1948

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Centuries:	19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades:	1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s
Years:	1945 1946 1947 - 1948 - 1949 1950 1951

1948 by topic:
Arts
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature Music (Country ) - Television
Science and technology
Archaeology - Aviation Meteorology - Rail transport - Science
By country
Australia - Canada - India Ireland - Malaysia - New Zealand - Pakistan - Singapore - South Africa - UK - Wales - Zimbabwe
Other topics
Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Sovereign states - Religious leaders
Birth and death categories
Births - Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments - Disestablishments
Works category
Works v • d • e

1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar).

[edit] Events

[edit] 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 15 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced for the crime.
January 30 - Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is murdered by Nathuram Godse.
January 30 - Orville Wright, the famous inventor of the airplane, passes away.
January 30 - 1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

[edit] 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 celebrated by the regime as "Victorious February" ("Vítězný únor") until November 1989.

[edit] March

March 8 - The United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools did not violate the U.S. Constitution.

March 10 - Czech foreign minister Jan Masaryk killed in fall from a window of his apartment in Prague. Later communist government rules it "suicide".
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.

[edit] April

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 (conductor).
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.

[edit] May

Flag of the newly created state of Israel

May 1 - 213 communists executed in Greece.
May 2 - Hour of Charm's last broadcast.
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 the Establishment of the State 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: 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 U.S. 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 die and tens of thousands are left homeless.

[edit] June

June 3 - Palomar Observatory telescope finished in California.
June 16 - Communist guerillas kill three rubber planters in Malaya.
June 16 - Three armed men hijack Cathay Pacific passenger plane Miss Macao and shoot the pilot; the plane crashes - one of 27 survives.
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.
June 18 - 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.
June 24 - The first World Health Assembly of World Health Organisation was held in Geneva.
June 28 - Cominform Resolution marks the beginning of the Informbiro period in Yugoslavia and Soviet/Yugoslav split.
June 28 - David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948 film), based on Charles Dickens's famous novel, premieres in England. 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.
June 28 - Earthquake hits Fukui, Japan killing 3,895.

[edit] July

July 5 - British National Health Service Act enacted.
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.
July 15 - First London, England 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 24- Marvin The Martain makes his debut in haredevil Hare
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.
July 31 - At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.

[edit] August

August 1 - The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.
August 15 - Establishment of the Republic of Korea.
August 19 - Soviet troops fire at German demonstrators that protest against the Berlin Blockade.
August 23 - World Council of Churches established.

[edit] 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 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 (1948 film) opens in the United States. It will become the first, and through 2006, the only film version of a Shakespeare play to win Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor. It will bring Olivier his only Best Actor Oscar, though he will receive an honorary one late in life.

[edit] Undated

Brandeis University is founded.
Casimir effect discovered by Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir.
Civil war in Costa Rica.
Civil war in Colombia.
Fresh Kills, world's largest landfill, opens in Staten Island, New York.
Literature In the spring, playwright Arthur Miller writes "Death of a Salesman." He completes Act I in less than a day. Act II and the Requiem are completed in the next six weeks. He writes his new play in a small, freshly built studio that he constructed himself on his property in Roxbury, CT.
Empire Windrush immigrant ship arrives in Britain.
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.

Rope (film) released.
The Slovak city Gúta was renamed to Kolárovo.
Tunnel of Vielha is opened in Val d'Aran, Spanish Pyrenees.

[edit] Births

**1948 in other calendars**
Gregorian calendar	1948 MCMXLVIII
Ab urbe condita	2701
Armenian calendar	1397 ԹՎ ՌՅՂԷ
Bahá'í calendar	104 – 105
Buddhist calendar	2492
Chinese calendar	4584/4644-11-21 (丁亥年十一月廿一日) — to — 4585/4645-12-2 (戊子年十二月初二日)
Ethiopian calendar	1940 – 1941
Hebrew calendar	5708 – 5709
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2003 – 2004
- Shaka Samvat	1870 – 1871
- Kali Yuga	5049 – 5050
Holocene calendar	11948
Iranian calendar	1326 – 1327
Islamic calendar	1367 – 1368
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 23 (昭和23年)
- Imperial Year	Kōki 2608 (皇紀2608年)
- Jōmon Era	11948
Julian calendar	1993
Korean calendar	4281
Thai solar calendar	2491
v • d • e

[edit] January-February

January 2 - Mary Archer, British scientist
January 2 - Deborah Watling, British actress
January 7 - Kenny Loggins, American singer
January 10 - Donald Fagen, American keyboardist
January 10 - Mischa Maisky, Latvian cellist
January 12 - Kenny Allen, English footballer
January 14 - T-Bone Burnett, American record producer and musician
January 14 - 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
January 16 - 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 31 - Muneo Suzuki, Japanese politician

February 1 - Elisabeth Sladen, British actress
February 1 - Rick James, American musician (d. 2004)
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
February 4 - Roedy Green, Canadian programmer and LGBT activist
February 5 - Sven-Göran Eriksson, Swedish football manager
February 5 - Christopher Guest, American actor, writer, director, and composer
February 6 - Jack Conway, musician, composer, arranger, guitarist
February 12 - Raymond Kurzweil, American inventor and author
February 14 - Teller, American magician
February 14 - Jackie Martling, American comedian and radio personality
February 17 - José José, Mexican singer and actor
February 24 - J. Jayalalithaa, Indian politician
February 24 - Walter Smith, Scottish football manager
February 25 - Danny Denzongpa, Indian actor
February 28 - Steven Chu, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
February 28 - Mike Figgis, American director, writer, and composer
February 28 - Bernadette Peters, American actress and singer
February 28 - Mercedes Ruehl, American actress

[edit] March-April

March 1 - Burning Spear, Jamaican singer and musician
March 2 - R. T. Crowley, pioneer of electronic commerce
March 2 - Rory Gallagher, Irish musician
March 2 - Jeff Kennett, Australian politician
March 4 - Lindy Chamberlain, Australian author
March 4 - James Ellroy, American writer
March 4 - Tom Grieve, American baseball player
March 4 - Leron Lee, American baseball player
March 4 - Chris Squire, British bassist
March 4 - Shakin' Stevens, Welsh musician
March 9 - Jeffrey Osborne, American singer
March 11 - Dominique Sanda, French actress
March 12 - James Taylor, American musician
March 15 - Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian diplomat (d. 2003)
March 17 - William Gibson, American writer
March 20 - John de Lancie, American actor
March 20 - Bobby Orr, Canadian hockey player
March 22 - Wolf Blitzer, American television journalist
March 22 - Andrew Lloyd Webber, English composer
March 26 - Steven Tyler, American singer (Aerosmith)
March 28 - Dianne Wiest, American actress
March 31 - Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States
March 31 - Rhea Perlman, American actress

April 1 - Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican musician
April 4 - Derek Thompson, Northern Irish actor
April 13 - Nam Hae-il, 25th Chief of Naval Operations of the Republic of Korea Navy
April 15 - Michael Kamen, American composer (d. 2003)
April 27 - Kate Pierson, American singer (The B-52's)
April 29 - Michael Karoli, German musician (d. 2001)

[edit] May-June

May 8 - Felicity Lott, English soprano
May 8 - Stephen Stohn, Canadian television producer (Degrassi)
May 11 - Shigeru Izumiya, Japanese musician
May 12 - Steve Winwood, English singer
May 12 - Bob Carolgees, British comedy entertainer
May 14 - Bob Woolmer, British cricket coach
May 15 - Brian Eno, English musician and record producer
May 19 - Grace Jones, Jamaican singer and actress
May 21 - Leo Sayer, English musician
May 26 - Stevie Nicks, American singer and songwriter (Fleetwood Mac)
May 27 - Wubbo de Boer, Dutch civil servant
May 29 - Michael Berkeley, British composer
May 31 - John Bonham, British drummer (Led Zeppelin) (d. 1980)

June 13 - Garnet Bailey, Canadian hockey player and scout (d. 2001)
June 15 - Paul Michiels, Belgian singer-songwriter
June 17 - Dave Concepcion, Venezuelan baseball player
June 19 - Phylicia Rashad, American actress
June 20 - Ludwig Scotty, President of Nauru
June 21 - Lionel Rose, Australian boxer
June 21 - Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish writer
June 21 - Don Airey, English musician (Deep Purple)
June 22 - Todd Rundgren, American singer and record producer
June 29 - Ian Paice, English drummer (Deep Purple, Whitesnake)

[edit] July-August

July 8 - Raffi, Egyptian-born children's entertainer
July 16 - Pinchas Zukerman, Israeli violinist
July 18 - Hartmut Michel, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
July 20 - Muse Watson, American actor
July 21 - Ed Hinton, American sportswriter
July 21 - Cat Stevens, English musician
July 21 - Garry Trudeau, American cartoonist
July 22 - Neil Hardwick, British-born Finnish director and writer
July 22 - Susan Eloise Hinton, American author
July 23 - John Cushnahan, Northern Irish politician
July 27 - Peggy Fleming, American figure skater
July 28 - Sally Struthers, American actress
July 30 - Jean Reno, French actor
July 31 - Jonathan Dollimore, famous author and professor

August 2 - Dennis Prager, American radio talk show host and author
August 2 - Bob Rae, Canadian politician
August 3 - Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Prime Minister of France
August 13 - Kathleen Battle, American soprano
August 15 - Uschi Digard, American erotic actress and figure model
August 20 - Robert Plant, English singer (Led Zeppelin)
August 24 - Kim Sung-Il, Chief of Staff of the Republic of Korea Air Force
August 30 - Lewis Black, American comedian

[edit] September-October

September 1 - James Rebhorn, American actor
September 1 - Józef Życiński, Polish archbishop and philosopher
September 4 - Samuel Hui, Hong Kong singer
September 5 - Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Austrian diplomat and politician
September 10 - Bob Lanier, American basketball player
September 10 - Margaret Trudeau, ex-wife of former Prime Minister of Canada
September 13 - Nell Carter, American singer and actress (d. 2003)
September 17 - John Ritter, American actor (d. 2003)
September 22 - Denis Burke, Australian politician
September 24 - Heinz Chur, German composer
September 24 - Phil Hartman, Canadian comedian (d. 1998)
September 26 - Olivia Newton-John, Australian singer and actress
September 27 - Michele Dotrice, English actor
September 29 - Bryant Gumbel, American television broadcaster
September 29 - Theo Jörgensmann, German jazz clarinetist

October 1 - Sir Peter Blake New Zealand yachtsman (d. 2001)
October 2 - Avery Brooks, American television actor
October 2 - Chris LeDoux, American singer and rodeo star (d. 2005)
October 6 - Gerry Adams, Northern Irish politician
October 7 - Diane Ackerman, American poet and essayist
October 8 - Johnny Ramone, American guitarist (The Ramones) (d. 2004)
October 9 - Jackson Browne, American musician
October 13 - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistani musician
October 13 - Ted Poe, American politician
October 13 - John Ford Coley, American musician
October 16 - Leo Mazzone, American baseball coach
October 17 - George Wendt, American television actor
October 18 - Hans Köchler, Austrian philosopher

[edit] November-December

November 3 - Lulu (singer), Scottish singer
November 5 - William Daniel Phillips, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
November 10 - Vincent Schiavelli, American actor (d. 2005)
November 14 - Prince Charles of Edinburgh, now Prince of Wales
November 16 - Mutt Lange, Rhodesian-born record producer
November 17 - Howard Dean, American politician
November 20 - John R. Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the UN
November 20 - Barbara Hendricks, American-born soprano
December 2 - T. Coraghessan Boyle, American writer
December 3 - Ozzy Osbourne, British singer
December 6 - Keke Rosberg, Finnish Formula One Champion
December 6 - JoBeth Williams, American actress
December 7 - Gary Morris, singer and actor
December 7 - Mads Vinding, Danish bassist
December 10 - Abu Abbas, founder of the Palestine Liberation Front (d. 2004)
December 14 - Lester Bangs, American music journalist
December 21 - Samuel L. Jackson, American actor
December 21 - Willi Resetarits, Austrian musician and cabaret artist
December 22 - Noel Edmonds, British TV presenter
December 27 - Gérard Depardieu, French actor
December 28 - Dick Siegel, American songwriter

[edit] Unknown dates

Ciaran Carson, Northern Irish poet and novelist
Wally Foreman, Australian media icon (d. 2006)
Maurizio Gucci, Italian business man and murder victim (d. 1995)
Johnny Nicholas, American blues musician
Edward Rutherfurd, British novelist

[edit] Deaths

[edit] January - March

January 5 - Mary Dimmick Harrison, wife of President Benjamin Harrison (b. 1858)
January 21 - Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Italian composer (b. 1876)
January 30 - Mohandas Gandhi, Indian independence movement leader (assassinated) (b. 1869)
January 30 - Orville Wright, American co-inventor of the airplane (b. 1871)
February 2 - Bevil Rudd, South African athlete (b. 1894)
February 11 - Sergy Eisenstein, Russian film director (b. 1898)
February 23 - John Robert Gregg, Irish-born inventor of shorthand (b. 1866)
March 4 - Antonin Artaud, playwright, actor and director (b. 1896)
March 6 - Ross Lockridge, Jr., American novelist (suicide) (b. 1914)
March 10 - Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia (b. 1886)
March 31 - Egon Erwin Kisch, Austrian journalist and author (b. 1885)

[edit] April - June

April 9 - George Carpenter, the 5th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1872)
April 9 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (b. 1903)
April 15 - Manuel Roxas, President of the Philippines (b. 1892)
April 17 - Suzuki Kantaro, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1867)

May 13 - Jorge Del Torino-Cortez Mexican Poet and Luchador (b. 1884)
May 15 - Father Edward J. Flanagan, Irish-born priest and founder of Boys Town (b. 1886)
May 28 - Unity Mitford, British friend of Hitler (b. 1914)

June 25 - William C. Lee, American general (b. 1895)

[edit] July - September

July 5 - Georges Bernanos, French writer (b. 1888)
July 15 - John J. Pershing, American general (b. 1860)
July 21 - Arshile Gorky, Armenian-born painter (b. 1904)
July 23 - David Wark Griffith, American film director (b. 1875)
July 31 - Lucy Page Mercer Rutherfurd, Franklin Roosevelt's lover (b. 1891)

August 12 - Harry Brearley, English inventor of stainless steel (b. 1871)
August 16 - Babe Ruth, baseball player (b. 1895)
August 27 - Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1862)

September 2 - Sylvanus G. Morley, American scholar and World War I spy (b. 1883)
September 5 - Richard C. Tolman, American mathematical physicist (b. 1881)
September 11 - Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Founder and first Governor General of Pakistan (b. 1876)
September 30 - Edith Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States (b. 1861)

[edit] October - December

October 1 - Phraya Manopakorn Nititada (b. 1884)
October 24 - Franz Lehár, Hungarian composer (b. 1870)
November 28 - D.D. Sheehan, Irish politician (b. 1873)
December 23 - Japanese war leaders (hanged):
- Kenji Doihara, spy (b. 1883)
- Koki Hirota, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1878)
- Iwane Matsui, general (b. 1878)
- Itagaki Seishiro, military officer (b. 1885)
- Hideki Tojo, general (b. 1884)
December 31 - Sir Malcolm Campbell, English land and water racer (b. 1885)

[edit] Nobel prizes

Physics - Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett
Chemistry - Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius
Medicine - Paul Hermann Müller
Literature - T. S. Eliot
Peace - not awarded

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