1947 - What happened in 1947 ?

January 1947

Friday 03:

Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.

Wednesday 22:

Paul Ramadier becomes Prime Minister of France.

February 1947

Monday 03:

Percival Prattis becomes the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House and Senate press gallery.

Monday 10:

Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia.

Friday 21:

In New York City Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

Sunday 23:

International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is founded.

Friday 28:

February 28 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with large loss of civilian lives.

March 1947

Saturday 01:

The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations.

Thursday 06:

The Newport News, the first air-conditioned naval ship, is launched from Newport News, Virginia.

Friday 07:

The Kuomintang and Communist Party of China resume full-fledged Civil War.

Tuesday 25:

A explosion in a coalmine in Centralia, Illinois kills 111.

Friday 28:

The last episode of the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on radio.

April 1947

Wednesday 09:

The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride of 16 black and white men traveling through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws begins. The riders, sponsored by CORE and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, are seeking to force southern states to enforce the Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned segregation in interstate travel.

Wednesday 16:

Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Sunday 27:

Babe Ruth Day is celebrated at Yankee Stadium.

Monday 28:

Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.

Wednesday 30:

In Nevada, the Boulder Dam is officially renamed Hoover Dam again.

May 1947

Saturday 03:

New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.

Wednesday 07:

Kraft Television Theater debuts, running for the next 11 years.

Thursday 22:

Cold War: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece.

June 1947

Thursday 05:

Marshall Plan: At a speech at Harvard University, United States Secretary of State George Marshall calls for economic aid to war-torn Europe.

Tuesday 10:

Saab produces its first automobile.

Saturday 21:

A seaman named Harold Dahl claims to have seen six UFOs near Maury Island, United States. The next morning Dahl reported the first modern MIB encounter.

Monday 23:

The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.

Tuesday 24:

First known sighting of UFOs: Kenneth Arnold, flying over Washington, notices nine luminous disks in the form of saucers.

July 1947

Wednesday 02:

An object speculated to be a UFO crashes near Roswell, New Mexico, though the United States Air Force claims it is a weather balloon.

Monday 07:

Downed UFO believed to be found in the Roswell UFO incident.

Saturday 19:

Burmese nationalist Aung San was assassinated.

Sunday 20:

Pope Pius XII canonizes a French saint, Blessed Louis-Marie Gregnon de Montort.

Saturday 26:

Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.

August 1947

Monday 04:

The Supreme Court of Japan is established.

Thursday 07:

The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).

Thursday 14:

Pakistan gain independence from the United Kingdom

Friday 15:

India gains independence from Britain. Jawaharlal Nehru takes office as the first Prime Minister of India

Saturday 23:

The Maynard Midgets beat Lock Haven 16-7 to win the first-ever Little League World Series championship.

September 1947

Tuesday 09:

"First actual case of (a computer) bug being found": a moth lodges in a relay of a Mark II computer at Harvard University.

Friday 12:

The U.S. Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath

Monday 15:

RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube.

Wednesday 17:

James V. Forrestal was sworn in as the first Secretary of Defense of United States.

Thursday 18:

1947 - The United States Air Force is created seperate from the United States Army.

October 1947

Sunday 05:

The first televised White House address is given by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.

Tuesday 14:

Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.

Tuesday 21:

21 die as a fire destroys an asylum in Hoff, Germany.

Friday 24:

Walt Disney testifies to the House Unamerican Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists.

Thursday 30:

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which is the foundation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is founded.

November 1947

Sunday 02:

In California, Designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.

Thursday 06:

Meet The Press makes its television debut (the show went to a weekly schedule on September 12, 1948).

Thursday 20:

The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.

Monday 24:

Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France

Tuesday 25:

New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.

December 1947

Wednesday 03:

Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway.

Sunday 14:

NASCAR founded

Thursday 25:

The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.

Friday 26:

26 inches of snowfall in 16 hours in New York City

Tuesday 30:

King Michael of Romania abdicates