American politician Joseph McCarthy was BOTD in 1908. Born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin to an Irish-American farming family, he attended Marqette University before graduating from law school. During World War One, he served in the US Marines attaining the rank of major. In 1947, he was elected as a Republican Senator for Wisconsin, a position he held until his death. In 1950, he rose to national attention by claiming to have identified a Communist spy ring within the State Department. The Senate subsequently investigated his claims in the Tydings Committee hearings, in which McCarthy named nine people as Communist spies. Though his claims were dismissed, McCarthy continued to exploit the fear of Communism, attacking Secretary of Defense George Marshall, and leading a witch-hunt against suspected homosexuals working in government, coined the Lavender Scare. Approximately 10,000 civil servants lost their jobs during the purges, with many committing suicide after their lives and reputations were destroyed. In 1953, he chaired the Senate Committee on Government Operations to investigate Communist influence in government. The Committee hearings, many of them televised, electrified America, as McCarthy and his chief prosecutor Roy Cohn harassed and insulted witnesses, demanding that they name friends and colleagues as Communists. The following year, McCarthy was investigated for bullying and corruption, badly damaging his public reputation. After widespread calls for McCarthy to resign, notably by TV journalist Edward R. Murrow, McCarthy was formally censured by Senate on two counts of misconduct. His reputation shattered, he declined into alcohol and drug addiction, dying in 1957 aged 48. The term “McCarthyism” was coined to describe political scapegoating and baseless defamation, and his name is still synonymous with the oppressive anti-Communist and homophobic attitudes of 1950s America. His life and legacy has been repeated portrayed onscreen, notably by James Woods, Al Pacino and Frank Langella, and by Michael Shannon in a forthcoming biopic.