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 11:

John Costello succeeds Éamon de Valera as Taoiseach of Ireland.

Sunday 22:

Start of the Czechoslovak Revolution.

Tuesday 24:

Cold War: The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia.

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.

Friday 09:

1948 - Massacre at Deir Yassin.

Friday 23:

1948 Arab-Israeli War: Haifa, the major port of Israel, is captured from Palestinian forces.

Friday 30:

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

May 1948

Friday 07:

The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress.

Friday 14:

The murder of a three-year-old girl in Blackburn, northern England, leads to the fingerprinting of more than 40,000 men in the city in an attempt to find the murderer.

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.

Wednesday 26:

The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557 which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force.

June 1948

Monday 07:

Edvard Beneš resigns as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing a Constitution making his nation a Communist state.

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.

Tuesday 13:

The Coptic and Ethiopian Churches reach an agreement leading to the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalous Patriarchate. Five bishops are immediately consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria, who are empowered to elect a new Patriarch for their church, and the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV is granted the power to consecrate new bishops.

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.

Saturday 31:

At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.

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

Sunday 05:

Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France.

Monday 06:

Juliana becomes Queen of the Netherlands.

Thursday 09:

The Republic Day of Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Saturday 11:

Henri Queuille becomes Prime Minister of France.

Wednesday 15:

The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 1080 km/h.

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

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.

Monday 29:

The children's television program Kukla, Fran and Ollie debuts.

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.