Events 1 - 200 of 365
Emperor Not a God
Jan 1 Emperor Hirohito of Japan announces he is not a god
- Jan 1 ENIAC, US 1st computer finished by Mauchly/Eckert
- Jan 1 National Assembly proclaims Hungary a republic
Luciano's Sentence Commuted
Jan 3 As a reward for his wartime cooperation, Governor Thomas E. Dewey commutes Charles "Lucky" Luciano's pandering sentence on condition that he does not resist deportation to Italy
- Jan 6 Vietnam holds its first ever general election
- Jan 7 Cambodia becomes autonomous state inside French Union
- Jan 10 UN General Assembly meets for the first time in London
- Jan 10 US Army bounces 1st radar signal off the Moon from Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey
- Jan 11 Bert Bell becomes second NFL commissioner, moves Chicago headquarters to Philadelphia
People's Republic of Albania
Jan 11 Enver Hoxha declares People's Republic of Albania with himself dictator
- Jan 12 Edouardo de Filippo's stage drama "Questi Fantasmi!" premieres in Rome
- Jan 12 NFL champs Cleveland Rams owner Daniel Reeves announces plans to move team to Los Angeles, to avoid having to compete with the incoming AAFC Browns team
- Jan 14 1946 NFL Draft: Frank Dancewicz from University of Notre Dame first pick by Boston Yanks
- Jan 14 2 jetties collapse in Ganges, crushing 160 Hindu pilgrims
- Jan 17 United Nations Security Council holds its 1st meeting, at Westminster Central Hall in Westminster, England
- Jan 20 F Gouin follows De Gaulle as temporary leader of French government
- Jan 23 Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers, USNR, becomes 1st director of CIA
Metamorphosis
Jan 25 Richard Strauss' composition "Metamorphosen" premieres with the Collegium Musicum in Zürich
Trygve Lie First Secretary General
Feb 1 Norwegian politician Trygve Lie elected the 1st Secretary General of the United Nations
- Feb 1 Republic of Hungary proclaims Zoltán Tildy as its communist president
- Feb 2 The Proclamation of Hungarian Republic made
- Feb 4 Garson Kanin's "Born Yesterday" premieres in NYC
- Feb 5 The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea
- Feb 7 Filibuster in US Senate kills FEPC (Fair Employment Practices Committee) bill
Bartók's 3rd Piano Concerto
Feb 8 Béla Bartók's 3rd Piano Concerto premieres in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy with György Sándor as piano soloist
Salazar Forbids Opposition
Feb 8 Portuguese Dictator António de Oliveira Salazar forbids opposition parties
- Feb 9 Dutch Labor Party (Dutch Social Democratic Party) forms
- Feb 10 Charles "Lucky" Luciano is deported to Italy, and never returns to the United States
- Feb 11 World War II: The Royal Navy's Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 116 of 156 captured German U-boats
- Feb 16 1st commercially designed helicopter tested, Bridgeport, Connecticut
- Feb 17 Humanistic Covenant forms in Amsterdam
- Feb 19 New York Giants outfielder Danny Gardella is 1st major leaguer to announce he is jumping to the "outlaw" Mexican Baseball League for a fee of $10,000
- Feb 21 Anti-British demonstrations in Egypt
Election of Interest
Feb 24 General Juan Perón first elected President of Argentina
Ho Chi Minh Elected
Mar 2 Ho Chi Minh is elected President of North Vietnam
- Mar 2 Kingman Douglass becomes deputy director of CIA
- Mar 5 Hungarian Communists and Social Democrats co-found the Left Bloc.
Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech
Mar 5 Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, Missouri, popularizes the term and draws attention to the division of Europe
- Mar 6 France recognizes Vietnam statehood within Indo-Chinese federation
18th Academy Awards
Mar 7 18th Academy Awards: "The Lost Weekend" Ray Milland & Joan Crawford win
Bikini Atoll is Evacuated
Mar 7 Bikini Atoll islanders are evacuated by the US government to make way for a nuclear testing site
Williams' Mexican League Offer
Mar 9 Ted Williams is offered $500,000 to play in Mexican Baseball League, he refuses
Gilda
Mar 14 American film noir classic "Gilda", starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford, and directed by Charles Vidor, premieres in New York City
Attlee Agrees Indian Independence
Mar 15 British Prime Minister Clement Attlee agrees with India's right to independence
- Mar 19 French Guyana, Guadeloupe, Martinique & Reunion become overseas "departments" of France
- Mar 19 Nikolai Mikhailovich Schwernik succeeds Kalinin as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
- Mar 21 Kenny Washington signs with Rams, 1st black NFLer since 1933
- Mar 21 UN set up temporary HQ at Hunter (now Lehman) College (Bronx)
- Mar 22 1st US rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere (50 miles up)
- Mar 22 Britain signs treaty granting independence to Jordan
Ebony Concerto
Mar 25 1st performance of Igor Stravinsky's "Ebony Concerto", by Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd, at Carnegie Hall, New York City
- Mar 28 Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
- Mar 29 1st Test Cricket between Australia & NZ
- Mar 29 Australian cricket bowlers Bill O'Reilly (5/14) and Ernie Toshack (4/12) rout NZ for 42 in one-off Test in Wellington; Test debuts of greats Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller & Don Tallon
- Mar 30 Australia beats NZ in cricket at 3 30pm on 2nd day
- Mar 30 Last Test Cricket appearance of Bill O'Reilly (5-14 & 3-19)
- Mar 31 Belgian government of Acker forms
- Mar 31 Belgian government of Spaak resigns - shortest ever Belgian government
- Mar 31 First election is held in Greece after World War II
- Apr 1 400,000 US mine workers strike
- Apr 1 The Malayan Union is formed as a federation of the Malay states and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca
- Apr 1 Tsunamis generated by a quake in Aleutian Trench strike Hilo, Hawaii
- Apr 1 Van Acker forms Belgian government (without CVP)
- Apr 3 Netherlands-German postal relations resume
Ives' 3rd Symphony
Apr 5 1st performance of Charles Ives' 3rd Symphony
- Apr 7 Part of East Prussia incorporated into Russian SFSR
- Apr 7 Syria's independence from France is officially recognised.
- Apr 8 League of Nations assembles for the last time
- Apr 9 Stanley Cup Final, Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec: Montreal Canadiens beat Boston Bruins, 6-3 for a 4-1 series victory
- Apr 10 1st election for Japanese Parliament
LPGA Titleholders
Apr 12 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Louise Suggs wins her first major title by 2 strokes from Eileen Stulb
- Apr 12 Syria gains independence from France
- Apr 13 Belgian Prime Minister Acker proclaims wage & price freeze ended
- Apr 13 Eddie Klepp, a white pitcher signed by defending Negro League champ Cleveland Buckeyes, is barred from field in Birmingham, Alabama
- Apr 16 1st US launch of captured V-2 rocket, White Sands, New Mexicao; reaches altitude of 8 km
- Apr 16 Dutch Special Court of Justice sentences Frederik Müller, Socialist mayor of Rotterdam, to 10 years in jail for his wartime support of Germany
Robinson 2nd Baseman
Apr 18 Jackie Robinson debuts as 2nd baseman for the Montreal Royals
- Apr 18 League of Nations dissolves (3 months after UN starts)
Make Mine Music
Apr 20 Walt Disney's animated film anthology "Make Mine Music" premieres in New York City
Baseball Hall of Fame
Apr 24 11 players named to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Tinker, Evers, Chance, Burkett, McCarthy, Waddell, Plank, Walsh, Jack Chesbro, Griffith and McGinnity
Symphonic Variations
Apr 24 One-act ballet "Symphonic Variations" choreographed by Frederick Ashton with music by César Franck danced by Sandler's Wells Ballet debuts at Covent Garden, London
Feller's 2nd MLB No-Hitter
Apr 30 Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller's 2nd career MLB no-hitter; beats New York Yankees, 1-0
Montgomery Supreme Commander
May 1 Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery appointed British supreme commander
- May 1 Mrs Emma Clarissa Clement named "American Mother of Year" by the American Mothers Committee of the Golden Rule Foundation in New York
- May 1 Start of the three-year Pilbara strike by indigenous Aboriginals in Western Australia for better wages and conditions [1]
- May 1 The Paris Peace Conference concludes that the islands of the Dodecanese should be returned to Greece by Italy
The Postman Always Rings Twice
May 2 "The Postman Always Rings Twice" film based on the novel by James M. Cain, directed by Tay Garnett, starring Lana Turner and John Garfield is released
Event of Interest
May 6 Pulitzer Prize for History awarded to Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. for his novel "The Age of Jackson"
- May 7 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees
- May 7 William H. Hastie inaugurated as 1st black governor of Virgin Islands
- May 8 Estonian school girls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial that preceded the Bronze Soldier in Tallinn
- May 8 MLB Boston Red Sox shortstop Johnny Pesky scores 6 runs in 14-10 win over visiting Chicago White Sox
- May 9 1st hour long entertainment TV show, "NBC's Hour Glass" premieres
Victor Emmanuel III Abdicates
May 9 King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by his son Umberto II who reigns for only 34 days before the monarchy is abolished
- May 10 Red Sox win 15th straight beat Yanks 5-4, DiMaggio hits Grand Slam
- May 11 1st night game at Boston Braves Field (Giants 5, Braves 1)
- May 11 United Malays National Organisation is created.
- May 13 Sarwate & Banerjee add 249 for 10th wkt for Indians v Surrey
- May 13 US sentences 58 camp guards of Mauthausen concentration camp to death
- May 13 Winston Churchill welcomed in Rotterdam
For Those We Love
May 14 Paul Hindemith's requiem "For Those We Love" premieres
Annie Get Your Gun
May 16 Irving Berlin, Dorothy and Herbert Fields' musical "Annie Get Your Gun" starring Ethel Merman and featuring "There's No Business Like Show Business" opens at Imperial Theater, NYC
- May 17 KVP Labor/Communists win 1st post-WW2 Dutch parliamentary elections
- May 17 US President Harry Truman seizes control of nation's railroads to delay a strike
- May 19 Dutch Cooperation for Sexual Reform (NVSH) forms in Amsterdam
- May 20 Cubs Claude Passeau makes his 1st error since September 21, 1941, ending pitcher's fielding record of 273 consecutive errorless chances
- May 21 Physicist Louis Slotin is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation while preparing a plutonium core experiment at the Los Alamos lab, he dies 9 days later and the accident ends all hands-on nuclear assembly work at Los Alamos
- May 22 Yankees turn triple-play & defeat Tigers 5-3
Bill Dickey for the Yankees
May 24 Bill Dickey replaces Joe McCarthy as New York Yankees manager
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
May 26 Darius Milhaud's 3rd Concerto for Piano and Orchestra premieres in Prague
President Manuel Roxas
May 28 Manuel Roxas is inaugurated as the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines
- May 28 US Patent filed for a hydrogen bomb
- May 29 KVP wins Provincial National election in Netherlands
- May 30 Bama Rowell hits a home run in a baseball match - the ball shatters Bulova Clock in Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York
- May 30 United flight 521 crashes on takeoff at LaGuardia Airport (NY) 42 die
- Jun 2 Italian plebiscite chooses republic over monarchy (National Day)
- Jun 3 1st bikini bathing suit displayed in Paris
- Jun 3 International Military Tribunal opens in Tokyo against 28 Japanese war criminals
- Jun 3 US Supreme Court rules that segregating riders by race on interstate buses violates the Interstate Commerce Clause of the US Constitution (Morgan v. Virginia)
- Jun 4 Largest solar prominence (300,000 mi/500,000 km) observed
- Jun 5 Dutch comic strip "Eric de Noorman" by Hans G. Kresse is launched
- Jun 5 Fire at LaSalle Hotel cocktail lounge kills 61 in Chicago, Illinois
- Jun 6 Henry Morgan is 1st to take off shirt on TV
- Jun 6 The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City
- Jun 7 MLB Pittsburgh Pirates players attempt to unionize and vote 20-16 to go on strike rather than play the New York Giants; vote fell short of required 2/3 majority and union fizzles, and Pirates win 10-5 at Forbes Field, Pittsburghn
- Jun 9 19 guests at Canfield Hotel die in fire (Dubuque, Iowa)
- Jun 9 66,545 fans help Yanks break million attendance mark, the earliest
King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Jun 9 Bhumibol Adulyadej becomes King of Thailand after the death of his brother King Ananda Mahidol
Louis vs Conn
Jun 9 Joe Louis KOs Billy Conn in 8 for heavyweight boxing title
- Jun 9 New York Giant Mel Ott becomes first manager in MLB history to be ejected from both games of a doubleheader; Giants lose both games to Pittsburgh Pirates
- Jun 10 Italian Republic established
- Jun 10 Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers, USNR, ends term as 1st director of CIA. Lieutenant General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, USA, becomes 2nd director of CIA
- Jun 13 1st transcontinental round-trip flight in 1-day, California-Maryland
- Jun 13 King Umberto II of Italy abdicates after 24 days in the wake of the country declaring itself a republic
- Jun 14 Canadian Library Association established
The Christmas Song
Jun 14 Nat King Cole records "The Christmas Song" (written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells) for the first time
- Jun 17 SW Bell inaugurates mobile telephone commercial service, St Louis
- Jun 18 Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, a Socialist calls for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa. A road is named after this date in Panjim
- Jun 19 1st TV sports and boxing spectacular when Joe Louis KOs Billy Conn in a broadcast across New York
- Jun 20 NYC transit begins using PA system - Car # 744 on 8th Ave IND line
- Jun 21 10 die in fire at Baker Hotel, Dallas, Texas
Veeck Buys Cleveland
Jun 21 Bill Veeck buys MLB baseball team Cleveland Indians for $2.2 million
- Jun 21 Federal judge in Seattle rules that club doesn't have to play returning serviceman
Bedser Takes 7-49
Jun 22 English cricketer Alec Bedser takes 7-49 v India on 1st day of his 1st Test cricket at Lord's
Fred Allen's Last Show
Jun 26 Fred Allen's last radio show, his guest is Jack Benny
The Cession of Sarawak
Jul 1 The last White Rajah, Charles Vyner Brooke cedes Sarawak to the British Crown
- Jul 1 US drops atom bomb on Bikini atoll (4th atomic explosion)
- Jul 2 Dutch Beel government forms
- Jul 2 Harbor workers end strike at Rotterdam and Amsterdam
- Jul 3 1st Dutch government of Louis Beel forms
- Jul 3 The Cape Passive Resistance Council is formed at a mass meeting in Cape Town, attended by 1,500 people
- Jul 4 Anti Jewish riots in Kielce Poland, 42 die
- Jul 4 Philippines gains independence from US
- Jul 4 President Manuel Roxas inaugurated as the 5th President of the Philippines and the 1st President of an independent Philippines at the Independence Grandstand, Manila
- Jul 5 Louis Reard's design for a bikini swimsuit debuts at the Paris fashion show