1948 - What happened in 1948 ?

January 1948

Thursday 01:

Enrico De Nicola formally becomes President of the Italian Republic, but refuses to be a candidate for the first constitutional election the following May.

Sunday 04:

Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.

Monday 05:

Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).

Friday 30:

1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

February 1948

Wednesday 04:

Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.

Wednesday 18:

Eamon de Valera resigns as Taoiseach of Ireland.

Saturday 21:

NASCAR is incorporated.

Sunday 22:

Start of the Czechoslovak Revolution.

Saturday 28:

Bud Gartiser sets a new world record after clearing the 50-yard low hurdles in 6.8 seconds.

March 1948

Monday 08:

The United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violated the Constitution.

Wednesday 17:

Benelux, France, and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the NATO Agreement.

Saturday 20:

1948 – With a Musicians Union ban lifted, the first telecasts of classical music in the United States, under Eugene Ormandy and Arturo Toscanini, are given on CBS and NBC.

April 1948

Thursday 01:

Military forces, under direction of the Soviet-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin.

Saturday 03:

On Jeju, locals simultaneously raid the island's police stations, marking the start of a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju massacre.

Wednesday 07:

The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.

Friday 09:

1948 - Massacre at Deir Yassin.

Friday 30:

In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established.

May 1948

Saturday 01:

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il Sung as president.

Tuesday 04:

Norman Mailer's first novel, The Naked and the Dead, is published.

Thursday 13:

1948 Arab-Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.

Sunday 16:

Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.

Tuesday 18:

The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.

June 1948

Tuesday 08:

Milton Berle hosts the debut of Texaco Star Theater.

Wednesday 16:

The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by the Cathay Pacific airline, marks the first skyjacking of a commercial plane.

Thursday 17:

A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Air Lines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.

Thursday 24:

Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.

Saturday 26:

The Western allies start an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union has blockaded West Berlin.

July 1948

Thursday 01:

Official opening of New York International Airport (now known as John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild.

Monday 05:

British National Health Service Act enacted.

Monday 19:

Games of the XIV Olympiad opened in London.

Tuesday 20:

In New York City, twelve leaders of the Communist Party USA are indicted under the Smith Act including William Z. Foster and Gus Hall.

Monday 26:

André Marie becomes Prime Minister of France

August 1948

Sunday 01:

The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.

Tuesday 03:

Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union.

Tuesday 10:

Candid Camera makes its television debut after being on radio for a year as Candid Microphone.

Sunday 15:

The Republic of Korea is established south of 38th Parallel

Monday 23:

World Council of Churches is formed.

September 1948

Saturday 04:

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.

Sunday 05:

Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France.

Thursday 09:

The Republic Day of Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Friday 17:

Lehi (also know as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the UN to mediate between the Arabs and Jews.

Friday 24:

The Honda Motor Company is founded.

October 1948

Tuesday 26:

Killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania.

Wednesday 27:

Léopold Sédar Senghor founds the Senegalese Democratic Bloc (BDS).

Thursday 28:

Swiss chemist Paul Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.

Friday 29:

Safsaf massacre

November 1948

Monday 01:

Off southern Manchuria, 6,000 are killed as a Chinese merchant ship explodes and sinks.

Tuesday 02:

U.S. presidential election, 1948: Harry S. Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey for the US presidency.

Thursday 04:

T.S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Friday 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.

Monday 15:

Louis Stephen St. Laurent succeeds William Lyon Mackenzie King as Prime Minister of Canada. King had the longest combined time (3 terms, 22 years in total) as Premier in Commonwealth of Nations history.

December 1948

Friday 10:

The UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Sunday 12:

Batang Kali Massacre, Malaysia

Sunday 26:

Cardinal Mindszenty arrested in Hungary

Thursday 30:

The play Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances.