July 20, 1950

1950Edward Leigh, English lawyer and politician^[†]

Sir Edward Julian Egerton Leigh is a British Conservative Party politician who has been serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gainsborough, previously Gainsborough and Horncastle, since 1983. Parliament's longest-serving MP since 2024, Leigh is styled Father of the House and, in July 2024, acted as a Temporary Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons.

1950Lucille Lemay, Canadian archer^[†]

Lucille Lemay is a Canadian archer.

1950Cold War: In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.^[†]

The Cold War was a period of global geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.

1950After a month-long campaign, the majority of North Korea's Air Force was destroyed by anti-communist forces.^[†]

The Korean People's Army Air Force is the unified military aviation force of North Korea. It is the second largest branch of the Korean People's Army comprising an estimated 110,000 members. As of 2024, it is estimated to possess some 570 combat aircraft, 200 helicopters, and a few transporters, mostly of decades-old Soviet and Chinese origin. Its primary task is to defend North Korean airspace. In April 2022, the Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force name was changed to Korean People's Army Air Force.