1948

[edit] Americola's celebrity biographies are provided by AmericolaWiki, a celebrity wiki. You can help contribute to Americola and edit this article.

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).

1 Events
- 1.1 January
- 1.2 February
- 1.3 March
- 1.4 April
- 1.5 May
- 1.6 June
- 1.7 July
- 1.8 August
- 1.9 September
- 1.10 October
- 1.11 November
- 1.12 December
- 1.13 Undated
2 Births
- 2.1 January-February
- 2.2 March-April
- 2.3 May-June
- 2.4 July-August
- 2.5 September-October
- 2.6 November-December
- 2.7 Unknown dates
3 Deaths
- 3.1 January - March
- 3.2 April - June
- 3.3 July - September
- 3.4 October - December
4 Nobel prizes

Events

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.

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.

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.

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.

May

Image:Flag of Israel.svg

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.

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.

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.

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.