President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, beginning the process of the desegregation of the military. [1]

In one of the greatest electoral upsets in American history, incumbent President Harry S. Truman defeated Republican Governor Thomas E. Dewey. [2]

President Harry S. Truman’s former Secretary of State, and South Carolina native James F. Byrnes announces his candidacy for Governor of South Carolina [3]

Senator Joseph McCarthy delivered a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia where he claimed to have a list of 205 Communists who were employed within the State Department exacerbating the Second Red Scare in America. [4]

North Korean forces cross border into South Korea. [21]

First U.S. ground combat troops, Task Force Smith (1st Battalion, 21st Infantry, 24th Infantry Division), arrive in Korea. [21]

Army MSGT Grainger (born in Horry County) is fatally wounded near Chochiwon, South Korea. His body would not be repatriated until 2012. He was twenty five years old at the time of his death. [7]

Army PFC Woodbury (born in Horry County) is Killed in Action in South Korea. [8]

U.S. and UN forces are pushed back to the Southeastern corner of South Korea. They are close to being pushed off the Korean peninsula. [21]

American forces land at Inchon, South Korea led by General Douglas MacArthur [21]

U.S. Eighth Army begins its offensive northward out of the Pusan Perimeter. [11]

U.S. and Republic of Korea (ROK) forces capture Seoul, South Korea. [21]

U.S. Eighth Army forces cross 38th Parallel north of Kaesong and attack northward toward P'yongyang, North Korea [21]

1st ROK Division and U.S. 1st Cavalry Division capture P'yongyang, North Korea [21]

Communist Chinese Forces (CCF) offensive operations begin north of Unsan with fighting between CCF and ROK forces; first Chinese soldier is captured. [21]

1st Marine Division, X Corps, lands at Wonsan. ROK forces reach the Yalu River at Chosan. [21]

U.S troops engage Communist Chinese Troops near Unsan [21]

The man who guided the United States into the Cold War, James Byrnes wins the South Carolina’s Gubernatorial Election with 100% of the vote. []

Chinese forces strike X Corps at Chosin Reservoir. [21]

Army SGT Gibson (born in Horry County) goes Missing in Action near Unbong-dong, North Korea. His body has never been recovered, and an empty plot with a headstone awaits his return at Riverside Cemetery in Horry County, South Carolina. He was nineteen years old at the time of his death. [20]

Eighth Army begins general withdrawal from Chongchon River line to defensive line at P'yongyang, North Korea. [21]

U.S Eighth Army Falls Back From P'yongyang, North Korea. [21]

Lt. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway arrives in Korea as Eighth Army commander. [21]

Seoul falls, and the Eighth Army pulls back to a line forty miles south of Seoul. [21]

Johnson (born in Horry County) is Killed in Action near Chisong-Ni, North Korea. He was eighteen years old. [21]

Army CPL Causey (born in Horry County) is Killed in Action near Chipyong-Ni, South Korea. His cause of death was a gunshot wound to the thorax; he was nineteen years old. [25]

Army CPL Lipscomb (born in Horry County) is Killed In Action in South Korea. He was twenty years old. [26]

Reports confirm an enemy withdrawal along the entire central front. [21]

UN troops enter Seoul, the South Korean capital. [21]

Gov. James F. Byrnes instituted a $75 million program to make African American schools “equal” to white schools in an effort to forestall racial integration of the South Carolina’s public schools. A three percent sales tax, the first in the history of the state, was levied to finance the program. [21]

President Harry S. Truman relieves Gen. MacArthur of Command in response to increasingly erratic behavior, and a push by MacArthur to use the atomic bomb in Korea, and China. Gen. Ridgeway succeeds him. [21]

Chinese and North Korean Spring offensive begins, with the strongest attacks in the west, toward Seoul. [21[

Army PFC Blackmon (born in Horry County) is Killed in Action near Chochiwon, South Korea. He was twenty-one years old. [33]

Army SGT Thompkins is Killed in Action [34]

Daniel P. Thompkins (born in Conway, South Carolina) was captured near the Yalu River in North Korea in November, 1951. He would go on to endure thirty-four months as an American POW in two different camps in North Korea. [38]

Lonnie King (born in Horry County) is Killed in Action in South Korea; he was twenty-three years old. [39]

Army PFC Rheuark (Born in Loris, South Carolina) [40]

Briggs v. Elliot is decided in support of the racial segregation of Clarendon County, South Carolina’s public schools and school busses. This case would later make up the landmark U.S Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education declaring racially segregated schools unequal, and unconstitutional. [41]

Republican candidate for U.S President Dwight Eisenhower defeats Democratic challenger Adlai Stevenson II. [21]

Voters approved an amendment to the state constitution empowering the legislature to close public schools, if necessary, to avoid integration. [43]

Dorothy M. Beale and her Son Billy Beale are featured in an April 10, 1953 edition of Life Magazine. Mrs. Beale’s husband Lt. George Beale was captured in August, 1951 after his plane was shot down over Korea. [44]

An Armistice was signed at 10:00 am KST, and fighting ended a few hours later. [21]