Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) succumbed to illness exacerbated by alcoholism and passed away at age 48.

McCarthy had been a key figure in the anticommunist hysteria
popularly known as the “Red Scare” that engulfed the United
States in the years following World War II.

McCarthy was born in a small town in Wisconsin in 1908. In
1942, he joined the Marines and served in the Pacific during
World War II. He returned home in 1944 and decided to start
a career in politics.