1946 - What happened in 1946 ?

January 1946

Sunday 06:

William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) hanged for treason at the age of 39

Thursday 10:

First General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented.

Friday 11:

Porfirio Barba-Jacob's ashes go back to Colombia.

Saturday 26:

Félix Gouin becomes Prime Minister of France.

Monday 28:

Bluenose, Canada's greatest sailing ship, founders on a Haitian reef.

February 1946

Friday 01:

Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.

Tuesday 12:

Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.

Thursday 14:

ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sunday 24:

Juan Perón is elected president of Argentina.

March 1946

Saturday 02:

Ho Chi Minh is elected the President of North Vietnam.

Tuesday 05:

Winston Churchill uses the phrase "Iron Curtain" in his speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

Wednesday 06:

Vietnam War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.

Tuesday 19:

French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.

Thursday 28:

Cold War: The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.

April 1946

Sunday 07:

Syria's independence from Vichy France is officially recognised

Friday 12:

Syria gains independence from France

Thursday 18:

The League of Nations is dissolved.

Monday 22:

The first installment of the popular Japanese comic strip, Sazae-san, is published in the Fukunichi Shimbun.

Monday 29:

Former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders are indicted for war crimes.

May 1946

Friday 03:

World War II: The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Saturday 04:

In San Francisco Bay, US Marines from the Treasure Island Marine Barracks stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz federal prison. Five people are killed in the riot.

Tuesday 07:

Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with about 20 employees.

Thursday 09:

King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Humbert II.

Saturday 25:

The parliament of Transjordan makes Abdullah I of Jordan their king.

June 1946

Sunday 02:

Birth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum Italians decide to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After this referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia was exiled.

Wednesday 05:

A fire in the LaSalle Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, kills 61 people.

Thursday 06:

The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City.

Tuesday 18:

Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya, a Socialist called for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa. A road is named after this date in Panjim.

Monday 24:

Georges Bidault becomes Prime Minister of France

July 1946

Thursday 04:

After 381 years of colonial rule, the Philippines is granted full independence by the United States.

Friday 05:

The bikini is introduced.

Saturday 20:

The U.S. Congress's Pearl Harbor Committee says Franklin D. Roosevelt was completely blameless for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and calls for a unified command structure in the armed forces.

Monday 22:

King David Hotel bombing: Irgun bombs King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the British civil and military administration, killing 90.

Thursday 25:

At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.

August 1946

Thursday 01:

1946 - The Japanese Federation of Trade Unions is formed.

Saturday 03:

National Basketball Association is founded in the United States.

Friday 16:

The Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, is established, and Ichir? Ishikawa is appointed its representative.

Sunday 25:

Ben Hogan wins the PGA Championship.

September 1946

Monday 02:

Ayn Rand began writing Atlas Shrugged.

Sunday 15:

Baseball: The Brooklyn Dodgers are beating the Chicago Cubs, 2-0, in the 5th inning when a swarm of gnats causes the game to be postponed.

Thursday 19:

The Council of Europe is founded following a speech given by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.

Friday 20:

The first Cannes Film Festival is held.

October 1946

Tuesday 01:

Nazi leaders sentenced at Nuremberg Trials.

Sunday 13:

France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.

Tuesday 15:

Nuremberg Trials: Founder of the Gestapo and recently convicted Nazi war criminal, Hermann Göring, poisons himself hours before his scheduled execution.

Wednesday 16:

Ten war criminals of the Second World War, condemned in the Nuremberg trials hanged.

Sunday 27:

First commercially-sponsored television program airs (Geographically Speaking, sponsored by Bristol-Myers).

November 1946

Tuesday 12:

A branch of the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, Illinois opens the first ten drive-up teller windows.

Tuesday 19:

Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.

Wednesday 27:

Cold War: 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".

December 1946

Monday 09:

Doctors' Trial: The trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity began for medical researchers involved in the horrors of Nazi human experimentation .

Wednesday 11:

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.

Thursday 19:

Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi

Thursday 26:

Flamingo Hotel opens in Las Vegas

Tuesday 31:

President Harry Truman officially proclaims an end of hostilities in World War II.