September 29, 1950: MacArthur Hands Seoul Back

Today in 1950 · Friday, September 29, 1950

General MacArthur leads the Lord's Prayer at the ceremony restoring Seoul to the Republic of Korea, September 29, 1950

General MacArthur leads the Lord's Prayer at the ceremony restoring Seoul to the Republic of Korea, September 29, 1950 · U.S. Army photo (Harry S. Truman Library), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On this day in 1950, General Douglas MacArthur staged the most theatrical moment of the Korean War. Flying into Kimpo with South Korean President Syngman Rhee, he proceeded to the National Assembly Hall in Seoul's battle-scarred capitol building and formally restored the liberated capital to its government — two weeks to the day after the Inchon landing. Photographs of the ceremony are preserved at the Truman Library.

The scene was pure MacArthur: he declared the city free and then led the assembled officials in the Lord's Prayer — while, as the Korean War Legacy Foundation records, plaster from the shell-damaged ceiling drifted down onto the crowd as they prayed. A tearful Rhee grasped his hand and thanked the American Marines who had retaken the city street by street. In Washington, Truman cabled congratulations; the message survives in his public papers.

That same Friday in New York, the Yankees clinched the American League pennant in the most anticlimactic way available: without playing. Idle at 97-55, they watched second-place Detroit lose 12-2 to Cleveland, ending the race. Casey Stengel's team went on to sweep the Phillies in the World Series — the second of five straight championships. Seoul returned, the pennant decided: a single day's news in 1950.

Also on this day

  • The Hazel Scott Show, television's first program hosted by a Black woman, was cancelled by DuMont after its host was named in the Red Channels blacklist — thirteen days after she voluntarily testified before HUAC.
  • In Korea, UN units advancing north approached the 38th parallel.

🎵 On the radio that week: America’s No. 1 song was “Goodnight Irene” by Gordon Jenkins and The Weavers (Billboard best sellers) — the Weavers' version with Gordon Jenkins' orchestra sold about two million copies, with 'Tzena, Tzena, Tzena' on the same disc. That sound never really left — we recreate 1950s doo-wop and slow-dance ballads every week: read the stories behind our songs or listen on the lovesong1950s channel.
🎬 At the movies: The box office belonged to “My Blue Heaven” — which also introduced a newcomer named Mitzi Gaynor — with “Sunset Boulevard” at No. 2.
⚾ In sports: Philadelphia's free-fall cut a 7.5-game lead to a single game over Brooklyn entering the final day, while the idle Yankees clinched the pennant when Cleveland routed Detroit 12-2.

Sources: Truman Library: ceremony photographs · Truman's message to MacArthur on Seoul · Korean War Legacy Foundation: recapturing Seoul · Retrosheet: September 29, 1950 · Billboard best-seller charts, 1950 (issue scans) · Variety National Boxoffice Survey, 1950 (Lantern scans) · Retrosheet 1950 game logs and box scores. Every fact above is drawn from the records linked here — no dramatization, no invented details.

More from this series: Today in 1950 — the daily archive · every post from September 2026

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