Mark Scott Smith's Blog: Enemy in the Mirror, page 67

Diners Club Card

 In February 1950 the Diners Club issued the first credit card which only allowed charges at restaurants. By the end of the year, Diners Club had 20,000 members.

In 1950 the company charged participating establishments 7% and billed cardholders $5 per year.

By the mid-1960s, Diners Club had 1.3 million cardholders.

Diners Club International was acquired by Citigroup in 1981.

In 2008, Discover Financial Services purchased Diners Club International from Citibank for $165 million.

Average Credit Card Processing Fees 2019

The average credit card processing cost for a retail business where cards are swiped is roughly 1.95% – 2% for Visa, Mastercard, and Discover transactions. The average cost for card-not-present businesses, such as online shops, is roughly 2.30% – 2.50%.

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U.S. Reveals H-Bomb Plans

In 1949 the United States had lost its nuclear supremacy when the Soviet Union successfully detonated an atomic bomb at their test site in Kazakhstan.

USSR conducts its first atomic bomb test – 1949

Several weeks after a successful Soviet atomic bomb test, Klaus Fuchs, a scientist in the U.S. nuclear program, was discovered spying for the Soviet Union.

These two events, and the fact that the USSR had access to American research information regarding the construction of the hydrogen bomb, led Truman to make this public announcement on January 31, 1950:

“It is part of my responsibility as commander in chief of the Armed Forces to see to it that our country is able to defend itself against any possible aggressor,” Truman said. “Accordingly, I have directed the Atomic Energy Commission to continue its work on all forms of atomic weapons, including the so-called hydrogen or superbomb. Like all other work in the field of atomic weapons, it is being and will be carried forward on a basis consistent with the overall objectives of our program for peace and security.”

Source: Politico

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Klaus Fuchs Atomic Spy

The German theoretical physicist Klaus Fuchs helped develop the first effective atomic bomb at Los Alamos during the WWII Manhattan Project.

German born, Fuchs fled Nazi Germany and became a British citizen in August 1942. As a long-time Communist sympathizer, Fuchs soon began providing Soviet KGB operatives with classified information on the progress of Britain’s atomic energy research.

In 1943, Fuchs went to Columbia University in New York with a British delegation of scientists to work on the Manhattan Project. In 1944 he began releasing classified information to a KGB agent in America.

In August 1944 Fuchs was transferred to Los Alamos where he calculated the approximate energy yield of an atomic explosion, and specialized in researching implosion methods.

In addition to secrets regarding the American atomic bomb project, Fuchs also passed detailed information about the hydrogen bomb to the Soviets.

At the end of the war, Fuchs returned to England and continued his work on the British atomic bomb project.

In 1949 decrypted cables from the U. S. Army Signal Intelligence Service revealed Fuchs was a Soviet spy.

Fuchs was arrested in January 1950 and charged with violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act. After his testimony led to the arrests of KGB agents (including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg) he was released after nine of his 14 year prison sentence.

In 1959 Fuchs returned to the (East) German Democratic Republic as Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Nuclear Research at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf laboratory. In 1979 he received the Karl Marx Medal of Honor.

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Fats Domino

Antoine “Fats” Domino‘s 1950 song “The Fat Man” is widely regarded as the first million-selling Rock ‘n Roll record.

One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records.

LISTEN

Fats Domino: 12 Essential Songs

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D-Day

75 years ago today on June 6, 1944 U.S., British, and Canadian forces invaded Normandy France on five separate beachheads.

By the end of August northern France was liberated, and the Allies were advancing into Germany.

 

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Bảo Đại

Bảo Đại, the last of the Nguyễn dynasty, was the Emperor of Annam (a protectorate within French Indochina) from 1926 to 1945.

After the Japanese ousted the Vichy-French administration in March 1945 Bảo Đại was named ruler. He soon renamed the country “Vietnam“.

When the Viet Minh seized power in August 1945 after the Japanese surrender, Bảo Đại held an advisory role as “Citizen Prince Nguyen Vinh Thuy.”

Finding no role with the Viet Minh, and distrustful of the French, Bao Dai fled to Hong Kong in 1946 where he led a frivolous life.

In 1949 the French accepted the principle of an independent Vietnam but retained control of its defense and finances. Bao Dai became temporary premier, but left the affairs of state to pro-French Vietnamese appointees and was known as the “Playboy Emperor.”

In 1955, criticized for being too closely associated with France, Bảo Đại was ousted by Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm in a fraudulent referendum vote.

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Bogart on Baseball

Concerned that the emerging medium of television would hurt ticket receipts, Major League baseball officials produced TV commercials similar to those used to promote movies in the early 1950s.

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Memorial Day

PROCLAMATION 2889  – May 22, 1950

  PRAYER FOR PEACE, MEMORIAL DAY

Since war is the world’s most terrible scourge, we should do all in our power to prevent its recurrence.

It was the hope of mankind that with the cessation of hostilities of World War II the way would be open to founding a permanent peace.

Instead, that war has left the world in a state of continued unrest.

Accordingly, we feel the need of turning in humble suppliance to Almighty God for help and guidance.

In recognition of this need, the Congress has fittingly provided, in a joint resolution which I approved on May 11, 1950, that Memorial Day, which has long been set aside for paying tribute to those who lost their lives in war, shall henceforth be dedicated also as a day for Nation-wide prayer for permanent peace. The Congress has also requested that the President issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe Memorial Day in that manner.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, HARRY S. TRUMAN, President of the United States of America, pursuant to the aforementioned resolution, do hereby proclaim Memorial Day, Tuesday, May 30, 1950, and each succeeding Memorial Day, as a day of prayer for permanent peace. And I designate the hour beginning at eleven o’clock in the morning of that day, Eastern Daylight Saving Time, as a period in which all our people may unite in prayer, each in accordance with his own religious faith, for divine aid in bringing enduring peace to a troubled world.

I also request the agencies of the press, radio, television, and other media of public information to join in the observance of that day and of the specified hour by announcements and programs designed to unite the Nation in a universal prayer for permanent peace.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this 22nd day of May in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-fourth. [SEAL]

HARRY S. TRUMAN



Here is an interesting archival collection of NY Times Memorial Day articles since WWI:

100 Years of Memorial Day Commemorations

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Storm Clouds ~ U.S. & China

Australian Associated Press – January 15, 1950

Despite British recognition of the new regime, Communist seizure of U.S. consular property in Beijing prompted the United States to recall all consular officials from China in January 1950.

Some background

In August 1949 the U.S. Department of State issued the China White Paper, which stated that the United States had stayed out of the Chinese civil war because it neither should nor could have influenced the outcome.

In October 1949, after the Nationalists were driven from mainland China, Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

Shortly before the proclamation of the new Chinese government, U.S. Ambassador John Leighton Stuart met with Communist leaders to discuss U.S. recognition of the the new regime. Further negotiations faltered when Mao announced his intention to lean towards the side of the Soviet Union.

Source: https://history.state.gov/countries/issues/china-us-relations

Vyacheslav MolotovMao Zedong

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God Bless America

Kate Smith’ s version of Irving Berlin‘s song God Bless America has been part of American sports tradition for decades.

However, a recent revelation that she also recorded two songs with racist content in the 1930s (That’s Why Darkies Were Born (1931) and Pickaninny Heaven (1933) has resulted in cancellation of playing God Bless America by the New York Yankees baseball and the Philadelphia Flyers hockey teams.

Wikipedia

Wherever you stand on the issue of banning all works of a performer because of past racist lyrics, listening to these two Kate Smith songs from the 1930s is a shocking reminder of how common casual racism was in America’s not too distant past.

Popular during WWII, Kate Smith’s radio and recording career reached its pinnacle in the 1940s – when she was known as The Songbird of the South.

In the 1950s, she had two TV shows: the late afternoon Kate Smith Hour and the Kate Smith Evening Hour. She continued on the Mutual Broadcasting System, CBS, ABC, and NBC with music and talk shows on radio until 1960.

Singing God Bless America at the Philadelphia Flyers hockey games from 1969-1976, Smith attracted new national attention.

However, in 1960, as she faded from the limelight and rock and roll increased in popularity, the Kate Smith Show lasted only six months.

In 1982, U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan awarded Kate Smith the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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