BdayFacts.com › Year guides › 1950

Born in 1950? Here's the world you arrived into

In 1950, "Goodnight Irene" topped the charts, Cinderella packed theaters, a stamp cost 3¢, the average home went for about $7,400.

What things cost in 1950

A $0.27 gallon of gas in 1950 has the buying power of roughly $3.50 in 2024 dollars, and that $0.40 movie ticket works out to about $5.20 — a bargain matinee by today's standards.

The biggest moments of 1950

• The Korean War began in June 1950 and dominated the headlines at home and abroad.
• Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip debuted in newspapers on October 2, 1950.
• Television was booming, with millions of American families bringing home their very first TV set.

• The Diners Club card appeared in February 1950, introducing Americans to the idea of charging a restaurant meal — the first multipurpose charge card.
• The 1950 U.S. Census counted just over 150 million Americans, with new suburbs like Levittown growing by the day.
• Boston's daring Brink's robbery in January 1950 netted $2.7 million, and newspapers breathlessly dubbed it the crime of the century.

Toys, TV & trends of 1950

• Silly Putty hit store shelves in 1950 and became an instant sensation, sold in its famous plastic egg.
• Kids raced home to watch Howdy Doody and joined the Peanut Gallery in spirit.
• Hopalong Cassidy was TV's first big cowboy hero, and his merchandise flew off store shelves.

• A singed bear cub rescued from a New Mexico forest fire in May 1950 became the living Smokey Bear, star of fire-prevention posters everywhere.
• What's My Line? began its long run in February 1950, with blindfolded panelists guessing mystery guests' occupations.
• Mort Walker's comic strip Beetle Bailey enlisted in the funny pages in September 1950.

The music scene

Fats Domino's "The Fat Man" sold its way toward a million copies in 1950 and is often called one of the very first rock and roll records. RCA's new 45 rpm single was battling Columbia's LP in the "War of the Speeds," and jukeboxes soon took the sturdy little 45 to heart. Meanwhile in Memphis, a young Sam Phillips opened his Memphis Recording Service — the modest storefront that would become the legendary Sun Studio. Patti Page's "Tennessee Waltz," released that November, went on to sell millions and became one of the biggest-selling singles of the decade.

At the movies

All About Eve earned a then-record 14 Academy Award nominations and took home Best Picture. Hollywood was watching nervously as television sets multiplied, but drive-in theaters were booming, growing from fewer than 100 screens right after the war to more than 2,000 by 1950. And Cinderella's box-office triumph famously rescued the Walt Disney studio from the debts of the lean wartime years.

Cartoons kids loved

• Cinderella (Disney)
• Crusader Rabbit
• Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts

In 1950, cartoons still lived mainly at the movie theater, screened before the main feature. Crusader Rabbit, which had arrived in 1949, was the very first cartoon series made especially for television, produced on a shoestring with barely moving drawings. Cinderella's success, meanwhile, convinced Walt Disney to keep feature animation at the heart of his studio after the lean 1940s.

The world in 1950

• World population: about 2.5 billion
• U.S. President: Harry S. Truman
• The Korean War began when North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel in June 1950.

• India officially became a republic on January 26, 1950, adopting its new constitution.
• France's Schuman Declaration of May 1950 proposed pooling European coal and steel — the seed that grew into today's European Union.
• The first Formula One World Championship race was run at Silverstone, England, in May 1950.

1950 birthday questions

Want it on paper? The same 1950 front page prints as a greeting card, poster or framed keepsake.

Buying for a milestone birthday? See gift ideas by age.

More years like 1950

Jump a generation: 1920 · 1925 · 1930 · 1940 · 1960 · 1970 · 1975 · 1980