chunk_id
stringlengths 6
7
| chunk
stringlengths 93
8.75k
|
|---|---|
1941_0 | 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1941st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 941st year of the 2nd millennium, the 41st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1940s decade. |
1941_0 | Section: January (2):
January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Euthanasia Centre in Germany, in the first phase of mass killings under the Action T4 program here.
January 1 – Thailand's Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram decrees January 1 as the official start of the Thai solar calendar new year (thus the previous year that began April 1 had only 9 months).
January 3 – A decree (Normalschrifterlass) promulgated in Germany by Martin Bormann, on behalf of Adolf Hitler, requires replacement of blackletter typefaces by Antiqua.
January 4 – The short subject Elmer's Pet Rabbit is released, marking the second appearance of Bugs Bunny, and also the first to have his name on a title card.
January 5 – WWII: Battle of Bardia in Libya: Australian and British troops defeat Italian forces, the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation takes part.
January 6
During his State of the Union address, President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt presents his Four Freedoms, as fundamental global human rights.
The keel of battleship USS Missouri is laid at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn.
January 10 – The Lend-Lease Act is introduced into the United States Congress.
January 11 – WWII: The British Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Southampton (83) is bombed, catches fire and has to be sunk off Malta, with the loss of 81 crew.
January 13 – All persons born in Puerto Rico since this day are declared U.S. citizens by birth, through U.S. federal law.
January 14
WWII: Commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin captures the Norwegian whaling fleet near Bouvet Island, effectively ending Southern Ocean whaling for the duration of the war.
In a BBC radio broadcast from London, Victor de Laveleye asks all Belgians to use the letter "V" as a rallying sign, being the first letter of victoire (victory) in French and of vrijheid (freedom) in Dutch. This is the beginning of the "V campaign" which sees "V" graffities on the walls of Belgium and later all of Europe and introduces the use of the "V sign" for victory and freedom. Winston Churchill adopts the sign soon afterwards, though he sometimes gets it the wrong way around and uses the common insult gesture.
January 15 – John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry describe the workings of the Atanasoff–Berry computer in print.
January 19 – WWII: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea in Africa.
January 20 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a third term as President of the United States.
January 22
WWII: Battle of Tobruk: Australian and British forces capture Tobruk from the Italians.
In Sweden, Victor Hasselblad registers the Hasselblad Camera Company.
January 23 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress, and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
January 27 – WWII: Joseph Grew, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, reports to Washington a rumor overheard at a diplomatic reception, concerning a planned surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
January 28 – Subhas Chandra Bose, the chief of the separatist Indian National Army, reaches Kabul, Afghanistan by successfully evading the British authorities in British India.
January 30 – WWII: Australians capture Derna, Libya, from the Italians.
Subsections (0):
|
1941_1 | Section: February (2):
February 3 – WWII: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to the office of Prime Minister in occupied Vichy France.
February 4 – WWII: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
February 5 – The Air Training Corps is formed in the United Kingdom.
February 5–April 1 – WWII: Battle of Keren – British and Free French Forces fight hard to capture the strategic town of Keren in Italian Eritrea.
February 6 – WWII: Benghazi falls to the Western Desert Force. Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel is appointed commander of Afrika Korps.
February 8 – WWII: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act.
February 9 – Winston Churchill, in a worldwide broadcast, tells the United States to show its support by sending arms to the British: "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."
February 12
WWII: Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli.
Reserve Constable Albert Alexander, a patient at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England, becomes the first person treated with penicillin intravenously, by Howard Florey's team. He reacts positively, but there is insufficient supply of the drug to reverse his terminal infection. A successful treatment is achieved during May.
February 13 – Aircraft from British carrier HMS Formidable attack Massawa in Eritrea.
February 14 – WWII: Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura begins his duties as Japanese Ambassador to the United States.
February 19–22 – WWII: Three Nights' Blitz over Swansea, South Wales: Over these 3 nights of intensive bombing, which lasts a total of 13 hours and 48 minutes, Swansea's town centre is almost completely obliterated by the 896 high explosive bombs employed by the Luftwaffe; 397 casualties and 230 deaths are reported.
February 22 – WWII: British cruiser HMS Shropshire bombards Barawa, on the coast between Kismayo and Mogadishu.
February 23 – Glenn T. Seaborg and associates isolate and discover plutonium, at the University of California, Berkeley.
February 25 – WWII:
The occupied Netherlands starts the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis powers, the "February strike" against German deportation of Jews in Amsterdam and surroundings.
British submarine HMS Upright attacks an Italian convoy, sinking the cruiser Armando Diaz.
February 27 – WWII: The New Zealand Division cruiser HMS Leander (1931) sinks Italian armed merchant raider Ramb I off the Maldives.
Subsections (0):
|
1941_2 | Section: March (2):
March 1
WWII: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, thus joining the Axis powers.
Arthur L. Bristol becomes Rear Admiral for the United States Navy's Support Force, Atlantic Fleet.
March 4 – WWII: Operation Claymore – British Commandos carry out a successful raid on the Lofoten Islands, off the north coast of Norway.
March 5 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, having been President of the United States for 8 years, 1 day, becomes the longest-serving president in American history.
March 11 – WWII: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, signs the Lend-Lease Act (passed by the Senate on March 8) into law, providing for the U.S. to provide Lend-Lease aid to the Allies.
March 15 – Berlin-based American journalist Richard C. Hottelet is arrested by the Gestapo on "suspicion of espionage", but eventually released in July as part of a prisoner exchange with the U.S.
March 16 – A group of U.S. warships arrive in Auckland, New Zealand, on a goodwill visit. On March 20, they arrive in Sydney, Australia.
March 17
In Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
British Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin calls for women to fill vital jobs.
March 22 – Washington state's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
March 24 – WWII: Rommel launches his first offensive in Cyrenaica.
March 25 – WWII: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers in Vienna.
March 27 – WWII:
Battle of Cape Matapan: Off the Peloponnese coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy, sinking 5 warships (the battle ends on March 29).
Yugoslav coup d'état: An anti-Axis coup d'état in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia led by General Dušan Simović, Brigadier General Borivoje Mirković, Colonels Dragutin Savić and Stjepan Burazović, Colonel General Miodrag Lazić, Milorad Petrović and many other general officers (with British support) forces Prince Paul into exile; 17-year-old King Peter II assumes power following the coup and Simović is elected new Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.
Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu to study the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, in preparation for a future attack.
March 30 – WWII:
All German, Italian and Danish ships anchored in United States waters are taken into "protective custody".
A German Lorenz cipher machine operator sends a 4,000-character message twice, allowing British mathematician Bill Tutte to decipher the machine's coding mechanism.
Subsections (0):
|
1941_3 | Section: April (2):
April – The Valley of Geysers is discovered on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, by Tatyana Ustinova.
April 1 – A military coup d'état, launched by Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani, overthrows the pro-British regime in Iraq.
April 4 – WWII: Axis forces capture Benghazi.
April 6 – WWII: Germany, Italy and Hungary invade Yugoslavia and the Battle of Greece begins.
April 9 – The U.S. acquires full military defense rights in Greenland.
April 10 – WWII:
U.S. destroyer USS Niblack, while picking up survivors from a sunken Dutch freighter, drops depth charges on a German U-boat (the first "shot in anger" fired by America against Germany).
The Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of the Axis powers, is established with Ustashe leader Ante Pavelić as head (Poglavnik) of the government.
April 12 – WWII: German troops enter Belgrade.
April 13 – The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact is signed.
April 15 – WWII: Axis forces reach Halfaya Pass, on the Libyan-Egyptian frontier.
April 18 – WWII:
The Yugoslav Royal Army capitulates.
Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Koryzis commits suicide as German troops approach Athens.
April 19 – Bertolt Brecht's anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children (German: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder) receives its first theatrical production, at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.
April 21 – WWII: Greece capitulates to Germany. Commonwealth troops and some elements of the Greek Army withdraw to Crete.
April 23 – The America First Committee holds its first mass rally in New York City, with Charles Lindbergh as keynote speaker.
April 25 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, criticizes Charles Lindbergh by comparing him to the Copperheads of the Civil War period. In response, Lindbergh resigns his commission in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve on April 28.
April 27 – WWII: German troops enter Athens.
April 28 – World War II persecution of Serbs: Gudovac massacre – Members of the Croatian nationalist Ustashe movement kill around 190 Bjelovar Serbs in the village of Gudovac, in the Independent State of Croatia.
Subsections (0):
|
1941_4 | Section: May (2):
May 1
The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills in the United States.
Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane premieres in New York City.
The first Defense Bonds and Defense Savings Stamps go on sale in the United States, to help fund the greatly increased production of military equipment.
May 2 – WWII: Anglo-Iraqi War: British combat operations against the rebel government of Rashid Ali in the Kingdom of Iraq begin.
May 5 – WWII: Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, which has been liberated from Italian forces; this date is subsequently commemorated as Liberation Day in Ethiopia.
May 6 – At California's March Field, entertainer Bob Hope performs his first USO Show.
May 8 – WWII: The German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin is sunk by British cruiser HMS Cornwall (56) in the Indian Ocean; 555 are killed.
May 9 – WWII: German submarine U-110 is captured by the British Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine, which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
May 10
WWII: The British House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid on London.
Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland, claiming to be on a peace mission.
May 11/May 12 – WWII: The Ustaše massacre 260–373 Serb men in a Catholic church in Glina, Croatia, where the men have assembled to be received into the Catholic faith in exchange for their lives.
May 12 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
May 13 – WWII: Yugoslav General Draža Mihailović and a group of 80 soldiers and officers cross the Drina river in Bosnia and Herzegovina, arrive at Ravna Gora, in western Nazi-occupied Serbia and start fighting with German occupation troops.
May 15
The first British jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39, is flown.
Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak begins, as the New York Yankees' center fielder goes 1 for 4 against Chicago White Sox pitcher Eddie Smith in baseball.
May 19 – The Viet Minh is formed at Pác Bó in Vietnam, to overthrow French rule of the nation, as an alliance between the Indochina Communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, and the Nationalist party. It will become the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.
May 20 – WWII: The Battle of Crete begins, as Germany launches an airborne invasion of Crete, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history.
May 21 – German submarine U-69 sinks the U.S.-flagged SS Robin Moor off the west African coast, having allowed the passengers and crew to disembark.
May 24 – WWII:
In the North Atlantic, German battleship Bismarck sinks British battlecruiser HMS Hood, killing all but 3 crewmen, from a total of 1,418 aboard the pride of the Royal Navy.
British submarine HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks Italian ocean liner SS Conte Rosso.
May 26 – WWII: In the North Atlantic, Fairey Swordfish aircraft from the carrier HMS Ark Royal cripple the steering of German battleship Bismarck in an aerial torpedo attack.
May 27
WWII: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".
WWII: German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic, killing 2,300. It is eventually found in 1989.
The Swiss Socialist Federation is banned.
May 29 – The Disney animators' strike begins, due to lack of recognition by Walt Disney of his animators' inequities of pay and privileges.
May 30 – WWII: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas tear down the Nazi swastika on the Acropolis in Athens and replace it with the Greek flag.
May 31 – Anglo-Iraqi War: British troops complete the re-occupation of the Kingdom of Iraq, returning Prince 'Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal II.
Subsections (0):
|
1941_5 | Section: June (2):
June 1 – WWII: The Battle of Crete ends, as Crete surrenders to invading German forces.
June 4 – Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia are issued by Nazi high-command through OKW. This order (a lesser known precursor to the Commisar Order) explicitly commands that Jews (in addition to Bolshevik partisans and Commisars) be killed. In a sense, this order – in combination with the Commissar Order about to be delivered, and Goring's instruction to Heydrich to look into logistics later in the month, that is mentioned at the beginning of the Wannsee Conference of the following year – inaugurates the European Holocaust of the Jews.
June 5
Second Sino-Japanese War: Four thousand Chongqing residents are asphyxiated in a bomb shelter during the Bombing of Chongqing.
Smederevo Fortress explosion: A Serbian ammunition depot explodes at Smederevo on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia, killing 2,500 and injuring over 4,500.
June 6 – WWII: The Commissar Order is issued by Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, requiring all Soviet political commissars identified in Operation Barbarossa among captured forces to receive summary execution.
June 8 – WWII: British and Free French forces invade Syria.
June 13 – TASS, the official Soviet news agency, denies reports of tension between Germany and the Soviet Union.
June 14
June deportation: Soviet officials deport about 65,000 people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to Siberia.
All German and Italian assets in the United States are frozen.
June 16
All German and Italian consulates in the United States are ordered closed, and their staffs to leave the country by July 10.
WWII: British Fleet Air Arm aircraft sink the Vichy ship Chevalier Paul.
June 18 – The German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship is signed between Nazi Germany and Turkey, in Ankara.
June 20
The United States Army Air Corps becomes the United States Army Air Forces, with the earlier name reserved solely for the new USAAF's logistics and training elements.
Walt Disney's live-action/animated feature The Reluctant Dragon is released.
June 22
WWII: Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany (with allies) invades the Soviet Union and declares war on it. Winston Churchill promises all possible British assistance to the Soviet Union in a worldwide broadcast: "Any man or state who fights against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe." Italy and Romania declare war on the Soviet Union.
WWII: The First Sisak Partisan Brigade, the first anti-fascist armed unit in occupied Europe, is founded by Yugoslav partisans near Sisak, Croatia.
June Uprising in Lithuania: A Provisional Government of Lithuania is established by the Lithuanian Activist Front, in an attempt to liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation.
Rapid escalation of the Holocaust in Lithuania: Between now and the end of the year, an estimated 190,000-195,000 out of 210,000 Lithuanian Jews will be massacred, killing an estimated 95% of the nation's Jewish population.
Rapid Vienna beats Schalke 04, in the final of the German Fottballchampionship, after 0:3 with 4:3.
June 23 – WWII: Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the Soviet Union.
June 24
The Soviet Information Bureau, predecessor of RIA Novosti, is founded.
Rainiai massacre: Approximately 80 political prisoners are killed by the NKVD in Lithuania.
June 25 – WWII: Finland (as a co-belligerent with Germany) attacks the Soviet Union, starting the Continuation War.
June 28 – WWII: Albania declares war on the Soviet Union.
June 28–30 – The Holocaust: The Iași pogrom takes place, killing "at least 13,266" Romanian Jews.
June 29 – WWII: Hitler's second-in-command, Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, is appointed as Hitler's successor in a written decree. The decree will come into effect, should Hitler die in the middle of the war. (The decree becomes void in April 1945, after Göring tries to assume power while Hitler is still alive, leading to Göring's expulsion from the Nazi Party.)
Subsections (0):
|
1941_6 | Section: July (2):
July – The British Army's Special Air Service is formed.
July 1
Commercial television is authorized by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States.
NBC Television begins commercial operation on WNBT, on Channel 1. The world's first legal TV commercial, for Bulova watches, occurs at 2:29 PM over WNBT, before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The 10-second spot displays a picture of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States, accompanied by the voice-over "America runs on Bulova time." As a one-off special, the first quiz show called "Uncle Bee" is telecast on WNBT's inaugural broadcast day, followed later the same day by Ralph Edwards hosting the second game show broadcast on U.S. television, Truth or Consequences, as simulcast on radio and TV and sponsored by Ivory Soap. Weekly broadcasts of the show commence in 1956, with Bob Barker.
CBS Television begins commercial operation on New York station WCBW (modern-day WCBS-TV), on Channel 2.
WWII:
German forces capture Riga.
Germany and Italy recognize the Japanese-sponsored Chinese reorganized national government under Wang Jingwei as the legitimate government of China.
July 2 – WWII: The Empire of Japan calls up 1 million men for military service.
July 3 – WWII: Joseph Stalin, in his first address since the German invasion, calls upon the Soviet people to carry out a "scorched earth" policy of resistance to the bitter end.
July 4 – Massacre of Lviv professors: Polish scientists and writers are murdered by Nazi German troops in the occupied Polish city of Lwów.
July 5 – WWII:
Operation Barbarossa: German troops reach the Dnieper River.
British troopship SS Anselm is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-96 in the Atlantic Ocean, with the loss of around 250 out of about 1,310 on board.
July 5–31: Ecuadorian–Peruvian War is fought.
July 7
Uprising in Serbia: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia raises an uprising against the Nazi occupation, beginning when Žikica Jovanović Španac kills two gendarmes in the village of Bela Crkva,
WWII: American forces take over the defense of Iceland from the British.
July 10 – The Holocaust: Jedwabne pogrom: Local ethnic Poles massacre at least 340 Jewish residents of Jedwabne, in occupied Poland. The Jewish residents are locked in a barn and the barn set on fire
July 11 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana.
July 13
WWII: An uprising in Montenegro against the Axis powers starts, the second popular uprising in Europe (the first being the "February strike" of February 25 (above) in the Netherlands).
Clemens August Graf von Galen, Catholic Bishop of Münster in Germany, preaches the first of 3 sermons against Nazi brutality.
July 14 – WWII: Vichy France signs armistice terms ending all fighting in Syria and Lebanon.
July 17 – Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak ends.
July 19
WWII: A BBC broadcast by "Colonel Britton" (Douglas Ritchie) calls on the people of occupied Europe to resist the Nazis, under the slogan "V for Victory".
The Tom and Jerry cartoon short The Midnight Snack is released; it is the second appearance for the duo, and the first in which they are officially named.
July 23 – WWII: Italian aircraft damage the British destroyer HMS Fearless which has to be sunk.
July 25 – Postal codes in Germany are introduced.
July 26 – WWII:
In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
General Douglas MacArthur is named commander of all U.S. forces in the Philippines; the Philippines Army is ordered nationalized by President Roosevelt.
July 29 – The Vichy Regime signs the Protocol Concerning Joint Defense and Joint Military Cooperation with the Empire of Japan, giving the Japanese a total of 8 airfields, allowing them greater troop presence, and the use of the Indochinese financial system, in return for continued French autonomy.
July 30 – WWII: Glina massacre of July–August 1941 – The Ustaše brutally kill 200 Serbs inside a Serbian Orthodox church in Glina, Croatia, with a total of 700–1,200 being killed in the area of the next few days.
July 31 – WWII: The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders S.S. General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question."
Subsections (0):
|
1942_0 | 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1942nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 942nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 42nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1940s decade. |
1942_0 | Section: January (2):
January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in which they agree "not to make any separate peace with the Axis powers".
January 5 – WWII: Two prisoners, British officer Airey Neave and Dutch officer Anthony Luteyn, escape from Colditz Castle in Germany. After travelling for three days, they reach the Swiss border.
January 7 – WWII:
Battle of Slim River: Japanese forces of the 5th Division, supported by tanks, sweep through sixteen miles of British defenses, shattering the exhausted 11th Indian Division and inflicting some 3,000 casualties.
Operation Typhoon, the German attempt to take Moscow, ends in failure.
January 11 – WWII:
Dutch East Indies campaign: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. Japanese forces invade Borneo and Celebes.
Malayan Campaign: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Federated Malay States.
January 13
Heinkel test pilot Helmut Schenk becomes the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat.
Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile that would be 30% lighter than a conventional car.
January 14
WWII: "Second Happy Time", the German submarine commanders' name for Operation PP (Operation Drumbeat), the phase in the Battle of the Atlantic during which German submarines are successful in attacking Allied shipping along the East Coast of the United States, opens early this morning when German submarine U-123 under the command of Reinhard Hardegen sinks a Norwegian tanker within sight of Long Island, before entering New York Harbor and sinking a British tanker off Sandy Hook the following night, as she leaves heading south along the coast. U-boat successes continue until around June 12.
The Sikorsky R-4 first flies in the United States; it will become the first mass-produced helicopter.
January 16 – American film actress Carole Lombard and her mother are among all 22 killed aboard TWA Flight 3 when the Douglas DC-3 plane crashes into Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas while she is returning from a tour to promote the sale of war bonds.
January 17 – WWII: South African forces of the British 8th Army conquer the Halfaya Pass ("Hellfire Pass"). The Halfaya garrison of 4,200 men of the Italian 55th Division "Savona" and 2,100 Germans surrender.
January 19 – WWII:
Japanese forces invade Burma.
The following Commands of the United States Eighth Air Force are established: VIII Bomber Command initially at Langley Field in Virginia, and VIII Fighter Command at Selfridge Field in Michigan.
January 20 – The Holocaust: Nazis at the Wannsee Conference convened by Reinhard Heydrich in Berlin decide that the "Final Solution (Endlösung) to the Jewish problem" is deportations to extermination camps.
January 21 – WWII: Erwin Rommel launches his new offensive in Cyrenaica.
January 23 – WWII: The Battle of Rabaul begins. Before dawn, 5,000 troops of Japan's elite South Seas Detachment storm ashore at Rabaul on the island of New Britain. With control of the air and support from the guns of their own ships, the Japanese overwhelm the small Australian garrison: the majority are either killed or captured. This marks the start of the New Guinea campaign.
January 25 – WWII:
German forces under Erwin Rommel of Panzer Group Afrika reaches Msus. General Alfred Godwin-Austin orders the 4th Indian Division from the British 13th Corps to evacuate Benghazi.
Thailand declares war on the United States and the United Kingdom.
January 26 – WWII: The first American forces arrive in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland.
January 31 – WWII: Malayan Campaign: The last organized Allied forces leave British Malaya, ending the 54-day campaign, and the Johor–Singapore Causeway is severed.
Subsections (0):
|
1942_1 | Section: February (2):
February 1
WWII: Marshalls–Gilberts raids: Admiral William Halsey Jr sends airstrikes from the carrier USS Enterprise against Kwajalein, Taroa, Wotje in the Marshall Islands. At the same time, cruisers and destroyers bombard Taroa and Wotje. The strikes inflict light to moderate damage on the three islands' naval garrisons, sink three warships and damage several others, including the light cruiser Katori and damage 15 Japanese aircraft. Further south, the carrier USS Yorktown attacks Jaluit, Mili and Makin in the Gilbert Islands. They inflict moderate damage to the Japanese naval installations and destroy three aircraft.
WWII: The Kriegsmarine introduces the M4 (German Navy 4-rotor) Enigma machine for U-boat traffic, blinding Allied cryptanalysts to their radio signals for most of the year.
WWII: The Command staff of the United States Eighth Air Force reaches England.
Mao Zedong makes a speech on "Reform in Learning, the Party and Literature", starting the Yan'an Rectification Movement in the Chinese Communist Party.
February 3 – WWII: Rommel suspends his offensive in Cyrenaica.
February 7 – United States Maritime Commission fleet operations are transferred to the War Shipping Administration (lasting until September 1, 1946).
February 8
WWII: Battle of Singapore: Japanese forces of the 5th Division and 18th Division (some 23,000 men) begin to cross the Johor Strait and attack the Australian 22nd Brigade (some 3,000 men) at Singapore.
WWII: Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States.
WWII: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
António Óscar Carmona is elected president of Portugal.
February 9 – The ocean liner SS Normandie catches fire while being converted into the troopship USS Lafayette (AP-53) for WWII at Pier 88 in New York City; she capsizes early the following morning.
February 11–13 – WWII: Operation Cerberus: A Kriegsmarine (German navy) squadron comprising the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and their escort, dash from Brest through the English Channel to German ports; the British fail to sink any of them.
February 14–18 – WWII: Battle of Bilin River: Indian forces of the 17th Division under General John Snyth are ordered to halt the Japanese advance but are outflanked and retreat to the Sittang River.
February 14 – WWII:
Battle of Palembang: Japanese paratroopers (240 men) are dropped near Palembang, and capture the oil refinery complex undamaged. Dutch forces counter-attack and manage to retake the complex but take heavy losses. A planned demolition fails to do any serious damage to the refinery, but the oil stores are set ablaze.
The SS Vyner Brooke, Scottish steamship, is bombed and sunk by Japanese planes while evacuating nurses and wounded servicemen from Singapore. Rescue boats with many survivors reach Bangka Island.
February 15 – WWII: Fall of Singapore: Commonwealth forces under General Arthur Percival surrender to the Japanese 25th Army. About 80,000 British, Indian, Australian, and local troops become prisoners of war, joining the 50,000 soldiers taken in the Malayan campaign.
February 16 – WWII: Bangka Island Massacre: Japanese soldiers machine-gun 22 Australian Army nurses and 60 Australian and British soldiers and crew who have survived the sinking of SS Vyner Brooke.
February 18 – WWII:
Japanese occupation of Singapore: Sook Ching – Japanese forces begin the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among Chinese Singaporeans.
More than 200 American sailors die in Newfoundland when USS Truxtun runs aground near Chambers Cove and USS Pollux runs aground at Lawn Point.
February 19 – WWII:
Bombing of Darwin: The Japanese 1st Air Fleet under Admiral Chūichi Nagumo bombs Darwin, Australia. This force comprises the aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū and a powerful force of escorting surface ships. During the attack, 188 planes led by Mitsuo Fuchida destroy 11 vessels and wreck a lot of the harbor infrastructure, killing some 240 people.
A returning Japanese fighter plane crashes on Melville Island (Australia) and its pilot, Hajime Toyoshima, becomes the first Japanese captured on Australian soil, when indigenous resident Matthias Ulungura takes him prisoner.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast.
February 19–23 – WWII: Battle of Sittang Bridge: Indian forces of the 17th Division are ordered to defend the Sittang Bridge, but eventually blow up the bridge to halt the Japanese advance to Rangoon. Survivors of the 17th Division (some 3.500 soldiers) swim and ferry themselves over the Sittang River.
February 20 – Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first U.S. Navy flying ace of the war.
February 21 – WWII: Invasion of Sumatra: Japanese forces of the 38th Division under General Tadayoshi Sano capture Tanjungkarang airfield, which is put to work for air operations against Java.
February 22 – WWII: General George Marshall transmits a direct order to General MacArthur in President Roosevelt's name, ordering MacArthur himself to turn over command of the Philippines to a subordinate, and report to Australia to assume command of the large American force being built up there. The orders are worded to allow MacArthur to choose the exact moment of his departure; for various reasons, he will not leave until March 11.
February 23 – WWII: I-17 fires 17 high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.
February 24
Struma disaster: MV Struma, carrying Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to British-administered Palestine, is torpedoed and sunk by Shch-213, killing about 791 men, women, and children, with only 1 survivor.
Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting.
Internment of Japanese Canadians is ordered.
February 25 – "Battle of Los Angeles": Over 1,400 AA shells are fired at an unidentified, slow-moving object (probably a meteorological balloon) in the skies over Los Angeles. The appearance of the object triggers an immediate wartime blackout over most of Southern California, with thousands of air raid wardens being deployed throughout the city. At least 5 deaths are related to the incident. Despite the several-hour barrages no planes are downed.
February 26 – The 14th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles; How Green Was My Valley wins Best Picture.
February 27 – WWII:
Battle of the Java Sea: An allied (ABDA) task force of 14 vessels under Dutch command, trying to stem a Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, is defeated by a 19-vessel Japanese task force in the Java Sea; 2.300 sailors die, including the commander, Admiral Karel Doorman; Japanese attain naval hegemony in East-Asia.
The USS Langley, first aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, is attacked by 9 Japanese bombers while ferrying a cargo of USAAF P-40 fighters to Java. Langley is so badly damaged that she has to be scuttled to avoid falling into Japanese hands.
Subsections (0):
|
1942_2 | Section: March (2):
March 1 – WWII: Japanese forces of the 2nd Division land in Port of Merak on western Java with the intention to advance on Batavia.
March 4 – WWII: Operation K: The Japanese launch an unsuccessful attack carried out by two Kawanishi H8K ("Emily") flying boats at Pearl Harbor. This is the longest distance ever undertaken by a two-plane bombing mission, and one of the longest bombing sorties ever planned without fighter escort.
March 5 – WWII: Japanese forces of the 16th Army under General Hitoshi Imamura enter triumphantly the Dutch colonial capital of Batavia without opposition.
March 6 – WWII: Yugoslav Partisans, operating in Nazi-occupied Serbia, assassinate Đorđe Kosmajac in Belgrade.
March 8–13 – Invasion of Salamaua–Lae: Japanese forces invade and occupy the Salamaua–Lae area in the Territory of New Guinea to establish an air base for the support of further operations in the region. A small Australian garrison (some 200 men) in the area withdraws to Wau after executing demolition operations to prevent the use of their facilities for the invaders. In response to the Japanese landings, Task Force 17 with aircraft carriers Lexington and Yorktown led by Admiral Wilson Brown, attacks the invading naval forces and destroys three transports, and damages the cruiser Yūbari and several other ships.
March 8 – WWII: Japanese forces of the 33rd Division under General Shōzō Sakurai capture Rangoon. The Allies manage to escape and try to make a stand in central Burma.
March 9 – WWII:
Executive order 9082 (February 28, 1942) comes into effect, reorganizing the United States Army into three major commands: Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces, with Henry H. Arnold as Commanding General of the United States Army Air Forces.
The Dutch Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces on Java, General Ter Poorten, surrenders to the Japanese. Ter Poorten's surrender announcement is made without consulting the commanders of the British and US forces, who want to continue the war.
March 11 – WWII: Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines – U.S. General Douglas MacArthur, his family and key members of his staff are evacuated by PT boat, under cover of evening darkness, from Corregidor in the Philippines. Command of U.S. forces in the Philippines passes to Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright.
March 12 – WWII: American troops land at Nouméa on New Caledonia to build a base and garrison the island. This landing includes the first Seabees that are out on active service. The Seabees are Naval Construction battalions, and their name comes from the C and B in construction battalion.
March 15 – WWII: Dünamünde Action: 1,900 central European Jews are shot dead north east of Riga, 1,840 are killed on the 26th.
March 16 – WWII: New Zealand and Australia declare war on Thailand.
March 17 – The Holocaust: Operation Reinhard – The Nazi German Bełżec extermination camp opens in occupied Poland, about 1 km south of the railroad station at Bełżec in the Lublin district of the General Government. At least 434,508 people are killed here up to December 1942.
March 18 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, signs Executive Order 9102, creating the War Relocation Authority (WRA), which becomes responsible for the internment of Americans of Japanese and, to a lesser extent, German and Italian descent, many of them legal citizens.
March 19–30 – WWII: Battle of Toungoo: Chinese forces under General Dai Anlan set up a perimeter around Taungoo. The Japanese 55th Division bombards the positions on the west bank of the Sittaung River with artillery. The Japanese 56th Division links up with the 55th and crosses the river. Taungoo is surrounded and finally taken, while the remnants of the Chinese 200th Division withdraws to new defensive positions at Yedashe.
March 20 – WWII: After being forced to flee the Philippines, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur announces (in Terowie, South Australia), "I came through and I shall return."
March 22 – WWII: Second Battle of Sirte: Escorting warships of a British convoy to Malta ward off a much more powerful Regia Marina (Italian Navy) squadron, north of the Gulf of Sirte.
March 23 – WWII: The Germans burn down the Ukrainian village of Yelino (Koriukivka Raion), killing 296 civilians.
March 24 – The evacuation of Polish nationals from the Soviet Union begins. It is conducted in two phases: until April 5; and between August 10 and 30, 1942, by sea from Krasnovodsk to Pahlavi (Anzali), and (to a lesser extent) overland from Ashkabad to Mashhad. In all, 115,000 people are evacuated, 37,000 of them civilians, 18,000 children (7% of the number of Polish citizens originally exiled to the Soviet Union).
March 25–26 – The Holocaust: First mass transport of Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp, 997 women and girls from Poprad transit camp in the Slovak Republic.
March 28 – WWII:
St Nazaire Raid (Operation Chariot) – British Commandos raid Saint-Nazaire on the coast of Western France, to put its dockyard facilities out of action.
Bombing of Lübeck in World War II: St. Mary's Church, Lübeck is destroyed by an Allied bombing raid.
March 29 – WWII: Following a coup d'état, the Free Republic of Nias is proclaimed by a group of freed Nazi German prisoners in the Indonesian island of Nias; the republic exists for less than a month until the island is fully occupied by Japanese troops.
March 31 – WWII: Battle of Christmas Island – Japanese troops occupy Christmas Island without resistance, following a mutiny by British Indian Army troops against their British officers.
Subsections (0):
|
1942_3 | Section: April (2):
April
The Holocaust: the Nazi German extermination camp Sobibór opens in occupied Poland, on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór. Between April 1942 and October 1943, at least 160,000 people are killed here.
77 Uzbek prisoners of war held at Amersfoort concentration camp in the occupied Netherlands are shot by Nazi German guards, 24 of their compatriots having previously died there as a result of forced starvation.
April 3 – WWII: Japanese forces begin the last phase of the Battle of Bataan, an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
April 5 – WWII: Easter Sunday Raid – Aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy attack Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
April 9 – WWII:
Battle of Bataan: The Bataan Peninsula falls, American and Filipino forces (some 75,000 soldiers) surrender to the Japanese 14th Army under General Masaharu Homma.
Bataan Death March: American and Filipino prisoners of war are forced to march from San Fernando to Capas (some 65 miles). During the march some 15,000 soldiers are killed by severe physical abuse and wanton killings.
The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes (95) and Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's east coast.
April 10 – The Holocaust: Construction of the Nazi German extermination camp Treblinka II commences in occupied Poland near the village of Treblinka. Between July 23, 1942, and October 1943, around 850,000 people are killed here, more than 800,000 of whom are Jews.
April 13
WWII: Japanese forces of the 56th Division under General Masao Watanabe cross the Sittang River and defeat the Chinese 6th Corps in the Karen Hills area battles of Mawchi.
The United States Federal Communications Commission's minimum programming time required of television stations is cut from 15 hours to 4 hours a week during the war.
April 14
WWII: British submarine HMS Upholder is probably sunk by Axis forces in the Mediterranean.
WWII: German submarine U-85 is sunk by USS Roper off North Carolina.
April 15 – WWII: Award of the George Cross to Malta: King George VI awards the George Cross to the island of Malta to mark the Siege of Malta, saying, "To honor her brave people I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta, to bear witness to a heroism and a devotion that will long be famous in history" (from January 1 to July 24, there is only one 24-hour period during which no bombs fall on this tiny island).
April 17 – WWII: Henri Giraud, French general captured in 1940, escapes from Königstein Fortress near Dresden. He lowers himself down the cliffside fortress with a 50-meter 'rope' he made with odds and ends smuggled in to him. After traveling for three days, Giraud safely reaches the Swiss border.
April 18 – WWII: Doolittle Raid: Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle leads a bombing mission against Japan, along with 79 airmen of the US. Air force, flying 16 B-25 Mitchell land-based bombers. They take off from the USS Hornet in the Pacific Ocean, some 700 miles (1,126 km) east of Tokyo. Thirteen of the B-25 bombers fly over Tokyo and drop their bombs on oil storage facilities, factories and military targets. The other three B-25s drop their bombs over Yokohama, Nagoya and Kobe. All but one of the B-25s run out of fuel before reaching friendly forces in western China and are forced to land in Japanese-occupied China. With the support of Chinese farmers, 71 airmen reach free China. Eight airmen are captured by the Japanese – who execute four of them in retaliation for the raid.
April 20 – WWII: Operation Calendar: The American aircraft carrier USS Wasp, escorted by the British battlecruiser HMS Renown, two cruisers and six destroyers, brings 47 planes (Spitfires) to Malta. They are successfully delivered – but 30 of them are immediately destroyed on the ground by German bombers. Within 48 hours all planes are destroyed.
April 23
WWII: Exeter becomes the first historic English city bombed as part of the Baedeker Blitz, in retaliation for the British bombing of Lübeck.
Exeter-born William Temple is enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.
April 25 – Princess Elizabeth registers for war service in the U.K.
April 26
WWII: The Reichstag meets for the last time, dissolving itself and proclaiming Adolf Hitler the "Supreme Judge of the German People", granting him the power of life and death over every German citizen.
A gas and coal dust explosion at Benxihu Colliery in Manchukuo kills as many as 1,549 workers, the world's all-time worst mining disaster.
April 27
WWII: A national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of conscription.
The Jewish Star of David is required wearing for all Jews in the Netherlands and Belgium; Jews in other Nazi-controlled countries have already been wearing it.
April 29 – WWII:
Burma campaign: Japanese forces of the 15 Army under General Shōjirō Iida capture Lashio. The allies are in full retreat.
An explosion at a chemical factory in Tessenderlo, Belgium leaves 200 dead and 1,000 injured.
Subsections (0):
|
1943_0 | 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1943rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 943rd year of the 2nd millennium, the 43rd year of the 20th century, and the 4th year of the 1940s decade. |
1943_0 | Section: January (2):
January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured.
January 4 – WWII: Greek-Polish athlete and saboteur Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz is executed by the Germans at Kaisariani.
January 10 – WWII: Guadalcanal Campaign: American forces of the 2nd Marine Division and the 25th Infantry Division begin their assaults on the Galloping Horse and Sea Horse on Guadalcanal. Meanwhile, the Japanese 17th Army makes plans to abandon the island and after fierce resistance withdraws to the west coast of Guadalcanal.
January 11
The United States and United Kingdom revise previously unequal treaty relationships with the Republic of China.
Italian-American anarchist Carlo Tresca is assassinated in New York City.
January 12 – WWII: Landing at Amchitka: American forces make an unopposed landing on Amchitka, an island of the Aleutian Islands, southwest of Alaska. The destroyer USS Worden moves into Constantine Harbor and disembarks a detachment of Alaska Scouts. During a maneuver, a strong current sweeps Worden onto a pinnacle rock that tears up the hull beneath the engine room – leaving the destroyer powerless. Later, Worden gets the order to abandon the ship and suffers the death of 14 Americans before the crew is rescued. After the island is cleared of Japanese, transports land some 2,100 men by the end of the day.
January 13 – Anti-Nazi protests in Sofia result in 200 arrests and 36 executions.
January 14–24 – WWII: Casablanca Conference: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States; Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; and Generals Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud of the Free French forces meet secretly at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, to plan the Allied European strategy for the next stage of the war.
January 15 – WWII: Guadalcanal Campaign – Operation Ke: Japanese forces begin to withdraw from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
January 16 – Iraq declares war on the Axis powers.
January 18
WWII: Soviet officials announce that the Red Army has broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad as part of Operation Iskra, opening a narrow land corridor to the city. Georgy Zhukov is promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union.
The first Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins: several day's engagements with the Germans limits the number of Jews deported at this time.
January 21 – WWII: Pan Am Flight 1104 – Pan American Airways Martin M-130 flying boat crashes about 7 mi (11 km) southwest of Ukiah, California. All 10 passengers and 9 crew aboard are killed, including Admiral Robert H. English (at this time COMSUBPAC).
January 22
WWII: Battle of Buna–Gona: American and Australian forces secure control of the territory of Papua.
The Holocaust: Round up of Marseille begins – Over 4,000 Jews are arrested in Nazi-occupied Marseille as part of "Action Tiger", before being transported to extermination camps in Poland.
January 23
WWII: British forces capture Tripoli from the Italians.
American critic and commentator Alexander Woollcott suffers an eventually fatal heart attack, during a regular broadcast of the CBS Radio round-table program People's Platform.
January 27 – WWII: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany: Wilhelmshaven is the target.
January 29
WWII: Operation Gallop: Russian forces of the Southwestern Front under General Nikolai Vatutin begin an offensive in the Donbas and break through the weak-defended German lines to the west of Voroshilovgrad.
Nazi German police arrest alleged necrophiliac and serial killer Bruno Lüdke.
The United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (MCWR) is created.
January 29–30 – WWII: Battle of Rennell Island – The Imperial Japanese Navy resists the United States Navy's attempt to interrupt the withdrawal of Japanese forces from Guadalcanal, in the last major naval battle of the Guadalcanal Campaign.
January 29–31 – WWII: Battle of Wau – Australian forces, with United States support, resist a Japanese advance in the New Guinea campaign.
January 30 – WWII: German General Friedrich Paulus is promoted to the rank of Field Marshal and instructed to fight to the death in Stalingrad, while Karl Dönitz is promoted to Commander in Chief of the German Navy, replacing Erich Raeder.
Subsections (0):
|
1943_1 | Section: February (2):
February 2 – WWII: In Russia, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end, with the surrender of the German 6th Army.
February 3 – WWII: The Four Chaplains of the U.S. Army are among those drowned when their ship, Dorchester, is struck by a German torpedo in the North Atlantic.
February 5 – Lt. General Frank M. Andrews is selected to command the U.S. armies in Europe, while General Dwight D. Eisenhower is assigned command in North Africa. Andrews will serve only 3 months, before dying in an airplane crash.
February 6 – WWII: RCN corvette HMCS Louisburg is bombed and sunk off Oran, Algeria by Italian aircraft.
February 7 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy SC 118 is attacked by U-boats, who sink 8 ships.
February 9
WWII: The Guadalcanal Campaign in the Solomon Islands ends with United States forces in command of Guadalcanal, the evacuation of Japanese forces in Operation Ke having been completed two days earlier.
WWII: Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army begin, with the Parośla I massacre within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.
The Holocaust: Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup – The Gestapo arrested 86 Jews in Lyon, 83 of whom were then sent to extermination camps.
February 10–March 3 – Mohandas Gandhi (under arrest by forces of the British Raj in Pune as a member of the Quit India Movement) keeps a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment.
February 13 – WWII: Operation Longcloth: Chindit forces (some 3,000 men) of the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade under Brigadier General Orde Wingate cross the Chindwin River and proceed into Burma.
February 14 – WWII: Rostov-on-Don and Voroshilovgrad in Russia are liberated.
February 14–17 – WWII: Battle of Sidi Bou Zid: In the Tunisia Campaign, German Panzer divisions commanded by Hans-Jürgen von Arnim are victorious over the United States Army.
February 16 – WWII: The Soviet Union reconquers Kharkiv, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkiv.
February 18
In a Sportpalast speech in Berlin, German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declares a "total war" against the Allies, tacitly admitting that Nazi Germany faces serious dangers.
The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose German Resistance movement.
February 19–24 – WWII: Battle of Kasserine Pass: German General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps and other Axis forces launch an offensive against Allied defenses in Tunisia; it is the United States' first major battle defeat of the war. On February 22, an Anglo-American force halts the German advance near Thala, forcing the Germans to retreat; US bombers harass the retreating Panzers.
February 20
American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
The Parícutin volcano begins to appear in a cornfield in Mexico.
February 21 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy ON 166 is attacked by U-boats, which sink eleven ships.
February 22
WWII: RCN corvette HMCS Weyburn sinks east of Gibraltar, after being mined.
Members of the White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
February 23–24 – Cavan Orphanage Fire: 35 girls and a cook from St Joseph's Orphanage, an industrial school at Cavan, Ireland, are killed in a fire in their dormitories. A subsequent inquiry absolves the Poor Clares of blame.
February 24 – WWII: First major protest march in Athens against rumours of forced mobilization of Greek workers for work in Germany, resulting in clashes with the Axis occupation forces and collaborationist police. Demonstrators attack the Labour Ministry and burn its files.
February 28
WWII: The funeral of Greece's national poet, Kostis Palamas, turns into a demonstration against the Axis occupation of Greece.
WWII: Operation Gunnerside: 6 Norwegians, led by Joachim Rønneberg, successfully attack the heavy water plant at Vemork.
Subsections (0):
|
1943_2 | Section: March (2):
March – Exiled French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's self-illustrated children's novella, The Little Prince, is published in New York City, the all-time best-selling book originating in French.
March–December – History of computing hardware: British prototype Mark I Colossus computer is constructed (the world's first totally electronic programmable computing device) to assist in cryptanalysis of German signals at Bletchley Park.
March 1 – Heinz Guderian becomes Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for the German Army.
March 1–2 – WWII: Koriukivka massacre – 6,700 inhabitants of Koriukivka are murdered in Ukraine, by a German SS unit.
March 2 – WWII: Battle of the Bismarck Sea – United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships, then strafe survivors in the water.
March 3 – 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green, London.
March 4
As part of The Holocaust in Bulgarian-occupied Greece, almost all Jews in the region are rounded up to be taken to Treblinka extermination camp.
The 15th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles. Mrs. Miniver wins the Best Picture Award.
March 4–6 – WWII: Battle of Fardykambos – Greek partisans and armed civilians force the surrender of an Italian army battalion.
March 5
WWII: General strike and protest march in Athens against rumours of forced mobilization of Greek workers for work in Germany, resulting in clashes with the Axis occupation forces and collaborationist police. The decree is withdrawn on the next day.
The Gloster Meteor, the first Allied jet fighter, makes its first flight, in England.
March 9–10 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy SC 121 is attacked by U-boats sinking seven ships.
March 9 – Şükrü Saracoğlu forms the new government of Turkey (14th government; Şükrü Saracoğlu had served twice as a prime minister).
March 10 – Banco Bradesco is founded in Marília, São Paulo, Brazil.
March 12
WWII: Italian occupation of Greece: The Italian occupying forces abandon the town of Karditsa to the partisans. On the same day, an Italian motorized column razes the village of Tsaritsani, burning 360 of its 600 houses and shooting 40 civilians.
Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man is premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
March 13 – The Holocaust: Nazi German forces liquidate the Jews of the Kraków Ghetto, in Occupied Poland.
March 14 – WWII: British submarine HMS Thunderbolt is sunk off Sicily by an Italian corvette, the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands.
March 15 – WWII:
Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci sinks Canadian Pacific liner RMS Empress of Canada off Sierra Leone. Nearly half of the 392 fatalities are Italian prisoners of war.
German forces recapture Kharkiv after four days of house-to-house fighting against Soviet troops, ending the month-long Third Battle of Kharkiv.
March 16 – WWII: Battle of the Mareth Line: Allied forces of the British 8th Army under General Bernard Montgomery launch an offensive against the Mareth Line held by the Italo-German 1st Army.
March 16–19 – WWII: 22 ships from Convoys HX 229/SC 122 and one U-boat are sunk in the largest North Atlantic U-boat "wolfpack" attack of the war.
March 17 (Saint Patrick's Day) – Éamon de Valera, Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, makes the speech "The Ireland That We Dreamed Of", commonly called the "comely maidens" speech, in Dublin Castle.
March 22 – WWII: Khatyn massacre – The entire population of Khatyn, Belarus is burnt alive by German occupation forces.
March 23 – The drugs Vicodin and Lortab are first produced in Germany.
March 26 – WWII: Battle of the Komandorski Islands: In the Aleutian Islands, the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese troops attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska. During the engagement, heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City is severely damaged by Japanese cruiser gunfire. Lasting for three and a half hours, it will be the longest continuous gunnery duel in modern naval history.
March 27 – WWII: British Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Dasher (D37) is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379 of the crew of 528.
March 28 – In Italy the transport Caterina Costa, full of weapons and ammunition, explodes in the port of Naples, killing 600.
Subsections (0):
|
1943_3 | Section: April (2):
April 3 – Shipwrecked steward Poon Lim, BEM, is rescued by Brazilian fishermen after being adrift for 133 days.
April 13 – WWII: Radio Berlin announces the discovery by Wehrmacht of mass graves of Poles killed by Soviets in the Katyn massacre.
April 19
History of lysergic acid diethylamide: Albert Hofmann self-administers the psychedelic drug LSD (which he first synthesized in 1938) for the first time in history and records the details of his experience.
The Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins when Nazi troops enter the Warsaw Ghetto to round up remaining Jews.
April 21 – WWII:
Aberdeen, Scotland, experiences its worst bombing, with 125 people killed.
The first German Tiger I tank is captured in North Africa by British forces.
April 25 – Easter occurs on the latest possible date (last time 1886; next time 2038) in the Western Christian Church.
April 27 – The U.S. Federal Writers' Project ceases operation.
Subsections (0):
|
1943_4 | Section: May (2):
May 6 – WWII: Six U-boats are sunk, after sinking 12 ships from Convoy ONS 5, in the last major North Atlantic U-boat "wolfpack" attack of the war.
May 9–12 – Japanese troops carry out the Changjiao massacre in Changjiao, Hunan, China.
May 11 – WWII: American troops invade Attu in the Aleutian Islands, in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
May 12 – The Third Washington Conference ("Trident") begins in Washington, D.C., with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill taking part.
May 13 – WWII: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
May 14 – WWII:
Australian Hospital Ship Centaur is sunk off the coast of Queensland by Japanese submarine I-177, killing 268 of the 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard.
The 358th Bombardment Squadron, 303d Bombardment Group B-17F Hell's Angels is the first USAAF bomber to complete 25 missions.
May 15 – WWII:
Operation Case Black: Axis forces begin a joint offensive, with the aim of destroying the Yugoslav Partisans, in south-eastern Bosnia. During the offensive, some 7,500 partisans are killed or wounded.
The Comintern is dissolved in Moscow.
May 16–17 – WWII: Operation Chastise (the 'Dambuster Raid') takes place: No. 617 Squadron RAF use bouncing bombs to breach German dams in the Ruhr Valley.
May 16 – Holocaust: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends. 13,000 Jews have been killed in the ghetto and almost all the remaining 50,000 residents are deported to Majdanek and Treblinka extermination camps.
May 17 – WWII:
The United States Army contracts with the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School to develop the computer ENIAC.
The Memphis Belle's crew becomes the first aircrew in the 8th Air Force to complete its 25-mission tour of duty. The aircraft and crew are the first to return to the U.S. intact for a War Bond drive.
May 19 – Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the United States Congress.
May 23 – WWII: The battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) is commissioned at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
May 24 – WWII: Admiral Karl Dönitz orders most of the U-boats to withdraw from the Atlantic Sea. Allied anti-submarine tactics are causing huge losses. Only 41 U-boats are operational for duty, Dönitz orders the suspension of all Atlantic operations.
May 27 – The port city of Maizuru is founded in Japan.
May 29 – Norman Rockwell's illustration of 'Rosie the Riveter' first appears, on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.
May 30 – WWII:
Chinese 6th War Area commander Chen Cheng orders a large counteroffensive in Hubei Province and pushes the Japanese forces of the 11th Army back at multiple locations.
The Holocaust: Josef Mengele begins his position as a medical officer in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
The Battle of Attu ends in the Aleutian Islands with an American victory over the Japanese forces there.
Subsections (0):
|
1943_5 | Section: June (2):
June 1 – BOAC Flight 777, a scheduled passenger flight, is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s; all 17 persons aboard perish, including actor Leslie Howard.
June 3
The Zoot Suit Riots erupt between military personnel and Mexican-American youths in East Los Angeles.
The French Committee of National Liberation (Comité Français de Libération Nationale, CFLN) is formed with headquarters in Algiers and Generals Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud as co-presidents.
June 4 – A military coup d'état in Argentina ousts Ramón Castillo.
June 8 – WWII: Japanese battleship Mutsu is destroyed by an accidental magazine explosion, in Hashirajima anchorage.
June 8–9 – WWII: Battle of Porta: The Royal Italian Army is defeated by the Greek People's Liberation Army.
June 20–23 – The Detroit race riot of 1943 in the United States kills 34 people (25 African Americans, 9 whites), wounds hundreds more and damages and destroys property worth millions.
June 21 – WWII: As part of Operation Animals, British Special Operations Executive saboteurs destroy the railway bridge over the Asopos River in "Operation Washing", and guerrillas of the Greek People's Liberation Army ambush and destroy a German convoy at the Battle of Sarantaporos.
June 22 – WWII: The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division lands in North Africa, prior to training at Arzew, French Morocco.
June 30
The United States Civilian Conservation Corps is abolished.
WWII: The New Georgia campaign begins in the Solomon Islands, an Allied offensive against the Japanese forces stationed there.
June (late) – The Holocaust: The last trainload of Jewish prisoners is moved from Bełżec extermination camp in Occupied Poland (for gassing at Sobibór), and for the remainder of the year the Nazis make efforts to obliterate the site.
Subsections (0):
|
1943_6 | Section: July (2):
July 1 – The United States Women's Army Corps (WAC) is converted to full status.
July 4 – 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash: The aircraft carrying General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile, crashes, killing him and 15 others, leading to a lasting controversy over the circumstances.
July 5 – WWII:
Nazi Germany commences Operation Citadel. It will eventually lead to the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history.
A fleet sets sail for the Allied invasion of Sicily.
The National Bands Agreement is concluded in Greece.
July 6 – WWII: Americans and Japanese fight the Battle of Kula Gulf off Kolombangara.
July 10
(0245 GMT (4:45 a.m. local time)) – WWII: Allied invasion of Sicily – The Allied invasion of Axis-controlled Europe begins, with landings on the island of Sicily off mainland Italy by the Seventh United States Army and the British Eighth Army, including the 1st Canadian Infantry Division.
The Holocaust: Jedwabne pogrom – At least 340 Polish Jews are marched to a local barn, locked inside and subsequently burned to death.
July 11 – WWII:
United States Army forces make an assault on Piano Lupo, just outside Gela, Sicily.
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak.
July 12 – WWII: Main engagement of the Battle of Prokhorovka – The Wehrmacht and the Red Army fight to a draw in one of the largest tank battles in military history.
July 17 – WWII:
Soviet forces of the Southwestern- and Southern Front strike hard at the German defenses of the 9th Army under General Walter Model during Operation Kutuzov.
Krasowo-Częstki massacre: The village of Krasowo-Częstki in Nazi-occupied Poland is completely burned and 257 of its inhabitants, mostly women and children, murdered by the Ordnungspolizei and SS in retaliation for German deaths in a skirmish with Polish partisans nearby.
July 19 – WWII: Rome is bombed by the Allies, for the first time in the war.
July 24 – WWII: Operation Gomorrha: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night; American planes bomb the city by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 42,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
July 25 – Benito Mussolini, Fascist Prime Minister of Italy since 1922, is arrested after the Grand Council of Fascism withdraws its support. "Il Duce" is replaced by General Pietro Badoglio.
Subsections (0):
|
1943_7 | Section: August (2):
August 1 – Operation Tidal Wave: 177 B-24 Liberator bombers from the U.S. Army Air Force bomb oil refineries at Ploiești, Romania.
August 2 – WWII: John F. Kennedy's PT boat PT-109 is run down by Japanese destroyer Amagiri.
August 3 – Patton slapping incident: U.S. General George S. Patton Jr. slaps a soldier suffering from battle fatigue, at a field hospital in Sicily. On August 10, he slaps another soldier suffering from the same condition.
August 4 – WWII: The aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CV-11) is launched at Newport News, Virginia.
August 5 – WWII:
United States Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) are formed, consolidating the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WFTD).
John F. Kennedy and crew are found by Solomon Islands coastwatchers Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, with their dugout canoe.
August 6 – WWII: Battle of Vella Gulf: Americans defeat a Japanese convoy off Kolombangara, as the U.S. Army drives the Japanese out of Munda airfield on New Georgia.
August 11–17 – WWII: Operation Lehrgang: German and Italian forces evacuate from Sicily to the Italian mainland. The evacuation includes some 40,000 Wehrmacht troops, 9,000 vehicles, 30 tanks, and 90 heavy guns. Also, a total of 62,000 Italian troops are successfully evacuated. Despite Allied air attacks, losses are very low due to sufficient Axis anti-aircraft coverage.
August 14
WWII: Rome is declared an open city by the Italian government, with Italy offering to demilitarize the capital, in return for an Allied agreement not to bomb the city further.
The Quadrant Conference begins in Quebec City; Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King meets with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
August 17 – WWII:
The Seventh U.S. Army, under General George S. Patton, meets the Eighth British Army under Field Marshal B. L. Montgomery in Messina, Sicily, completing the Allied invasion of Sicily.
Operation Hydra: The British Royal Air Force sets out to bomb the Peenemünde Army Research Center, to disrupt the German V-weapons programme.
August 21 – 1943 Australian federal election: John Curtin's Labor government defeats the Country/UAP Coalition, led by former Prime Minister Arthur Fadden. Labor achieves its greatest ever electoral result, including winning every seat (except one) outside of the eastern states. Notably, this election marked the first time that a woman has been elected to both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Fadden will step down from the Opposition leadership, handing it over to Robert Menzies, who will go on to dissolve the UAP and form the Liberal Party shortly after.
August 23 – WWII: The Battle of Kursk ends, with a strategic defeat for the German forces.
August 24 – Heinrich Himmler is named Reichsminister of the Interior in Germany.
August 26 – WWII: Louis Mountbatten is named Supreme Allied Commander for Southeast Asia.
August 28 – WWII: King Boris III of Bulgaria dies under suspicious circumstances; his 6-year-old son, Simeon II, ascends to the throne.
August 29 – WWII: Occupation of Denmark – Germany dissolves the Danish government, after it refuses to deal with a wave of strikes and disturbances to the satisfaction of the German authorities.
Subsections (0):
|
1944_0 | 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1944th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 944th year of the 2nd millennium, the 44th year of the 20th century, and the 5th year of the 1940s decade. |
1944_0 | Section: January (2):
January 2 – WWII:
Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in North Africa.
Landing at Saidor: 13,000 US and Australian troops land on Papua New Guinea, in an attempt to cut off a Japanese retreat.
January 8 – WWII: Philippine Commonwealth troops enter the province of Ilocos Sur in northern Luzon and attack Japanese forces.
January 11
President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a Second Bill of Rights for social and economic security, in his State of the Union address.
The Nazi German administration expands Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp into the larger standalone Konzentrationslager Plaszow bei Krakau in occupied Poland.
January 12 – WWII: Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle begin a 2-day conference in Marrakech.
January 14 – WWII: Soviet troops start the offensive at Leningrad and Novgorod.
January 15
WWII: The 27th Polish Home Army Infantry Division is re-created, marking the start of Operation Tempest by the Polish Home Army, a resistance force.
1944 San Juan earthquake: An earthquake hits San Juan, Argentina, killing an estimated 10,000 people, in the worst natural disaster in Argentina's history.
The Battle of Monte Cassino begins in Italy. British forces cross the Garigliano River. U.S. Fifth Army troops, commanded by Lieutenant-General Mark W. Clark, arrive at the Garigliano, to begin their attack against the Gustav Line south of Rome. The French Expeditionary Corps, under command of General Alphonse Juin, moves into the mountains north of Monte Cassino.
The Soviet Union ceases production of the Mosin–Nagant 1891/30 sniper rifle.
January 17 – WWII: The Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy begins in the Soviet Ukraine.
January 20 – WWII:
The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
The United States 36th Infantry Division in Italy attempts to cross the Rapido River.
January 22 – WWII: Operation Shingle: The Allies begin the assault on Anzio, Italy. The U.S. 45th Infantry Division stand their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for four months.
January 24 – WWII:
January 25 – A total solar eclipse is visible in Pacific Ocean, South America, Atlantic Ocean and Africa, the 48th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 130.
January 27 – WWII:
The two-year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
Light cruiser HMS Spartan is sunk by a Henschel Hs 293 guided missile, from a German aircraft off Anzio, western Italy, with the loss of 46 men.
January 29 – WWII: Koniuchy massacre – A unit of Soviet partisans accompanied by Jewish partisans kills at least 38 civilians in the village of Koniuchy in Nazi occupied Lithuania.
January 30 – WWII:
The Battle of Cisterna opens, as United States Army Rangers attempt to break out of the Anzio beachhead.
United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
January 31 – WWII: Battle of Kwajalein: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands, in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
Subsections (0):
|
1944_1 | Section: February (2):
The Zadran tribe rises up against the Afghan government, starting the Afghan tribal revolts of 1944–1947.
February 2 – The first issue of Human Events is published in Washington, D.C.
February 3 – WWII: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
February 7 – WWII: At Anzio, German forces launch a counteroffensive.
February 8 – WWII:
2,765 drown when American submarine USS Snook torpedoes Japanese troop transport Lima Maru.
2,670 drown when British submarine HMS Sportsman torpedoes German-captured Petrella carrying Italian prisoners of war.
February 14 – WWII: An anti-Japanese revolt breaks out on Java.
February 15 – WWII: Battle of Monte Cassino – The monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing.
February 17 – WWII: Pacific War – The Battle of Eniwetok begins when U.S. forces invade the atoll in the Marshall Islands.
February 18 – WWII: British light cruiser HMS Penelope is torpedoed and sunk by U-410 in the Mediterranean; 417 of her crew, including the captain, go down with the ship; 206 survive.
February 20 – WWII:
The "Big Week" begins, with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
The United States takes Eniwetok Atoll.
Norwegian heavy water sabotage: The Norwegian resistance sinks train ferry SF Hydro which is carrying a shipment of heavy water from the Vemork plant to Germany along Tinnsjå in Telemark.
February 22 – WWII: The United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe is organized from the Eighth Air Force's strategic planning staff, subsuming strategic planning for all US Army Air Forces in Europe and Africa.
February 23 – WWII:
Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush ("Operation Lentil"): Forced deportation of Chechens and Ingush people from North Caucasus to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia by the Soviet authorities begins.
The Battle of Eniwetok concludes when U.S. forces secure the last islands in the Eniwetok Atoll.
February 24 – WWII: American submarine USS Rasher torpedoes Japanese transports Ryūsei Maru and Tango Maru; 7,998 drown.
February 26
Kurt Gerron begins shooting the Nazi propaganda film Theresienstadt in Theresienstadt concentration camp. He and many others who are featured in it are transferred to Auschwitz and gassed upon the film's completion.
Sue S. Dauser becomes the first woman appointed to the substantive rank of captain, in the United States Navy Nurse Corps.
February 29 – WWII: Pacific War – The Admiralty Islands campaign (Operation Brewer) opens when U.S. forces land on Los Negros Island in the Admiralty Islands.
Subsections (0):
|
1944_2 | Section: March (2):
March – Austrian-born economist Friedrich Hayek publishes his book The Road to Serfdom in London.
March 1 – WWII: American submarine USS Trout torpedoes Japanese merchant cruiser Sakito Maru; 2,495 drown.
March 2 – The 16th Academy Awards Ceremony is held, the first Oscar ceremony held at a large public venue, Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, wins the Award for Best Picture.
March 3 – WWII: The Order of Nakhimov and the Order of Ushakov are instituted in the USSR.
March 4 – Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing, in Ossining, New York, along with Emanuel Weiss and Louis Capone.
March 6 – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Narva, Estonia, destroying over 95% of the town.
March 9 – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia, killing 757 and leaving 25,000 homeless.
March 10
In Britain, the prohibition on married women working as teachers is lifted.
Resistance leader Joop Westerweel is arrested while returning to the Netherlands, having escorted a group of Jewish children to safety in Spain.
March 12 – WWII: The Political Committee of National Liberation is created in Greece.
March 15
WWII: Battle of Monte Cassino: Allied aircraft bomb the monastery, and an assault is staged.
WWII: The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
The Soviet Union introduces a new anthem, replacing The Internationale.
March 18
The last eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26, and causes thousands to flee their homes.
WWII: The Nazis execute almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians at Rîbnița.
March 19
WWII: Operation Margarethe: German forces occupy Hungary.
The secular oratorio A Child of Our Time by Michael Tippett is premiered at the Adelphi Theatre in London.
March 20 – WWII:
Landing on Emirau: 4,000 United States Marines land on Emirau Island in the Bismarck Archipelago to develop an airbase, as part of Operation Cartwheel.
British Royal Air Force Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade's bomber is hit over Germany, and he has to bail out without a parachute from a height of over 4,000 meters (13,123 ft). Tree branches interrupt his fall and he lands safely on deep snow.
March 23 – WWII: Members of the Italian Resistance attack Nazis marching in Via Rasella, killing 33.
March 24 – WWII:
Ardeatine massacre: In Rome, 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members of the Italian Resistance from various groups.
In Markowa, Poland, German police kill Józef and Wiktoria Ulm, their 6 children and 8 Jews they were hiding.
The "Great Escape": 76 Royal Air Force prisoners of war escape by tunnel "Harry" from Stalag Luft III in Silesia this night. Only 3 men (2 Norwegians and a Dutchman) return to the UK; of those recaptured, 50 are summarily executed soon afterwards, in the Stalag Luft III murders.
March 27 – In Sweden, Ruben Rausing patents Erik Wallenberg's method of packaging milk in paper, origin of the international company Tetra Pak.
Subsections (0):
|
1944_3 | Section: April (2):
April 1 – The Swiss city of Schaffhausen is accidentally bombed by the United States causing serious damage to the city and killing or wounding more than 100 people.
April 2 – WWII: Ascq massacre: Members of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend shoot 85 civilians suspected of blowing up their train on its approach to the Gare d'Ascq in France.
April 4 WWII:
Allied bombardment of Bucharest, Romania begins. The United States Air Force and British Royal Air Force, with approximately 3,640 bombers of different types, accompanied by about 1,830 fighters bomb Romania for the following 4½ months. As collateral damage, 5,524 inhabitants are killed, 3,373 injured, and 47,974 left homeless.
An Allied photoreconnaissance aircraft of 60 Squadron SAAF photographs part of Auschwitz concentration camp.
April 10
The Holocaust: Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler escape from Auschwitz concentration camp; on April 25–27 they prepare the Vrba–Wetzler report, one of the earliest and most detailed descriptions of the extermination of Jews in the camp.
WWII: As part of the Odessa Offensive, the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front liberated the city of Odessa in Southern Ukraine.
April 14
Bombay Explosion: Freighter SS Fort Stikine, carrying a mixed cargo of ammunition, cotton bales and gold, explodes in harbour at Bombay (India), sinking surrounding ships and killing around 800 people.
WWII: As part of the Japanese-supported Axis forces led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, fighting for India's liberation from British rule, Col. Shaukat Ali Malik of the Bahadur Group of the Indian National Army enters Moirang in modern-day Manipur in northeastern India and raises the flag of the Azri Hukumat e-Azad Hind for the first time on Indian soil. This is considered to be one of the first times in British Indian history where an army of liberation raises the national flag on Indian mainland.
April 15 – Italian fascist philosopher Giovanni Gentile is assassinated in Florence by Bruno Fanciullacci, a member of the partisan Gruppi di Azione Patriottica.
April 16 – WWII: Allied forces start bombing Belgrade, killing about 1,100 people. This bombing falls on the Orthodox Christian Easter.
April 19 – WWII:
The Japanese launch the Operation Ichi-Go offensive in central and south China.
Semaine rouge: American and British planes bomb the city of Rouen.
April 20
Members of the Slovene Home Guard swear an oath to Hitler on his birthday at Bežigrad Stadium.
April 22 – WWII: Battle of Hollandia: American forces disembark at Tanahmerah Bay and at Yos Sudarso Bay, near Hollandia. The landings are undertaken simultaneously with the amphibious invasion of Aitape ("Operation Persecution") to the east.
April 25
The Holocaust: SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann opens "blood for goods" negotiations with Joel Brand, to offer the release of thousands of Jews from eastern Europe to the Hungarian Aid and Rescue Committee, in exchange for supplies for the German Eastern Front.
The United Negro College Fund is incorporated in the United States.
April 26 – WWII:
German General Kreipe is kidnapped on Crete, Greece.
American submarine USS Jack torpedoes Japanese cargo carrier Yoshida Maru No. 1; 2,649 drown.
April 28 – WWII: Allied convoy T4, forming part of amphibious Exercise Tiger (a full-scale rehearsal for the Normandy landings) in Start Bay, off the Devon coast of England, is attacked by E-boats, resulting in the deaths of 749 American servicemen from LSTs.
Subsections (0):
|
1944_4 | Section: May (2):
May – Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist drama No Exit (Huis Clos) premières in Nazi-occupied Paris.
May 1 – WWII: Two hundred Communist prisoners are shot by the Germans at Kaisariani, Athens, Greece, in reprisal for the killing of General Franz Krech by Partisans at Molaoi.
May 5 – WWII: Mohandas Gandhi is released from jail in India, on health grounds.
May 9 – WWII: In the Soviet city of Sevastopol, Soviet troops completely drive out German forces, who had been ordered by Hitler to “fight to the last man.”
May 12 – WWII: Soviet troops finalize the liberation of the Crimea.
May 14 – The Holocaust: Predominantly Muslim Albanian troops of the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) round up 281 Jews in Priština, and hand them over to the Germans for transportation to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
May 15 – WWII: Allied military and political leaders, including Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, Bernard Montgomery and more, meet for the final D-Day joint briefing at St. Paul's School.
May 15–July 8 – The Holocaust: Hungarian Jews are deported to Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.
May 17 – WWII: Merrill's Marauders and Chinese troops (some 3,000 men) led by Brigadier General Frank Merrill capture Myitkyina airfield, after a 100-kilometer march over the Kumon Mountain range (using mules for carrying supplies).
May 18 – WWII:
Battle of Monte Cassino: The Germans evacuate Monte Cassino and Allied forces, led by Władysław Anders from Polish II Corps, take the stronghold after a struggle that has claimed 20,000 lives.
Crimean Tatars are deported by the Soviet Union.
May 20 – WWII: Battle of Wakde: American forces of the 163rd Regimental Combat Team (some 1,500 men) under Brigadier General Jens Doe take the Japanese-held Wakde island (Dutch New Guinea).
May 24 – WWII: West Loch disaster: Six LSTs are accidentally destroyed and 163 men killed, in Pearl Harbor.
May 30 – Princess Charlotte Louise Juliette Louvet Grimaldi of Monaco, heir to the throne, resigns in favor of her son Prince Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi, who later reigns as Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
May 31 – WWII: American destroyer escort USS England sinks the sixth Japanese submarine in two weeks. This anti-submarine warfare performance remains unmatched through the 20th century.
Subsections (0):
|
1944_5 | Section: June (2):
June 1 – Two K-class blimps of the United States Navy complete the first transatlantic crossing by non-rigid airships, from the U.S. to French Morocco, with two stops.
June 2 – WWII: The Provisional Government of the French Republic is established.
June 3 – Hans Asperger publishes his paper on Asperger syndrome.
June 4 – WWII:
Rome falls to the Allies, the first Axis capital to fall.
A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the War of 1812. Some significant intelligence data is acquired.
June 5 – WWII:
The German navy's Enigma messages are decoded in England almost in real time.
British Group Captain James Stagg correctly forecasts a brief improvement in weather conditions over the English Channel, which will permit the following day's Normandy landings to take place (having been deferred from today due to unfavourable weather).
At 10:15 p.m. local time, the BBC transmits coded messages including the second line of the Paul Verlaine poem "Chanson d'automne" to the French Resistance, indicating that the invasion of Europe is about to begin.
More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast, in preparation for D-Day.
US and British airborne divisions drop into Normandy, in preparation for D-Day.
D-Day naval deceptions are launched.
June 6 – WWII: D-Day: 155,000 Allied troops shipped from England land on the beaches of Normandy in northern France, beginning Operation Overlord and the Invasion of Normandy. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland, in the largest amphibious military operation in history. This operation helps liberate France from Germany, and also weakens the Nazi hold on Europe.
June 7 – WWII:
Bayeux is liberated by British troops.
Operation Perch, a British attempt to capture Caen from the Germans, commences; it is abandoned on June 14.
The steamer Danae (Greek: Δανάη), carrying 600 Cretans (including 350 Greek Jews) on the first leg of the journey to Auschwitz, is sunk, with no known survivors, off Santorini.
Joel Brand is intercepted by British agents in Aleppo.
June 9 – WWII: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin launches the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive against Finland, with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
June 10 – WWII: Oradour-sur-Glane massacre: 642 men, women and children are killed in France.
June 13 – WWII: Germany launches the first V-1 flying bomb attack on London.
June 15 – WWII: Battle of Saipan: United States forces land on Saipan.
June 15–16 – WWII: Bombing of Yawata – The United States Army Air Forces conduct the first air raid on the Japanese home islands.
June 16 – At age 14, African-American teenage boy George Stinney Jr. becomes the youngest person ever executed by electric chair in the United States.
June 17 – Iceland declares full independence from Denmark.
June 19 – WWII: A severe storm badly damages the Mulberry harbours on the Normandy coast.
June 20 – WWII: A V-2 rocket becomes the first man-made object to cross the Kármán line and reach the edge of space.
June 22 – WWII:
Operation Bagration: A general attack by Soviet forces clears the German forces from Belarus, resulting in the destruction of German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during WWII.
Burma Campaign: The Battle of Kohima ends in a British victory.
June 23 – The Holocaust: Maurice Rossel of the International Committee of the Red Cross visits Theresienstadt concentration camp, uncritically accepting the propaganda view of it presented by the Schutzstaffel.
June 25 – WWII:
Battle of Tali-Ihantala (the largest battle ever in the Nordic countries): Finland is able to resist the Soviet attack, and thus manages to remain an independent nation.
Cherbourg is bombarded by ships of the United States Navy and British Royal Navy, in support of U.S. ground troops.
June 26 – WWII: American troops enter Cherbourg.
June 29 – WWII: American submarine USS Sturgeon torpedoes Japanese troop transport Toyama Maru; 5,400 drown.
June 30 – WWII: American submarine USS Tang torpedoes Japanese troop transport SS Nikkin Maru; 3,219 drown.
Subsections (0):
|
1944_6 | Section: July (2):
July–October – WWII: Germans are driven out of Lithuania leading to reimposition of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
July 1 – The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference begins at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States.
July 3 – WWII:
Soviet troops liberate Minsk.
Battle of Imphal: Japanese forces call off their advance, ending the battle with a British victory.
July 4 – WWII: Operation Windsor: Canadian forces of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division attack Carpiquet airfield defended by German troops of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend of Panzergruppe West.
July 6 – WWII: At Camp Hood, Texas, future baseball star and 1st Lt. Jackie Robinson is arrested and later court-martialed, for refusing to move to the back of a segregated U.S. Army bus (he is eventually acquitted).
July 9 – WWII: British and Canadian forces capture Caen.
July 10–11 – WWII: Operation Jupiter during the Battle of Normandy of World War II: British strategic victory over German Panzer Corps.
July 10 – WWII: Soviet troops begin operations to liberate the Baltic countries from Nazi occupation.
July 12–21 – WWII: Dortan massacre – 35–36 French civilians are killed by Ostlegionen (Cossacks) serving with the Wehrmacht.
July 13 – WWII: Vilnius is freed by Soviet forces.
July 16 – WWII:
Adolf Hitler departs Berchtesgaden for what will be the final time as he flies to the Wolf's Lair, aborting Operation Foxley, a British plot to assassinate him.
The first contingent of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force arrives in Italy.
July 17 – WWII:
The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia, under Royal Canadian Navy protection.
Port Chicago disaster: The SS E. A. Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes at the Port Chicago, California, Naval Magazine, killing 320 sailors and civilian personnel.
July 18 – WWII:
American forces push back the Germans in Saint-Lô, capturing the city.
British forces launch Operation Goodwood, an armoured offensive aimed at driving the Germans from the high ground to the south of Caen. The offensive ends 2 days later with minimal gains.
Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort and is succeeded on July 22 by Kuniaki Koiso.
July 20
WWII: Adolf Hitler survives the 20 July plot to assassinate him led by Claus von Stauffenberg; he and his fellow conspirators in this and Operation Valkyrie are executed the following day.
The annular solar eclipse of July 20, 1944 is visible in Africa, Indian Ocean, Asia, Pacific Ocean and Australia, and is the 35th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 135.
July 21 – WWII:
Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam (the battle ends August 10).
The Soviet-sponsored Polish Committee of National Liberation is created, in opposition to the Polish government-in-exile.
July 22
The Bretton Woods Conference ends with agreements signed to set up the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and International Monetary Fund.
The new Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes the PKWN Manifesto in Chełm, calling for a continuation of fighting against Nazi Germany, radical reforms including nationalisation of industry, and a "decent border in the West" (the Oder–Neisse line).
United States v. Masaaki Kuwabara, the only Japanese American draft avoidance case to be dismissed on a due process violation of the U.S. Constitution.
July 23 – The Holocaust: Majdanek concentration camp is liberated by the Soviet Red Army and much incriminating evidence of the atrocities committed there is found.
July 25 – WWII:
Operation Spring: One of the bloodiest days for Canadian forces during the war results in 1,550 casualties, including 450 killed, during the Normandy Campaign.
Operation Cobra: American forces launch an air and ground offensive against the German defenders in western Normandy, forcing them to retreat.
Battle of Tannenberg Line (or "Battle of the Blue Hills") in northeastern Estonia begins: The Red Army will gain a Pyrrhic victory by August 10.
July 26 – WWII: A Messerschmitt Me 262 becomes the first jet fighter aircraft to have an operational victory.
July 27 – WWII: Soviet forces liberated Lvov, Stanislav and Białystok, and the following day entered Brest.
July 30 – WWII: Operation Bluecoat: British forces launch a ground offensive to secure the road junction of Vire and the high ground of Mont Pinçon.
July 31 – WWII: American submarine USS Parche torpedoes Japanese troop transport Yoshino Maru; 2,495 drown.
Subsections (0):
|
1945_0 | 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1945th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 945th year of the 2nd millennium, the 45th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1940s decade. |
1945_0 | Section: January (2):
January 1 – WWII:
Germany begins Operation Bodenplatte, an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries.
Chenogne massacre: German prisoners are allegedly killed by American forces near the village of Chenogne, Belgium.
January 6 – WWII: A German offensive recaptures Esztergom, Hungary from the Soviets.
January 9 – WWII: American and Australian troops land at Lingayen Gulf on western coast of the largest Philippine island of Luzon, occupied by Japan since 1942.
January 12 – WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula–Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe, against the German Army.
January 13 – WWII: The Soviet Union begins the East Prussian Offensive, to eliminate German forces in East Prussia.
January 16 – WWII: Adolf Hitler takes residence in the Führerbunker in Berlin.
January 17
WWII: The Soviet Union occupies Warsaw, Poland.
The Holocaust: Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who has saved thousands of Jews, is taken into custody by a Soviet patrol during the Siege of Budapest and is never again seen publicly.
January 18 – The Holocaust: The SS begins the evacuation of Auschwitz concentration camp. Nearly 60,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, are forced to march to other locations in Germany; as many as 15,000 die. The 7,000 too sick to move are left without supplies being distributed.
January 19 – The Holocaust: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź Ghetto; only 877 Jews of the initial population of 164,000 remain at this time.
January 20
Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a fourth term as President of the United States, the only President ever to exceed two terms.
Germany begins the Evacuation of East Prussia.
January 21–22 (night) – At the Grünhagen railroad station, located in East Prussia at this date, two trains, heading for Elbing, collide. At dawn the station is reached by Soviet Army infantry and tanks which destroy the station, killing between 140 and 150 people.
January 23 – WWII:
Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.
German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the start of Operation Hannibal, the mass evacuation by sea of German troops and civilians from the Courland Pocket, East Prussia and the Polish Corridor, evacuating an estimated 800,000-900,000 German civilians and 350,000 soldiers from advancing Soviet forces.
Evacuation of Germans from Grünhagen.
January 24 – WWII: AP war correspondent Joseph Morton, nine OSS men, and four SOE agents are executed by the Germans at Mauthausen concentration camp under Hitler's Commando Order of 1942, which stipulates the immediate execution of all captured Allied commandos or saboteurs without trial, even those in proper uniforms. Morton is the only Allied correspondent to be executed by the Axis during the war.
January 25 – WWII: Hitler appoints Heinrich Himmler as commander of the hastily formed Army Group Vistula (Heeresgruppe Weichsel) to halt the Soviet Red Army's Vistula–Oder offensive into Pomerania, despite Himmler's lack of military experience.
January 26 – WWII: 19-year-old U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Audie Murphy sees action at Holtzwihr, France, for which is awarded the Medal of Honor.
January 27 – The Holocaust: The Soviet Red Army liberates the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps.
January 30 – WWII:
MV Wilhelm Gustloff, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) is sunk in Gdańsk Bay by three torpedoes from Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea; up to 9,400, 5,000 of whom are children, are thought to have died – the greatest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.
Raid at Cabanatuan: 121 American soldiers and 800 Filipino guerrillas free 813 American prisoners of war from the Japanese-held camp in the city of Cabanatuan, in the Philippines.
Adolf Hitler makes his last public speech, on broadcast radio, expressing the belief that Germany will triumph.
January 31 – WWII: The Battle of Hill 170 in the Burma Campaign ends with the British 3rd Commando Brigade defeating the Imperial Japanese Army 54th Division, causing the Japanese Twenty-Eighth Army to withdraw from the Arakan Peninsula.
Subsections (0):
|
1945_1 | Section: February (2):
February – Raymond L. Libby of American Cyanamid's research laboratories, at Stamford, Connecticut, announces a method of orally administering the antibiotic penicillin.
February 3 – WWII:
Battle of Manila: United States forces enter the outskirts of Manila to capture it from the Japanese Imperial Army, starting the battle. On February 4, U.S. Army forces liberate Santo Tomas Internment Camp in the city.
The Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific War against Japan, once hostilities against Germany are concluded.
February 4–11 – WWII: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin hold the Yalta Conference.
February 7 – WWII: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
February 8 – The Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, championed by charismatic native leader Elizabeth Peratrovich, is passed by the territorial Senate, after the legislature defeated a previous bill in 1943.
February 9
Walter Ulbricht becomes leader of the German Communists in Moscow.
WWII: "Black Friday": A force of Allied Bristol Beaufighter aircraft suffers heavy casualties in an unsuccessful attack on German destroyer Z33 and escorting vessels sheltering in Førde Fjord, Norway.
February 10 – WWII: German troopship SS General von Steuben is sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13; 3,608 drown.
February 10–20 – WWII: Operation Kita: The Imperial Japanese Navy returns "Completion Force", containing both its Ise-class battleships, safely from Singapore to Kure in Japan despite Allied attacks.
February 12 – A devastating tornado outbreak in Mississippi and Alabama kills 45 people and injures 427 others.
February 13 – WWII:
The Budapest Offensive and the Siege of Budapest end with Nazi troops surrendering Budapest (Hungary) to Soviet-Romanian forces.
Bombing of Dresden (Germany) by the British Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces; 25,000-35,000 are estimated to have died.
February 16 – WWII:
The Bombing of Wesel begins, destroying 97% of the town over three days.
American and Filipino ground forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
Combined American and Filipino forces recapture the Bataan Peninsula.
Venezuela declares war on Germany.
February 19–20 – 980 (actual figure is disputed) Japanese soldiers die as a result of being attacked by long saltwater crocodiles in Ramree, Burma.
February 19 – WWII: Battle of Iwo Jima – About 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.
February 21 – The last V-2 rocket is launched from Peenemünde.
February 22 – WWII:
Italian Front: The Battle of Monte Castello ends after nearly three months of fighting when the Brazilian Expeditionary Force expels German forces from a pivot point in the (Tuscan) North Apennines where their artillery was impeding the advance of the British Eighth Army toward Bologna.
Uruguay declares war on Germany and Japan.
February 23 – WWII:
Battle of Iwo Jima: A group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island, and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo, Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (taken by Joe Rosenthal), later wins a Pulitzer Prize.
The 11th Airborne Division, with Filipino guerrillas, free the captives of the Los Baños internment camp.
The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by combined American and Filipino ground troops. The suburb of Intramuros is devastated.
The German garrison in Poznań capitulates to Red Army and Polish troops.
Bombing of Pforzheim: The heaviest of a series of bombing raids on Pforzheim, Germany by Allied aircraft is carried out by the British Royal Air Force. As many as 17,600 people, or 31.4% of the town's population, are killed in the raid and about 83% of the town's buildings destroyed, two-thirds of its complete area and between 80 and 100% of the inner city.
Turkey joins the war on the side of the Allies.
February 24 – Egyptian Premier Ahmad Mahir Pasha is assassinated in Parliament after declaring war on Germany and Japan.
February 27 – The Bombing of Mainz results in 1,209 confirmed dead; 80% of the city is destroyed.
February 28 – In Bucharest, a violent demonstration takes place, during which the Bolşevic group opens fire on the army and protesters. In response, Andrei Y. Vishinsky, USSR vice commissioner of foreign affairs and president of the Allied Control Commission for Romania, travels to Bucharest to compel Nicolae Rădescu to resign as premier.
Subsections (0):
|
1945_2 | Section: March (2):
March 1 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives what will be his last address to a joint session of the United States Congress, reporting on the Yalta Conference.
March 2
Former U.S. Vice-president Henry A. Wallace starts his term of office as United States Secretary of Commerce, serving under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The rocket-propelled Bachem Ba 349 Natter is first test launched at Stetten am kalten Markt. The launch fails and the pilot, Lothar Sieber, dies.
March 3 – WWII:
Finland declares war on the Axis powers.
United States and Filipino troops take Manila, Philippines.
Pawłokoma massacre: A Polish Home Army unit massacres between 150 and 500 Ukrainian civilians in the Polish village of Pawłokoma.
Bombing of the Bezuidenhout: The British Royal Air Force accidentally bombs the Bezuidenhout neighbourhood in The Hague, Netherlands, killing 511 people.
March 4
In the United Kingdom, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as a truck driver/mechanic in London.
The Swiss cities of Basel and Zürich are accidentally bombed by the United States.
March 5 – WWII: Brazilian troops take Castelnuovo (Vergato), in the last operations of the Allied Spring 1945 offensive in Italy.
March 6
A Communist-led government is formed in Romania under Petru Groza, following Soviet intervention.
Resistance fighters accidentally ambush and attempt to execute SS general Hanns Albin Rauter, the arch-persecutor of the Dutch.
March 7 – WWII: At the end of Operation Lumberjack, American troops seize the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen, Germany and begin to cross; in the next 10 days, 25,000 troops with equipment are able to cross.
March 8
Josip Broz Tito forms a Provisional Government of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Nazi authorities kill 117 Dutch men, in reprisal for the attempted murder of Hanns Albin Rauter.
Operation Sunrise: Waffen-SS General Karl Wolff meets with Allen Welsh Dulles of the United States Office of Strategic Services at Lucerne, Switzerland, to negotiate the surrender of the Axis forces in Italy to the Allies.
March 9–10 – WWII: Bombing of Tokyo: USAAF B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, Japan, with incendiary bombs, killing 100,000 citizens in the firebombing. It is the single most destructive conventional air attack of the war.
March 11
The Empire of Japan establishes the Empire of Vietnam, a puppet state which will last only until August 23, with Bảo Đại as its ruler.
The Sammarinese general election gives San Marino the world's first democratically elected communist government, which will hold power until 1957.
March 12 – WWII: Swinemünde is destroyed by the USAAF, killing an estimated 8,000 to 23,000 civilians, mostly refugees saved by Operation Hannibal.
March 15–31 – WWII: The Soviet Red Army carries out the Upper Silesian Offensive.
March 15 – The 17th Academy Awards ceremony is held, broadcast via radio in the United States for the first time. Best Picture goes to Going My Way.
March 16 – WWII:
The Battle of Iwo Jima unofficially ends.
The Bombing of Würzburg, as part of the Allied strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany, destroys 89% of the city and causes 4,000 deaths.
March 17 – WWII: Kobe, Japan is fire-bombed by 331 B-29 bombers, killing over 8,000 people.
March 18 – WWII:
The 40th Infantry Division, spearheaded by the 185th US Infantry Regiment, lands unopposed in Tigbauan forcing the Japanese forces to surrender and General Macario Peralta and Gen. Gen. Eichelberger to declare the Liberation of Panay, Romblon and Guimaras.
1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.
Battle of Kolberg concludes with the Baltic seaport (designated a key Festung (fortress) by the Germans) taken by Polish and Soviet forces and ethnic Germans evacuated or expelled.
March 19 – WWII:
Adolf Hitler issues the "Nero Decree" ordering that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed ahead of Allied advances, but Albert Speer, placed in charge of the implementation, deliberately disobeys it.
Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing about 800 of her crewmen and crippling the ship.
March 20 – WWII: Hitler dismisses Heinrich Himmler from his military command.
March 21 – WWII:
British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
Bulgarian and Soviet troops successfully defend the north bank of the Drava River, as the Battle of the Transdanubian Hills concludes.
March 22
The Arab League is formed, with the adoption of a charter in Cairo, Egypt.
The Cathedral and the historic centre of Hildesheim in Germany are destroyed in a bombing of the city.
March 24
WWII: Operation Varsity – Two airborne divisions capture bridges across the river Rhine to aid the Allied advance.
The cartoon character Sylvester the cat debuts in Life with Feathers.
March 26 – WWII: The Battle of Iwo Jima officially ends, with the destruction of the remaining areas of Japanese resistance, although there are Japanese holdouts here until 1949.
March 27 – WWII:
The United States Army Air Forces begins Operation Starvation, laying naval mines in many of Japan's seaways.
Argentina declares war on Germany and Japan.
March 29
WWII: The Red Army almost destroys the German 4th Army, in the Heiligenbeil Pocket in East Prussia.
The "Clash of Titans": George Mikan and Bob Kurland duel at Madison Square Garden in New York, as Oklahoma State University defeats DePaul 52–44 in basketball.
March 30 – WWII:
The Red Army pushes most of the Axis forces out of Hungary into Austria.
American official Alger Hiss is congratulated in Moscow for his part in bringing the positions of the Western powers and the Soviet Union closer to each other, at the Yalta Conference.
Subsections (0):
|
1945_3 | Section: April (2):
April 1 – WWII: Battle of Okinawa: The Tenth United States Army lands on Okinawa.
April 4 – WWII:
American troops liberate their first Nazi concentration camp, Ohrdruf extermination camp in Germany.
The Soviet Red Army enters Bratislava and pushes to the outskirts of Vienna, taking it on April 13, after several days of intense fighting.
April 6 – WWII:
Sarajevo is liberated from Nazi Germany and the Independent State of Croatia (a fascist puppet state) by Yugoslav Partisans.
The Battle of Slater's Knoll on Bougainville Island concludes with a decisive victory for the Australian Army's 7th Brigade.
Allied forces reach Merkers Salt Mines in Thuringia where gold reserves of the Nazi German Reichsbank and art treasures are stored.
April 7 – WWII:
The only flight of the German ramming unit known as Sonderkommando Elbe takes place, resulting in the loss of some 24 B-17s and B-24s of the United States Eighth Air Force.
Japanese battleship Yamato and nine other warships take part in Operation Ten-Go, a suicide attack on Allied forces engaged in the Battle of Okinawa. Yamato is sunk by U.S. Navy aircraft in the East China Sea 200 miles (320 km) north of Okinawa with the loss of 2,055 of 2,332 crew, together with five other Japanese warships.
Kantarō Suzuki becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
April 8 – The SS begins to evacuate the Buchenwald concentration camp; inmates in the Buchenwald Resistance call for American aid, and overpower and kill the remaining guards.
April 9
WWII: The Battle of Königsberg, in East Prussia, ends with Soviet forces capturing the city.
Abwehr conspirators Wilhelm Canaris, Hans Oster and Hans von Dohnányi are hanged at Flossenberg concentration camp, along with pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Johann Georg Elser, would-be assassin of Adolf Hitler, is executed at Dachau concentration camp.
April 10 – WWII: Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th and 17th Krajina Brigades from the Tenth Division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
April 11 – Buchenwald concentration camp is liberated by the United States Army.
April 12
Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd president of the United States upon the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia of an intracerebral hemorrhage. President Truman is sworn in later this evening in the White House.
A devastating tornado outbreak occurs across the United States, which kills 128 people and injures over 1,000 others. This is heavily overshadowed by the death of President Roosevelt.
WWII: The U.S. Ninth Army under General William H. Simpson crosses the Elbe River astride Magdeburg, and reaches Tangermünde — only 50 miles from Berlin.
Richard Strauss completes composition of his Metamorphosen.
April 14 – WWII:
The First Canadian Army assumes military control of the Netherlands, where German forces are trapped in the Atlantic Wall fortifications along the coastline.
Razing of Friesoythe: The 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division deliberately destroys the German town of Friesoythe, on the orders of Major General Christopher Vokes.
April 15 – WWII:
The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated by British and Canadian forces.
The Canadian First Army reaches the coast in the northern Netherlands, and captures Arnhem.
April 16 – WWII:
The Battle of Berlin begins, opening with the Red Army launching the Battle of the Oder–Neisse and the Battle of the Seelow Heights.
Canadian forces take Harlingen and occupy Leeuwarden and Groningen in the Netherlands.
MV Goya is sunk by Soviet submarine L-3 in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German troops and civilians as part of Operation Hannibal; 7,000–8,000 drown.
Death marches from Flossenbürg concentration camp begin.
April 17 – WWII:
Brazilian forces liberate the town of Montese, Italy, from German forces.
Inundation of the Wieringermeer in the Netherlands by occupying German forces.
April 18 – American war correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by Japanese machine gun fire on the island of Ie Shima off Okinawa.
April 19 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, a musical play based on Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, opens on Broadway, and becomes their second long-running stage classic. It includes the standard "You'll Never Walk Alone".
April 20 – WWII:
On his 56th birthday, Adolf Hitler leaves his Führerbunker, to decorate a group of Hitler Youth soldiers in Berlin. It will be his last trip to the surface from his underground bunker.
The German city of Nuremberg, previously the site of the Nuremberg rallies, is occupied by American troops.
"Morotai Mutiny": members of the Australian First Tactical Air Force based on the island of Morotai in the Dutch East Indies tender their resignations to protest their belief that they are being assigned to missions of no military importance and in which they are not specialists; a subsequent inquiry effectively vindicates them.
April 22 – WWII:
Heinrich Himmler, through Folke Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg, puts forth an offer of German surrender to the Western Allies, but not the Soviet Union.
Adolf Hitler finally concedes that "everything is lost" at a meeting in the Führerbunker after learning that SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner cannot mobilize enough men to launch a counterattack on the Soviet forces which are surrounding Berlin.
April 23 – WWII:
Hermann Göring sends the Göring telegram to Hitler, seeking confirmation that he should take over leadership of Germany, in accordance with the decree of June 29, 1941. Hitler regards this as treason.
The main Flossenbürg concentration camp is liberated by the United States Army.
April 24 – WWII:
Battle of Berlin: Red Army troops complete encirclement of Berlin.
Retreating German troops destroy all the bridges over the Adige in Verona, including the historic Ponte di Castelvecchio and Ponte Pietra.
April 25
Founding negotiations for the United Nations begin in San Francisco.
WWII – Elbe Day: United States and Soviet troops link up at the river Elbe, cutting Germany in two.
April 25–26 – WWII: The last major strategic bombing raid by RAF Bomber Command, the destruction of the oil refinery at Tønsberg in southern Norway, is carried out by 107 Avro Lancasters.
April 26 – WWII:
Battle of Bautzen: The last "successful" German panzer-offensive in Bautzen ends with the city recaptured.
The British 3rd Infantry Division, under General Whistler, captures Bremen.
Nazi surrenders mean the British and Canadians now control the German border with Switzerland, from Basel to Lake Constance.
April 27
The last German formations withdraw from Finland to Norway. The Lapland War and thus, World War II in Finland, comes to an end and the Raising the Flag on the Three-Country Cairn photograph is taken.
The provisional government of Austria headed by Karl Renner asserts its independence from Germany.
U.S. Ordnance troops find the coffins of Frederick William I of Prussia, Frederick the Great, Paul von Hindenburg and his wife in a salt mine in Germany.
April 28
The bodies of Benito Mussolini, his mistress, Clara Petacci, and other followers are hung by their heels at a gas station in the public square of Milan, Piazzale Loreto, following their execution by Italian partisans after an attempt to flee the country.
The Canadian First Army captures Emden and Wilhelmshaven.
April 29
At the royal palace in Caserta, Lieutenant-Colonel Viktor von Schweinitz (representing General Heinrich von Vietinghoff) and SS-Obersturmbannführer Eugen Wenner (representing Waffen-SS General Karl Wolff) sign an unconditional instrument of surrender for all Axis powers forces in Italy, taking effect on May 2. Italian General Rodolfo Graziani orders the Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano forces under his command to lay down their arms.
Dachau concentration camp is surrendered to U.S. forces, who kill SS guards at the camp and the nearby hamlet of Webling.
Brazilian forces liberate the commune of Fornovo di Taro, Italy, from German forces.
Operation Manna: British Avro Lancaster bombers drop food into the Netherlands to prevent the starvation of the civilian population.
Soviet soldiers hoist the Red flag over the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
Adolf Hitler marries his longtime mistress Eva Braun, in a closed civil ceremony in the Berlin Führerbunker, and signs his last will and testament.
April 30 – WWII:
Death of Adolf Hitler: Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day, Eva Braun, commit suicide as the Red Army approaches the Führerbunker in Berlin. Großadmiral Karl Dönitz succeeds Hitler as President of Germany (Reichspräsident) and Joseph Goebbels succeeds as Chancellor of Germany (Reichskanzler), in accordance with Hitler's political testament of the previous day.
American forces enter the Bavarian capital of Munich.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_0 | 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1946th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 946th year of the 2nd millennium, the 46th year of the 20th century, and the 7th year of the 1940s decade. |
1946_0 | Section: January (2):
January 6 – The first general election ever in Vietnam is held.
January 7 – The Allies of World War II recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into four occupation zones.
January 10
The first meeting of the United Nations is held, at Methodist Central Hall Westminster in London.
Project Diana bounces radar waves off the Moon, measuring the exact distance between the Earth and the Moon, and proves that communication is possible between Earth and outer space, effectively opening the Space Age.
January 11 – Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania, with himself as prime minister.
January 16 – Charles de Gaulle resigns as head of the French provisional government.
January 17 – The United Nations Security Council holds its first session, at Church House, Westminster in London.
January 19
The Bell XS-1 is test flown for the first time (unpowered), with Bell's chief test pilot Jack Woolams at the controls.
General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, to try Japanese war criminals.
January 20 – Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France.
January 22
Iran crisis of 1946: Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad, at the Chahar Cheragh Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. He is the new president, Haji Baba Sheikh is the prime minister.
The National Intelligence Authority, and its operational arm, the Central Intelligence Group, are established in the United States; these become part of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947.
January 28 – The Canadian schooner Bluenose founders on a Haitian reef.
January 31
The last session of the Permanent Court of International Justice occurs.
Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes 6 constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).
Subsections (0):
|
1946_1 | Section: February (2):
February 1
Trygve Lie of Norway is selected as the first United Nations Secretary-General.
The Kingdom of Hungary becomes a republic, heavily influenced by the Soviet Union.
February 14 – ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), an early general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania; it weighs 60,000 pounds (over 27 tons), and occupies a big room.
February 15 – The Gouzenko Affair: Canada announces the shocking discovery of a ring of Canadian communist spies based at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, passing atomic bomb secrets to Russia.
February 20 – An explosion kills more than 400 coal miners in Bergkamen, West Germany.
February 24 – Juan Perón is elected president of Argentina.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_2 | Section: March (2):
March 2
British troops withdraw from Iran according to treaty; the Soviets do not.
Ho Chi Minh is elected President of North Vietnam.
March 4 – C. G. E. Mannerheim resigns as president of Finland.
March 5 – In his speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill talks about the Iron Curtain.
March 6 – First Indochina War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France, which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
March 7 – The 18th Academy Awards Ceremony is held. Best Picture goes to The Lost Weekend.
March 9 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi becomes the 7th President of Finland.
March 19
The Soviet Union and Switzerland resume diplomatic relations.
French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
March 22 – The United Kingdom grants the British protectorate of the Emirate of Transjordan (later known as Jordan) its independence by the Treaty of London.
March 29 – The Gold Coast has an African majority in its parliament.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_3 | Section: April (2):
April 1
The 8.6 Mw Aleutian Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong). A destructive tsunami reaches the Hawaiian Islands, resulting in many deaths, mostly in Hilo. Between 165 and 173 are killed.
The Malayan Union is formed.
Singapore becomes a Crown colony.
The Battle of Määritsa took place between Estonian partisans and Soviet forces in southeastern Estonia.
April 3 – Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines, for leading the Bataan Death March.
April 5 – A Fleet Air Arm Vickers Wellington crashes into a residential area in Rabat, Malta during a training exercise, killing all 4 crew members and 16 civilians on the ground.
April 10 – In Japan, women vote for the first time, during elections for the House of Representatives of the 90th Imperial Diet.
April 14 – Sh'erit ha-Pletah members of Nakam, the "Jewish Avengers", use arsenic to poison bread baked for SS prisoners of war held at Stalag XIII-D by the Americans.
April 17 – Syria's independence from France is officially recognized.
April 18
The inaugural session of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) takes place at The Hague.
The League of Nations, in its last meeting, transfers its mission to the United Nations and disbands itself.
The United States recognizes Josip Broz Tito's government in Yugoslavia.
April 28 – Kinderdorf Pestalozzi (Pestalozzi Children's Village) is established at Trogen, Switzerland to accommodate and educate orphans of World War II, according to Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's principles.
April 29 – Trials against war criminals begin in Tokyo; the accused include Hideki Tōjō, Shigenori Tōgō and Hiroshi Ōshima.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_4 | Section: May (2):
May 1 – At least 800 Indigenous Australian pastoral workers walk off the job in Northwest Western Australia, starting one of the longest industrial strikes in Australia.
May 7 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded, with about 20 employees.
May 9 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates, and is succeeded by his son Umberto II.
May 10
Jawaharlal Nehru is elected leader of the Congress Party in India.
The first V-2 rocket to be successfully launched in the United States is fired from White Sands Missile Range.
May 21 – Manhattan Project physicist Louis Slotin accidentally triggers a fission reaction at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and, although saving his coworkers, gives himself a lethal dose of hard radiation, making him the second victim of a criticality accident in history (the incident is initially treated as classified information).
May 23–24 – A two-day violent tornado outbreak occurs across the Central United States, with at least 15 significant tornadoes killing four people and injuring 42 others.
May 25 – The Emirate of Jordan becomes the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan when its parliament makes the ruling amir Abdullah their king on the day it ratifies the Treaty of London.
May 26 – 1946 Czechoslovak parliamentary election: Communists win with (38%), in the last election before communists take power.
May 31 – The 1946 Greek referendum supports the return of the monarchy.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_5 | Section: June (2):
June 1
Ion Antonescu, prime minister and "Conducator" (Leader) of Romania during World War II, is executed; he was found guilty of betraying the Romanian people for benefits of Germany and sentenced to death by the Bucharest People's Tribunal.
D'Argenlieu, French High Commissioner for Indo-China, recognizes an autonomous "Republic of Cochin-China" in violation of the March 6 Ho–Sainteny agreement, opening the way for conflict between the Viet Minh and France.
June 2 – 1946 Italian institutional referendum: Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a republic. In the simultaneous 1946 Italian general election, the first since the end of World War II and also the first in which women are allowed to vote, the Christian Democracy party, led by Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, wins most seats in the Constituent Assembly of Italy and forms a coalition government. Christian Democracy leads the Italian government continuously until 1981.
June 3 – Interpol is re-founded; the telegraphic address "Interpol" is adopted.
June 8 – In Indonesia, Sukarno incites his supporters to fight Dutch colonial occupation.
June 9 – In Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) accedes to the throne after the death of his elder brother, King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII). He will reign until his death on October 13, 2016.
June 10 – Italy is declared a republic.
June 13 – Umberto II of Italy leaves the country and goes into exile in Portugal; Alcide De Gasperi becomes head of state.
June 14 – The Baruch Plan is proposed to the United Nations.
June 17 – Formal ratification of the Treaty of London grants independence to the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan.
June 23
The 7.5 Mw Vancouver Island earthquake affects the island, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). Two people are killed.
1946 French India municipal election: The National Democratic Front wins a landslide victory.
June 25 – The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (World Bank) begins operations.
June 30 – The War Relocation Authority, which has administered the internment of Japanese Americans, is abolished.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_6 | Section: July (2):
July 1 – Nuclear testing: Operation Crossroads, a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in Micronesia, is initiated by the detonation of Able at an altitude of 520 feet (158 m).
July 4
After more than 48 years of American dominance, the Philippines attains full independence as the 3rd Republic; Manuel A. Roxas is 5th President of the Philippines. It marks the end of nearly 400 years of colonial era when the Viceroyalty of New Spain took control since April 27, 1565.
The Kielce Pogrom takes place in Poland.
July 5 – The bikini is first modeled in Paris.
July 16 – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within the Department of the Interior is formed by the merger of the Grazing Service and United States General Land Office.
July 21 – An Irgun bomb explodes in Jerusalem, due to secretive talks between Jews and Britain to consolidate the state of Israel.
July 22 – King David Hotel bombing: The Irgun bombs the King David Hotel (headquarters of the British civil and military administration) in Jerusalem, killing 90.
July 25
Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus USS Saratoga is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, when the United States detonates the Baker device during Operation Crossroads.
At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
In the last mass lynching in the United States, a mob of white men shoot and kill two African-American couples, near Moore's Ford Bridge in Georgia.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_7 | Section: August (2):
August 1 – The Scandinavian Airlines System is founded as a consortium of the flag carriers of Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
August 3 – Santa Claus Land opens to the public at Santa Claus, Indiana. It becomes the first themed park, preceding Disneyland by 9 years, and is later renamed Holiday World.
August 4 – The 1946 Dominican Republic earthquake (magnitude 8.0) hits the northern Dominican Republic, killing 100 and leaving 20,000 homeless.
August 7 – The Soviet Union escalates the Turkish Straits crisis through a diplomatic demand to Turkey.
August 16
Direct Action Day: Violence between Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta begins "The Week of the Long Knives", which leaves 3,000 dead.
The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad, India.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party is founded in South Kurdistan.
August 18 – The Vergarola explosion of ordnance in Croatia kills 70.
August 30 – Bell's chief test pilot, Jack Woolams, dies in a plane crash while flying the P-39 "Cobra I" over Lake Ontario preparing for an air race the following day.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_8 | Section: September (2):
September 1 – 1946 Turin Grand Prix, the first official Formula One Grand Prix, is held in Italy.
September 2 – The Interim Government of India takes charge, with Jawaharlal Nehru as vice president, as part of the transition from the British Raj to full independence for India and Pakistan.
September 4 – Street violence between Muslims and Hindus erupts in Bombay.
September 8 – Bulgaria is declared a People's Republic after a referendum; King Simeon II leaves.
September 19 – The idea of the Council of Europe is introduced in a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.
September 24 – Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong, by American Roy Farrell and Australian Sydney de Kantzow.
September 28
1946 Australian federal election: Ben Chifley's Labor government is re-elected with a reduced majority, defeating the Liberal/Country Coalition led by former Prime Minister Robert Menzies. This is the first occasion where a Labor government successfully wins two elections in a row on a federal level, albeit with a swing against them; among the casualties are former Prime Minister Frank Forde. This is also the first election contested by the newly formed Liberal Party, which had replaced the United Australia Party as the main centre-right political party in Australia.
George II of Greece returns to Athens from exile in England.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_9 | Section: October (2):
October 1 – Mensa, an international organization for people with a high intelligence quotient (IQ), is founded by Roland Berrill, an Australian-born lawyer, and Lancelot Ware, an English biochemist and lawyer, in Oxford.
October 2 – Communists establish power in Bulgaria.
October 6 – Sweden's Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson dies in office of a heart attack.
October 10 – The Noakhali genocide of Hindus in Bengal begins, at the hands of Muslim mobs.
October 11 – After a few days of vacancy, the Swedish premiership is taken over by Tage Erlander.
October 13 – France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.
October 14 – The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.
October 15 – Nuremberg trials: Hermann Göring, founder of the Gestapo and recently convicted Nazi war criminal, poisons himself two hours before his scheduled execution.
October 16
The remaining ten Nazi war criminals sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials are executed by hanging, in a gymnasium in the Palace of Justice, Nuremberg.
The United Nations' first meeting in Long Island is held.
October 23 – The United Nations General Assembly convenes for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing, Queens, New York City.
October 24–November 11 – 1946 Bihar riots: Hindu mobs target Muslim families in the Indian state of Bihar, resulting in anywhere between 2,000 and 30,000 deaths.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_10 | Section: November (2):
November 4 – UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is established as a specialized agency of the United Nations.
November 10 – At least 1,400 people are killed when the 6.8–7.0 Mw Ancash earthquake affects the Quiches District of Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme).
November 12
A truce is declared between Indonesian nationalist troops and the Dutch army in Indonesia.
In Chicago, a branch of the Exchange National Bank (later part of the Bank of America) opens the first 10 drive-up teller windows.
November 15 – By the Linggadjati Agreement, the Netherlands recognizes the Republic of Indonesia.
November 19
Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.
1946 Romanian general election: The Romanian Communist Party wins 79.86% of the vote, through widespread intimidation tactics and electoral fraud.
November 23
Vietnamese riot in Haiphong and clash with French troops. In the Haiphong incident, the French cruiser Suffren opens fire, killing 6,000 Vietnamese.
The Workers' Party of South Korea is founded.
November 27 – Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."
November 29 – The Central All-Indonesian Workers Organization (SOBSI) is founded in Jakarta.
Subsections (0):
|
1946_11 | Section: December (2):
December 1 – Miguel Alemán Valdés takes office as President of Mexico.
December 2 – The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling is signed in Washington, D.C., to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry" through establishment of the International Whaling Commission.
December 7 – The Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta, United States, kills 119.
December 10 – John Peters Humphrey becomes director of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 11 – UNICEF (the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) is founded.
December 12
The United Nations severs relations with Francoist Spain and recommends that member countries sever diplomatic relations.
Léon Blum founds a government of socialist parties in France.
Iran crisis of 1946: Iranian troops recapture the Azerbaijan province.
December 14
The International Labour Organization becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.
Proposed United States purchase of Greenland from Denmark: An offer is made through diplomatic channels.
Aspen Skiing Company opens Aspen Mountain (ski area) in Colorado with Ski Lift No. 1, at 7,980 ft (2.43 km) the world's longest chairlift at this time.
December 15
The first French India Representative Assembly election is held.
Iran crisis of 1946: Iranian troops recapture the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad.
December 16 – Siam joins the United Nations (changes its name to Thailand in 1949).
December 19 – Viet Minh forces begin a war against French occupying forces in Vietnam, succeeding in 1954 with France's surrender at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
December 21 – 1946 Nankai earthquake; At least 1,362 people are killed in an earthquake and associated tsunami in Japan.
December 22 – The Havana Conference begins between U.S. organized crime bosses in Havana, Cuba.
December 24 – The French Fourth Republic is founded.
December 25 – The first artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in Europe is initiated, within the Soviet (Russian) nuclear reactor F-1.
December 31 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman delivers Proclamation 2714, which officially ends hostilities in World War II.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_0 | 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1947th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 947th year of the 2nd millennium, the 47th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year of the 1940s decade. |
1947_0 | Section: January (2):
January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in the 20th century causes extensive disruption of travel. Given the low ratio of private vehicle ownership at the time, it is mainly remembered in terms of its effects on the railway network.
January 1 – The Canadian Citizenship Act comes into effect, providing a Canadian citizenship separate from British law.
January 4 – First issue of weekly magazine Der Spiegel published in Hanover, Germany, edited by Rudolf Augstein.
January 10 – The United Nations adopts a resolution to take control of the free city of Trieste.
January 15 – Elizabeth Short, an aspiring actress nicknamed the "Black Dahlia", is found brutally murdered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles; the mysterious case is never solved.
January 16 – Vincent Auriol is inaugurated as president of France.
January 19 – Ferry SS Heimara sinks in the South Euboean Gulf of Greece killing 392.
January 24 – In the third phase of the Greek Civil War, Dimitrios Maximos forms a monarchist government in Athens and begins a brief term as prime minister.
January 26 – A KLM Douglas DC-3 aircraft crashes soon after taking off from Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, killing all 22 people on board, including Prince Gustaf Adolf, second in line to the Swedish throne, and American opera singer Grace Moore.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_1 | Section: February (2):
February 3
The lowest air temperature in North America (−63 degrees Celsius) is recorded in Snag, in the Yukon Territory.
P.L. Prattis becomes the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press galleries.
February 5
Bolesław Bierut becomes the President of Poland.
The Government of the United Kingdom announces the £25 million Tanganyika groundnut scheme, for cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory.
February 7 – The South Pacific Commission (SPC) is founded.
February 8 – The Karlslust dance hall fire in Berlin, Germany, kills over 80 people.
February 10 – In Paris, France, peace treaties are signed between the World War II Allies and Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Finland. Italy cedes most of Istria to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later Croatia).
February 12
A meteorite creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.
In Burma, the Panglong Agreement is reached between the Burmese government under its leader, General Aung San, and the Shan, Kachin, and Chin ethnic peoples at the Panglong Conference. U Aung Zan Wai, Pe Khin, Major Aung, Sir Maung Gyi, Sein Mya Maung and Myoma U Than Kywe are among the negotiators.
February 17 – Cold War: The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
February 20
An explosion at the O'Connor Electro-Plating Company in Los Angeles leaves 17 dead, 100 buildings damaged, and a 22-foot-deep (6.7 m) crater in the ground.
The U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Hermes program V-2 rocket Blossom I is launched into space, carrying plant material and fruitflies, the first living things to enter space.
February 21 – Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", his Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America in New York City.
February 23 – The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.
February 25
The German state of Prussia is officially abolished, by the Allied Control Council.
Hachikō Line derailment: The worst-ever train accident in Japan kills 184 people.
John C. Hennessy, Jr. brings the first Volkswagen Beetle to the United States. He purchased the 1946 automobile from the U.S. Army Post Exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, while serving in the U.S. Army. The Beetle is shipped from Bremerhaven, arriving in New York this day.
February 28 – In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down, with large loss of civilian lives.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_2 | Section: March (2):
March 1
The International Monetary Fund begins to operate.
German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun marries his first cousin, 18-year-old Maria von Quirstorp.
March 4 – The Treaty of Dunkirk (effective September 8) is signed between the United Kingdom and France, providing for mutual assistance in the event of attack.
March 12 – The Cold War begins: The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed, to help stem the spread of Communism.
March 14 – The Thames flood and other widespread flooding occurs, as the exceptionally harsh British winter of 1946–1947 ends in a thaw.
March 15 – Hindus and Muslims clash in Punjab.
March 19 – The 19th Academy Awards Ceremony is held. The movie The Best Years of Our Lives wins the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with several other Academy Awards.
March 25 – A coal mine explosion in Centralia, Illinois, United States; 111 miners are killed.
March 28 – A World War II Japanese booby trap explodes on Corregidor Island, killing 28 people.
March 29 – A rebellion against French rule erupts in Madagascar.
March 31 – The leaders of the Kurdish People's Republic of Mahabad, the second Kurdish state in the history of Iran, are hanged at Chuwarchira Square in Mahabad, after the state has been overrun by the Iranian army.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_3 | Section: April (2):
April – The previous discovery of the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' in the Qumran Caves (above the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) by Bedouin shepherds, becomes known.
April 1
Jackie Robinson, the first African American in Major League Baseball since the 1880s, signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Paul I becomes King of Greece, aged 45, following the death of his brother, King George II.
The 1947 Royal New Zealand Navy mutinies begin.
April 4 – The International Civil Aviation Organization begins operations.
April 7
The Arab Ba'ath Party is established by merger in Damascus.
Edaville Railroad opens in Massachusetts, as the first railway theme park.
The largest recorded sunspot group appears on the solar surface.
April 9
Multiple tornadoes strike Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, killing 184 and injuring 970.
The Journey of Reconciliation in the Southern United States begins, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality.
April 15 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play Major League Baseball since the 1880s.
April 16
Texas City disaster: The ammonium nitrate cargo of French-registered Liberty ship SS Grandcamp explodes in Texas City, Texas in one of the largest man-made non-nuclear explosions in history, killing at least 581, including all but one member of the city fire department, injuring at least 5,000 and destroying 20 city blocks. Of the dead, remains of 113 are never found, and 62 are unidentifiable.
American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch describes the post–World War II tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States as a "Cold War".
The first public demonstration of a TV camera zoom lens, the Jerry Fairbanks Zoomar, is held at NBC studios in New York.
April 18
The British Royal Navy detonates 6,800 tons of explosives, in an attempt to demolish the fortified island of Heligoland, Germany, in another of the largest man-made non-nuclear explosions in history.
'Mrs. Ples', an Australopithecus africanus skull, is discovered in the Sterkfontein area in Transvaal, South Africa.
April 20 – King Frederik IX succeeds his father, Christian X, on the throne of Denmark.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_4 | Section: May (2):
May 1 – Portella della Ginestra massacre: The Salvatore Giuliano gang of Sicilian separatists opens fire on a Labour Day parade at Portella della Ginestra, Sicily, killing 11 people and wounding 27.
May 2 – The movie Miracle on 34th Street, a Christmastime classic, is first shown in theaters.
May 3 – The new post-war Constitution of Japan goes into effect.
May 11 – The Ferrari 125 S, the first car to bear the Ferrari name, debuts.
May 22 – The Cold War begins: To fight the spread of Communism, President Harry S. Truman signs an Act of Congress that implements the Truman Doctrine. This Act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece. The Cold War ends in 1991.
May 25 – Hyundai Togun, the initial name of the Hyundai Group, is founded by Chung Ju-young.
May 29
An Air Iceland Douglas C-47 on a domestic flight in Iceland crashes into a mountainside killing all 25 people on board.
A United States Army Air Forces Douglas C-54 Skymaster crashes on approach to Naval Air Station Atsugi, Japan, killing all 41 on board in the worst aviation accident in Japanese history up to this time.
May 30 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 605: A Douglas C-54 Skymaster crashes near Bainbridge, Maryland, killing all 53 aboard (49 passengers, 4 crew), in America's worst commercial aviation disaster to this date.
May 31 – Alcide de Gasperi forms a new government in Italy, the first postwar Italian government not to include members of the Italian Communist Party.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_5 | Section: June (2):
June – The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is introduced.
June 5 – U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan for American reconstruction and relief aid to Europe, in a speech at Harvard University.
June 7 – The Romanian Army founds the association football club CCA (Clubul Central al Armatei – The Army's Central Club), which will become the most successful Romanian football team during its time as CSA Steaua București.
June 10 – SAAB in Sweden produces its first automobile.
June 11–15 – The first Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is held in Wales.
June 15 – The Estado Novo in Portugal orders 11 military officers and 19 university professors, who are accused of revolutionary activity, to resign.
June 21 – The Parliament of Canada votes unanimously to pass several laws regarding displaced foreign refugees.
June 23 – The United States Senate follows the House of Representatives, in overriding President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft–Hartley Act.
June 24 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington. Over 800 copycat sightings are reported throughout the US in the coming following weeks.
June 25 – The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is published for the first time as Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven 14 juni 1942 – 1 augustus 1944 ("The Annex: Diary Notes from 14 June 1942 – 1 August 1944") in Amsterdam, two years after the writer's death in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_6 | Section: July (2):
July 1 – The United States begins the National Malaria Eradication Program, successfully eradicating malaria in 1951.
July 6
1947 Sylhet referendum: A referendum is held in Sylhet to decide its fate in the Partition of India.
The first prototype AK-47 assault rifles are built to the design of Mikhail Kalashnikov.
July 8 – Roswell UFO incident: A supposedly downed extraterrestrial spacecraft is reportedly found near Roswell, New Mexico.
July 9
'Flying disc' photographs published in Phoenix
King George VI of the United Kingdom announces the engagement of his daughter Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten.
July 11 – The ship Exodus leaves France for Palestine, with 4,500 Jewish Holocaust survivor refugees on board.
July 17 – Indian passenger ship SS Ramdas is capsized by a cyclone at Mumbai, India, with 625 people killed.
July 18
Following wide media and UNSCOP coverage, the Exodus is captured by British troops, and refused entry into Palestine at the port of Haifa.
President Harry S. Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act into law, which places the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate next in the line of succession, after the vice president.
July 19 – Burmese nationalist Aung San, and six members of his newly formed cabinet, are assassinated during a cabinet meeting.
July 26 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into law to create the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
July 27–28 – English endurance swimmer Tom Blower becomes the first person to swim the North Channel, from Donaghadee in Northern Ireland to Portpatrick in Scotland.
July 29 – After being shut down on November 9, 1946, for a refurbishment, the ENIAC computer in the United States is turned back on again, and remains in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_7 | Section: August (2):
August 1 – Indonesian airline Garuda Indonesia is established.
August 2 – 1947 BSAA Avro Lancastrian Star Dust accident: A British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian airliner crashes into a mountain during a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile (the wreckage will not be found until 1998).
August 5 – The Netherlands ends Operation Product, the first of its major military 'police actions' in Indonesia.
August 7
Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands, after a 101-day, 4,300 mile, voyage across the Eastern Pacific Ocean, demonstrating that prehistoric peoples could have traveled to the Central Pacific islands from South America.
The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
August 14
The Muslim majority regions formed by the Partition of India gain independence from the British Empire as the Dominion of Pakistan. While the transition is officially at midnight on this day, Pakistan celebrates its independence on August 14, compared with India on the 15th, because the Pakistan Standard Time is 30 minutes behind the standard time of India.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah becomes the first governor-general of Pakistan. Liaquat Ali Khan takes office as the first prime minister of Pakistan.
August 15
The greater Indian subcontinent, with a mixed population of Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Zoroasters, Jews, Christians, Muslims and others formed by the Partition of India, gains independence from the British Empire, as the Dominion of India. 755 years of foreign rule (565 years of Muslim rule (1192-1757) and 190 years British rule (1757-1947)) in India comes to an end.
Jawaharlal Nehru takes office as the first prime minister of India, taking his oath from Louis Mountbatten, Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, Governor-General of India (but no longer viceroy).
August 16 – In Greece, General Markos Vafiadis takes over the government until 1949.
August 23 – The prime minister of Greece, Dimitrios Maximos, resigns.
August 27 – The French government lowers the daily bread ration to 200 grams, causing riots in Verdun and Le Mans.
August 30 – A fire at a movie theater in Rueil, a suburb of Paris, France, kills 83 people.
August 31 – In Hungary, communists fail to gain a majority in parliamentary elections (despite widespread fraud) and turn to direct action as part of the country's transition to Communism (1944–1949).
Subsections (0):
|
1947_8 | Section: September (2):
September 9
Women's suffrage is agreed by Argentina's Congress.
A moth lodged in a relay is found to be the cause of a malfunction in the Harvard Mark II electromechanical computer, logged as the "First actual case of bug being found."
September 13 – Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru suggests the exchange of four million Hindus and Muslims between India and Pakistan.
September 15–16 – Typhoon Kathleen strikes the Bōsō Peninsula and the entire Kantō region in Japan. Heavy rains cause the Arakawa and Tone Rivers to overflow and embankment collapse. The resulting floods and debris flow kill between 1,077 and 1,920 people, injuring 1,547 and leaving 853 missing.
September 17–21 – The 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane in southeastern Florida, and also in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana causes widespread damage, and kills 50 people.
September 18 – In the United States:
The National Security Act of 1947 becomes effective on this day, creating the United States Air Force, National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.
The Department of War becomes the Department of the Army, a branch of the new Department of Defense.
September 22 – The Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Cominform) is founded by the International Communist Movement.
September 30 – Pakistan and Yemen join the United Nations.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_9 | Section: October (2):
October – First recorded use of the word computer in its modern sense, referring to an electronic digital machine.
October 1 – The North American F-86 Sabre jet fighter aircraft makes its first flight.
October 5 – President Harry S. Truman delivers the first televised White House address, speaking on the world food crises.
October 14 – United States Air Force test pilot Captain Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 rocket plane faster than the speed of sound, the first time it has been accomplished.
October 20 – A war begins in Kashmir, along the border between India and Pakistan, initiating the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948. Also, Pakistan establishes diplomatic relations with the United States of America.
October 24 – The first Azad Kashmir Government is established within Pakistan, headed by Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan as its first President supported by the government of Pakistan.
October 30 – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is established.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_10 | Section: November (2):
November 2 – In Long Beach, California, United States, designer and airplane pilot Howard Hughes carries out the one and only flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules ("Spruce Goose"), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built and flown. This flight only lasts 8 minutes.
November 6 – The television program Meet the Press makes its debut, on the NBC-TV network in the United States.
November 9 – Junagadh is invaded by the Indian army.
November 10 – The arrest of four steel workers in Marseille begins a French communist riot, that also spreads to Paris.
November 13 – Wataru Misaka makes the roster of the New York Knicks to become the first person of color to play in modern professional basketball, months after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Misaka has led the Utah Utes to the 1944 NCAA and 1947 NIT championships.
November 15
The International Telecommunication Union becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.
The Universal Postal Union (UPU) becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations (effective July 1 1948).
November 16
In Brussels, 15,000 people demonstrate against the relatively short prison sentences of Belgian Nazi criminals.
Great Britain begins withdrawing its troops from Palestine.
November 17–December 23 – John Bardeen and Walter Brattain working under William Shockley at AT&T's Bell Labs in the United States demonstrate the transistor effect, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.
November 17 – The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
November 18 – Ballantyne's fire: A fire in Ballantynes department store in Christchurch, New Zealand, kills 41 people.
November 20
Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh: Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II), the daughter of George VI of the United Kingdom, marries The Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey in London.
Paul Ramadier resigns as Prime Minister of France. He is succeeded by Robert Schuman, who calls in 80,000 army reservists to quell rioting miners in France.
November 21 – The United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment begins in Havana, Cuba. This conference ends in 1948, when its members complete the Havana Charter.
November 24 – McCarthyism: The United States House of Representatives votes 346–17 to approve citations of Contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten", after the screenwriters and directors refuse to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of communist influences in the movie business. The ten men are blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios on the following day.
November 25
The New Zealand Parliament ratifies the Statute of Westminster, and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The new Pakistan Army and Pashtun mercenaries overrun Mirpur in Kashmir, resulting in the death of 20,000 Hindus and Sikhs.
November 27 – In Paris, France, police occupy the editorial offices of the communist newspapers.
November 29 – The United Nations General Assembly votes for the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine which will partition Mandatory Palestine between Arab and Jewish regions, resulting in the creation of the State of Israel.
Subsections (0):
|
1947_11 | Section: December (2):
December 3
French communist strikers derail the Paris-Tourcoing express train because of false rumors that it is transporting soldiers; 21 people are killed.
The Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Marlon Brando in his first great role, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway in New York City; Jessica Tandy also stars as Blanche Du Bois.
December 4 – French Interior Minister Jules S. Moch takes emergency measures against his country's rioters, after six days of violent arguments in the National Assembly.
December 6
Arturo Toscanini conducts a concert performance of the first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello, for a broadcast on NBC Radio in the United States. The second half of the opera is broadcast a week later.
Women are admitted to full membership of the University of Cambridge in England. following a vote in September.
December 9 – French labor unions call off the general strike, and re-commence negotiations with the French government.
December 12 – The Iranian Royal Army takes back power in the Azerbaijan province.
December 14 – Santiago Bernabeu Stadium is officially inaugurated in Madrid, and hosts its first match.
December 21 – During the mass migration of Hindus and Muslims between the new states of India and Pakistan, 400,000 are slaughtered.
December 22 – The Italian Constituent Assembly votes to accept the new Constitution of Italy.
December 30
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 jet fighter aircraft (NATO reporting name Fagot) makes its first flight in the Soviet Union.
King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate and the Romanian monarchy is abolished.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_0 | 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1948th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 948th year of the 2nd millennium, the 48th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1940s decade. |
1948_0 | Section: January (2):
January 1
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
The current Constitutions of Italy and of New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) go into effect.
The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British Railways.
January 4 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming an independent republic, named the 'Union of Burma', with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu its first Prime Minister.
January 5 – In the United States:
Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game).
The first Kinsey Report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, is published.
January 7 – Mantell UFO incident: Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of an unidentified flying object.
January 12 – Mahatma Gandhi begins his fast-unto-death in Delhi, to stop communal violence during the Partition of India.
January 17 – A truce is declared between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops in Java.
January 22 – British foreign secretary Ernest 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 29 – A DC-3 aircraft crash at Los Gatos Creek, near Coalinga, California, kills 4 US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a protest song ("Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)") by Woody Guthrie.
January 30
Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is shot by Nathuram Godse in New Delhi.
The 1948 Winter Olympics open in St Moritz, Switzerland.
January 31 – The British crown colony of the Malayan Union, Penang and Malacca form the Federation of Malaya.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_1 | Section: February (2):
February 1
The Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.
The Federation of Malaya is proclaimed.
February 4 – Ceylon (later known as Sri Lanka) becomes an independent country, within the British Commonwealth continuing to adopt King George VI as the King of Ceylon.
February 11 – General Douglas Gracey becomes Commander-in-chief of Pakistan Army.
February 16 – Miranda, innermost of the large moons of Uranus, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper.
February 18 – Éamon de Valera, Irish head of government from 1918 to 1932, loses power to an opposition coalition. John A. Costello is appointed Taoiseach by President Seán T. O'Kelly, until 1960.
February 19 – The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.
February 21 – The United States stock car racing organization NASCAR is founded by Bill France Sr. with other drivers.
February 22 – The first of the Ben Yehuda Street bombings in Jerusalem kills between 49 and 58 civilians and injures between 140 and 200.
February 25 – 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état: Edvard Beneš, President of Czechoslovakia, cedes control of the country to the Communist Party, a day celebrated by that regime as "Victorious February" (Czech: Vítězný únor; Slovak: Víťazný Február) until November 1989.
February 28
Accra Riots: Riots take place in Accra, capital of the British colony of Gold Coast, when a peaceful protest march by ex-servicemen is broken up by police, leaving several members of the group dead, among them Sergeant Adjetey, one of the leaders.
The 2nd Congress of the Communist Party of India convenes in Calcutta.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_2 | Section: March (2):
March 8 – McCollum v. Board of Education: The United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violates the U.S. Constitution.
March 12 – The Costa Rican Civil War begins.
March 17
The Treaty of Brussels is signed by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, providing for economic, social and cultural collaboration and collective self-defence.
The Hells Angels motorcycle gang is founded in California.
March 18 – The Round Table Conference convenes in The Hague, Netherlands, to prepare the decolonization process for the Caribbean island of Aruba and the other Dutch Colonies. Aruba presents the mandate of the Aruban People for Aruba to become an independent country, under the sovereignty of the House of Orange, based on Aruba's first state constitution presented officially since August 1947, and a (4th) member state of the future Dutch Commonwealth.
March 20
Singapore holds its first elections.
Renowned Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini makes his television debut, conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in an all-Wagner program in the United States.
The 20th Academy Awards Ceremony is held in Los Angeles. Gentleman's Agreement wins the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_3 | Section: April (2):
April – Children's Bargain Town, a predecessor of toy and child-related retailer Toys "R" Us, is founded in Washington, D.C., United States.
April 1 – Physicists Ralph Asher Alpher and George Gamow publish the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper, about the Big Bang.
April 3
United States President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
Jeju Uprising: Residents revolt on Jeju island, South Korea, eventually leading to the deaths of between 14,000 and 30,000.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is played on television in its entirety for the first time, in a series of concerts featuring Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the United States. The chorus is conducted by Robert Shaw.
April 5 – 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine: Haganah launches Operation Nachshon, provoking the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight.
April 7– The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
April 9
Liberal politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo) and a further 10 years of violence (La Violencia) across Colombia.
The Deir Yassin massacre takes place in British Mandatory Palestine.
April 13 – The Hadassah medical convoy massacre takes place, in British Mandatory Palestine.
April 16 – The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is founded, as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).
April 18 – Italian general election, 1948: The first democratic general election with universal suffrage is held in Italy. The Christian Democracy party achieves a majority over the Popular Democratic Front Communist-Socialist coalition.
April 19
Burma joins the United Nations.
The American Broadcasting Company (otherwise known as ABC) begins television services, on WFIL-TV in Philadelphia (later WPVI-TV).
April 22
Civil War in Mandatory Palestine: Battle of Haifa – Jewish paramilitary group Haganah captures Haifa from the Arab Liberation Army.
WTVR begins television services. WTVR is the first TV station south of Washington D.C., giving it the nickname "The South's First Television station".
April 23 – First National Games of Pakistan held in Karachi.
April 24 – The Costa Rican Civil War ends.
April 30
The Organization of American States (OAS) is founded.
The English-built Land Rover is unveiled at the Amsterdam Motor Show.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_4 | Section: May (2):
May – The RAND Corporation is established, as an independent nonprofit policy research and analysis institution, in the United States.
May 9 – Solar eclipse of May 9, 1948: An annular solar eclipse is visible in Japan and South Korea, and is the 32nd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 137. This eclipse is very short, lasting just 0.3 seconds. The path width is just about 200 meters wide (approximately 218 yards).
May 11 – Luigi Einaudi becomes President of the Italian Republic.
May 14 – The Israeli Declaration of Independence is made. David Ben-Gurion becomes the first prime minister, a provisional position that will become formalized on February 14, 1949.
May 15
1948 Arab–Israeli War: The British Mandate of Palestine is officially terminated; expeditionary forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria and Iraq invade Israel and clash with Israeli forces.
The murder of June Anne Devaney a 3-year-old girl in Blackburn, England. To solve the crime, officers took 46,253 sets of fingerprints before identifying her murderer.
Australian cricket team in England in 1948: The touring Australians set an all-time first-class record, by scoring 721 runs in a day against Essex.
May 16
Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel
New York City Fire Department Rescue 5 is founded for Staten Island.
May 18 – The first Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanjing.
May 22 – The Soviets launch Operation Vesna, the largest Lithuanian deportation to Siberia.
May 25 – The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) is founded at Ellinwood Malate Church in Manila.
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 28 – Daniel François Malan defeats Jan Smuts and becomes Prime Minister of South Africa, which starts the era of apartheid (which is finally dismantled by F. W. de Klerk in 1994).
May 29 – The Casimir effect is predicted by Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir.
May 30 – A dike along the Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon, within minutes; 15 people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_5 | Section: June (2):
June 1 – Puma, a global sports goods brand, is founded in Bavaria, West Germany, by Rudolf Dassler, having split from his brother "Adi".
June 3 – The Palomar Observatory telescope is finished in California.
June 10 – Hasan Saka forms the new government of Turkey. (17th government; Hasan Saka had served twice as a prime minister)
June 11 – The first monkey astronaut, Albert I, is launched into space from White Sands, New Mexico.
June 15 – Chinese newspaper Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) is first published in Beijing, China.
June 17 – United Airlines Flight 624, a Douglas DC-6, crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing 43 and injuring 84 people on board.
June 18
Malayan Emergency: A state of emergency is declared in the Federation of Malaya, due to a communist insurgency.
Columbia Records introduces its 33+1⁄3 rpm long playing phonograph format.
June 20 – The U.S. Congress recesses for the remainder of 1948, after an overtime session closes at 7:00 a.m. (to be shortly interrupted by Truman's recall from Congressional recess for July 20, 1948).
June 21
The Deutsche Mark becomes the official currency of the future Federal Republic of Germany.
The Manchester Baby becomes the first stored-program computer to successfully execute a program.
June 22
The ship HMT Empire Windrush brings more than 800 Afro-Caribbean immigrants to Tilbury near London, the start of a large wave of immigration to Britain.
David Lean's Oliver Twist, based on Charles Dickens's famous novel, premieres in the UK. It is banned for 3 years in the U.S., because of alleged antisemitism in depicting master criminal Fagin, played by Alec Guinness.
June 24
Cold War: The Berlin Blockade begins.
The first World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization is held in Geneva.
June 26
William Shockley files the original patent for the grown-junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
The Berlin Airlift begins.
June 28
The Cominform Resolution marks the beginning of the Informbiro period in Yugoslavia and the Soviet/Yugoslav split.
The 6.8 Mw Fukui earthquake strikes Fukui, Japan; 3,769 are killed, 22,203 injured.
Lotte Group, a global conglomerate in Northeast Asia (South Korea and Japan), is founded.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_6 | Section: July (2):
July 5 – The National Health Service in the United Kingdom begins functioning, giving the right to universal healthcare, free at point of use.
July 6 – The world's first Air Car-ferry service is flown by a Bristol Freighter of Silver City Airways, from Lympne to Le Touquet across the English Channel.
July 13 – The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo 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 14 – The attempted assassination of Palmiro Togliatti, general secretary of the Italian Communist Party, results in numerous strikes all over the country.
July 15 – The first London chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous is founded.
July 16 – Three armed men hijack the Cathay Pacific passenger plane Miss Macao and shoot the pilot; the plane crashes, killing 26 of 27 people on board.
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)
Eugene Dennis, William Z. Foster and ten other Communist Party USA leaders are arrested and charged under the Alien Registration Act.
July 22 – The Dominion of Newfoundland votes to join Canada, after a referendum.
July 26 – U.S. President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, ending racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces.
July 28 – Around 200 die in an explosion at a chemical plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
July 29 – The 1948 Summer Olympics begin in London, the first since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
July 31
At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
American defector Elizabeth Bentley, previously working on behalf of the Soviet Union, appears under subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of the United States House of Representatives regarding Communist espionage; she implicates Whittaker Chambers.
July–October – Claude E. Shannon publishes "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" in Bell System Technical Journal (US), regarded as a foundation of information theory and all modern digital communications and adopting the term Bit.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_7 | Section: August (2):
August 3 – Whittaker Chambers appears under subpoena before the HUAC and alleges that several former U.S. Federal officials were communists, including Harry Dexter White and Alger Hiss.
August 5 – Alger Hiss appears before the HUAC, to deny the allegations of Whittaker Chambers.
August 10–23 – The Herrenchiemsee convention prepares the draft for the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
August 12 – Babrra massacre: About 600 unarmed members of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement are shot dead on the orders of the Chief Minister of the North-West Frontier Province, Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri, on Babrra ground in the Hashtnagar region of Charsadda District, North-West Frontier Province (modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Pakistan.
August 13 – Harry Dexter White and Donald Hiss refute allegations of Communism by Whittaker Chambers, before the HUAC.
August 14 – 1948 Ashes series: Australian batsman Don Bradman, playing his last Test cricket match, against England at The Oval, is bowled by Eric Hollies for a duck (leaving his career Test batting average at 99.94); however, "The Invincibles" win the match by an innings and 149 runs, and The Ashes 4–0.
August 14 – Beaver drop, an Idaho Department of Fish and Game program to relocate beavers from Northwestern Idaho to the Chamberlain Basin in Central Idaho. The program involved parachuting beavers into the Chamberlain Basin.
August 15 – The southern half of Korea is established as the Republic of Korea (South Korea).
August 17 – The HUAC holds a private session between Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers.
August 18 – The Danube Commission is created by the Belgrade Convention (enters into force 11 May 1949).
August 19 – Toho strikes: A sitdown strike at Toho film studio in Tokyo ended after the studio was surrounded by 2,000 police and a platoon of U.S. Eighth Army soldiers.
August 20 – Lee Pressman, Nathan Witt and John Abt, represented by Harold I. Cammer, plead the Fifth Amendment, in response to allegations of Communism by Whittaker Chambers before the HUAC.
August 23 – The World Council of Churches is established in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
August 24 – The first meeting of the charter members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) is held.
August 25 – The HUAC holds its first-ever televised congressional hearing, featuring "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.
August 27 – Whittaker Chambers states that Alger Hiss was a communist on Meet the Press radio.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_8 | Section: September (2):
September 4 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.
September 5 – Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France.
September 6 – Juliana is formally inaugurated to succeed her mother, as queen regnant of the Netherlands.
September 9 – The northern half of Korea is formally declared the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), with Kim Il Sung as prime minister.
September 11 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder and first Governor-General of Pakistan, dies. Pakistan is in a state of shock as it mourns the departure of the father of the nation. The day is a public holiday nationwide.
September 13–18 – Indian annexation of Hyderabad ("Operation Polo"): The princely state of Hyderabad is invaded by the Indian Armed Forces in a "police action", in the aftermath of Pakistani leader Jinnah's death. The Nizam of Hyderabad surrenders his state, which is amalgamated into the newly independent Dominion of India; thousands are killed as a result of this event.
September 13 – Margaret Chase Smith is elected United States Senator, becoming the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
September 17 – Lehi members, also known as the Stern Gang, assassinate Swedish count Folke Bernadotte, United Nations Mediator in Palestine, in Jerusalem.
September 18 – An inaugural motor race is held at Goodwood Circuit, West Sussex, England.
September 20 – The city of Rabwah is established in Pakistan.
September 27 – Alger Hiss files a slander suit against Whittaker Chambers, for his August 27 radio statement in the United States.
September 29 – Laurence Olivier's film of Hamlet opens in the U.S.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_9 | Section: October (2):
October 5 – The International Union for the Protection of Nature (later known as the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN) is established in Fontainebleau, France.
October 6 – 1948 Ashgabat earthquake: A 7.3 Ms earthquake near Ashgabat, Soviet Turkmenistan kills 10,000–110,000.
October 10 – The R-1 missile on test becomes the first Soviet launch to enter space.
October 16 – The 57th Street Art Fair in Chicago, the oldest juried art fair in the American Midwest, is founded.
October 20 – Brandeis University is formally founded in Massachusetts.
October 26 – Donora Smog of 1948: A killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania.
October 29 – 1948 Arab–Israeli War: Massacres of Palestinian Arab villagers by the Israel Defense Forces:
Al-Dawayima massacre: Between 30 and 145 are killed.
Safsaf massacre: At least 52 are killed.
October 30 – Gozo luzzu disaster: A luzzu fishing boat overloaded with passengers capsizes and sinks in the Gozo Channel off Qala, Gozo, Malta, killing 23 of the 27 people on board.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_10 | Section: November (2):
November 1
The Foley Square trial of Eugene Dennis and ten other CPUSA leaders begins, in New York City.
Athenagoras I is elected the 268th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
A boiler and ammunition explosion aboard a merchant ship evacuating troops of the Republic of China Army from Yingkou, China for Taiwan causes thousands of deaths.
November 2 – 1948 United States presidential election: Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman defeats Republican Thomas E. Dewey, "Dixiecrat" Strom Thurmond and Progressive party candidate Henry A. Wallace.
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 12th prime minister.
November 16
Operation Magic Carpet to transport Jews from Yemen to Israel begins.
The University of the Andes (Universidad de los Andes) is founded in Bogotá, Colombia.
November 17
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi divorces his second wife, the former Princess Fawzia of Egypt.
Whittaker Chambers produces secret government papers, handwritten and typewritten by Alger Hiss, during pretrial examination.
November 20 – Geoffrey B. Orbell rediscovers the Takahē, last seen 50 years previously, near Lake Te Anau, New Zealand.
November 24 – In Venezuela, president Rómulo Gallegos is ousted by a military junta.
November 27 – The Calgary Stampeders defeat the Ottawa Rough Riders 12–7 before 20,013 fans at Toronto's Varsity Stadium, to win their first Grey Cup and complete the only perfect season to date in Canadian football.
Subsections (0):
|
1948_11 | Section: December (2):
December 1 – José Figueres Ferrer abolishes the army in Costa Rica, making it the first country in history to do so.
December 2 – The United States House Un-American Activities Committee subpoenas and retrieves the "Pumpkin Papers" from the farm of Whittaker Chambers.
December 4 – The Chinese Liner SS Kiangya sinks after an explosion occurs at the stern, which is thought to be a Japanese naval from from World War 2, killing up to 3920 people.
December 6 – Richard Nixon displays microfilm from the "Pumpkin Papers" to the press.
December 9 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Genocide Convention.
December 10 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
December 11–12 – Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali massacre: Scots Guards shoot 24 Chinese villagers in Malaya.
December 15 – The United States Department of Justice indicts Alger Hiss, on two counts of perjury.
December 17 – The Finnish Security Police is established to remove communist leadership from its predecessor, the State Police.
December 19 – In the American National Football League, the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Chicago Cardinals 7–0, to win the championship.
December 20
Indonesian National Revolution: The Dutch military captures Yogyakarta, the temporary capital of the newly formed Republic of Indonesia.
American economist and former State Department official Laurence Duggan falls to his death, from the 16th story window of his Manhattan office.
December 23 – Seven Japanese military and political leaders, convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, are executed by Allied occupation authorities, at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan.
December 26
The last Soviet troops withdraw from North Korea.
Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.
December 28 – A Muslim Brotherhood member assassinates Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi.
December 30 – The musical Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances in New York City.
December 31 – Arab-Israeli War: Israeli troops drive Egyptians from the Negev.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_0 | 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1949th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 949th year of the 2nd millennium, the 49th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1940s decade. |
1949_0 | Section: January (2):
January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025
January 2 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
January 11 – The first "networked" television broadcasts take place, as KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, goes on the air, connecting east coast and mid-west programming in the United States.
January 16 – Şemsettin Günaltay forms the new government of Turkey. It is the 18th government, last single party government of the Republican People's Party.
January 17 – The first VW Type 1 to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York by Dutch businessman Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models are sold in America that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff the car has no future in the U.S. (The Type 1 goes on to become an automotive phenomenon.)
January 20 – Harry S. Truman is sworn in for a full term, as President of the United States.
January 25
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA or COMECON) is established by the Soviet Union and other communist nations.
In the first Israeli elections, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.
January 26 – Australian citizenship comes into being.
c. January 28 – Stalin and antisemitism: The media in the Soviet Union resume a propaganda campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans", a euphemism for Soviet Jews, accusing them of being pro-Western and antisocialist.
January 31 – Forces from the Chinese Communist Party enter Beijing.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_1 | Section: February (2):
February 13 – António Óscar Carmona is re-elected president of Portugal, for lack of an opposing candidate.
February 17 – Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of Israel.
February 26 – The Revolutionary Communist Party of India stages attacks at Dum Dum.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_2 | Section: March (2):
March 1 – Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch.
March 2 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II (under Captain James Gallagher) lands in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight (it was refueled in flight 4 times).
March 20 – The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Denver and Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Oakland, California, as the first long-distance train to feature Vistadome cars as regular equipment.
March 24 – The 21st Academy Awards Ceremony is held. The movie Hamlet wins the Academy Award for Best Picture.
March 25
Operation Priboi: An extensive deportation campaign begins in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Soviet authorities deport more than 92,000 people from the Baltic states to remote areas of the Soviet Union.
First issue of weekly magazine Paris Match published in France.
March 26 – The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert (i.e. no scenery or costumes), is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. The second half is telecast a week later. This is the only complete opera that Toscanini ever conducts on television.
March 28
United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.
English astronomer Fred Hoyle coins the term Big Bang (intending it to be derogatory) during a BBC Third Programme radio broadcast.
March 30 – An anti-NATO riot in Iceland takes place, prompted by the decision of the Icelandic parliament to join the newly formed NATO.
March 31 – The former British colony of Newfoundland joins Canada, as its 10th province.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_3 | Section: April (2):
April 4 – The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., creating the NATO defense alliance.
April 7 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, opens on Broadway, and goes on to become Rodgers and Hammerstein's second longest-running musical. It becomes an instant classic of the musical theatre. The score's biggest hit is the song "Some Enchanted Evening".
April 14 – The N'Ko alphabet is completed by Solomana Kante.
April 18 – The Republic of Ireland formally becomes a republic, and leaves the British Commonwealth.
April 20 – Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River, to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of Mao's Communist forces. Under heavy fire, she grounds off Rose Island. After an abortive rescue attempt on April 26, she anchors 10 miles (16 km) upstream. Negotiations with the Communists to let the ship leave drag on for weeks, during which time the ship's cat Simon raises the crew's morale.
April 23 – Chinese Communist troops take Nanjing.
April 26 – Transjordan changes its name to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
April 28
The 1949 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference issues the London Declaration, enabling India (and, thereafter, any other nation) to remain in the Commonwealth despite becoming a republic, creating the position of 'Head of the Commonwealth' (held by the ruling British monarch), and renaming the organization, from the 'British Commonwealth' to the 'Commonwealth of Nations'.
Former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others are also killed.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_4 | Section: May (2):
May 1 – Nereid, a moon of Neptune, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper.
May 4 – Superga air disaster: A Fiat G.212 airliner of Avio Linee Italiane, carrying the entire Torino F.C. football team, crashes into the back wall of the Basilica of Superga, killing all 31 on board.
May 5 – The Council of Europe is founded, by the signing of the Treaty of London.
May 6 – EDSAC, the first practicable stored-program computer, runs its first program at Cambridge University.
May 9 – Rainier III becomes Prince of Monaco, upon the death of his maternal grandfather Louis II.
May 11
Israel is admitted to the United Nations, as its 59th member.
Siam officially changes its French name to "Thaïlande" (English name to "Thailand"), having officially changed its Thai name to "Prated Thai" since 1939.
May 12 – Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts the Berlin Blockade.
May 16 – The Tokyo Stock Exchange resumes operations, after a four-year shutdown.
May 20
The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.
The Kuomintang regime declares martial law in Taiwan, which lasts until 1987.
May 22 – After two months in Bethesda Naval Hospital, James Forrestal commits suicide under suspicious circumstances.
May 23 – The Federal Republic of Germany is established.
May 31 – The first trial of Alger Hiss for perjury begins in New York City, with Whittaker Chambers as principal witness for the prosecution.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_5 | Section: June (2):
June 5 – Thailand elects Orapin Chaiyakan, the first Thai female member of Thailand's Parliament.
June 6 – With the passage of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act by the Indian government, Mahabodhi Temple is restored to partial Buddhist control.
June 7–25 – Dock workers strike in the United Kingdom.
June 8
Second Red Scare in the United States: Celebrities including Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named as Communist Party members in a Federal Bureau of Investigation report.
George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published in London.
June 14 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey aboard U.S. Hermes project V-2 rocket Blossom IVB, becomes the first primate to enter space. He is killed on impact at return.
June 19 – Glenn Dunaway wins the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Charlotte Speedway, a 3/4 mile oval in Charlotte, North Carolina, but is disqualified due to illegal springs. Jim Roper is declared the official winner.
June 24 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC in the United States.
June 29 – Apartheid: The South African Citizenship Act suspends the granting of citizenship to Commonwealth of Nations immigrants after 5 years, and imposes a ban on mixed marriages.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_6 | Section: July (2):
July 1 – The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is established.
July 11 – Pamir is the last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn, under sail alone.
July 15 – In an explosion at Prüm in Germany, the town is badly damaged and 12 people die. The explosion crater is one of the largest ever recorded.
July 19 – The Kingdom of Laos is officially formed, but is not independent from the French Army.
July 20 – Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their 19-month war.
July 24 (St John's Day) – Eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma begins.
July 27
The de Havilland Comet, the world's first jet-powered airliner, makes its first flight, in England.
Rhodesia beats the New Zealand national rugby union team (the All Blacks) 10–8, in an exhibition match in Bulawayo, the only non-Test nation ever to achieve this feat.
July 30 – Legal aid is introduced in England and Wales.
July 31 – Captain Kerans of HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall, under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army on both sides of the Yangtze River, and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_7 | Section: August (2):
August 3 – The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League finalize the merger that will create the National Basketball Association.
August 5 – In Ecuador, the 6.8 ML Ambato earthquake kills more than 5,000, and destroys a number of villages.
August 8 – Bhutan signs a Treaty of Friendship with newly independent India, agreeing non-interference in internal affairs, but allowing India to "guide" its foreign policy (similar to the previous arrangements with the British administration in India).
August 10 – the Avro Canada C102 Jetliner makes its first flight; it is the first jet airliner to fly in North America.
August 12 – The Fourth Geneva Convention is agreed to.
August 14
Pakistan becomes independent
The Salvatore Giuliano Gang explodes mines under a police barracks, outside Palermo, Sicily.
A military coup in Syria ousts President Shukri al-Quwatli.
August 18 – Kemi Bloody Thursday: two protesters die in the scuffle between the police and the strikers' protest procession in Kemi, Finland.
August 21
The Vatican announces that bones uncovered in its catacombs could be those of the apostle Peter; 19 years later, Pope Paul VI announces confirmation that the bones belong to this first Pope.
Deportivo Saprissa enters Costa Rican soccer's first division.
The 1949 Queen Charlotte Islands earthquake is Canada's largest earthquake since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake.
August 24 – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is established.
August 29
The Council of Europe meets for the first time.
The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, RDS-1 ("Joe 1"). Its design imitates the American plutonium bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945.
August 31
The retreat of the Democratic Army of Greece to Albania, after its defeat at Mount Gramos, marks the end of the Greek Civil War.
Six of the last sixteen surviving veterans of the Union Army, in the American Civil War, meet in Indianapolis.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_8 | Section: September (2):
September 2 – Film noir The Third Man, with screenplay by Graham Greene and set in Allied-occupied Vienna, is released in the United Kingdom; it wins the 1949 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.
September 6
Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Parabellum P.08 pistol, to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.
Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to Germany.
September 7 – The Federal Republic of Germany is officially founded. Konrad Adenauer is the first federal chancellor.
September 9
Albert Guay affair: A dynamite bomb destroys Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-3, in Quebec.
Notorious World War II veteran Edwin Alonzo Boyd commits his first career bank robbery, in Toronto.
September 13 – The Soviet Union vetoes United Nations membership for Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan and Portugal.
September 17
Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour, with the loss of over 118 lives.
Warner Bros. cartoon, "Fast and Furry-ous" is released. It also marks the debut of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. The director is Chuck Jones (credited as Charles M. Jones).
September 19 – The United Kingdom government devalues the pound sterling from $4.03 to $2.80, leading to many other currencies being devalued.
September 23 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman announces that the Soviet Union has tested the atomic bomb.
September 24 – László Rajk, ex-foreign minister of Hungary, is sentenced to death.
September 25 – U.S. Christian evangelist Billy Graham starts his Los Angeles Crusade, his first great evangelistic campaign. It runs for eight weeks during which Graham speaks to 350,000 people and the event is subsequently described as the greatest revival since the time of Billy Sunday. After this, Graham becomes a national figure in the United States.
September 29
The First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference approves a design for the Flag of the People's Republic of China.
Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty in the United States of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" at the end of World War II.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_9 | Section: October (2):
October 1 – The People's Republic of China is officially proclaimed.
October 2 – The Soviet Union recognizes the People's Republic of China.
October 3 – Albanian Subversion: First Anglo-American attempt to infiltrate guerillas into Albania; the operation is fatally flawed, by being under the control of double agent Kim Philby.
October 7 – The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is officially established.
October 13 – Severe flooding hits Guatemala.
October 14 – The Foley Square trial of Eugene Dennis and ten other leaders of the Communist Party USA ends in New York City (the longest trial in U.S. history to this date); all defendants are found guilty and all but one sentenced to five years of prison.
October 16 – Greek Civil War ends with a communist surrender.
October 17 – Chinese communist troops take Guangzhou.
October 20 – China People's Insurance Corporation, as predecessor of China Life was founded.
October 24 – The cornerstone of the Headquarters of the United Nations on Manhattan is laid.
October 27
Battle of Kuningtou: Chinese communist troops fail to take Quemoy; their advance towards Taiwan is halted.
1949 Air France Lockheed Constellation crash: An Air France flight from Paris to New York crashes in the Azores on São Miguel Island, killing all aboard. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu, and French boxer Marcel Cerdan.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_10 | Section: November (2):
November 7 – Oil is discovered beneath the Caspian Sea, off the coast of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.
November 12 – The Volkswagen Type 2 panel van is unveiled in Germany.
November 15 – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.
November 17 – The second trial of Alger Hiss for perjury begins in New York, again with Whittaker Chambers as principal witness.
November 24 – The ski resort in Squaw Valley, Placer County, California officially opens.
November 26 – The Indian Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution.
November 28 – Winston Churchill makes a landmark speech in support of the idea of a European Union, at Kingsway Hall, London - but does not see UK as part of it, "The British Government have rightly stated that they cannot commit this country to entering any European Union without the agreement of the other members of the British Commonwealth".
November 30 – 1949 New Zealand general election: The New Zealand National Party, led by Sidney Holland defeats the incumbent New Zealand Labour Party, led by Peter Fraser.
Subsections (0):
|
1949_11 | Section: December (2):
December 7
Retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan finishes, and it declares Taipei its temporary capital city, a status it will retain more than 50 years later.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is established as a United Nations agency.
December 10 – 1949 Australian federal election: The Liberal/Country Coalition led by Robert Menzies defeats the Labor government, led by Prime Minister Ben Chifley. Menzies is sworn in on December 19, his second stint as Prime Minister; he will hold the office for over 16 years until his retirement in 1966 and Labor will not win office again until 1972, under Gough Whitlam.
December 13 – The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem.
December 14 – Traicho Kostov, who until March was acting President of the Council of Ministers of Bulgaria, is sentenced to death for anti-Communist Party activity.
December 15 – A typhoon strikes a fishing fleet off Korea, killing several thousand.
December 16 – Sukarno is elected president of the Republic of Indonesia.
December 17 – Burma recognises the People's Republic of China.
December 18 – In the American National Football League, the Philadelphia Eagles defeat the Los Angeles Rams 14–0, to win the championship.
December 21 – Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin's 70th Birthday is Held in Moscow.
December 27 – The Treaty of The Hague ends the Indonesian National Revolution by recognizing transfer of the sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies from Queen Juliana of the Netherlands to the United States of Indonesia; the Susanto Cabinet takes office in the Republic of Indonesia.
December 29
KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut, becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.
Smouha SC (sports club) is founded in Alexandria, Egypt, by Joseph Smouha, a Mizrahi Iraqi Jew.
December 30 – India recognizes the People's Republic of China.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_0 | 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1950th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 950th year of the 2nd millennium, the 50th year of the 20th century, and the 1st year of the 1950s decade. |
1950_0 | Section: January (2):
January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed.
January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 aboard are killed, including almost the entire national ice hockey team (VVS Moscow) of the Soviet Air Force – 11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur.
January 6 – The UK recognizes the People's Republic of China; the Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response.
January 7 – A fire in the St Elizabeth's Ward of Mercy Hospital in Davenport, Iowa, United States, kills 41 patients.
January 9 – The Israeli government recognizes the People's Republic of China.
January 12 – Submarine HMS Truculent collides with Swedish oil tanker Divina in the Thames Estuary and sinks; 64 die.
January 13 – Finland forms diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.
January 21 – In the United States, suspected spy Alger Hiss is convicted on two counts of perjury.
January 23 – The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
January 24 – Cold War: Klaus Fuchs, German émigré and physicist, confesses to an MI5 interrogator that he is a Soviet spy: for seven years, he passed top secret data on U.S. and British nuclear weapons research to the Soviet Union. Fuchs is formally charged on February 2.
January 26 – India promulgates its constitution, forming a republic, and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president. The Kingdom of Mysore is merged into the new republic.
January 31
United States President Harry S. Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb, in response to the detonation of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb in 1949.
The last Kuomintang troops surrender in mainland China.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_1 | Section: February (2):
February 1 – Chiang Kai-shek is re-elected as president of the Republic of China.
February 6
In West Virginia, 372,000 coal miners strike (they remain out until March 3).
The first Cabinet Secretary (N.R. Pillai) is appointed in India.
February 8
The Stasi is founded in East Germany, and acts as a secret police until 1990.
A payment is first made by Diners Club card, in New York, United States (the first use of a charge card).
February 11
Two Viet Minh battalions attack a French base in French Indochina.
Finland recognizes Indonesia.
February 12
The European Broadcasting Union is founded.
Albert Einstein warns that nuclear war could lead to mutual destruction.
February 13 – British Columbia B-36 crash: The U.S. Air Force loses a Convair B-36 bomber that carried a Mark 4 nuclear bomb off the west coast of Canada, and produces the world's first Broken Arrow.
February 14 – Cold War:
The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a mutual defense treaty (terminated in 1979).
In an election speech at Edinburgh, Winston Churchill proposes "a parley at the summit" with Soviet leaders, the first use of the term "summit" for such a meeting.
February 15 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi is re-elected president of Finland.
February 19 – Konrad Adenauer tries unsuccessfully to negotiate with East Germany, to begin unification.
February 21 – Cunard liner Aquitania arrives at the scrapyard in Faslane at the end of a 36-year career, the longest of any in the 20th Century.
February 23 – 1950 United Kingdom general election: The Labour Party, led by Clement Attlee, remains in office, but the Tories, led by Winston Churchill, increase their seats in the House of Commons.
February – The Ad Hoc Committee on Slavery of the United Nations is formally inaugurated with its first meeting at Lake Success in February 1950.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_2 | Section: March (2):
March 1
Klaus Fuchs is convicted in London of spying against both Britain and the United States for the Soviet Union, by giving to the latter top secret atomic bomb data.
Acting Chinese President Li Zongren ends his term in office.
Chiang Kai-shek resumes his duties as Chinese president, after moving his government to Taipei, Taiwan.
March 3 – Poland indicates its intention to exile all Germans.
March 8 – The first Volkswagen Type 2 (also known as the Microbus) rolls off the assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany.
March 12 – A plane carrying returning rugby fans from Ireland to Wales crashes near Llandow, with the loss of 80 lives.
March 13 – Royal Question: Belgian monarchy referendum, 1950 – In Belgium, the referendum over the monarchy shows 57.7% support the return of King Leopold III, 42.3% against.
March 18 – The Belgian government collapses, after the March 12 referendum favouring of the return from exile of King Leopold III.
March 20 – The Polish government enacts a law to take possession of properties owned by Roman Catholic churches.
March 22 – Egypt demands that Britain remove all its troops in the Suez Canal.
March 23 – The 22nd Academy Awards Ceremony is held.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_3 | Section: April (2):
April 14 – Influential British comic Eagle is launched.
April 15 – Belgian King Leopold III announces that he is ready to abdicate in favor of his son, Baudouin.
April 21 – A mass stabbing occurs in Nainital, killing 22 members of the Harijan caste.
April 24 – Jordan formally annexes the West Bank.
April 27
Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed, formally segregating the races.
Britain formally recognises Israel.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_4 | Section: May (2):
May 1 – UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, begins operations.
May 5 – Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), king of Thailand since 1946, is crowned, at The Grand Palace in Bangkok.
May 6
Cazin rebellion in Bosnia against Communist agrarian reforms.
Tollund Man is unearthed in Denmark.
May 9 – Robert Schuman presents his proposal for the creation of a pan-European organisation, which he believes to be indispensable to the maintenance of permanently peaceful relations between the different nations of the continent. This proposal, known as the "Schuman Declaration", is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union.
May 11 – The Kefauver Committee hearings into U.S. organized crime begin.
May 13 – The first race in the inaugural FIA Formula One World Championship in automobile racing is held, at Silverstone, England.
May 14 – The Huntsville Times runs the headline "Dr. von Braun Says Rocket Flights Possible to Moon."
May 17 – Israeli Air Force Spitfires intercept a Royal Air Force Short Sunderland when it inadvertently crosses into Israeli airspace, forcing it to land at Lod Airport. The Sunderland's crew have been issued maps that do not depict Israel, as Britain had not recognized the Jewish state at the time they were issued.
May 22
Celâl Bayar becomes the third president of Turkey and Adnan Menderes of the DP forms the new government of Turkey (19th government).
Recorded premiere of Four Last Songs (1948) by German composer Richard Strauss (d. 1949) given by the composer's choice of soloist, Norwegian-born soprano Kirsten Flagstad, with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler at the Royal Albert Hall in London, sponsored by Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, Sultan of Mysore.
May 24 – The United States Maritime Administration is formed (under the Department of Commerce).
May 25 – The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel is formally opened to traffic in New York City.
May 29
St. Roch, the first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The pilot series of the world's longest-running radio soap opera, The Archers, is first broadcast on BBC Light Programme in the U.K.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_5 | Section: June (2):
June 1–23 – Mauna Loa in Hawaii starts erupting.
June 3 – Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, of the French Annapurna expedition, become the first climbers to reach the summit of an 8,000-metre peak.
June 6 – Turkey: The Adhan in Arabic is permitted by law after a ban of 18 years.
June 8 – Sir Thomas Blamey becomes the only Field Marshal in Australian history.
June 16 – Maracanã Stadium, which becomes a well-known sports venue of Brazil, opens in Rio de Janeiro, in advance of the opening of the 1950 FIFA World Cup in the country on June 24.
June 25 – The Korean War begins: Troops and T-34 tanks of the North Korean People's Army cross the 38th parallel into South Korea.
June 26 – The Parliament of South Africa passes the Suppression of Communism Act.
June 27 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman orders American military forces to aid in the defense of South Korea.
June 28 – Korean War:
North Korean forces capture Seoul, but do not win the war.
Hangang Bridge bombing: The South Korean army, in an attempt to defend Seoul, blows up the Hangang Bridge while it is crowded with refugees.
Seoul National University Hospital massacre: North Korean troops kill around 800 medical staff and patients.
Bodo League massacre begins: South Korean armed forces and police summarily execute at least 100,000 suspected North Korean sympathizers.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_6 | Section: July (2):
July 14–21 – Korean War – Battle of Taejon: North Korean forces capture the city held by the U.S. 24th Infantry Division, but the delay allows establishment of the Pusan Perimeter.
July 16 – Uruguay beats Brazil 2–1, to win the 1950 World Cup hat has been dubbed the Maracanazo.
July 17 – The Suppression of Communism Act (passed on June 26) comes into force in South Africa.
July 20 – After a month-long campaign, the majority of North Korea's Air Force was destroyed by anti-communist forces.
July 30 – 4 workers striking over the "Royal Question" in Belgium are shot dead by the Gendarmerie, at Grâce-Berleur near Liège.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_7 | Section: August (2):
August 5
2 Squadron SAAF departs from South Africa to take part in the Korean War.
1950 Fairfield-Suisun Boeing B-29 crash: A bomb-laden Boeing B-29 Superfortress crashes into a residential area in California, United States, killing 17 people and injuring 68.
August 6 – Monarchist demonstrations lead to a riot in Brussels.
August 8
American Florence Chadwick swims the English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes, beating the women's record for the crossing.
Winston Churchill supports the idea of a pan-European army, allied with Canada and the U.S.
August 12
Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre – 75 U.S. soldiers are executed after being captured in battle by North Korea.
In his encyclical Humani generis, Pope Pius XII requires Catholic theologians to defer to the teachings of the Church as a whole but declares evolution to be a serious hypothesis that does not contradict essential Catholic views.
August 15 – The 8.6 Mw Assam–Tibet earthquake shakes the region, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing between 1,500 and 3,300 people.
August 17 – Korean War: Hill 303 massacre – 39 U.S. soldiers are executed after being captured in battle by North Korea.
August 22
France announces the introduction of a government-guaranteed minimum wage.
The Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary is founded in Tagbilaran City, Philippines.
August 23 – Legendary African American singer-actor Paul Robeson, whose passport has recently been revoked because of his alleged Communist affiliations, meets with U.S. officials in an effort to get it reinstated. He is unsuccessful, and it is not reinstated until 1958.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_8 | Section: September (2):
September 3 – Italian racing driver Giuseppe Farina becomes the first winner of the FIA Formula One World Championship, being the only driver to win the championship in his home country.
September 7 – The Knockshinnoch Disaster in Scotland kills 13 coal miners; 116 are rescued.
September 15 – Korean War – Battle of Inchon: Allied troops commanded by Douglas MacArthur land in Inchon, occupied by North Korea, to begin a U.N. counteroffensive.
September 18 – Rede Tupi, the first television broadcast network in South America, is founded in Brazil.
September 19
West Germany decides to purge communist officials.
Korean War: An attack by North Korean forces was repelled at the Battle of Nam River.
September 26 – Indonesia is admitted to the United Nations.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_9 | Section: October (2):
Turing test published.
October 2 – The comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz is first published in seven U.S. newspapers.
October 3 – Getúlio Vargas is elected president of Brazil for a 5-year term.
October 5 – The Indonesian government quells riots in the Moluccas.
October 7
Battle of Chamdo: The Annexation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China, begins with the Chinese People's Liberation Army invading across the Jinsha River. By October 19 they will have taken the border town of Chamdo, and the Tibetan army will have surrendered.
The Agate Pass Bridge opens for traffic in Washington State.
October 9 – The Goyang Geumjeong Cave massacre begins in South Korea.
October 11 – The Federal Communications Commission in the United States issues the first license to broadcast television in color, to CBS (RCA will successfully dispute and block the license from taking effect, however).
October 19 – Korean War: The People's Republic of China enters the conflict, by sending thousands of soldiers across the Yalu River.
October 20 – Australia passes the Communist Party Dissolution Act, which is later struck down by the High Court.
October 28 – Torcida Split is founded, in support of the Association football club HNK Hajduk Split, in SFR Yugoslavia.
October 29 – Upon the death of Gustaf V of Sweden, he is succeeded as king by his 68-year-old son Gustaf VI Adolf.
October 30 – The Jayuya Uprising is started by Puerto Rican Nationalists, against the United States-supported government.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_10 | Section: November (2):
November 1
Pope Pius XII witnesses the "Miracle of the Sun" at the Vatican and defines a new dogma of Roman Catholicism, the Munificentissimus Deus, which says that God took Mary's body into Heaven after her death (the "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary").
Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate U.S. President Harry S. Truman, who is staying at the Blair-Lee House in Washington, D.C. during White House repairs.
November 4 – The United Nations ends the diplomatic isolation of Spain.
November 8 – Korean War: While in an F-80, United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown intercepts 2 North Korean MiG-15s near the Yalu River and shoots them down, in the first jet-to-jet dogfight in history.
November 10 – A U.S. Air Force B-50 Superfortress bomber, experiencing an in-flight emergency, jettisons and detonates a Mark 4 nuclear bomb over Quebec, Canada (the device lacks its plutonium core).
November 13
The President of Venezuela, Colonel Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, is kidnapped and murdered in Caracas.
A Curtiss Reid Flying Services plane crashes while en route to Paris from Rome, killing all 52 on board.
November 17 – Tenzin Gyatso, 15, is formally enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama, becoming temporal ruler of Tibet.
November 18 – The United Nations accepts the formation of the Libyan National Council.
November 24 – A phenomenal winter storm ravages the northeastern United States, brings 30–50 inches of snow and temperatures below zero, and kills 323 people.
November 26 – Korean War: Troops from the People's Republic of China launch a massive counterattack against South Korean and United Nations forces at the Ch'ongch'on River and the Chosin Reservoir, dashing any hopes for a quick end to the conflict.
November 28
The Colombo Plan for Co-operative Economic Development in South and South-East Asia comes into effect.
Greece and Yugoslavia reform diplomatic relations.
November 29 – The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA is founded.
November 30 – Douglas MacArthur threatens to use nuclear weapons in Korea.
Subsections (0):
|
1950_11 | Section: December (2):
December 2 – Korean War: The Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River ends with the Chinese People's Volunteer Army expelling United Nations forces from North Korea.
December 31 – The inaugural 12 Hours of Sebring automobile endurance race is held in Florida.
Subsections (0):
|
Subsets and Splits