Korea timeline

1950 1951 1952 1953

By Times Staff
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 20, 2003

	Jan. 1-15 In a third Chinese offensive, 500,000 enemy troops push U.N. forces 50 miles south of the 38th Parallel and recapture Seoul.
	Jan. 18 French troops defeat Viet Minh guerrillas threatening to overrun Hanoi, Vietnam.
	Feb. 13-15 Battle of Chipyong-ni. First mass assault by Chinese troops is contained by allied forces.
	Feb. 16 An unprecedented 861-day naval operation, the blockade of Wonsan Harbor - the longest effective siege of a port in U.S. Navy history - begins.
	March 7-April 4 Operation Ripper drives the Communists back to the 38th Parallel and retakes Seoul.
	March 30 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are found guilty of spying; they will be sentenced to death.
	RIDGWAY April 11 President Truman relieves MacArthur, who had challenged the president's foreign policy, as supreme commander of U.N. forces and replaces him with Gen. Matthew Ridgway.
	April 12 War's first major aerial duel. More than 40 MiG-15s attack a B-29 bomber formation, shooting down two bombers. Eleven of the MiGs are destroyed, seven by B-29 gunners.
	April 22-29 In the largest single battle of the Korean War, the Chinese forces launch their spring offensive with 250,000 men. Five U.S. Army divisions participate.
	May 15 AT&T announces it has 1-million stockholders, a first in the United States.
	May 17-22 Four U.S. divisions counter the Chinese second spring offensive.
	June 10-16 Battle for the Punchbowl. The 1st Marine Division encounters heavy North Korean resistance, but succeeds in taking its objective.
	June 14 Univac I, the first commercially built computer, goes into operation at the Census Bureau in Philadelphia.
	July 10 Korean War truce talks begin in Kaesong.
	July 20 Jordan's King Abdullah assassinated.
	Aug. 18-Sept. 5 Battle of Bloody Ridge. The 15th Field Artillery Battalion sets a record by firing 14,425 rounds in 24 hours.
	Sept. 13-Oct 15 The 2nd Infantry Division seizes Heartbreak Ridge.
	Sept. 19 A Streetcar Named Desire, with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, debuts.
	Oct. 10 Yankees win the series over the Giants.
	Oct. 26 Winston Churchill returns as Britain's prime minister.
	Nov. 5 The first section of the New Jersey Turnpike, 51 miles, opens.
	Nov. 27 In the Korean truce talks, the two sides agree on the 38th Parallel as the line of demarcation and almost immediately military operations slow down.
	Dec. 23 L.A. Rams defeat Cleveland Browns 24-17 for the National Football League title.

SOURCES: The Department of Defense 50th Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee; Chronicle of the 20th Century; Timelines by Paul Dickson

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