Wheeling, West Virginia Senator Joseph (Joe) McCarthy says he has the names of 205 Communist Party members who are working in the US State Department.

McCarthy made his allegations at an opportune time, anti-Communist sentiment was on the rise after China installed a communist government.

McCarthy would eventually be severely censured for his tactics.

Grandson of the founder of Coors Brewery, Adolph Coors, failed to arrive at work from the drive in from his Morrison, Colorado, home on this day. A ransom demand was received, but he was found later in the year shot dead.

The FBI launches a massive manhunt for Joe Corbett. Corbett had already been convicted for manslaughter, but escaped from a minimum security facility to which he had been moved after an initial stay at San Quentin.

A yellow Mercury car, seen at the scene of the kidnap, and owned by Corbett, was found on fire eight days after the kidnap. Analysis of dirt in the car could be traced back to the scene of the kidnap.

Corbett would eventually be apprehended after the FBI distributed 1.5 million posters of his picture. A ransom letter was traced to Corbett's typewriter. It was also proved at his trial that Corbett had bought handcuffs, leg irons and a gun through the mail in the months before the kidnapping. He was eventually apprehended in Vancouver Canada.

Corbett was convicted in 1961. He was released in 1980.