975)
- 1929 - Claude Nougaro, French singer (d. 2004)
- 1935 - Chaim Topol, Israeli actor
- 1939 - Ron McDole, American football player
- 1939 - Carlos Ortiz, Puerto Rican boxer
- 1941 - Peter Bonetti, British footballer
- 1941 - Otis Redding, American singer and songwriter (d. 1967)
- 1941 - Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist
- 1946 - Bruce Palmer, Canadian musician (Buffalo Springfield) (d. 2004)
- 1946 - Billy Preston, American musician
- 1949 - Joe Theismann, American football player and commentator
- 1951 - Alexander Downer, Australian politician
- 1951 - Tom Wopat, American actor and singer
- 1952 - David A. Stewart, English musician (Eurythmics)
- 1954 - Jeffrey Combs, American actor
- 1957 - Pierre-Laurent Aimard, French pianist
- 1960 - Hugh Grant, British actor
- 1963 - Lauren Allen, American Porn Star
- 1966 - Georg Hackl, German luger
- 1966 - Adam Sandler American actor and comedian
- 1969 - Rachel Hunter, New Zealand model and actress
- 1974 - Mathias Färm, Swedish Guitarist (Millencolin)
- 1982 - Ai Otsuka, Japanese singer and songwriter
- 1986 - Max Olesen, Canadian sex symbol

Deaths

- 701 - Pope Sergius I
- 1000 - Olaf I of Norway
- 1087 - King William I of England
- 1398 - King James I of Cyprus (b. 1334)
- 1487 - Chenghua, Emperor of China (b. 1447)
- 1488 - Francis II, Duke of Brittany (fell from a horse) (b. 1433)
- 1513 - King James IV of Scotland (b. 1473)
- 1569 - Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Flemish painter
- 1612 - Nakagawa Hidenari, Japanese warlord (b. 1570)
- 1680 - Henry Marten, English regicide (b. 1602)
- 1755 - Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, German historian (b. 1694)
- 1806 - William Paterson, Signer of the U.S. Constitution, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1745)
- 1815 - John Singleton Copley, American painter (b. 1738)
- 1841 - Augustin Pyrame de Candolle, Swiss botanist (b. 1778)
- 1891 - Jules Grévy, President of France (b. 1813)
- 1898 - Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet (b. 1842)
- 1901 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, French painter (b. 1864)
- 1909 - Edward Henry Harriman, American railroad entrepreneur (b. 1848)
- 1915 - Albert Spalding, baseball player and sporting goods manufacturer (b. 1850)
- 1960 - Jussi Björling, Swedish tenor (b. 1911)
- 1976 - Mao Zedong, Chinese head of state (b. 1893)
- 1978 - Jack Warner, Canadian-born film studio founder (b. 1892)
- 1980 - John Howard Griffin, American writer (b. 1920)
- 1985 - Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- 1990 - Doc Cramer, baseball player (b. 1905)
- 1990 - Samuel Doe, President of Liberia
- 1993 - Helen O'Connell, American singer (b. 1920)
- 1997 - Burgess Meredith, American actor (b. 1907)
- 1999 - Jim "Catfish" Hunter, baseball player (b. 1946)
- 2001 - Ahmed Shah Massoud, Afghani military leader
- 2003 - Larry Hovis, American actor (b. 1936)
- 2003 - Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicist (b. 1908)
- 2005 - John Wayne Glover, the North Shore Granny Murderer, hanging suicide.

Holidays and observances

- Eastern Orthodoxy - Synaxis of the Theopatores Joachim and Anna
- Japan - ChrysanthemumDay (Kiku no Sekku)
- North Korea - Republic Day (1948)
- Tajikistan - Independence Day (from USSR, 1991)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/9 BBC: On This Day] ---- September 8 - September 10 - August 9 - October 9 – listing of all days ko:9월 9일 ms:9 September ja:9月9日 simple:September 9 th:9 กันยายน

August 27

August 27 is the 239th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (240th in leap years), with 126 days remaining.

Events

- 479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army in the Battle of Plataea. Along the with the Greek victory on the same day in the Battle of Mycale, the Persian invasion of Greece ended.
- 55 BC - Julius Caesar lands in Britain for the first time.
- AD 410 - Visigoth sack of Rome ends after three days.
- 1232 - The Formulary of Adjudications is promulgated by Regent Hojo Yasutoki. (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 1232)
- 1776 - Battle of Long Island, in present day Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington
- 1813 - Napoleon defeats the Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden
- 1828 - The Russians defeat the Turks at Akhaltzikke.
- 1859 - Petroleum discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania. World's first successful oil well.
- 1861 - Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
- 1883 - The after effects caused by the Krakatau explosion in Indonesia kills 36,000 people.
- 1896 - Anglo-Zanzibar War: the shortest war in world history (9:02 to 9:40) between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
- 1900 - British defeat Boer commandos at Bergendal
- 1928 - Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, signed by sixty nations
- 1937 - The automobile division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works is spun off into the Toyota Motor Corporation.
- 1939 - First jet aircraft flight
- 1952 - Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg; West Germany to pay 3 billion Deutschmarks.
- 1962 - Mariner 2 launched
- 1969 - The first installment of the Otoko wa Tsurai yo (It's Tough Being a Man) movies is released in Japan. Director and screenplay writer Yoji Yamada went on to make 48 installments of the series, which is recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running movie series.
- 1979 - An IRA bomb kills Lord Mountbatten and 3 others on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland kills 18 British soldiers.
- 1985 - The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.
- 1990 - The British Broadcasting Corporation launches BBC Radio Five Live at 9am GMT with a mixture of sports, news, and children's programming. The station broadcasts for eighteen hours per day.
- 1991 - The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
- 1991 - Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
- 1993 - The Florida DOT decides to cease producing its distinctive colored U.S. Highway shields so that it can make use of Federal funds for those signs.
- 1993 - The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Tokyo's Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, is completed.
- 2000 - Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.
- 2003 - Mars makes closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing approximately 34,646,416 miles (55,758,006 kilometers) from Earth.

Births

- 1407 - Ashikaga Yoshikazu, Japanese shogun (d. 1425)
- 1471 - George, Duke of Saxony (d. 1539)
- 1637 - Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (d. 1715)
- 1665 - John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, English politician (d. 1751)
- 1677 - Otto Ferdinand Graf von Abensperg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (d. 1748)
- 1724 - John Joachim Zubly, Swiss-born Continental Congressman (d. 1781)
- 1730 - Johann Georg Hamann, German philosopher (d. 1788)
- 1770 - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (d. 1831)
- 1809 - Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President of the United States of America (d. 1891)
- 1858 - Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician (d. 1932)
- 1865 - James Henry Breasted, American Egyptologist (d. 1935)
- 1865 - Charles G. Dawes, 30th Vice President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1951)
- 1870 - Amado Nervo, Mexican poet (d. 1919)
- 1871 - Theodore Dreiser, American author (d. 1945)
- 1874 - Carl Bosch, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)
- 1875 - Katharine McCormick, American women's rights activist (d. 1967)
- 1886 - Rebecca Clarke, English composer and violist (d. 1979)
- 1886 - Eric Coates, English composer (d. 1957)
- 1890 - Man Ray, photographer and artist (d. 1976)
- 1899 - C.S. Forester, British author (d. 1966)
- 1899 - Byron Foulger, American character actor (d. 1970)
- 1904 - Norah Lofts, British author (d. 1983)
- 1906 - Ed Gein, American serial killer (d. 1984)
- 1908 - Don Bradman, Australian cricketer (d. 2001)
- 1908 - Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States (d. 1973)
- 1908 - Kurt Wegner, German artist
- 1909 - Lester Young, American musician (d. 1959)
- 1910 - Mother Teresa, Albanian missionary and humanitarian, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1997)
- 1911 - Kay Walsh, British actress (d. 2005)
- 1915 - Norman F. Ramsey, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1916 - Martha Raye, American actress (d. 1994)
- 1921 - Leo Penn, American film director-actor (d. 1998)
- 1926 - Kristen Nygaard, Norwegian mathematician, computer scientist, and politician (d. 2002)
- 1928 - Mangosuthu Buthelezi, South African politician
- 1929 - Ira Levin, American author
- 1932 - Antonia Fraser, British author
- 1935 - Frank Yablans, American film producer
- 1937 - Tommy Sands, American actor and singer
- 1940 - Sonny Sharrock, American jazz guitarist (d. 1994)
- 1942 - B. J. Thomas, American singer
- 1943 - Tuesday Weld, American actress
- 1945 - G.W. Bailey, American actor
- 1947 - Barbara Bach, American actress
- 1947 - Harry Reems, American actor
- 1950 - Charles Fleischer, American actor
- 1951 - Buddy Bell, baseball player-manager
- 1952 - Paul "Pee-Wee Herman" Reubens, American actor
- 1953 - Peter Stormare, Swedish-born actor
- 1954 - Derek Warwick, British race car driver
- 1955 - Diana Scarwid, American actress
- 1957 - Bernhard Langer, German golfer
- 1959 - Gerhard Berger, Austrian race car driver
- 1963 - Downtown Julie Brown, Welsh television personality
- 1966 - Juhan Parts, Prime Minister of Estonia
- 1970 - Peter Ebdon, English snooker player
- 1970 - Tony Kanal, American-British musician (No Doubt)
- 1970 - Jim Thome, baseball player
- 1973 - Dietmar Hamann, German footballer
- 1974 - Jose Vidro, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player
- 1975 - Jonny Moseley, American skier
- 1976 - Sarah Chalke, Canadian actress
- 1976 - Carlos Moya, Spanish tennis player
- 1976 - Mark Webber, Australian race car driver
- 1977 - Deco, Brazilian footballer
- 1979 - Tian Liang, Chinese diver
- 1988 - Alexa Vega, American actress

Deaths

- 1312 - Arthur II, Duke of Brittany (b. 1262)
- 1394 - Chokei, Emperor of Japan (b. 1343)
- 1450 - Reginald West, 6th Baron De La Warr, English politician (b. 1395)
- 1521 - Josquin Des Prez, Flemish composer
- 1545 - Piotr Gamrat, Polish Catholic archbishop (b. 1487)
- 1572 - Claude Goudimel, French composer
- 1577 - Titian, Italian artist
- 1590 - Pope Sixtus V (b. 1521)
- 1635 - Félix Lope de Vega, Spanish poet and playwright (b. 1562)
- 1664 - Francisco Zurbarán, Spanish painter (b. 1598)
- 1748 - James Thomson, Scottish poet (b. 1700)
- 1773 - Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Prussian general (b. 1721)
- 1875 - William Chapman Ralston, American banker (b. 1826)
- 1909 - Emil Christian Hansen, Danish fermentation physiologist (b. 1842)
- 1929 - Herman Potočnik Noordung, Slovenian rocket scientist (b. 1892)
- 1931 - Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (b. 1856)
- 1931 - Francis Marion Smith, American borax magnate (b. 1846)
- 1948 - Charles Evans Hughes, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1862)
- 1958 - Ernest Lawrence, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)
- 1963 - Garrett Morgan, American inventor (b. 1877)
- 1963 - W.E.B. DuBois, American civil rights activist and scholar (b. 1868)
- 1964 - Gracie Allen, American actress and comedienne
- 1965 - Le Corbusier, Swiss architect (b. 1887)
- 1967 - Brian Epstein, English manager of The Beatles (b. 1934)
- 1968 - Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent (b. 1906)
- 1969 - Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist (b. 1884)
- 1969 - Erika Mann, German writer and daughter of Thomas Mann (b. 1905)
- 1971 - Bennett Cerf, American publisher and television personality (b. 1898)
- 1975 - Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1892)
- 1976 - Mukesh, Indian playback singer (b. 1923)
- 1979 - Earl Mountbatten, British admiral and statesman (assassinated) (b. 1900)
- 1980 - Douglas Kenney, American humorist (b. 1947)
- 1988 - William Sargant, British psychiatrist (b. 1907)
- 1990 - Stevie Ray Vaughan, American guitarist (b. 1954)
- 1997 - Brandon Tartikoff, American television producer (b. 1949)
- 2002 - Richard Ricci, American handyman wrongly suspected of being a kidnapper in the Elizabeth Smart case (b. 1953)
- 2003 - Pierre Poujade, French politician (b. 1920)
- 2004 - Willie Crawford, baseball player (b. 1946)

Holidays and observances

- Roman festivals - Volturnalia held in honor of Volturnus
- RC Saints - Saint Monica of Hippo
- Moldova - Independence Day (from the USSR, 1991): the national holiday

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/27 BBC: On This Day] ---- August 26 - August 28 - July 27 - September 27 -- listing of all days ko:8월 27일 ms:27 Ogos ja:8月27日 simple:August 27 th:27 สิงหาคม

1950

1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January

- January 5 - U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for examination of organized crime in the U.S.
- January 6 - The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response.
- January 9 - The Israeli government recognizes the People's Republic of China.
- January 11 - Huk guerillas attack the town of Hermosa in Bataan, Philippines.
- January 12 - Huk guerillas attack the town of Tuyn, kill two and torch the city of Staingnacan.
- January 12 - British submarine Truculent collides with a Swedish oil tanker in River Thames - 64 dead.
- January 13 - Finland forms diplomatic relations to People's Republic of China
- January 15 - Volcanic cloud kills 5000 in Mount Lamington, New Guinea
- January 17 - The Great Brinks Robbery - 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car in Boston, Massachusetts
- January 21 - Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury
- January 23 - The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
- January 24 - Cold War: Klaus Fuchs confesses his wartime espionage at Los Alamos to British interrogators - formally charged February 2
- January 26 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president.
- January 28 - Somaliland is put under Italian mandate
- January 29 - Lord Balfour criticizes the fact that rationing is still in force in Britain
- January 31 - President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb
- January 31 - Last Kuomintang troops surrender in continental China

February

- February 1 - Chiang Kai-shek re-elected as a president of the Republic of China
- February 4 - Ingrid Bergman's illegitimate child arouses ire in USA
- February 9 - Red scare: In his speech to the Republican Women's Club at the McClure Hotel in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with 205 Communists.
- February 11 - Two Vietcong battalions attack a French base in Indochina
- February 11 - Finland recognizes Indonesia
- February 12 - Pro-communist riots in Paris
- February 12 - European Broadcasting Union founded
- February 13 - In USA army begins to deploy anti-aircraft cannons to protect nuclear stations and military targets
- February 14 - The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty
- February 15 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi re-elected president of Finland
- February 19 - Konrad Adenauer tries unsuccessfully to negotiate with East Germany to begin unification.
- February 12 - Albert Einstein warns that nuclear war could lead to mutual destruction
- February - British Labour Party forms a new government.

March-April

- March 1 - 7.25 PM West South Baptist Church(negro) in Bestridge, Nebraska blows up - all the choir is late for rehearsals
- March 1 - Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by giving them top secret atomic bomb data.
- March 1 - Acting Chinese President Li Tsung-jen ends his term in office
- March 1 - Chiang Kai-shek resumes his duties as Chinese president after moving his government to Taipei, Taiwan
- March 3 - Poland states that it intends to exile all Germans.
- March 8 - The Soviet Union claims to have an atomic bomb.
- March 12-March 13 - In Belgium, the referendum over the monarchy shows 57.7% support the return of king Léopold III, 42.3% against.
- March 14 - Ship Cygnet hits mine off the Dutch coast.
- March 17 - University of California, Berkeley researchers announce the creation of element 98 which they have named "californium".
- March 20 - Government of Poland decides to confiscate the property of Polish church
- March 22 - Egypt demands that Britain remove all its troops in Suez Canal
- April 15 - King Léopold III of Belgium announces that he is ready to abdicate in favor of his son Baudouin
- April 24 - Jordan formally annexes West Bank
- April 27 - Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.
- April 27 - Britain formally recognizes Israel

May-June

- May 6 - Tollund Man found
- May 9 - Robert Schuman presents his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations. This proposal, known as the "Schuman declaration", is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
- May 11 - Kefauver Committee hearings about US organized crime begin
- May 25 - Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel is formally opened to traffic
- May 29 - St. Roch, first ship to circumnavigate North America arrives in Halifax Nova Scotia.
- June 3 - First ascent of Annapurna I, 10th highest mountain in the world.
- June 6 - Turkey: The Adhan in Arabic is legalized
- June 8 - Sir Thomas Blamey becomes the only Field Marshal in Australian history.
- June 10 - French police capture escaped murderer Emile Buisson in Paris restaurant
- June 24 - 58 persons were killed when a commercial airliner crashed into Lake Michigan. The reason for the disaster is unknown. Only fragments of the plane and the bodies of passengers were ever found.
- June 25 - Beginning of Korean War. In the USA, people began to hoard supplies in case of rationing and shortages.
- June 25 - NSC-68 enacted by President Truman, setting US foreign policy for the next twenty years.
- June 28 - Korean War - North Korean forces capture Seoul
- June 29 - United States defeats England 1-0 in the . For more details, see England v United States (1950).

July

- July 5 - Sicilian bandit leader Salvatore Giuliano killed in a shootout with carabinieri
- July 5 - Korean War: Task Force Smith - First clash between American and North Korean forces.
- July 5 - Zionism: The Knesset passes the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.
- July 6 - East Germany agrees with Poland on the Oder-Neisse line - West Germany does not at this time
- July 16 - Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1 to win 1950 World Cup
- July 17 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg arrested
- July 19 - 15 SS-men sentenced to death in East Germany
- July 20 - Tydings committee report to US senate denounces Joe McCarthy - he begins a public attack on members of the committee standing for election in 1950
- July 20 - In Belgium, the United Chambers adopt a decree which reinstates King Léopold III in his royal dignity.
- July 23 - King Léopold III of Belgium returns to Brussels
- July 24 - Hoax by J. Bam Morrison begins the tradition of "Sucker Day" in Wetumka, Oklahoma
- July 25 - Walter Ulbricht elected the general secretary of the communist party of East Germany
- July 28 - In Belgium, demonstrations and strikes break out as a result of King Léopold III's return. In Liège, three labourers are shot.

August-September

- August 5 - Florence Chadwick swims over English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes
- August 5 - A bomb-laden B-29 Superfortress crashes into a residential area in California. 17 dead, 68 injured.
- August 6 - Riot in Brussels in monarchist demonstrations
- August 8 - Winston Churchill supports idea of pan-European army allied with Canada and USA
- August 15 - Earthquake and floods in Assam, India - 574 deaths, 5,000,000 believed homeless
- September 1 - Hungarian major general Laszlo Viragen defects to Austria and applies for political asylum
- September 4 - Beetle Bailey comic strip started.
- September 7 - Coal mine collapses in New Cumnock, Scotland - 13 miners dead. 116 rescued.
- September 7 - The gameshow Truth or Consequences debuts on television.
- September 12 - Communist riots in Berlin
- September 13 - First main-line diesel-electric locomtives run in Australia
- September 15 - Allied troops land in Inchon, occupied by North Korea, to begin the Battle of Inchon.
- September 19 - West Germany decides to fire all its communist officials
- September 26 - Indonesia admitted to the United Nations

October

- October 1 - The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in seven US newspapers.
- October 3 - Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, elected president of Brazil, for a five-year term.
- October 5 - Indonesian government quells riots in the Moluccas
- October 11 - 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).
- October 15 - In East Germany, communists win 99.7% of the vote
- October 20 - Australia passes the Communist Party Dissolution Act, later struck down by the High Court.
- October - Sister Mary Teresa begins her charity work in Calcutta and becomes known as Mother Teresa

November

- November 1 - Pope Pius XII defines a new dogma of Roman Catholicism: that God assumed Mary's body into Heaven after her death.
- November 1 - 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.
- November 4 - United Nations ends the diplomatic isolation of Spain
- November 8 - Korean War: While in an F-80, United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown intercepts two North Korean MiG-15s near the Yalu River and shots them down in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history.
- November 11 - The Mattachine Society founded in Los Angeles as the first Gay liberation organization
- November 13 - Colonel Carlos Delgado Chalbaud is kidnapped and murdered in Caracas.
- November 18 - United Nations accepts the formation of Libyan national council
- November 20 - T. S. Eliot speaks against television in the UK
- November 22 - Anti-British riots in Egypt
- November 22 - Shirley Temple announces her retirement from show business
- November 23 - George Robb was born in Aylth, Scotland
- November 26 - Korean War: Troops from the People's Republic of China move into North Korea and launch a massive counterattack against South Korean and American forces, ending any thought of a quick end to the conflict.
- November 28 - Greece and Yugoslavia reform diplomatic relations
- November 29 - Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force a desperate retreat of United Nations forces from North Korea.
- November 30 - Truman threatens to use nuclear weapons in Korea

December

- December 3 - Etna volcano erupts in Sicily
- December 12 - Paula Ackerman becomes the first woman in the United States to serve a congregation as a Rabbi, a few weeks after the death of her husband.
- December 24-December 25 - Scottish nationalists take the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey
- December 28 - The Peak District becomes Britain's first National Park.

Unknown date

- Ralph Schneider founds Diners Club - it initially only works in 27 restaurants in New York City.
- United Nations building finished.
- First pagers developed.
- Antihistamine discovered.
- First TV remote control, Zenith Radio's Lazy Bones is marketed.
- IBM Israel begins operating in Tel Aviv
- Japanese soldier Yuichi Akitsu surrenders in the Philippines
- President Harry Truman sends United States military personnel to Vietnam to aid French forces.
- National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA founded.

Births

January-February

- January 12 - Sheila Jackson Lee, American politician
- January 16 - Debbie Allen, American actress, dancer, and choreographer
- January 18 - Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver
- January 21 - Billy Ocean, West Indian-born musician
- January 23 - Richard Dean Anderson, American actor
- January 24 - Benjamin Urrutia, Ecuadoran author and scholar
- January 29 - Jody Scheckter, South African race car driver
- February 3 - Morgan Fairchild, American actress
- February 4 - Pamela Franklin, British actress
- February 6 - Natalie Cole, American singer
- February 10 - Mark Spitz, American swimmer
- February 12 - Michael Ironside, American actor
- February 13 - Peter Gabriel, British musician
- February 16 - Peter Hain, British politician
- February 18 - John Hughes, American film director, producer, and writer
- February 20 - Ken Shimura, Japanese television performer and actor
- February 22 - Julius Erving, American basketball player
- February 22 - Julie Walters, English actress
- February 22 - Miou-Miou, French actress
- February 22 - Ellen Greene, American actress
- February 25 - Neil Jordan, Irish film director, writer, and producer
- February 25 - Néstor Kirchner, President of Argentina
- February 26 - Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand

March-April

- March 2 - Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer (d. 1983)
- March 4 - Rick Perry, Governor of Texas
- March 9 - Doug Ault, baseball player (d. 2004)
- March 9 - Danny Sullivan, American race car driver
- March 11 - Bobby McFerrin, American singer
- March 11 - Jerry Zucker, American film producer, director, and writer
- March 13 - William H. Macy, American actor
- March 18 - Brad Dourif, American actor
- March 20 - William Hurt, American actor
- March 26 - Teddy Pendergrass, American singer
- March 29 - Bud Cort, American actor
- March 30 - Robbie Coltrane, British actor and comedian
- April 3 - Sally Thomsett, British actress
- April 4 - Christine Lahti, American actress
- April 5 - Agnetha Fältskog, Swedish singer and songwriter (ABBA)
- April 10 - Ken Griffey, Sr., baseball player
- April 12 - Kari Palaste, Finnish architect
- April 22 - Peter Frampton, English musician
- April 25 - Lenora Branch Fulani, American Presidential candidate
- April 28 - Jay Leno, American comedian and talk show host
- April 29 - Paul Holmes , a radio and television broadcaster in New Zealand

May-September

- May 1 - Danny McGrain, Scottish footballer
- May 1 - Dann Florek, American actor
- May 3 - Howard Ashman, American lyricist (d. 1991)
- May 7 - Randall 'Tex' Cobb, American boxer and actor
- May 12 - Bruce Boxleitner, American actor
- May 12 - Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor
- May 13 - Stevie Wonder, American singer and musician
- May 16 - Johannes Georg Bednorz, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- May 17 - Janez Drnovšek, Slovene politician
- May 17 - Valeria Novodvorskaya, Russian politician and dissident
- May 18 - Thomas Gottschalk, German television host
- May 18 - Rodney Milburn, American athlete (d. 1997)
- May 18 - Mark Mothersbaugh, American composer and musician (Devo)
- May 22 - Bernie Taupin, English songwriter
- May 22 - Mary Tamm, British actress
- June 1 - Tom Robinson, English singer and musician
- June 3 - Suzi Quatro, American singer and actress
- June 6 - John Byrne, American comic book creator
- July 18 - Sir Richard Branson, British entrepreneur
- July 18 - Glenn Hughes, American vocalist (d. 2001)
- July 19 - Per-Kristian Foss, Norwegian Minister of Finance
- August 11 - Gennidy Nikonov, Russian weapon designer
- August 14 - Bob Backlund, American professional wrestler
- August 15 - Anne, Princess Royal of England
- August 16 - Hasely Crawford, West Indian athlete
- August 27 - Charles Fleischer, American actor
- September 2 - Rosanna DeSoto, American actress
- September 14 - Paul Kossoff, British guitarist (Free) (d. 1976)
- September 17 - Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat
- September 21 - Charles Clarke, British politician
- September 21 - Bill Murray, American actor and comedian
- September 28 - John Sayles director and screenwriter

October-December

- October 1 - Randy Quaid, American actor
- October 5 - Jeff Conaway, American actor
- October 9 - Jody Williams, American teacher and aid worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- October 12 - Kaga Takeshi, Japanese actor
- October 22 - Bill Owens, Governor of Colorado
- October 28 - Sihem Bensedrine, Tunisian human rights activist
- October 31 - John Candy, American comedian and actor
- October 31 - Jane Pauley, American television broadcaster and journalist
- November 1 - Robert B. Laughlin, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 21 - Alberto Juantorena, Cuban athlete
- November 22 - Lyman Bostock, baseball player (d. 1978)
- November 28 - Russell Alan Hulse, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- December 1 - Keith Thibodeaux, American actor and musician
- December 5 - Camarón de la Isla, Spanish singer (d. 1992)
- December 18 - Leonard Maltin, American film critic
- December 23 - Michael C. Burgess, American politician
- December 25 - Manny Trillo, baseball player

Unknown date

- Charles Lee Ray, American serial killer (d. 1988)

Deaths

- January 21 - George Orwell, English author (b. 1903)
- February 6 - Georges Imbert, Alsatian chemist (b. 1884)
- February 25 - George Minot, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1885)
- March 5 - Sid Grauman, American restaurateur (b. 1895)
- March 9 - Danny Sullivan, American race car driver
- March 19 - Walter Haworth, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1883)
- March 19 - Edgar Rice Burroughs, American author (b. 1875)
- March 24 - James Rudolph Garfield, U.S. politician (b. 1865)
- March 30 - Joe Yule, Scottish-born comedian (b. 1894)
- April 19 - Ernst Robert Curtius, Alsatian philologist (b. 1886)
- May 1 - Lothrop Stoddard, American eugenicist (b. 1883)
- May 9 - Esteban Terradas i Illa, Catalan mathematician, scientist, and engineer (b. 1883)
- May 10 - Belle da Costa Greene, American librarian, bibliographer, and archivist (b. 1883)
- July 22 - William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian politician (b. 1874)
- September 10 - Raymond Sommer, American race car driver (b. 1906)
- September 11 - Jan Christian Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa (b. 1870)
- September 21 - Arthur Milne, British space physicist (b. 1896)
- October 23 - Al Jolson, American musician (b. 1886)
- October 29 - King Gustav V of Sweden (b. 1858)
- November 2 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1856)
- November 3 - Koiso Kuniaki, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1880)
- November 25 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1873)
- December 2 - Dinu Lipatti, Romanian pianist (b. 1917)
- December 5 - Shri Aurobindo, Indian guru (b. 1872)
- December 11 - Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer (b. 1893)
- December 27 - Max Beckmann, German painter (b. 1884)

Date unknown

- Ernest Cherrington, American temperance movement leader (b. 1877)
- William E. Johnson, American Anti-Saloon League leader (b. 1862)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Cecil Frank Powell
- Chemistry - Otto Paul Hermann Diels, Kurt Alder
- Medicine - Edward Calvin Kendall, Tadeus Reichstein, Philip Showalter Hench
- Literature - Earl (Bertrand Arthur William) Russell
- Peace - Ralph Bunche

Fields Medalists

- Laurent Schwartz, Atle Selberg Category:1950 ko:1950년 ms:1950 ja:1950年 simple:1950 th:พ.ศ. 2493

Novelist

A novel (from French nouvelle, "new") is an extended fictional narrative in prose. Down into the 18th century, the word referred specifically to short fictions of love and intrigue as opposed to romances—epic-length works about love and adventures. Having become one of the major literary genres over the past 200 years the novel is today the object of discussions demanding artistic merits, a specific literary style and a deeper meaning than a true story of the same content could claim to have. __TOC__

Novel/Romance: Unstable Words

One meaning of the English word novel has remained stable: novel can still signify what is new due to its "novelty". When it comes to fiction, though, the meaning of the term has changed over time:
- The period 1200-1750 saw a rise of the novel (originally a short piece of fiction) rivalling the romance (the epic-length performance): this development, which one could describe as the first rise of the novel, occurred across Europe, though only the Spanish and the English went one step further and allowed the word novel (or, in Spanish, novela) to become their regular term for fictional narratives.
- The period 1700-1800 saw the rise of a "new romance" in reaction against the potentially scandalous production of novels. The movement encountered a complex situation in the English market, where the term "new romance" could hardly be ventured, after the novel had done so much to transform taste. The new genre adopted the name novel: this new novel was a work of new epic proportions, with the effect that the English (and Spanish) finally needed a new word for the original short "novel": The term novella was finally created to fill the gap in English. "Short story" brought a further refinement. The meaning of the term romance changed within the same complex process, becoming the word for a love story whether in life or fiction. Other meanings include the musicologist's genre "Romance" of a short and amiable piece, or Romance languages for the languages derived from Latin (French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and so forth).

History

Traditions of Prose Fiction: The Ancient World

As Pierre Daniel Huet noted in 1670, the tradition of epic works went back as far as Virgil and Homer. The regular format was verse, suiting the purpose of tradition in a culture of oral performances. Today, we see this tradition as going back even further, to the epic of Gilgamesh. It is more difficult to speak of the influence of the shorter performances of regular storytelling on the medieval traditions which led to the development of the novel/novella. There was a third tradition of prose fictions, both in a satirical mode (with Petronius's Satyricon and the incredible stories of Lucian of Samosata), and a heroic strain (with the romances of Heliodorus and Longus). The ancient Greek romance was revived by Byzantine novelists of the 12th century. All of these traditions were then rediscovered in the 17th and 18th centuries, ultimately influencing the modern book market.

The Romance, 1100-1500

The word romance seems to have become the label of romantic fictions because of the "Romance" language in which early (11th and 12th century) works of this genre were composed. The most fashionable genres developed in southern France in the late 12th century and spread east- and northwards with translations and individual national performances. Subject matter such as Arthurian knighthood had already at that time traveled in the opposite direction, reaching southern France from Britain and French Britanny. As a consequence, it is particularly difficult to determine how much the early "romance" owed to ancient Greek models and how much to such northern folkloric verse epics as Beowulf and the Nibelungenlied. The standard plot of the early romance was a series of adventures. Following a plot framework as old as Heliodorus, and so durable as to be still alive in Hollywood movies, a hero would undergo a firs