The almanac
The 1950 Edition
Limited to about 92 million copies: the babies born worldwide in 1950. About 38 million are still in circulation.
Estimates from the UN World Population Prospects 2024. How we count
What happened in 1950
- Disney's Cinderella reached theatersWalt Disney's animated fairy tale opened in February, with songs like Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.February 15 · Source: D23 (Walt Disney Archives), This Day in Disney
- A car with a jet engineRover unveiled JET1, the first car powered by a gas turbine, ahead of road tests.March 8 · Source: BBC On This Day
- First Formula One championship raceThe new world championship opened at Silverstone, England, won by Nino Farina in an Alfa Romeo.May 13 · Source: Formula 1 (official site)
- The Korean War beganNorth Korean forces crossed into South Korea, and the UN Security Council condemned the attack.June 25 · Source: BBC On This Day
- Live TV crossed the English ChannelThe BBC carried the first live television pictures from France to Britain, sent from Calais.August 27 · Source: BBC On This Day
- Peanuts comic strip debutedCharles Schulz's strip about Charlie Brown and friends launched in seven newspapers.October 2 · Source: Charles M. Schulz Museum
- Transistor inventors got their patentThe US Patent Office granted the Bell Labs team a patent for the transistor.October 3 · Source: Computer History Museum, This Day in History
Famous people born in 1950
- Steve WozniakAmerican computer pioneer, inventor, computer engineer and programmer; co-founder of Apple Inc. · born August 11
- Stevie WonderAmerican and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, composer and record producer · born May 13
- Zaha HadidIraqi British architect, designer and painter · born October 31
- Bill MurrayAmerican actor and comedian · born September 21
- Richard BransonBritish business magnate · born July 18
- Agnetha FältskogSwedish singer · born April 5
- Anne CarsonCanadian and Icelandic poet, essayist, and academic · born June 21
- Ed HarrisAmerican actor and director · born November 28
From Wikidata, ranked by how many Wikipedia languages write about them. Spotted a mistake?
If you were born in 1950
- Older than the DNA double helixWatson and Crick's paper describing the double-helix structure of DNA was published in Nature on April 25, 1953.
- Older than the first climb of EverestEdmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953.
- Older than the four-minute mileRoger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, in Oxford on May 6, 1954.
- Older than DisneylandDisneyland opened in Anaheim, California on July 17, 1955.