Jan 1, Czechoslovakia announced a 5-year plan to attain economic independence from the West.
   
Jan 1, The UN brokered a cease-fire in Kashmir. It granted Kashmir the right to vote on whether to remain in India or to join Pakistan. No vote took place.
    
Jan 5, In his State of the Union address, President Truman labeled his administration the "Fair Deal." Alben Barkley (1877-1956) served as Truman’s vice-president.
   
Jan 7, Sec. of State Marshall resigned for health reasons and was succeeded by Dean Acheson.
   
Jan 10, George Foreman, world heavyweight champion from 1973 to 1974, was born. He lost it to Mohammed Ali and regained it in 1994 at the age of 46.
   
Jan 10, RCA introduced the 45 RPM record.
   
Jan 11, Surrender talks in China between the Nationalists and Communists opened as Tientsing was virtually lost to the Communists.
  
Jan 14, There was a Black-Indian race rebellion in Durban, South Africa; 142 died.
   
Jan 15, Chinese Communists occupied Tientsin after a 27-hour battle with Nationalist forces.
   
Jan 17, Andy Kaufman, comedian, actor (Latka Gravas-Taxi), was born in NYC.
   
Jan 19, The Chiang Government moved the capital of China to Canton.
  
Jan 20, Ivana Trump, former wife of Donald Trump, was born.
  
Jan 20, Pres. Truman was inaugurated for his 2nd term. He presented a 4-point plan for American foreign policy. Point 4 called for "a bold new program" of assistance to economically underdeveloped areas. In his inaugural address, Truman branded communism a "false philosophy" as he outlined his program for U.S. world leadership.
   
Jan 23, The Communists Chinese forces began their advance on Nanking.
 
Jan 24, John Belushi, comedian, actor (SNL, Blues Brothers), was born in Chicago, Ill.
   
Jan 25, Axis Sally, who broadcasted Nazi propaganda to U.S. troops in Europe, stood trial in the United States for war crimes.
  
Jan 25, Poland joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.
   
Jan 25, "Comecon," or the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, was the Soviet Union’s attempt to create a program that would be the Communist equivalent of the Marshall Plan, an American program to rebuild postwar western Europe. After the formal division of Germany into east and west, the Soviets attempted to create the organization to replicate for Eastern Europe what the Marshall Plan was to do for the west. The Soviet-backed organization started with Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania becoming founding members (in addition to the Soviet Union). Albania and East Germany joined shortly thereafter. Comecon was never able to match the effectiveness of the American program because of the lack of resources in the weaker Communist countries and inflexible Soviet leadership concerned primarily with strengthening the Soviet Union. The organization, which sought coordination between the nations’ centrally-planned economies lasted until 1990 when the democratization movements in eastern Europe made Comecon's purpose moot. In 1991, Comecon was renamed the Organization for International Economic Cooperation.
   
Jan 28, NY Giants signed their 1st black players, Monte Irvin & Ford Smith.
 
Jan 30, In India, 100,000 people prayed at the site of Gandhi's assassination on the first anniversary of his death.
   
Jan 31, The first TV daytime soap opera, "These Are My Children," was broadcast from the NBC station in Chicago.
   
Jan, Police broke into Rm. 203 of the Mark Twain Hotel in San Francisco and arrested Billie Holliday and her manager, John Levy, on charges of possession of opium. Her defense attorney, Jake Erlich, fingered Levy as an informer and persuaded the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.
   
Jan, Samuel Beckett finished writing En Attendant Godot. He translated it into English as "Waiting for Godot" in 1953.
   
Feb 1, Louis B. Mayer, the Mayer in Metro Goldwin Mayer (MGM), became a millionaire once more. He sold his breeding farm of race horses for one-million dollars.
   
Feb 1, RCA Victor countered Columbia Records’ 33-1/3 ‘long play’ phonograph disk on this day, with not only a smaller, 7-inch record (with a big hole in the center), but an entire phonograph playing system, as well. Soon, the newfangled product, which started a revolution (especially with the new rock and roll music) soon made the 78-rpm record a ‘blast from the past’. The 45-rpm disk did well for about 20 years.  Then it started to lose ground to cassette tapes, eight tracks and albums.
  
Feb 1, The 200" (5.08-m) Hale telescope was 1st used.
 
Feb 2, Ben Hogan (d.1997), golf star, was severely injured in a head-on car crash with a bus. Since his discharge from the Army in 1945, he had won 37 tournaments. In 1951 a Hollywood movie with Glenn Ford was made about Hogan and titled "Follow the Sun."
  
Feb 2-22, Lithuanian partisan leaders gathered and established Lithuanian Freedom Fighters' Union instead of General Democratic Resistance Movement.
 
Feb 7, Joe DiMaggio of the NY Yankees became the 1st $100,000/year baseball player.
 
Feb 8, In Hungary Cardinal Mindszenty was sentenced to life imprisonment for high treason.
   
Feb 10, Arthur Miller’s play "Death of a Salesman" opened at Broadway’s Morosco Theater. His play depicted the false dreams of Willy Loman. It won a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize.
  
Feb 10, Elections in Northern Ireland showed that at least 2/3 of the population favored continued union with Great Britain.
  
Feb 12, "Annie Get Your Gun" closed at the Imperial Theater in NYC after 1147 performances.
  
Feb 12, Moslem Brotherhood chief Hassan el Banna was shot to death in Cairo.
  
Feb 13, A mob burned a radio station in Ecuador after the broadcast of H.G. Wells’ "War of the Worlds."
   
Feb 14, The United States charged the USSR with interning up to 14 million in labor camps.
  
Feb 14, 1st session of Knesset (Jerusalem Israel).
  

Feb 17, Chaim Weitzman was elected the 1st president of Israel.
  
Feb 19, Ezra Pound won the Bollingen Prize.
   
Feb 19, Mass arrests of communists took place in India.
 
Feb 21, Nicaragua and Costa Rica signed a friendship treaty ending hostilities over their borders.
  
Feb 24, A V-2 WAC-Corporal was the 1st rocket to outer space. It was fired at White Sands, NM, and reached 400 km.
  
Feb 24, Israel and Egypt signed an armistice agreement.
   

Feb 26, A USAF plane began a 1st nonstop around-the-world flight.
   
Feb 27, Chaim Weizmann became the 1st Israeli president.
 
Mar 1, Joe Louis retired as heavyweight boxing champion.
   
Mar 2, The Lucky Lady II (USAF B-50 Superfortress), landed at Fort Worth , Texas, after completing the first non-stop, round-the-world flight: 23,452-mis in 94 hours.
   
Mar 2, 1st automatic street light was in New Milford, CT.
  
Mar 3, Sec. of Defense Forrestal resigned. He was worn out by his futile efforts to bring about the unification of the armed services. He was succeeded by Louis A. Johnson. Johnson proceeded to slash defense expenses. He retired all but 5 aircraft carriers and dismantled the first supercarrier.
   

Mar 4, In the USSR foreign minister V.M. Molotov was replaced by A. Vishinsky and Minister of Defense Marshal N.A. Bulganin was replaced by Marshal A.M. Vassilievsky. Molotov and Bulganin continued as members of the politburo.
  
Mar 4, Security Council of UN recommended membership for Israel.
   
Mar 10, Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington D.C. of treason. She served 12 years in prison.
   
Mar 15, Almost four years after the end of World War II, clothes rationing in Great Britain ends.
 
Mar 16, Bertha Knox Gilkey, welfare and tenement rights for urban women, was born.
  
Mar 19, The 1st museum devoted exclusively to atomic energy opened at Oak Ridge, Ten.
  
Mar 19, The Soviet People’s Council signed the constitution of the German Democratic Republic, and declared that the North Atlantic Treaty was merely a war weapon.
  
Mar 23, Sidney Kingsley's "Detective Story" premiered in NYC.
 
Mar 23, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
   
Mar 24, At the Academy Awards, "Hamlet" won best picture of 1948 and its star, Laurence Olivier, best actor; Jane Wyman won best actress for "Johnny Belinda"; "Treasure of Sierra Madre" won best director for John Huston and best supporting actor for the director's father, Walter Huston.
   
Mar 25, UC Pres. Robert Gordon Sproul proposed a faculty loyalty oath. The Univ. of Calif. Board of Regents later voted to require all employees to sign a loyalty oath.
  
Mar 25, Hanns A. Rauter (54), German SS-commandant in Netherlands, was executed.
 
Mar 25, Soviet occupiers of Lithuania began Operation "Priboj," a 2nd major deportation program (Mar 25-28).
   
Mar 30, Friedrich C.R. Bergius chemist (brown coal, Nobel 1931), died.
      
Mar 31, Churchill declared that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the USSR from taking over Europe.
   
Mar, Some 20,000 Estonian civilians were rounded up and deported to Siberia under orders from Joseph Stalin.
   
Apr 1,  "Happy Pappy" premiered.  It was the first all-black-cast variety show.
  

Apr 3, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Transjordan.
  

Apr 4, The (NATO) North Atlantic Treaty Organization pact was signed by the US, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada. It provided for mutual defense against aggression and for close military cooperation.
 
Apr 5, The 60 year old St. Anthony's Hospital burned and killed 77 in Effingham, Ill.
 
Apr 7, The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific" opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theater for 1928 performances.
  
Apr 14, The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg’s made its last judgment.
 
Apr 15, The Berkeley radio station KPFA-FM began broadcasting over on a 550-watt surplus government transmitter. Lewis Hill made the first broadcast over the first listener-supported radio station in the US.
  
Apr 18, The Republic of Ireland withdrew from the British Commonwealth and was officially proclaimed in Dublin on the anniversary of the 1916 Easter rebellion. King George VI sent his good wishes.
   
Apr 19, The Foreign Assistance Act authorized $5.43 billion for the European Recovery Program.
   
Apr 19, The Amethyst Affair began when the British frigate Amethyst came under fire from Communist Chinese artillery and ran aground in the Yangtze River. A tense, 103-day standoff followed until the frigate made a daring escape on July 30. The Amethyst lost 22 men killed and 31 wounded in the ordeal. Rescue attempts by the Royal Navy resulted in another 23 British sailors killed.
   
Apr 20, Jockey Bill Shoemaker won his 1st race, in Albany, California.
   
Apr 20, Scientists at the Mayo Clinic announced they'd succeeded in synthesizing a hormone found to be useful in treating rheumatoid arthritis; the substance was named "cortisone."
  
Apr 21, Patti LuPone, actress, singer (Evita, Life Goes On), was born in Northport, NY.
  
Apr 23, The Chinese Red army conquered Nanjing.
   
Apr 24, In the 3rd Tony Awards: "Death of a Salesman" and "Kiss Me Kate" won.
 
Apr 25, Michael Brown, keyboardist (Left Bank-Don't Walk Away Renee), was born.
  
Apr 25, E.L. Johnson discovered asteroid #1922: Zulu.
   
Apr 26, Look Magazine proclaimed that radio was "doomed" and that within 3 years television would completely overshadow it.
  
May 2, Arthur Miller won Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman."
 
May 4, Graham Swift, British novelist (The Sweet Shop Owner, Out of this World), was born.
      
May 8, In West Germany the Western parliamentary council adopted the basic law of the Federal Republic of Germany. It was subsequently ratified by all states except Bavaria.
 
May 9, In Monaco Prince Rainier (26) succeeded his grandfather, Prince Louis II.
   
May 11, The 1st Polaroid camera sold $89.95 in NYC.
  
May 11, Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body's 59th member by a vote of 37-12. The capital was moved to Tel Aviv.
  
May 11, Siam changed its named to Thailand.
   
May 12, S.V.L. Pandit of India was received as the first foreign woman ambassador to the US.
  
May 12, The Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin blockade.

May 13, The 1st British-produced jet bomber, Canberra, made its 1st test flight.
   
May 14, Pres. Truman signed a bill establishing a rocket test range at Cape Canaveral.
  
May 15, In Hungary a general election with open voting gave complete victory to the Communist controlled National Independence Front. They purged their opponents, proclaimed a new constitution, nationalized all major industries, and announced a five-year plan.
   
May 17, The British House of Commons adopted the Ireland Bill that recognized the independence of the Republic of Ireland, but affirmed the position of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.
  
May 23, The Federal Republic of (West) Germany officially came into existence with Bonn as the capital.
 
May 25, Chinese Red army occupied Shanghai.
 
May 26, Hank Williams Jr, country singer (Honky Tonk), was born in Shreveport, La.
  
May 27, Russians stopped train traffic to and from West Berlin.
 
May 29, Candid Camera, TV comedy Variety, moved to NBC.
   
Jun 1, KSL TV channel 5 in Salt Lake City, UT (CBS) began broadcasting.
  
Jun 1, The first magazine on microfilm was offered to subscribers by Newsweek.
  
Jun 2, Trans Jordan was renamed the Hashemite Kingdom Jordan.
   
Jun 3, Wesley Anthony Brown became the 1st negro to graduate from US Naval Academy.
 
Jun 13, Vietnam state was established at Saigon with Bao Dai as chief of state. Installed by the French, Bao Dai entered Saigon to rule Vietnam.
  
Jun 14, The State of Vietnam was formed.
  
Jun 16, A gas turbine, electric locomotive was demonstrated in Erie, Pa.
 
Jun 20, The Vatican, as a counter measure, excommunicated all active supporters of Communism in Czechoslovakia.
   
Jun 24, "Hopalong Cassidy" became the 1st network western (NBC). William Boyd played Hopalong Cassidy on a radio program. He bought the rights to the Cassidy movies and edited them for TV. They proved popular and he made an additional 52 new episodes for TV.
 
Jun 25, In Bulgaria Communist Deputy Premier Traicho Kostov was arrested and charged with ideological deviation and treason. He and ten associates were found guilty and executed on Dec 16.
   
Jun 27, W. Baade discovered asteroid #1566, Icarus.
 
Jun 28, The last U.S. combat troops were called home from Korea, leaving only 500 advisers.
   
Jun 29, US troops withdrew from Korea after WW II.
  
Jun 29, The government of South Africa enacted a ban against racially mixed marriages.
   
Jun 30, In Greece Prime Minister Sophoulis died and was succeeded by Alexander Diomedes.
   
Jun, Czechoslovakia founded its own Catholic action committee to take the direction of Church affairs away from Archbishop Beran and the Church hierarchy.
   
Jun-Jul, Tito concluded a treaty with the Western powers after Yugoslavia’s economic relations with the Soviet Union and satellite countries were broken off.
 
Jul 2, "Red Barber's Clubhouse" sports show premiered on CBS (later NBC) TV.
 
Jul 4, Joyce Brothers, psychologist, author, columnist, was born.
  
Jul 7, The police drama "Dragnet," starring Jack Webb and Barton Yarborough, premiered on NBC radio. It became a TV series in 1951 and 1967.
  
Jul 8, Vietta M. Bates became the first enlisted woman sworn into the U.S. Army when legislation was passed making the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps part of the regular Army.
  
Jul 10, 1st practical rectangular TV tube was announced in Toledo, Oh.
  
Jul 13, Pope Pius XII excommunicated communist Catholics.
  
Jul 20, Israel's 19 month war of independence ended with a ceasefire agreement with Syria.
 
Jul 21, The US Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) 82-13.
  
Jul 25, NATO was signed by Pres. Truman.
 

Jul 27, The British 36-seat jet-propelled De Havilland Comet 1 flew for the first time.
 
Jul 28, Marilyn Quayle, wife of vice president Dan Quayle, was born.
  
Jul 29, Airlift in West-Germany to West-Berlin ended. [see Sep 30]
  
Jul 30, British warship HMS Amethyst escaped down Yangtze River after having been refused a safe passage by Chinese Communists after 3-month standoff.
 
Aug 2, James Fallows, writer and editor of U.S. News and World Report, was born.
  
Aug 3, Basketball Assoc of America and National Basketball League merged to form the National Basketball Association.
  
Aug 7, Hungary announced a new constitution, similar to that of the Soviet Union.
  
Aug 10, The National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense. Pres. Truman signed a bill that established a department of defense with broader and more definite powers for the Sec. of defense. Gen’l. Omar N. Bradley was appointed chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
  
Aug 16, Margaret Mitchell (48), US writer (Gone With the Wind), died.
  
Aug 24, The North Atlantic Treaty went into effect.

Aug 29, The USSR successfully detonated its first atomic bomb, Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, codenamed "First Lightning."
 
Aug 31, Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attended the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
  
1949        Aug, In Indonesia armed conflict with both Dutch and British forces—as well as political factions in the formation of the republic—were eventually brought to an end, when the Netherlands finally agreed to transfer sovereignty to an independent United States of Indonesia.
   
Aug-Sep, In Finland a wave of Communist strikes were defeated by firm government action and the loyalty of non-Communist workers.
   
Sep 1, The 1st network detective series, Private Eyes, premiered.

Sep 13, The Ladies Professional Golf Association of America was formed in New York City, with Patty Berg as its first president.
   
Sep 15, "The Lone Ranger" premiered on ABC television with Clayton Moore (d.1999) as the masked hero and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. Their 169 [221] episodes ran to 1957.
  
Sep 15, Congress extended the Reciprocal Trade Agreement for 2 years.
   
Sep 17, The North Atlantic Treaty Council (NATO) met for the 1st time.
 
Sep 18, Frank Morgan, actor (Annie Get Your Gun, Wizard of Oz), died at 59.
 
Sep 21, The Communist People’s Republic of China was proclaimed under Mao Tse Tung with Chou En-Lai as Premier. "Today, the Chinese people have stood up." Mao-Tse-Tung led his people to power after half a century (50 yrs.) of civil strife. The Chinese Communists drove Chiang Kai-shek to Formosa. The capitalist stronghold of Shanghai fell to Mao Tse-tung Communist guerrillas. The Communist People’s Liberation Army brought with them to Beijing a northeastern folk dance called yang ge.
   
Sep 21, In Germany the Allied Occupation Statute came into force. The functions of the military government were transferred to the Allied high commission. The Federal Republic of [West] Germany was created under the 3-power occupation.
   
Sep 21, Manipur merged with India.
 
Sep 22, The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb.

Sep 23, US Pres. Truman announced evidence of the USSR's 1st nuclear device detonation thus breaking the US atomic monopoly.

Sep 28, "My Friend Irma" was 1st of 12 films starring Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis.
   
Sep 30, The Berlin airlift ended its operation after 277,264 flights. Through accidents 31 Americans lost their lives in support of the airlift. The Berlin Airlift, which began on June 26, 1948, and lasted 321 days, consisted of 272,264 flights by British and American airmen. They transported some 2.3 million tons of food to supply the 2.1 million residents of the blockaded portion of the city. The operation ended after 278,288 flights and delivery of 2,326,406 tons of supplies.
 
Sep 30, Poland denounced its treaty of friendship with Yugoslavia and confirmed its adherence to Soviet and Communist foreign policy.
 
Oct. 1, Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung raised the first flag of the People's Republic of China during a ceremony in Beijing  (National Day).
   
Oct 1, Republic of China (Taiwan) was formed on island of Formosa. The Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek had been defeated and fled to Taiwan and took control. Chiang Kai-shek established the "temporary" government of the Republic of China in Taipei and established martial law.
 
Oct 2, USSR recognized the People's Republic of China.
  
Oct 4, United Nations' permanent NYC headquarters was dedicated.
 
Oct 6, American-born Iva Toguri D’Aquino, convicted of being Japanese wartime broadcaster Tokyo Rose, was sentenced in San Francisco to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000.

Oct 7, Iva Toguri D’Aquino, better known as Tokyo Rose, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for treason.
  
Oct 9, Harvard Law School began admitting women.
 
Oct 12, Eugenie Anderson became the first woman U.S. ambassador.
   
Oct 14, Leaders of the American Communist Party were convicted of conspiracy to advocate the violent overthrow of the US government. They were sentenced with fines and imprisonment.
  
Oct 14, The Chinese Red army occupied Canton.
 
Oct 16, In Greece the civil war ended after 3 years with the defeat of the rebel forces. This was made possible by both American aid and the closing of the Yugoslav frontier due to Tito’s quarrel with the Communist.
   
Oct 19, The People’s Republic of China was formally proclaimed.

Oct 26, President Truman signed a measure raising the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour. Home-delivered milk was 42 cents per half gallon.
   
Oct 28, Eugenie Anderson became the 1st woman US ambassador. She was posted to Denmark.
  
Oct 29, Alonzo G. Moron of the Virgin Islands became the first African- American president of Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia.
 
Nov 7, King Faruk disbanded the Egyptian parliament.
 
Nov 18, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player.
  
Nov 18, The U.S. Air Force grounded B-29s after two crashes and 23 deaths in three days.
 
Nov 19, Prince Ranier III was crowned 30th Monarch of Monaco, six months after he succeeded his grandfather, Prince Louis the Second. Rainier III came to power and saw the future in banking, real estate and a more diverse economy with industries such as pharmaceuticals and plastics.
   
Nov 20, Jewish population of Israel reached 1,000,000.
  
Nov 21, The UN Assembly decided for the eventual independence of Italy’s former colonies. In the meantime they remained under UN supervision. United Nations granted Libya its independence in the year 1952.
 
Nov 25, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" appeared on music charts. It was originally an advertising jingle.
  
Nov 25, Luther "Bill" Robinson (71), "Bojangles" famed tap dancer, died.

Nov 26, India became a sovereign democratic republic. India adopted a constitution as a federal republic. Pandit Nehru became Prime Minister.
 
Nov 29, U.S. announced it would conduct atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
        
Nov 29, Uranium mine explosions in East Germany killed 3,700.
   
Nov 30, Chinese Communists captured Chungking.
 
Dec 7, The Nationalist Chinese government escaped to Formosa.
  
Dec 8, Jule Styne's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" opened at the NYC Ziegfeld Theater for 740 performances.
  
Dec 8, The Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa as the Communists pressed their attacks.
   
Dec 9, UN took trusteeship over Jerusalem.
   
Dec 10, 150,000 French troops massed at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
  
Dec 13, Knesset voted to transfer Israel's capital to Jerusalem.
 
Dec 20, Maurice Ravel and John Cranko's ballet "Beauty & the Beast" premiered.
  
Dec 25, Sissy Spacek, (Carrie, Badlands, Coal Miner's Daughter), was born in Quitman, Tx.
  
Dec 27, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted sovereignty to the United States Indonesia after more than 300 years of Dutch rule. The Netherlands retained control of Irian Jaya, inhabited by Melanesians, until 1963.
   
Dec 28, 20th Century Fox announced it would produce TV programs.
  
Dec 28, Hungary decreed the nationalization of all major industries and announced the start of a 5-year plan.
   
Dec 30, France transferred sovereignty to Vietnam (Indo-China).
 
Dec 30, Gerald J. Whitrow , mathematician and philosopher, published "The Structure of the Universe."
 
Bozo the Clown made his TV debut on “Bozo’s Circus starring Pinto Colvig on KTTV-Channel 11 (CBS), Los Angeles.
   
Jay Ward, cartoonist, created "Crusader Rabbit." It was the first cartoon made for TV.
  
Milton Berle hosted the first TV telethon. $1.1 million for cancer patients was raised in 14 hours.
  
Thomas Coffin (d.1999 at 83) became NBC's first television market research specialist. He was the first to conduct studies that showed that people bought products after seeing them on TV. He later was part of a panel that produced the 1972 report that TV violence had an adverse effect on children.
  
The first Emmy Awards for TV productions were made. Shirley Dinsdale Layburn (d.1999 at 72), a ventriloquist, received one for Most Outstanding Television Personality. Her puppet was Judy Splinters.
   
Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca  starred on the "Admiral Broadway Revue" TV show, a forerunner of "Your Show of Shows," which ran to 1954.
 
Ray Charles made his debut recording of "Confession Blues" in Seattle.
  
Oscar Peterson, jazz pianist, was invited to play at the Philharmonic concert at Carnegie Hall. Onstage were Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Buddy Rich and Ray Brown.
  
Hank Williams (d.1953) wrote and recorded "Lovesick Blues."

Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely had a million selling country music hit with "Slippin' Around," written by  Floyd Tillman (d.2003 at 88).
   
The Frankie Yankovic recording of "Blue Skirt Waltz" sold over a million.
   
Popular songs of the year included: Bali Ha’i, Some Enchanted Evening, I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy, So in Love, Riders in the Sky, I Love Those Dear Hearts and Gentle People, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
   
The song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" began life as a poem handed to shoppers at the Montgomery Ward department store chain in 1939. It was recorded in 1949 by Gene Autrey after Perry Como turned it down.
 
Mr. Magoo, a near-sighted cartoon character, was conceived by United Pictures of America, a group of former Disney animators.
 
The United Nations building was dedicated in New York.
  
Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982), film actress, left her husband and became pregnant by Italian director Roberto Rossellini.
 
William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
 
The UN warned of the danger of civil war in Korea.
 
NATO was established.

Frank Kurtz (1911-1996) flew the last B-17 Flying Fortress, nicknamed the "Swoose," to the Smithsonian Institution. His story was told by W.L. White in "Queens Die Proudly," and his wife’s book "My Rival, The Sky."
  
Perle Mesta, a Washington socialite, was appointed US ambassador to Luxembourg. Her flamboyant ways and gala parties inspired the Broadway musical "Call Me Madam."
  
The US granted $5.43 billion in foreign assistance to Europe.
     
The US launched a guided missile that went 250 miles.
  
Pres. Truman appointed Tom C. Clark (-1967) and Sherman Minton (-1956) to the Supreme Court.
 
The US government ceded Great Gull Island in Long Island Sound to the American Museum of Natural History.
   
Barry Goldwater was elected to the Phoenix City Council as part of a group committed to cleaning up prostitution and gambling.
 
The Briggs vs. Elliot case was filed in federal court in Charleston. It was later merged with the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education, in which the 1954 Supreme Court overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation in schools.
  
Pennsylvania enacted a state law requiring the reading of 10 Bible verses each day in schools followed by joint recitation of the Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
 
Harry Winston purchased the Hope diamond for $1 million.
   
Rear Adm. Delmar S. Fahrney, credited with the invention of the guided missile, purchased the George Brinton house in Pennsylvania and renamed it Rondelay.
  
Robert Henry Abplanap (1922-2003) co-founded Precision Valve Corp. based on his new plastic aerosol valve. He later befriended Richard Nixon and supported him through his presidency.
  
R.D. Hull, a Texas watchmaker, invented the spin-cast reel for fishing and got the Zero Hour Bomb Co. in Tulsa to manufacture it. The company soon changed its name to Zebco.
  
GM held its first Motorama car show.
  
The Volkswagen Beetle went on sale in the US.
  
Henry Ford II introduced contemporary styling.
  
Industry experts in 1996 picked the 1949 Ford as the number 7 favorite car.
  
An Air Force jet flew across the US in 3 hrs and 46 min.
  
John Paul Stapp (d.1999), an Air Force medical researcher, took a rapid sled ride under the direction of Capt. Edward Murphy to test G-force on the body. Murphy installed the sensors wrong and the test failed to provide results. Murphy's Law is attributed to Captain Edward A. Murphy Jr., an Air Force development engineer: "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in catastrophe, then someone will do it that way." In 2003 Murphy was posthumously awarded one of the annual Ig Noble prizes.
  
Marx Toys began producing several versions of the Dick Tracy squad car.
  
Dr. Robert Bruce (d.2004) analyzed changes in circulatory and respiratory functions of normal adults during a treadmill test. In the early 1960s he developed the "Bruce Protocol," a treadmill test to reveal problems hidden when the heart is at rest.
 
Dr. Joseph Charles Muhler led a team at Indiana Univ. in the development of stannous fluoride, a tin compound, for the prevention of tooth decay. His work was underwritten by Proctor and Gamble and led to the national introduction of Crest toothpaste in 1956.
  
Serum hepatitis was reported to have been transmitted to a blood-bank worker by an accidental needle stick.
 
Willard F. Libby published his paper on Radiocarbon Dating.
 
TV set sales hit 60,000 per week. The number of TV stations totaled 69.
   
Lillian Barber died in Texas in the last reported US case of smallpox.
   
US homicides totaled 8,033.
 
A 7.1 slab earthquake hit beneath Olympia, Wa. It was the most damaging trembler of the century but few lives were lost.
 
Amadeo Peter Giannini, founder of the Bank of America, died. [2nd source says 1947]
  
Richard Strauss (b. 1864), German conductor and composer, died.
 
Time magazine named Winston Churchill as Man of the Year.
   
Britain devalued the pound from $4.03 to $2.80. Most European nations followed.
  
In China the Catholic Church was expelled.
 
The Chinese Red Army invaded Tibet and believed it was liberating the serfs and peasants.
 
Southern Ireland was proclaimed the Republic of Eire in Dublin and recognized by Britain. Northern Ireland remained a part of the UK.
   
In Mexico City the first two private TV licenses were granted.
  
In Monaco Rainier III came to power and saw the future in banking, real estate and a more diverse economy with industries such as pharmaceuticals and plastics.
  
Yasser Arafat formed a Palestinian Students’ League.
  
South Africa established an apartheid program.
 
The Russians exploded their first A-bomb.
   
Protection of civilian life and property was added to the 4th Geneva Conventions.
   
The Dutch East Indies gained independence. The western half of Timor island was incorporated into the new nation of Indonesia when Holland transferred sovereignty. Aceh's leaders agreed to join the new nation.
 
1949-1950 Some 750,000 Chinese fled to Hong Kong as the Communists took over the mainland.
   
1949-1950 Some 35,000 Yemenite Jews were airlifted to Israel. Some 14,000 more followed in the early 1950s. Some children were separated from their parents and passed on to other parents.
 
1949-1951 The City College of New York  basketball team conspired to fix games over these seasons. A 1998 documentary on HBO covered the story. In 1978 Charley Rosen published "Scandals of ‘51: How the Gamblers Almost Killed College Basketball." In 1998 Rosen published "Barney Polan’s Game," a novel that took a deeper look into the point-shaving scandals.
  
1949-1951 The Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown under the Atomic Energy Commission was the home of the only nuclear assembly plant in the US. Worker health was not monitored. Nuclear operations were moved to Texas in the 1970s.
 
1949-1953 Harry S. Truman served his 2nd term as US President.
  
1949-1963 Konrad Adenauer became chancellor of West Germany.
   
1949-1967 More than 10,000 Eichler homes were built in the San Francisco Bay Area.
 
1949-1956 Four major Soviet nuclear tests were carried out near Semipalatinsk, Kazakstan. Higher than expected mutation rates on families in the area and their children were reported in 2002.
   
1949-1989 In Kazakstan nuclear tests were carried out by the Soviets and reportedly contaminated some 500,000 local people. It was feared that nuclear waste left in boreholes and cavities beneath the surface may contaminate ground water and affect agriculture.