1948
From Bvio.com
1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).
Contents |
Events
January-February
- January 1 - Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways. Arab militants lay siege to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. First day of the Italian republican constitution.
- January 4 - Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
- January 5 - Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
- January 17 - Truce between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops in Java
- January 26 - Man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 out of 15 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadimacha Hirasawa is later sentenced for the crime
- January 30 - Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is murdered by a Hindu extremist.
- January 30 - 1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
- February 1 - Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts
- February 4 - Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth. King George VI becomes King of Ceylon.
- February 18 - Eamon de Valera, head of government since 1932, loses power to an opposition coalition. John A. Costello is appointed Taoiseach of [[�ire]] (formerly called the Irish Free State) by President O'Kelly.
- February 24 - The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia.
March-April
- March 8 - The United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violated the Constitution.
- March 10 - Czech foreign minister Jan Masaryk killed in ?fall? from his office window
- March 20 - First elections in Singapore
- April 1 - Cold War: Berlin Airlift - Military forces, under direction of the Soviet-controlled government in East Germany, establish a land blockade of West Berlin.
- April 3 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
- April 7 - The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
- April 9 - The Deir Yassin massacre takes place in Palestine.
May
- May 1 - 213 communists executed in Greece
- May 11 - Luigi Einaudi becomes president of Italy
- May 14 - Israel is declared as an independent state.
- May 14 - The murder of a three-year-old girl in Blackburn, England leads to the fingerprinting of more than 40,000 men in the city in an attempt to find the murderer.
- May 15 - Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attack Israel.
- May 16 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
- May 18 - The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.
- May 26 - The United States Congress passes Public Law 557 which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as the auxiliary of the United States Air Force.
- May 30 - A dike along the Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. 15 people died and tens of thousands are left homeless.
June-July
- June 3 - Palomar Observatory telescope finished in California
- June 16 - Communist guerillas kill three rubber planters in Malay
- June 17 - A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Air Lines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board. [1]
- June 18 - State of Emergency declared in Malaysia for communist insurgency - Malayan Emergency begins
- June 21 - The Deutsche Mark becomes official currency of the Federal Republic of Germany
- June 24 - The Berlin Blockade begins.
- June 28 - Cominform Resolution marks the beginning of the Informbiro period in Yugoslavia and Soviet/Yugoslav split.
- July 5 - British National Health Service Act enacted.
- July 15 - Attempted assassination of Palmiro Togliatti, general secretary of the Italian Communist Party, incites number of strikes all over the country
- July 15 - First London,England chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous
- July 20 - Cold War: President Harry S. Truman issues the first peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union.
- July 24 - Great oil fire in the harbor of Naantali, Finland
- July 26 - U.S. President signs Executive Order 9981, ending segregation in the United States Armed Forces.
- July 31 - At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
August-December
- August 12 - USA recognizes the government of South Korea
- August 19 - Soviet troops fire at German demonstrators that protest against the Berlin Blockade
- September 4 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.
- September 6 - Juliana becomes Queen of the Netherlands.
- September 17 - Stern Gang assassinates count Folke Bernadotte
- November 2 - U.S. presidential election, 1948: Harry S. Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey for the US presidency.
- November 12 - In Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials to death, including General Hideki Tojo, for their roles in World War II.
- November 15 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent becomes Canada's twelfth prime minister.
- November 16 - Operation Magic Carpet to transport Jews from Yemen to Israel begins
- November 17 - Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi divorces Queen Fawzia of Egypt after she is unable to produce a male heir.
- December 10 - United Nations General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- December 28 - Member of Muslim Brotherhood assassinates Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi
- December 30 - The play Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances.
- December 31 - Israeli troops drive Egyptians from Negev
Undated
- Hell's Angels motorcycle gang forms
- Empire Windrush immigrant ship arrives in Britain
- Faroe Islands receive autonomy from Denmark
- Civil war in Costa Rica
- Civil war in Colombia
Unknown date
- Porsche is founded.
- Miranda, the innermost moon of Uranus, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper.
- Casimir effect discovered by Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir.
- Tunnel of Vielha is opened in Val d'Aran, Spanish Pyrenees.
- Fresh Kills, world's largest landfill, opens in Staten Island, New York.
- The law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is founded.
Year in topic
- 1948 in film
- Hamlet
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre starring Humphrey Bogart
- Joan of Arc starring Ingrid Bergman and [[Jos� Ferrer]]
- Key Largo starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
- Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, starring Jimmy Stewart
- 1948 in literature
- 1948 in music
- Columbia Records introduces the 33 1/3 LP (“long playing”) record.
- 1948 in sports
- February 21 - The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was incorporated by William HG France to organize and promote the sport of stock car racing.
- February 28 - Bud Gartiser sets a new world record after clearing the 50-yard low hurdles in 6.8 seconds.
- 1948 Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland
- 1948 Summer Olympic Games in London, United Kingdom
- Baseball World Series: Cleveland Indians defeat the Boston Braves.
- 1948 in television
- CBS begins network programming.
- ABC opens its first television station in New York.
- June 20 - Toast of the Town, with Ed Sullivan, premieres on CBS, with guests Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
- June 21 - The first network telecast of political conventions from Philadelphia.
- July 30 - Professional wrestling premieres in prime-time on the DuMont Network.
- August 10 - Candid Camera debuts on ABC.
- August 15 - The first network nightly newscast, CBS-TV News, debuts on CBS with Douglas Edwards.
- September - Milton Berle becomes the first television star, with Texaco Star Theatre on NBC.
- Television manufacturing begins in Canada.
Births
January-February
- January 7 - Kenny Loggins, singer
- January 10 - Donald Fagen, keyboardist
- January 14 - Carl Weathers, actor
- January 14 - T-Bone Burnett, producer, musician
- January 15 - Ronnie VanZant, musician (d. 1977)
- January 16 - John Carpenter, director
- January 17 - [[Dav�� Oddsson]], Prime Minister of Iceland
- January 27 - Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer
- February 4 - Alice Cooper, musician
- February 5 - Christopher Guest, actor, writer, director, composer
- February 5 - Barbara Hershey, actress
- February 11 - Sue Bernard, Playboy playmate for December 1966
- February 14 - Teller, magician (Penn and Teller)
- February 24 - J. Jayalalithaa, Indian politician
- February 28 - Bernadette Peters, actress, singer
- February 28 - Mike Figgis, director, writer, composer
- February 28 - Mercedes Ruehl, actress
March-May
- March 1 - Winston Rodney, aka Burning Spear, Jamaican roots rock reggae singer and musician
- March 2 - R. T. Crowley, writer, pioneer of Electronic Data Interchange
- March 9 - Jeffrey Osborne, singer
- March 11 - Dominique Sanda, actress
- March 12 - James Taylor, musician
- March 17 - William Gibson, writer
- March 20 - John de Lancie, actor (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Voyager)
- March 20 - Bobby Orr, ice hockey player
- March 22 - Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer
- March 22 - Wolf Blitzer, television journalist
- March 26 - Steven Tyler, lead singer of Aerosmith
- March 28 - Dianne Wiest, actress (Hannah and Her Sisters, Law & Order)
- March 31 - Al Gore, US Vice President
- March 31 - Rhea Perlman, actress
- April 1 - Jimmy Cliff, musician
- May 12 - Steve Winwood, singer
- May 15 - Brian Eno, musician, record producer
- May 19 - Grace Jones, singer, actress
- May 21 - Leo Sayer, musician
- May 26 - Stevie Nicks, singer & songwriter (Fleetwood Mac)
- May 31 - John Bonham ("Bonzo"), drummer (d. 1980)
June-September
- June 2 - Todd Rundgren, singer and producer
- June 13 - Marc Flanagan, television writer and producer
- June 13 - Garnet Bailey, professional hockey player & scout
- June 19 - Phylicia Rashad, actress
- June 21 - Lionel Rose, first aboriginal boxer to win a world title (in 1968)
- June 21 - Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish fantasy writer
- July 21 - Ed Hinton, sportswriter
- July 21 - Cat Stevens, musician
- July 21 - Garry Trudeau, cartoonist
- July 25 - Peggy Fleming, figure skater
- July 28 - Sally Struthers, actress
- July 30 - Jean Reno, actor
- August 2 - Dennis Prager, radio talk show host and author
- August 3 - Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Prime Minister of France
- August 20 - Robert Plant, singer (Led Zeppelin)
- August 30 - Lewis Black, stand-up comedian
- September 5 - Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Austrian diplomat and politician
- September 10 - Bob Lanier, Basketball Hall of Famer
- September 10 - Margaret Trudeau, former First Lady of Canada
- September 22 - Denis Burke, Australian politician
- September 29 - Bryant Gumbel, television broadcaster
October-December
- October 2 - Avery Brooks, actor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
- October 9 - Jackson Browne, musician
- October 13 - Ted Poe, American politician
- October 17 - George Wendt, actor (Cheers)
- November 1 - Jim Steinman, songwriter/producer
- November 10 - Vincent Schiavelli, actor
- November 14 - Prince Charles, later Prince of Wales
- November 16 - Mutt Lange, record producer
- December 27 - [[G�rard Depardieu]], French actor
Deaths
- January 21 - Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer
- January 30 - Mohandas Gandhi, Leader of Indian Non-Violent Independence movement (assassinated)
- January 30 - Orville Wright of the Wright brothers, co-inventor of the airplane
- February 2 - Bevil Rudd, South African athlete
- February 11 - Sergy Eisenstein, film director
- March 10 - Zelda Fitzgerald (Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald)
- March 10 - Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia
- March 31 - Egon Erwin Kisch, journalist and author
- April 17 - Suzuki Kantaro, Japanese admiral and prime minister
- May 15 - Father Edward J. Flanagan, priest, founder of Boys Town
- May 28 - Unity Mitford, British friend of Hitler
- August 16 - Babe Ruth, Baseball Hall of Famer
- July 23 - David Wark Griffith, film director
- September 11 - Muhammed Ali Jinnah, first Governor-General of Pakistan
- October 24 - [[Franz Leh�r]], composer
- December 23 - Doihara Kenji, Hirota Koki, Itagaki Seishiro, Kimura Heitaro, Matsui Iwane, Muto Akira, and Tojo Hideki, Japanese war leaders (hanged)
- December 31 - Sir Malcolm Campbell, land and water racer
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett
- Chemistry - Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius
- Medicine - Paul Hermann M�ller
- Literature - T. S. Eliot
- Peace - Not awarded.af:1948
ar:1948 ast:1948 bg:1948 ca:1948 cs:1948 cy:1948 da:1948 de:1948 et:1948 el:1948 es:1948 eo:1948 eu:1948 fr:1948 fy:1948 gl:1948 ko:1948년 hr:1948 is:1948 it:1948 he:1948 la:1948 lb:1948 hu:1948 nl:1948 ja:1948年 no:1948 pl:1948 pt:1948 ro:1948 ru:1948 sk:1948 sl:1948 sr:1948 fi:1948 sv:1948 tl:1948 tr:1948 uk:1948 wa:1948 zh:1948年
