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1948
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1948

Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1948

January

January 1 - Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways.
January 1 - Arab militants lay siege to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
January 1 - First day of the Italian republican constitution.
January 1 - First day of the New Jersey State 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 22 - British foreign secretary Bevin proposes the formation of a Western Union between Britain, France and the Benelux countries to stand up against the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Brussels is signed March 17 as a consequence, a predecessor to NATO.
January 26 - Teigin poison case: a man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 of 16 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced to death for the crime, but is never executed.
January 30 - Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse.
January 30 - 1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

February

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 Éire (formerly called the Irish Free State) by President O'Kelly.
February 25 - The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia. This day was celebrated by the regime as the "Victorious February" (Czech:"Vítězný únor"; Slovak:"Víťazný Február") until November 1989.

March

March 8 - McCollum v. Board of Education: the United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violated the U.S. Constitution.
March 16 - Largest flood in the history of Brampton, Ontario.
March 17 - Hells Angels founded in California.
March 20 - First elections in Singapore.
March 20 - Renowned Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini makes his television debut, conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in an all-Wagner program.

April

April 1 - Scientists Ralph Alpher and George Gamow publish the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper about the big bang.
April 3 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
April 3 - Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is played on television in its entirety for the first time, in a concert featuring Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The chorus is conducted by Robert Shaw.
April 7 - The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
April 7 - Buddhist monastery burns in Shanghai - 20 monks dead.
April 9 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in all of Colombia (La Violencia).
April 9 - The Deir Yassin massacre takes place in Palestine.
April 24 - End of the Costa Rican Civil War
April 30 - Land Rover unveiled at Amsterdam Motor Show

May

May 4 - Laurence Olivier's film version of Hamlet receives its world premiere in London.
May 11 - Luigi Einaudi becomes President of the Italian Republic.
May 14 - Declaration of Independence of Israel.
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 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Mandate of Palestine is officially terminated by Britain; Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia enter Palestine and attack the nascent State of 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 U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557 which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as the auxiliary of the United States Air Force.
May 28 - Daniel Francois Malan defeats Jan Smuts and becomes Prime Minister of South Africa, ushering in the heinous era of Apartheid which was finally dismantled by F W de Klerk 1994
May 30 - A dike along the Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes: 15 people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.

June

June 3 - Palomar Observatory telescope finished in California.
June 16

Communist guerillas kill three rubber planters in Malaya.
Three armed men hijack Cathay Pacific passenger plane Miss Macao and shoot the pilot; the plane crashes - one of 27 survives.

June 11 - The first monkey astronaut, Albert I, launched into space from White Sands, New Mexico.
June 17 - A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Air Lines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.
June 18

State of Emergency declared in Malaysia for communist insurgency - Malayan Emergency begins.
First democratic general election with universal suffrage in Italy.

June 20 - U.S.Congress: Commencement of Congressional Recess for the remainder of 1948 after an overtime session closed on this Saturday at 0700 D.C. time (to be shortly interrupted by Truman's recall from Congressional recess for July 20, 1948).
June 21 - The Deutsche Mark becomes official currency of the future Federal Republic of Germany.
June 22- The ship Empire Windrush brings the first group of several hundred black immigrants to Tilbury near London from the Caribbean countries. This would be the start of multiculturalism in Britain.
June 24

Cold War: The Berlin Blockade begins.
The first World Health Assembly of World Health Organisation is held in Geneva.

June 26 - William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
June 28

Cominform Resolution marks the beginning of the Informbiro period in Yugoslavia and Soviet/Yugoslav split.
David Lean's Oliver Twist, based on Charles Dickens's famous novel, premieres in the UK. It will be banned for 3 years in the U.S. because of alleged anti-Semitism in depicting master criminal Fagin, played by Alec Guinness.
Earthquake hits Fukui, Japan killing 3,895.

July

July 5 - National Health Service Acts enacted in United Kingdom.
July 6 - The world's first Air Car-ferry service was flown by a Bristol Freighter of Silver City Airways from Lympne to Le Touquet.

July 13 - The Coptic and Ethiopian Churches reach an agreement leading to the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalous Patriarchate. Five bishops are immediately consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria, and the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV is granted the power to consecrate new bishops, who are empowered to elect a new Patriarch for their church.
July 15

Attempted assassination of Palmiro Togliatti, general secretary of the Italian Communist Party, incites number of strikes all over the country.
First London chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous

July 20 - Cold War: President Harry S. Truman issues the second peacetime military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union (the first peacetime draft occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt).
July 24 - Great oil fire in the harbor of Naantali, *Finland
July 26 - U.S. President signs Executive Order 9981, ending racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces.
July 28 - Around 200 die in explosion at a chemical plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
July 29 - 1948 Summer Olympics begin in London, the first Summer Olympics since World War II.
July 31 - At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.

August

August 1 - The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.
August 10 - August 23 - Herrenchiemsee Convent prepares the draft for the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
August 15 - Establishment of the Republic of Korea.
August 23 - World Council of Churches established.
August 24 - First meeting of the charter members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) held.
August 25 - House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.

September

September 4 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.
September 5 - Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France.
September 6 - Juliana becomes Queen of the Netherlands.
September 9 – The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is formally declared, with Kim Il-sung as prime minister.
September 11 - Death of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Founder and first Governor General of Pakistan (b. 1876). Pakistan is in a state of shock as it mourns the departure of the father of the nation. The day is a public holiday nation-wide.
September 12 - Invasion of the State of Hyderabad by the Indian Army on the day after the Pakistani leader Jinnah's death to assist damage control. Operation Polo led to the deaths of an estimated tens of thousands of Hyderabadi Muslims.
September 17 - Stern Gang assassinates count Folke Bernadotte.
September 29 - Laurence Olivier's Hamlet opens in the United States.

October

October 5 - The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake kills 100,000
October 11 - Cleveland Indians defeat the Boston Braves to win the World Series, four games to two.
October 16 - The 57th Street Art Fair, the oldest juried art fair in the American midwest, is founded.
October 26 - Killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania.

November

November 2 - United States presidential election, 1948: Harry S. Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey and Strom Thurmond 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 his second wife, the former Princess Fawzia of Egypt.
November 20 - Geoffrey B. Orbell rediscovers the Takahē, last seen 50 years ago, near Lake Te Anau, New Zealand.
November 24 - In Venezuela, president Rómulo Betancourt is ousted by a military coup. A military junta takes over the government.
November 27 - The Calgary Stampeders defeat the Ottawa Rough Riders 12-7 before 20,013 fans at Toronto's Varsity Stadium to capture their first Grey Cup and complete the only perfect season to date in Canadian Football.

December

December 10 - United Nations General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
December 26 - Last Soviet troops withdraw from North Korea.
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 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Israeli troops drive Egyptians from Negev.

Undated

Brandeis University is founded.
Casimir effect discovered by Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir.
Fresh Kills, world's largest landfill, opens in Staten Island, New York.
Playwright Arthur Miller writes "Death of a Salesman."
The law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is founded.
Miranda, the innermost moon of Uranus, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper.
Oakridge Transit Centre opened in Vancouver, British Columbia.
RAND Corporation is established as a nonprofit policy research and analysis institution.
The Slovak city Gúta was renamed to Kolárovo.
Tunnel of Vielha is opened in the Aran Valley, Spanish Pyrenees.
The Caspian Tiger became extinct in Kazakhstan by this date.
The Rhode Island Highlanders Pipe Band was founded.

Ongoing

First Indochina War

Births

January-February

January 2

Mary Archer, British scientist
Deborah Watling, British actress

January 5

Wally Foreman, Australian media icon (d. 2006)

January 7

Kenny Loggins, American singer

January 10

Donald Fagen, American keyboardist
Mischa Maisky, Latvian cellist

January 12

Kenny Allen, English footballer

January 14

T-Bone Burnett, American record producer and musician
Carl Weathers, American football player and actor

January 15

Ronnie Van Zant, American musician (d. 1977)

January 16

John Carpenter, American film director and composer
Cliff Thorburn, Canadian snooker player

January 17 - Davíð Oddsson, Prime Minister of Iceland
January 19 - Frank McKenna, Premier of New Brunswick and Canadian Ambassador
January 27 - Mikhail Baryshnikov, Russian-born dancer
January 28 - Charles Taylor, Liberian president
January 29 - Marc Singer, Canadian actor
January 30 - Paul Magee, Provisional Irish Republican Army member
January 31 - Muneo Suzuki, Japanese politician
February 1

Elisabeth Sladen, British actress
Rick James, American musician (d. 2004)

February 2 - Ina Garten, Cooking author
February 3 - Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, East Timorean Catholic bishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
February 4

Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier), American hard rock singer and musician
Roedy Green, Canadian programmer and LGBT activist

February 5

Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish football manager
Christopher Guest, American actor, writer, director, and composer

February 6 - Jack Conway, musician, composer, arranger, guitarist
February 7 - Tony Iommi, English guitarist (Black Sabbath)
February 10 - John Magnier, Irish businessman and Thoroughbred racehorse breeder
February 12 - Raymond Kurzweil, American inventor and author
February 14

Teller, American magician
Jackie Martling, American comedian and radio personality

February 17 - José José, Mexican singer and actor
February 24

J. Jayalalithaa, Indian politician
Walter Smith, Scottish football manager

February 25 - Danny Denzongpa, Indian actor
February 28

Steven Chu, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
Mike Figgis, American director, writer, and composer
Bernadette Peters, American actress and singer
Mercedes Ruehl, American actress
Alfred Sant, Leader of Malta Labour Party (1992-) and Prime Minister of Malta (1996-1998)