(Lincoln Day, Thursday, February 9, 1950, evening EST; during the Second Red Scare and the Cold War) — U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy brandished a piece of paper tonight during a Lincoln Day dinner speech to the Ohio County Republican Women’s Club at the McClure Hotel in Wheeling, West Virginia, which he claimed contained a list of known communists working for the State Department.

“I have here in my hand a list of 205 — a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department,” he said.

The speech resulted in a flood of press attention to McCarthy and helped establish his path to becoming one of the most recognized politicians in the United States.

In the end, however, McCarthy’s investigations failed to uncover even one communist working in the government. As a result, the term McCarthyism became synonymous with witch hunts and baseless allegations.