Timeline 1946
Return to home
1946 Jan 1,
Kathleen Casey became the first official US baby boomer following
her birth just after midnight. On Oct 15, 2007, Kathleen
Casey-Kirschling became the first baby boomer to make an early
filing for Social Security benefits.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A8)
1946 Jan 1, In Japan Emperor
Hirohito rejected the notion that the emperor is a living god and
the notion that the Japanese are superior to other races and
destined to govern the world.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.36)(MC, 1/1/02)
1946 Jan 3, John Paul Jones
(Baldwin) musician, was born: bass: film score: Scream for Help;
group: Led Zeppelin: Whole Lotta Love, Moby Dick, Ramble On,
Immigrant Song, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Black Dog, Rock &
Roll, The Battle of Evermore, Stairway to Heaven.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1946 Jan 3, Don May basketball
player, was born: Univ. of Dayton, Indiana Pacers.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)
1946 Jan 3, President Truman
called on Americans to spur Congress to act on the on-going labor
crisis.
(HN, 1/3/99)
1946 Jan 3, William Joyce,
(Lord Haw Haw), was hanged in Britain for treason. He had broadcast
for the Nazis to British and American fighting troops. In 2005 Nigel
Farndale authored “Haw-Haw: The Tragedy of William and Margaret
Joyce.”
(www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/William-Joyce)(Econ, 7/30/05,
p.77)
1946 Jan 5, Diane Keaton,
actress (Annie Hall, Little Drummer Girl), was born in LA.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1946 Jan 6, Ho Chi Minh won
North Vietnamese elections.
(HN, 1/6/99)
1946 Jan 8, President Truman
vowed to stand by the Yalta accord on self-determination for the
Balkans.
(HN, 1/8/99)
1946 Jan 8-9, The Baltic Camp
University was founded in Germany by 40 Estonian, Latvian and
Lithuanian scientists in Hamburg and Pinneberg. It operated for 3
½ years, with classes over 9 semesters.
(DrEE, 9/21/96, p.3)
1946 Jan 10, The first manmade
contact with the moon was made as the US Army bounced radar signals
off the lunar surface from Belmar, NJ.
(www.infoage.org/nyt-01-25-1946p1.html)(AP,
1/10/06)
1946 Jan 10, The first General
Assembly of the United Nations convened in London.
(AP, 1/10/98)
1946 Jan 10, Chiang Kai-shek
and the Yenan Communist forces halted fighting in China.
(HN, 1/10/99)
1946 Jan 11, Naomi (Diane)
Judd, Grammy Award-winning singer: duo: The Judds, was born: Why Not
Me, Have Mercy, LP: Heartland; mother of singers, Wynonna,
Ashley-actress.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1946 Jan 17, The United Nations
Security Council held its first meeting.
(AP, 1/17/98)
1946 Jan 18, Katia Ricclarelli,
opera soprano (Met Opera), (Falstaff, Othello, Turandot), was born.
(MC, 1/18/02)
1946 Jan 19, Dolly Rebecca
Parton, country singer (Dolly, 9 to 5), was born in Sevierville,
Ten.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1946 Jan 19, The first
complaint heard by the United Nations Security Council was made by
Iran and directed against the Soviet Union. Iran alleged Soviet
interference in its internal affairs and the refusal to remove
Soviet troops from Iranian territory. The very first session of the
UN had begun just days earlier, on January 10, 1946, in
London. The issue was resolved without UN intervention.
(HNQ, 6/2/00)
1946 Jan 20, France's Charles
DeGaulle handed in his resignation.
(HN, 1/20/99)
1946 Jan 22, President Truman
set up the Central Intelligence Group. In late 1945 he had
coordinated various intelligence reform plans considered in the
drafting of the directive that created the CIG. In 1947 it was
re-named the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
(http://tinyurl.com/l3go2n)
1946 Jan 24, The UN established
the International Atomic Energy Commission.
(HN, 1/24/99)
1946 Jan 25, The United Mine
Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
(AP, 1/25/98)
1946 Jan 26, Gene Siskel
(d.1999) was born in Chicago. He later achieved recognition as
movie critic with his counterpart Roger Ebert. Siskel and Ebert were
first paired together in 1975 for a local PBS show called "Opening
Soon at a Theater Near You."
(SFEC, 2/20/99, p.D8)
1946 Jan 28, Helene Schjerfbeck
(b.1862), Finnish painter, died. Her work included a 5 painting
series of self-portraits that represented herself at various ages.
(Econ, 11/24/07,
p.91)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Schjerfbeck)
1946 Jan 30, The 1st issue of
Franklin Roosevelt dime.
(MC, 1/30/02)
1946 Jan 31, The UN Security
Council voted to allow Iran and the Soviet Union to settle their
dispute by direct negotiation.
(G&M, 1/31/96, p.A-2)
1946 Feb 1, A press conference
for what is considered the first computer, the Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC), was held at the University of
Pennsylvania. The machine took up an entire room, weighed 30 tons
and used more than 18,000 vacuum tubes to perform functions such as
counting to 5,000 in one second. ENIAC, costing $450,000, was
designed by the U.S. Army during World War II to make artillery
calculations. The development of ENIAC paved the way for modern
computer technology--but even today's average calculator possesses
more computing power than ENIAC did. John Mauchley and John "Pres"
Eckert supervised the project. In 1999 Scott McCartney published
"ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer."
(HN, 2/2/99)(WSJ, 6/30/99, p.A24)(SFEC, 8/29/99,
BR p.5)
1946 Feb 1, Norwegian statesman
Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of the
United Nations.
(AP, 2/1/97)
1946 Feb 1, Yugoslavia and
Hungary declared themselves republics.
(G&M, 2/1/96, p.A-2)
1946 Feb 2, Norwegian Foreign
Minister Trygve Lie was confirmed in the post of UN
Secretary-General.
(G&M, 2/2/96, p.A-2)
1946 Feb 4, Garson Kanin's
"Born Yesterday," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/4/02)
1946 Feb 8, Premier Salazar of
Portugal forbade opposition parties.
(MC, 2/8/02)
1946 Feb 9, Stalin announced
the new five-year plan for the USSR, calling for production boosts
of 50 percent.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1946 Feb 13, Rainer Werner
Fassbinder, German director, actor, was born.
(MC, 2/13/02)
1946 Feb 15, The ENIAC,
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, had its official
unveiling. It was created by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert. The
first test problem it solved was concerned with the trajectory of a
155-millimeter shell. The problem was programmed by Jean Bartik and
Betty Holberton who were part of an all-woman team that had
performed the calculations by hand. The US Army had chosen 6 women,
including Frances Holberton (d.2001 at 84), to program Eniac. Ms.
Holberton later created the C-10 instruction code for the Univac
using keyboard commands rather than dials and switches.
(WSJ, 11/15/96,
p.B1)(www.thocp.net/hardware/eniac.htm)(SFC, 12/12/01, p.A27)
1946 Feb 15, Royal Canadian
mounted police arrested 22 as Soviet spies.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1946 Feb 16, The 1st
commercially designed helicopter was tested at Bridgeport, Ct.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1946 Feb 20, The US Employment
Act of 1946 was signed into law. It laid the responsibility of
economic stability of inflation and unemployment onto the federal
government.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Act_of_1946)
1946 Feb 21, Alan Rickman,
actor (Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Rasputin, Die Hard), was born.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1946 Feb 21, Anti-British
demonstrations took place in Egypt.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1946 Feb 22, George Kennan
(1904-2005) sent his “Long Telegram,” actually 5 separate cables,
from Moscow to the US State Dept. in Washington explaining that the
Soviet regime was among other things fundamentally insecure, opposed
to the US, and held designs on the world for violent
destabilization. This led to America’s redesign of its foreign
policy to contain Soviet hostility firmly over the long term.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.85)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.97)
1946 Feb 23, Anti-British
demonstration in India drew a crowd of 300,000.
(HN, 2/23/98)
1946 Feb 23, Japanese General
Tomoyuki Yamashita was hanged in Manila, the Philippines, after
being found guilty by a US military commission of war crimes.
(AH, 2/06, p.15)
1946 Feb 24, Argentinians went
to the polls to elect Juan D. Peron (50) their president. He held
the office until 1955.
(PCh, 1992, p.899)(AP, 2/24/08)
1946 Feb 26, A race riot in
Columbia, TN, killed 2 people and 10 wounded.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1946 Feb 28, The U.S. Army
declared that it would use the V-2 rocket to test radar as an atomic
rocket defense system.
(HN, 2/28/98)
1946 Mar 1, British Government
took control of Bank of England, after 252 years.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1946 Mar 1, In the Netherlands
Felix Gulje, head of a construction company, was murdered at his
door front. Rumors had circled that Gulje worked with
occupation authorities during the war. After his death it emerged
that Gulje had sheltered Jews and given money to hide others. In
2011 Atie Ridder-Visser (96), former resistance member, confessed to
the killing.
(SFC, 6/9/11, p.A3)
1946 Mar 1, Panama accepted its
new constitution.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1946 Mar 2, Kingman Douglass
became deputy director of CIA.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1946 Mar 2, Dutch troops landed
on East Bali.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1946 Mar 2, Ho Chi Minh was
elected president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1946 Mar 5, Winston Churchill
appeared as Pres. Truman’s guest at Westminster College in Fulton,
Mo. and delivered his "Sinews Of Peace" speech later known as the
"Iron Curtain Speech:" "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron Curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind
that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and
Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Sofia,
all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in ...
the Soviet sphere."
(SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T5)(AP, 3/5/98)
1946 Mar 6, France recognized
Vietnam statehood within the Indo-Chinese federation.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1946 Mar 8, The 1st helicopter
licensed for commercial use was in NYC.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1946 Mar 8, Frederick William
Lanchester (b.1868) died in England. He was a major contributor to
the theory and practice of automobile engineering and aeronautical
engineering. He also published works in radio, acoustics,
relativity, music and poetry.
(http://www.lanchester.com/Lanc1.html)
1946 Mar 12, Patricia Hampl,
poet and memoirist (A Romantic Education, Virgin Time), was born.
(HN, 3/12/01)
1946 Mar 12, Liza Minnelli,
actress and singer, was born. She was the daughter of actress Judy
Garland and director Vincente Minnelli.
(SFEC, 1/26/97 Par, p.22)
1946 Mar 15, British premier
Attlee agreed with India's right to independence.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1946 Mar 16, Erik Estrada,
actor (CHiPs, Cross & Switchblade, Lightblast), was born in NYC.
(MC, 3/16/02)
1946 Mar 21, The United
Nations set up temporary headquarters at Hunter College in New York
City.
(AP, 3/21/97)
1946 Mar 22, First U.S. built
rocket to leave the earth’s atmosphere reached a 50-mile height.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1946 Mar 22, The British
mandate in Transjordan came to an end. Britain signed a treaty
granting independence to Jordan.
(AP, 3/22/97)(HN, 3/22/97)
1946 Mar 23, W. Averell
Harriman was chosen as the U.S. Ambassador to Britain.
(HN, 3/23/98)
1946 Mar 23, Gilbert N. Lewis
(b.1875), UC Berkeley chemist, died in his lab while working on an
experiment with liquid hydrogen cyanide. In 1916 Lewis discovered
the covalent bond.
(SFC, 8/5/06,
p.B5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_N._Lewis)
1946 Mar 30, The Allies seized
1,000 Nazis who were attempting to revive the Nazi party in
Frankfurt.
(HN, 3/30/98)
1946
Apr 1, Weight Watchers was formed.
(OTD)
1946 Apr 1, A U.S. mine worker
strike idled 400,000 miners.
(HN, 4/1/98)
1946 Apr 1, Two large
earthquakes shook the Scotch Cap Lighthouse on Unimak Island,
Alaska. A resulting tsunami washed away the lighthouse. The Aleutian
Islands earthquake also triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami that killed
165 people and caused over $26 million in damages. Tidal waves
struck the Hawaiian islands, resulting in more than 170 deaths. 91
people were killed in Hilo.
(AP, 4/1/98)(Ind, 6/8/02, 5A)(SSFC, 8/25/02,
p.C14)(SFC, 4/1/09, p.D8)
1946 Apr 3, Lt. General
Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander responsible for the 65-mile
Bataan Death March, was executed outside Manila in the Philippines.
(AP, 4/3/97)
1946 Apr 5, Vincent Millie
Youmans (47), US composer (Tea For Two), died.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1946 Apr 8,
The League of Nations assembled in Geneva for its last session.
(AP, 4/8/08)
1946 Apr 12, Syria gained
independence from France.
(MC, 4/12/02)
1946 Apr 16, On opening day for
Baseball in Boston with the Braves vs. the Brooklyn Dodgers, the
newly painted seats had not yet dried when guests seated themselves.
The Braves management picked up the cleaning tab for all.
(SFEC, 4/6/97, Z1 p.5)
1946 Apr 16, 1st US launch of
captured V-2 rocket was at White Sands, NM. It reached 8 km.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1946 Apr 17, The last French
troops left Syria.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1946 Apr 18, Jackie Robinson
debuted as 2nd baseman for the Montreal Royals.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1946 Apr 18, US recognized
Tito's Yugoslavia govt.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1946 Apr 18, The League of
Nations was dissolved.
(AHD, 1971, p.744)(AP, 4/18/97)(HN, 4/18/98)
1946 Apr 19, Tim Curry, actor
(Rocky Horror Show), was born in Cheshire, England.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1946 Apr 20, 1st baseball game
telecast was in Chicago with the Cards vs. Cubs.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1946 Apr 21, John M. Keynes
(62), English economist, died. He had recently negotiated a
loan from the US to keep Britain afloat. One condition of the $5
billion loan was that Britain make sterling fully convertible into
dollars. In 2000 Robert Skidelsky authored “John Maynard Keynes:
Fighting for Britain: 1937-1946.” In 2009 Peter Clarke authored
“Keynes: The Twentieth Century’s Most Influential Economist.” Robert
Skidelsky authored “Keynes: The Return of the Master.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes)(WSJ, 6/20/08,
p.A11)(Econ, 10/3/09, p.103)(Econ, 10/31/09, p.84)(Econ, 9/25/10,
p.85)
1946 Apr 22, Harlan Fiske Stone
(1872-1946), Chief Justice on the US Supreme Court, died.
(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/73/)
1946 Apr 22, Dectuplets were
born in Bacacay, Brazil, 8 males and 2 females.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1946 Apr 24, The Chief of Naval
Operations, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, ordered the establishment of
the Blue Angels team. In 1985 funding for the program was $4.2
million, about half the cost of replacements for the two A-4 jets.
By 2005 21 pilots died during Angels shows. Navy officials said the
super-trained unit and its dazzling displays are valuable in
attracting young and talented recruits into the Navy and Air Force.
By 2009 on the average, one F/A-18 used approximately 8,000 pounds
or 1,300 gallons of JP-5 jet fuel at a cost of roughly $1,378. Fat
Albert, which transports the crew to shows, holds 46,000 pounds of
fuel.
(www.navy.com/about/navylife/onduty/blueangels/faq/)(http://tinyurl.com/ydn8pes)
1946 Apr 25, Talia Shire,
actress (Adrienne-Rocky, Godfather), was born in Lake Success, NY.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1946 Apr 25, A train crash at
Napierville, Illinois, killed 45-48. The "Exposition Flyer" was
rammed.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1946 Apr 26, Popular music of
the day included: "Oh, What It Seemed to Be" by the Frankie Carle
Orchestra with Marjorie Hughes; "Personality" by Johnny Mercer; "Day
by Day" by Frank Sinatra; and "Guitar Polka" by Al Dexter.
(440 Int’l. Internet, 4/26/97, p.1)
1946 Apr 27, 1st radar
installation aboard a commercial ship was installed.
(MC, 4/27/02)
1946 Apr 28, Allies indicted
Hideki Tojo, former premier and war minister of Japan, with 55
counts of war crimes. The International Military Tribunal for the
Far East meted out justice to Japanese war criminals at locations
throughout Asia.
(AP, 11/12/97)(HN, 4/28/98)
1946 Apr 28, Kazue Katz became
the 1st Japanese woman to marry an American following WW II. Her
marriage to Sgt. Frederick Katz in Tokyo required 29 endorsements.
(SFC, 12/9/05, p.F6)
1946 Apr 28, Domenico Leccisi
(d.2008 at 88) and 2 other Italians marked the first anniversary of
the death of Mussolini by digging up his body in a Milan cemetery.
They passed the body to 2 monks, who buried it in a nearby
monastery. The theft sparked a nationwide manhunt for the group. The
body was later returned for burial in Predappio, Mussolini’s
birthplace.
(SFC, 11/5/08, p.B15)
1946 Apr 29, In Japan 28 former
leaders were indicted in Tokyo as war criminals; seven ended up
being sentenced to death.
(HN, 4/29/98)(AP, 4/29/07)
1946 Apr, George Orwell
(1903-1950), English author and journalist, published his essay
“Politics and the English Language.”
(www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit)
1946 Apr, The British Labour
government authorized a mission to visit suitable sites in its
Tanganyika colony to cultivate groundnuts. The British Labour
government of Clement Attlee had come up with a plan to cultivate
tracts of what later became Tanzania with peanuts in a plan that
came to be called the Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme. It was abandoned
at considerable cost to the taxpayers when it did not become
profitable.
(AP,
6/1/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika_groundnut_scheme)
1946 Apr, In Japan the Tokyo
War Crimes Trial began. Gen’l. Matsui Iwane, one of the military
leaders of the 1937 "Rape of Nanking" was convicted and hung. [see
May 3, 1946]
(WSJ, 12/29/97, p.A9)
1946 May 2, Prisoners revolted
at California’s Alcatraz prison.
(HN, 5/2/98)
1946 May 2-1946 May 4, A
two-day riot [3-day siege] at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay
ended after five people were killed. Six inmates took 9 guards
hostage. Inmate Joe Cretzer shot the 9 hostages but killed only one.
He and 2 compeers were later shot and killed. 2 inmates were
executed for their part and one served out a life sentence.
(AP, 5/4/97)(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A12)(G, Winter, p.3)
1946 May 3, The International
Military Tribunal for the Far East convened in Tokyo for Japanese
War Crimes. 28 defendants were tried. Radhabinod Pal, the judge from
India, was the only judge with an international law background and
the only judge to find all the defendants innocent on all counts.
(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A15)(MC, 5/3/02)
1946 May 6, A Pulitzer prize
was awarded to Arthur M. Schlesinger ("Age of Jackson").
(MC, 5/6/02)
1946 May 9, King Victor
Emmanuel III of Italy abdicated and was replaced by his son, Umberto
II. He served until a June referendum abolished the monarchy.
(HN, 5/9/98)(SFC, 1/30/01, p.C2)
1946 May 10, Donovan, rocker
(Mellow Yellow), was born as Donovan Leitch in Scotland.
(http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0ifqxqe5ldhe~T1)
1946 May 10, Birute Galdikas,
later renowned as a primatologist, was born in Wiesbaden, Germany to
Lithuanian parents.
(SFC, 1/6/98,
p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birut%C4%97_Galdikas)
1946 May 11, Robert Jarvik,
physician: inventor of the Jarvik artificial heart, was born in
Michigan.
(MC, 5/11/02)
1946 May 11, The first packages
from the relief agency CARE (Cooperative for American Remittances to
Europe) arrived in Europe, at Le Havre, France.
(AP, 5/11/97)
1946 May 12, Daniel Libeskind,
architect, was born in Poland. His family emigrated to Israel and
then to the US where he grew up.
(SFC, 5/5/05, p.E6)
1946 May 13, US condemned 58
camp guards of Mauthausen concentration camp to death.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1946 May 16, The Irving Berlin
musical "Annie Get Your Gun" opened on Broadway starring Ethel
Merman as Annie Oakley. The play closed in 1949 after 1,147
performances.
(AP, 5/16/97)(SFC, 4/24/99, p.A10)
1946 May 17, President Truman
seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying — but not
preventing — a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen.
(AP, 5/17/08)
1946 May 25, Janet E[llen]
Morris, US sci-fi author (Golden Sword, Tempus), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1946 May 25, Patty Smith Hill
(78), songwriter (Happy Birthday To You), died.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1946 May 25, Marcel Petiot
(b.1897), a French doctor, was beheaded for offering Jews an escape
to Argentina, then killing them and getting rid of their bodies,
many by incineration. The remains of 26 people were found in his
home, but he was suspected of killing more than 60 people. In 1980
Thomas Maeder authored “The Unspeakable Crimes of Dr. Petiot.” In
2011 David King chronicled the hunt for Petiot in "Death in the City
of Light."
(WSJ, 6/9/07,
p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Petiot)(Reuters, 11/10/11)
1946 May 25, Transjordan (now
Jordan) gained independence from Britain and became a kingdom as it
proclaimed its new monarch, King Abdullah Ibn Ul-Hussein.
(AP, 5/25/97)(HN, 5/25/98)
1946 May 26, A patent was filed
in U.S. for H-bomb.
(HN, 5/26/98)
1946 May 28, Madeleine Le Roux,
Broadway actress (Cry Uncle), was born in Wyoming.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1946 May 28, The US Army Air
Force initiated the Nuclear Energy for the Propulsion of Aircraft
program (NEPA). Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corp. was selected to
study the possibility of developing a long range strategic bomber
powered by a nuclear reactor.
(AH, 2/03,
p.52)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion)
1946 May 29, Robin Johnson,
actress (Times Square), was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1946 May 29, KVP won the
Provincial National elections in Netherlands.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1946 Jun 2, The Italian
monarchy was abolished by referendum in favor of a republic.
(AP, 6/2/97)(HN, 6/2/98)
1946 Jun 3, A Supreme Court
decision struck down Virginia’s segregation statute on interstate
buses. The case stemmed from the 1944 incident where Irene Morgan
was jailed for refusing to give up her bus seat.
(SFC, 8/4/00, p.D2)
1946 Jun 3, Intl. Military
Tribunal opened in Tokyo against 28 accused Japanese war criminals.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1946 Jun 3, US Supreme court
ruled that race separation on buses is unconstitutional.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1946 Jun 4, Juan Peron was
installed as Argentina’s president.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1946 Jun 4, A giant eruption
occurred on the surface of the sun and was photographed by the
coronograph of the High Altitude Observatory of the Univ. of
Colorado.
(SCTS, p.84)
1946 Jun 7, Bill Kreutzman,
drummer (Grateful Dead-Uncle John's Band), was born.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1946 Jun 9, In Thailand King
Ananda was assassinated. Bhumibol Adulyadej (b.1927) ascended the
throne as a teenage King after his older brother’s death.
(SFC, 6/10/96, C3)(AP, 6/12/06)
1946 Jun 10, Jack Johnson, 1st
black heavyweight champion (1908-1915), died in car accident. In
2004 Geoffrey C. Ward authored “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and
Fall of Jack Johnson.” In 2005 Ken Burns premiered the PBS
documentary: “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack
Johnson.”
(SSFC, 11/7/04, p.M1)(SFC, 1/17/05, p.D6)
1946 Jun 10, Italy replaced its
abolished monarchy with a republic.
(AP, 6/10/97)
1946 Jun 14, Donald Trump, New
York real estate mogul, was born in NYC.
(SSFC, 11/14/04, Par p.30)
1946 Jun 15, The US Navy Blue
Angels team made its 1st public performance at Craig Field in
Jacksonville, Fla. Adm. Nimitz had picked Capt. Roy Vorris
(1919-2005) to organize the group.
(SFC, 10/29/99, p.A3)
1946 Jun 17, Barry Manilow
Grammy Award-winning singer, was born as Barry Alan Pincus. His
songs included: I Write the Songs [1975], Mandy, Looks Like,
Copacabana.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1946 Jun 17, SW Bell
inaugurated mobile telephone commercial service in St Louis.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1946 Jun 19, "Anna & The
King Of Siam", Motion Picture, with Irene Dunne & Rex Harrison,
opened in theaters.
(DT, 6/19/97)
1946 Jun 19, The first title
match in boxing to be televised takes place in New York City, as Joe
Louis defeated Billy Conn for the heavyweight championship. Three
NBC TV stations carried the fight.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Conn)
1946 Jun 20, Andre Watts,
pianist, was born.
(HN, 6/20/01)
1946 Jun 21, Bill Veeck bought
the Cleveland Indians for $2.2 million.
(MC, 6/21/02)
1946 Jun 24, Mary McLeod
Bethune was named director of the Division of Minority Affairs for
the National Youth Administration by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt. The well-known educator thus became the first Black woman
ever to head a US government agency.
(www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/135bethune/135facts1.htm)
1946 Jun 24, Lt. Col. Ellison
S. Onizuka (astronaut: mission specialist aboard ill-fated Space
Shuttle Challenger), was born.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1946 Jun 24, Fred M. Vinson
(1890-1953) was sworn in as Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.
(www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/85/)
1946 Jun 25, Ho Chi Minh
traveled to France for talks on Vietnamese independence.
(HN, 6/25/98)
1946 Jun 28, Gilda Radner
(d.1989), actress (Emmy Award-winning comedienne, actress: Saturday
Night Live [1977-78]; Haunted Honeymoon [w/husband Gene Wilder]),
was born in Detroit, Mich. "I wanted a perfect ending. ... Now I’ve
learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories
don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not
knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of
it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious
ambiguity."
(AP, 5/20/98)(MC, 6/28/02)
1946 Jun-Sep 100,000 Jews left
Poland and traveled through Czechoslovakia to displaced persons
camps in Germany. Their story is told in some detail by Bernard
Wasserstein in his: Vanishing Diaspora: The Jews in Europe Since
1945.
(WSJ, 3/20/96, p.A-14)
1946 Jul 1, Deborah Harry
(singer: group: Blondie: The Tide is High, Rapture, Heart of Glass,
Sunday Girl), was born.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1946 Jul 1, Ron Silver, actor
(Reversal of Fortune, Entity, Silkwood, Best Friends), was born in
NYC.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1946 Jul 1, The United States
exploded a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Marshall
Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The energy released by any one of the
ten or so major earthquakes every year is about 1,000 times as much
as the Bikini atomic bomb.
(DD-EVTT, p.76)(WUD, 1994, p.147)(AP, 7/1/97)
1946 Jul 2, Ron Silver, actor
(Gary-Rhoda, Dear Detective, Baker's Dozen), was born in NYC.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1946 Jul 2, Anthony Overton
(81), publisher, cosmetics manufacturer, banker, died.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1946 Jul 4, Ron Kovic, disabled
Vietnam veteran, author (Born on 4th of July), was born.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1946 Jul 4, Michael Milken,
partner (Intl Capital Access Group), was born in LA, Calif.
(MC, 7/4/02)
1946 Jul 4, The Philippines
became independent of U.S. sovereignty. The Philippines, which
officially became a territory of the United States in 1902, gained
its independence. In 1932 a movement to implement Philippine
independence began to grow. The Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934,
providing for independence after 12 years, was unanimously accepted
and a Philippine constitution approved by President Roosevelt in
February 1935. Manuel Quezon was elected the first president of the
Philippines on September 17, 1935. In 1937 a Joint Preparatory
Commission on Philippine Affairs was established by Roosevelt to
recommend a program for economic adjustment. The Republic of the
Philippines was inaugurated.
(SFC, 3/31/97, p.A14)(AP, 7/4/97)(HNQ, 11/9/99)
1946 July 4, A postwar pogrom
in Kielce, Poland, left 42 people, mostly Jews, dead and 50 wounded.
Army and security officers took part in the attack that was sparked
by the false story of Walenty Blaszcyk that his son had been
kidnapped by Jews. The event is considered as Europe’s last pogrom.
In 2001 Jan Tomascz Gross authored “Neighbors,” the story of the
Kielce Jews, who were herded into a barn that was set alight.
(WSJ, 3/20/96, p.A-14)(SFC,10/17/97, p.D3)(Econ,
2/2/08, p.59)
1946 Jul 5, The bikini bathing
suit, created by former civil engineer Louis Reard, made its debut
during a fashion show at the Molitor Pool in Paris. Model Micheline
Bernardini wore the skimpy two-piece outfit. Its name correlated
with the July 1 American atom bomb test on Bikini Atoll.
Réard wanted his design to have a similar explosive affect.
According to New York Times columnist William Safire, the swimsuit
caused more debate, concern and condemnation than the atomic bomb.
(SFC, 7/5/96, p.D17)(TMC, 1994, p.1946)(AP,
7/5/97)(SFEC, 1/17/99, Z1 p.1)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(WSJ, 1/11/99,
p.R14)(HNQ, 4/6/02)
1946 Jul 6, George Walker Bush
Jr., Gov-R-TX, US Pres., was born.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1946 Jul 6, Sylvester Stallone
(actor: Rocky series, Rambo series, etc.), was born.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1946 Jul 6, Jamie Wyeth, artist
(An American Vision-Boston), was born in Pennsylvania.
(MC, 7/6/02)
1946 Jul 7, William Durkin
(1916-2006) rescued Howard Hughes (1905-1976) from the fiery
wreckage of an XF-11 reconnaissance plane that Hughes was testing
over Beverly Hills.
(SFC, 5/1/06, p.B8)
1946 Jul 7, Italian-born Mother
Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonized as the first American saint.
She was the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.
(AP, 7/7/97)(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A18)
1946 Jul 8, Aleksander V.
Aleksandrov (63), Russian composer, conductor, died.
(MC, 7/8/02)
1946 Jul 12, Benjamin Britten's
"Rape of Lucretia," premiered in Glyndebourne.
(MC, 7/12/02)
1946 Jul 13, Alfred Stieglitz
(82), US photographer, art dealer (Camera Work), died. He was an art
dealer, curator, publisher, proselytizer for modern art and for
photography as an art. He also married Georgia O’Keeffe and promoted
her art.
(NH, 10/96, p.36)(www.fact-index.com)(Econ,
10/30/04, p.85)
1946 Jul 13, The first Karlovy
Vary Int’l. Film Festival (Mezinárodní
Filmový Festival Karlovy Vary) was held in Czechoslovakia.
Its first two years were non-competitive showcases. The competition
was started in 1948 and with the exceptions of 1953 and 1955 the
festival was held annually until 1958. From 1960 on to 1992 it was
alternating with the Moscow Film Festival, being celebrated annually
again since 1994.
(www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Karlovy_Vary_International_Film_Festival/)
1946 Jul 14, Dr. Benjamin
Spock's "Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care" was published.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1946 Jul 14, Heart Mountain,
Wyoming, Japanese-American draft resisters were released from McNeil
Island.
(SFC, 10/26/01, p.A28)
1946 Jul 15, Linda Ronstadt
(singer: group: The Stone Poneys: Different Drum; solo: Blue Bayou,
You're No Good, When Will I Be Loved, It's So Easy, Ooh Baby Baby,
Hurt So Bad; actress: Pirates of Penzance), was born in Tucson,
Arizona.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ronstadt)
1946 Jul 16, US court martial
in Dachau condemned 46 SS to hang for the Malmedy massacre of
disarmed GIs.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1946 Jul 17, Chinese communists
opened a drive against the Nationalist army on the Yangtze River.
(HN, 7/17/98)
1946 Jul 17, Dragoljub "Draza"
Mihailovic (53), Yugoslav gen. (Nazi), was executed.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1946 Jul 22, Paul Schrader,
screenwriter and film director (Taxi Driver), was born.
(HN, 7/22/02)
1946 Jul 22, Jewish extremists,
that included Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, blew up a wing of
the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which housed British
administrative offices. 90-92 people were killed and included
Britons (28), Arabs and Jews. The admitted terrorists were members
of a Zionist organization called Lehi (Lohamei Herut Israel),
earlier known as the Stern Gang.
(SFC, 10/18/96, C8)(AP, 7/22/97)(SSFC, 10/28/01,
p.C5)
1946 Jul 25, The United States
detonated a 2nd atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific in the
first underwater test of the device. [see July 1]
(AP, 7/25/97)
1946 Jul 25, In Monroe,
Georgia, 2 black couples were killed by Ku Klux Klansmen. Pres.
Truman ordered an FBI investigation and 55 suspects were named in
the lynching of Roger and Dorothy Malcolm and George and Mae Murray
Dorsey, but no one was ever charged. Dorothy Malcolm was pregnant.
(SFC, 7/26/05, p.A5)
1946 Jul 26, President Truman
ordered the desegregation of all US forces.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1946 Jul 27, Gertrude Stein
(72), US-French author, poet (Ida, Tender Buttons), died in France.
Her work included the murder mystery "Blood on the Dining-Room
Floor" and “The Biography of Alice B. Toklas” (1933). She once said
of Oakland, Ca.: "There is no there there." Painter Francis Rose
carved the headstone on her grave at the Pere Lachaise cemetery. A
biography of Stein by Linda Wagner-Martin was published in 1996
titled "Favored Strangers." In 2007 Janet Malcolm authored “Two
Lives: Gertrude and Alice.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein)(SFC, 6/9/96, Z1
p.5)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 9/25/07, p.D6)
1946 Jul 28, Linda Kelsey,
actress (Kate-Day by Day), was born in Minneapolis, Minn.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1946 Jul 30, Jeffrey
Hammond-Hammond, rock bassist (Jethro Tull), was born.
(MC, 7/30/02)
1946 Jul, The US lent Britain
$3.75 billion. The money was expected to last 3-5 years but after
19.5 months Britain withdrew the last $100 mil.
(FT, 3/4/98, p.13)
1946 Jul, Albania signed a
treaty of friendship with Yugoslavia; Yugoslav advisors and grain
began pouring into Albania.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1946 Jul, Hungary’s
hyperinflation peaked at 42 quadrillion per cent a month.
(http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/inflation_history_Zimbabwe_USA_101620073)(Econ,
7/19/08, p.57)
1946 Aug 1, President Truman
signed the Fulbright Program into law, establishing the scholarships
named for Arkansas Sen. William J. Fulbright (d.1995).
(AP, 8/1/97)(MT, Spg. ‘99, p.2)
1946 Aug 1, President Truman
established the Atomic Energy Commission. Physicist John Simpson
(d.2000 at 83) helped develop the 1946 McMahon Act, which called for
civilian control of atomic energy.
(AP, 8/1/97)(SFC, 9/2/00,
p.A23)(http://tinyurl.com/66tsq)
1946 Aug 10, Francis V.
Keesling (1908-1997), Washington lobbyist for the city of San
Francisco, successfully got Congress to pass a bill that allowed
Chinese male citizens living in the US to bring over their wives.
(SFC, 4/3/97, p.C2)
1946 Aug 13, Britain
transferred illegal immigrants bound for Palestine to Cyprus.
(MC, 8/13/02)
1946 Aug 13, H.G. Wells
(b.1866), sci-fi author (Time Machine), died in London.
(AP, 8/13/00)
1946 Aug 16, A riot in Calcutta
left some 3-4,000 Moslems and Hindus dead.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1946 Aug 19, Bill Clinton, US
President from 1992-2000, was born as William J. Blythe III in Hope,
Arkansas. He was the son of Virginia Cassidy Blythe and William
Jefferson Blythe II. Clinton’s father was killed in a traffic
accident prior to his birth. His mother married Roger Clinton when
Bill was 4 years old.
(SFC, 7/14/96, Par p.23)(SFEC, 3/9/96, Z1
p.5)(WUD, 1994 p.1698)(HNQ, 1/1/02)
1946 Aug 20, Connie Chung
(Yu-Hwa) journalist: CBS Evening News, was born in Washington, DC.
(Internet)
1946 Aug 21, Lev Alburt, USSR
International Chess Master (1976), was born.
(SC, 8/21/02)
1946 Aug 29, J.E.
Feenstra, Nazi military police commandant, was executed.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1946 Sep 1, Barry Gibb, singer
(BeeGees-Stayin' Alive), was born.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1946 Sep 1, The SF 49ers under
coach Lawrence “Buck” Shaw, played their first home game at Kezar
Stadium before a crowd of 45,000. They beat the Chicago Rockets
34-14.
(SSFC, 1/22/12,
p.A2)(www.49ers.com/team/history/founder.html)
1946 Sep 2, Nehru formed a
government in India.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1946 Sep 6, Terence Rattigan's
"Winslow Boy," premiered in London.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1946 Sep 8, In San Francisco
four boys playing near the Paramount Theater found a package
containing body parts of Ramon Lopez (52), a flower dealer from San
Leandro. Police found 14 pairs of nylons at his room in the Mint
Hotel. His skull was found 18 years later at Hunters Point.
(SFC, 2/17/09, p.A11)
1946 Sep 8, Bulgaria ended its
monarchy. The monarchy was abolished in a referendum called by
communists installed by the Soviet Army. Georgi Dimitrov became the
1st premier of communist Bulgaria. In 2003 Ivo Banac edited "The
Diary of Georgi Dimitrov."
(SFC, 2/29/00, p.A19)(MC, 9/8/01)(WSJ, 6/6/03,
p.W9)
1946 Sep 11, The 1st mobile
long-distance car-to-car telephone conversation.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1946 Sep 15, Tommy Lee Jones,
actor (Executioner's Song, Bloody Monday, Fugitive), was born in San
Saba, Texas.
(www.britannica.com)
1946 Sep 15, Oliver Stone, film
director and screenwriter, was born. His work included "Platoon" and
"JFK."
(HN, 9/15/00)
1946 Sep 19, Winston Churchill
made a speech in Zurich where he said: If Europe were once united in
the sharing of its common inheritance there would be no limit to the
happiness, prosperity, and glory of which its 300 or 400 million
people would enjoy."
(WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A22)
1946 Sep 20, The first Cannes
Film Festival was held.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1946 Sep 20, President Harry S
Truman asked Sec. of Commerce Henry A. Wallace to resign, due to
Wallace’s comments about Russia on September 12.
(MC, 9/20/01)
1946 Sep 20, Churchill argued
for a "US of Europe." [see Sep 19]
(MC, 9/20/01)
1946 Sep 21, The Cleveland
Indians played their final game in League Park, ending a 55-year
stay.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1946 Sep 22, Evelyn Dick was
charged with butchering her husband.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1946 Sep 30, An international
military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders
guilty of war crimes. Ribbentrop and Goering were sentenced to
death. American psychiatrist Leon Goldensohn interviewed many of the
participants and in 2004 the interviews were published as “The
Nuremberg Interviews: An American Psychiatrist’s Conversations with
the Defendants and Witnesses.”
(AP, 9/30/99)(SSFC, 1/30/05, p.A13)
1946 Sep, Britain, France and
the United States set up the Tripartite Gold Commission to oversee
the return of some $4 billion in gold plundered by the Nazis from
European treasuries. The commission closed in 1998.
(SFC, 9/10/98, p.C2)
1946 Oct 1, Tim O’Brien,
novelist, was born. His work included "The Things They Carried" and
"In the Lake of the Woods."
(HN, 10/1/00)
1946 Oct 1, Twelve Nazi war
criminals were sentenced to be hanged at Nuremberg trials-- Karl
Donitz, Hermann Goring, Alfred Jodl, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick,
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachin von Ribbentrop, Fritz
Saukel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Julius Streicher, and Alfred
Rosenberg. Karl Donitz was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
(HN, 10/1/98)(http://uboat.net/men/doenitz.htm)
1946 Oct 4, Susan Sarandon,
American film actress, was born.
(HN, 10/4/00)
1946 Oct 6, Pres. Truman
questioned Great Britain Jews about Palestine.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1946 Oct 8, Dennis Kucinich, US
Congressmen for Ohio, was born in Cleveland. He stood as a
presidential candidate in 2004 and in 2008.
(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.D2)(WSJ, 1/25/08, p.A1)
1946 Oct 9, The Eugene O’Neill
drama "The Iceman Cometh" opened at the Martin Beck Theater in New
York.
(AP, 10/9/97)
1946 Oct 9, The 1st
manufactured electric blanket sold for $39.50.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1946 Oct 10, Ben Vereen, actor
and dancer (Pippin, Roots, Webster), was born in Miami, Fla.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1946 Oct 12, The cheapest sight
and sound receivers on display carried a $225 price tag. For this
Radio Corp. of America offered a table model set which showed a
picture about four by five inches.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1946 Oct 12, Joseph W.
Stilwell, US general in China, died.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1946 Oct 15, Nazi war criminal
Hermann Goering poisoned himself hours before he was to have been
executed.
(AP, 10/15/97)
1946 Oct 16, Ten Nazi war
criminals condemned during the Nuremberg trials were hanged. The
defendants included: Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring, who
was sentenced to death but committed suicide the morning of the
execution; former deputy Führer Rudolph Hess, sentenced to life
imprisonment; Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, hanged; head
of the armed forces high command Wilhelm Keitel, hanged; writer and
"philosopher" of National Socialism Alfred Rosenberg; U-boat Admiral
Karl Dönitz, 10-year imprisonment; Grand Admiral Erich Raeder,
life imprisonment; Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Shirach, 20-year
imprisonment; procurer of slave labor Fritz Sauckel, hanged; and
Alfred Jodl, chief of staff of the German high command, hanged. The
hanging was badly botched as most Nazis slowly strangle to death.
(AP, 10/16/97)(HN, 10/16/98)(HNPD, 10/20/99)(MC,
10/16/01)
Also hanged were: Hans Frank, Governor-General of
occupied Poland; Wilhelm Frick, Hitler's Minister of the Interior;
Julius Streicher, rabid anti-Semite editor of Der Sturmer; Alfred
Rosenberg, Nazi philosopher and war criminal; Arthur Seyss-Inquart
(54), Nazi leader of occupied Holland; Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian
Nazi and SS leader.
(MC, 10/16/01)
1946 Oct 18, Aaron Copland's
3rd Symphony, premiered.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1946 Oct 20, Anne Murray,
country singer (Snowbird), was born in Springhill, Nova Scotia.
(MC, 10/20/01)
1946 Oct 22, Two British ships
sank near Albania. British destroyers hit mines off Albania's coast.
The United Nations and the International Court of Justice condemned
Albania.
(www, Albania, 1998)(MC, 10/22/01)
1946 Oct 23, The United Nations
General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, at an
auditorium in Flushing Meadow.
(AP, 10/23/97)
1946 Oct 23, A Vatican document
advised French church authorities on how to handle information
requests from Jewish officials, asking them not to put anything in
writing: “Children who have been baptized must not be entrusted to
institutions that cannot ensure their Christian education.” The
document surfaced in 2004.
(SFC, 1/1/05, p.A12)
1946 Oct 25, Karl Popper spoke
at Cambridge before the weekly meeting of the Moral Science Club on
the subject: "Are There Philosophical Problems?" Ludwig Wittgenstein
took issue with the presentation and a heated exchange followed. In
2001 David Edmonds and John Eidinow authored "Wittgenstein’s Poker:
The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers."
(SSFC, 12/30/01, p.M3)
1946 Oct 27, Peter Martins,
Danish dancer and choreographer, was born.
(HN, 10/27/00)
1946 Oct 28, German rocket
engineers began work in the USSR.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1946 Nov 1, Father Wojtyla, who
became Pope John Paul II on Oct 16,1978, was ordained in Krakow,
Poland.
(WUD, 1994, p.1691)
1946 Nov 2, Giuseppe Sinopoli,
conductor, was born in Venice, Italy.
(MC, 11/2/01)
1946 Nov 3, Emperor Hirohito
proclaimed a new Japanese constitution. It became effective on May
3, 1947.
(http://history.hanover.edu/texts/1947con.html)
1946 Nov 4, Robert
Mapplethorpe, US photographer, was born.
(MC, 11/4/01)
1946 Nov 4, The United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was
established. Julian Huxley, biologist, was the first
secretary-general.
(HN, 11/4/98)(SFC, 10/8/99, p.A12)
1946 Nov 5, US Republicans took
control of the Senate and the House in midterm elections.
(AP, 11/5/97)
1946 Nov 5, John F. Kennedy
(D-Mass) was elected to House of Representatives.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1946 Nov 6, Sister Maria
Innocentia Hummel (b.1909 as Berta Hummel), German nun and artist,
died. She became famous for her artwork which was used to create the
Hummel figurines beginning in 1935.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Innocentia_Hummel)
1946 Nov 7, Willis Linn Jepson
(b.1867), “Profound Scholar, Inspiring Teacher, Indefatigable
Botanical Explorer,” died in Berkeley, Ca. “In the ordered beauty of
nature he found enduring communion.”
(http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/history/biog/jepson/jepson_the_botany_man.html)
1946 Nov 9, Pres. Truman ended
a wage and price freeze.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1946 Nov 10, Baldassare
Forestiere, creator of the Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno,
Ca., died in Fresno.
(WSJ, 8/28/08,
p.D11)(www.forestiere-historicalcenter.com/Forestierebio.html)
1946 Nov 12, Walt Disney's
"Song Of South" released.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1946 Nov 12, 1st "autobank"
(banking by car) opened (Chicago).
(MC, 11/12/01)
1946 Nov 13, The 1st artificial
snow was produced from a natural cloud at Mt. Greylock, Mass.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1946 Nov 14, Manuel de Falla
(69), Spanish composer (Vita Breve, Atl ntida), died.
(MC, 11/14/01)
1946 Nov 15, Joseph McCarthy's
HUAC interrogated astronomer Harlow Shapley.
(MC, 11/15/01)
1946 Nov 15, The 17th Paris Air
Show opened at the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysees. It is the first
show of this kind since 1938.
(HN, 11/15/98)
1946 Nov 20, Lillian Hellman's
"Another Part of the Forest," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/20/01)
1946 Nov 23, French Navy fire
in Haiphong, Vietnam, killed 6,000.
(MC, 11/23/01)
1946 Nov 24, Ted Bundy
(d.1989), serial murderer, was born Burlington, Vt.
(MC, 11/24/01)
1946 Nov 25, Supreme Court
granted Oregon Indians land payment rights from the U.S. government.
(HN, 11/25/98)
1946 Dec 2, Gianni Versace,
fashion designer (Versace), was born.
(MC, 12/2/01)
1946 Dec 2, The U.S. and
Britain merged the German occupation zones.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1946 Dec 2, The Protocol to the
International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) was
signed was signed in Washington, DC. The International Whaling
Commission (IWC), formed in 1948, prohibited the hunting of gray
whales worldwide when their numbers were down to the thousands.
Scientific studies and the commercial reality of fewer whales led to
the implementation of bans on hunting many whale species such as the
humpback whale in 1963 followed in 1965 by a hunting ban on the blue
whale (the largest creature known to have ever existed). The IWC
adopted a moratorium on whaling in 1982. Although the IWC attempted
to ban all commercial whaling in 1986, some countries refused to
agree.
(SFEM, 5/7/00,
p.9)(www.iwcoffice.org/commission/convention.htm)(Econ, 5/26/07,
p.65)
1946 Dec 3, The Oakland, Ca.,
General Strike shut down the city for 2 days when 2 large department
stores resisted a unionized workforce.
(SFEC, 11/17/96, Par p.6)
1946 Dec 5, Jose Carreras,
opera tenor (I Lombardi, Werther, Three Tenors), was born in
Barcelona, Spain.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1946 Dec 5, President Truman
created the Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808.
(MC, 12/5/01)
1946 Dec 7, The president of
the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, ordered all striking miners
back to work.
(HN, 12/7/98)
1946 Dec 7, A fire broke out at
the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, killing 119 people,
including hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff.
(AP, 12/7/04)
1946 Dec 10, Damon Runyon (66),
New York-based syndicated newspaper columnist and author (Guys &
Dolls), died.
(SFC, 10/24/96, p.A2)(MC, 12/10/01)
1946 Dec 11, The United Nations
International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was
established. The organization received a Nobel Prize in 1965.
(AP, 12/11/97)(MC, 12/11/01)
1946 Dec 11, Spain was
suspended from the UN.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1946 Dec 12, Tide laundry
detergent was introduced.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1946 Dec 12, A United Nations
committee voted to accept a six-block tract of Manhattan real estate
offered as a gift by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to be the site of U.N.
headquarters.
(AP, 12/12/97)
1946 Dec 14, Patty Duke,
American actress, was born. She started her career at seven and won
an Oscar for her portrayal of Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker."
He went on to star in television's "The Patty Duke Show."
(HN, 12/14/99)
1946 Dec 14, The United Nations
General Assembly voted to establish the U.N. headquarters in New
York City. The UN adopted a disarmament resolution prohibiting the
A-bomb.
(AP, 12/14/97)(HN, 12/14/98)
1946 Dec 18, Stephen Biko,
South African anti-apartheid activist, was born.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1946 Dec 19, Noel Coward's
musical "Pacific 1860," premiered in London.
(MC, 12/19/01)
1946 Dec 19, War broke out in
Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks
against the French.
(AP, 12/19/06)
1946 Dec 20, The Frank Capra
film "It’s A Wonderful Life," starring James Stewart and Donna Reed,
had a preview showing for charity at New York City’s Globe Theatre,
a day before its "official" world premiere.
(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.54)(SFC, 12/13/96, p.C9)(AP,
12/20/97)
1946 Dec 20, Uri Geller,
psychic and fork bender, was born in Israel.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1946 Dec 20, Viet Minh and
French forces fought fiercely in the Annamite section of Hanoi in
Vietnam .
(HN, 12/20/98)
1946 Dec 21, Frank Capra's
"It's a Wonderful Life," premiered.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1946 Dec 21, An earthquake and
tidal wave killed 1,086 in Japan.
(HN, 12/21/98)(MC, 12/21/01)
1946 Dec 23, Highest ridership
in NYC subway history took place with 8.8 million passengers.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1946 Dec 24, The 4th French
republic was established.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1946 Dec 24, US General
MacNarney gave 800,000 "minor Nazis" amnesty.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1946 Dec 25, Jimmy Buffett,
singer and writer, was born in Pascagoula, Miss. He recorded
"Margaritaville" in 1977.
(SSFC, 4/28/02, Par p.22)
1946 Dec 25, Comedian W.C.
Fields (b.1879) died in Pasadena, Calif., at age 66/67. In 2003
James Curtis authored "W.C. Fields: A Biography."
(SFEC, 11/3/96, DB p.56)(AP, 12/25/97)(MC,
12/25/01)(SSFC, 3/16/03, p.M3)
1946 Dec 25, Chiang offered a
new Chinese constitution in Nanking pledging universal suffrage.
(HN, 12/25/98)
1946 Dec 26, The Flamingo
Casino opened. Billy Wilkerson designed the Flamingo and sold a
controlling interest to Bugsy Siegel when his money ran out. It was
the 3rd hotel casino built on the Las Vegas strip.
(SFEC, 5/10/98, DB p.64)(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.T8)
1946 Dec 28, The French
declared martial law in Vietnam.
(HN, 12/28/98)
1946 Dec 31, President Truman
officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.
(HN, 12/31/98)(AP, 12/31/97)
1946 Dezso Aczel, a Hungarian
survivor of the Holocaust, was taken into the household of Bernhardt
and Charlotte Kluger in Weiden, Germany. Aczel was dying of TB but
managed to paint a canvas (5’ x 7’) with Hitler as a classical angel
of death hovering over a horde of agonized bodies painted in a
German Expressionistic style. It was untitled but signed Aczel,
1946. The painting was sold to a Miami collector of Judaica named
Reuven Prager. It’s history was researched by Bara Zetter-Sapir.
Later research found that the painting was actually painted by
Hungarian painter Ferenc Kecskes. Aczel provided the imagery and
compositional ideas while Kecskes executed the painting. The
painting was sold to 2 Jewish men from Munich, who probably
embellished their acquisition account. Aczel emigrated to Canada in
1949 and was later found and interviewed by Zetter-Sapir for the
whole story.
(MT,3/95, p.15)(MT, 6/96, p.9)
1946 Dubuffet painted his "Men
and Trees Sleepwalking," a nocturnal scene of a house surrounded by
trees. In 1996 it sold for $1.2 mil.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.E3)
1946 Georgia O’Keeffe painted
"In the Patio No. 1."
(SFC, 2/19/00, p.B1)
1946 New York School painter
Mark Rothko painted his oil on canvas "The Source." He received his
first one-man show at the SF Museum of Art this year.
(SFC,1/21/97, p.B1)(SFC,11/21/97, p.C1)
1946 Geoffrey Barraclough
authored “The Origins of Modern Germany.”
(WSJ, 6/23/07, p.P10)
1946 Lucius Beebe authored "The
Stork Club Bar Book." The NY Stork Club was owned by Sherman
Billingsley. In 2000 Ralph Blumenthal authored "Stork Club:
America’s Most Famous Nightspot and the Lost World of Café
Society."
(SFEM, 4/16/00, p.47)
1946 Alistair Cooke began
writing his "Letter from America." It was initially supposed to be a
13-week BBC radio series which described American life to Britons.
(SFEC, 11/29/98, Z1 p.7)
1946 Buck Dawson wrote "Saga of
the All-American," a history of the US Army 82nd Airborne Division.
(MT, Fall ‘96, p.9)
1946 Eduardo De Filippo wrote
his play "Filumena."
(WSJ, 11/12/97, p.A20)
1946 Cheikh Anta Diop, a
Senegalese humanist and scientist, began his research into African
history. He later published "The African Origin of Civilization:
Myth or Reality," "Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic
Anthropology," and "The Cultural Unity of Negro Africa."
(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p. 34)
1946 Peter Drucker (1909-2005)
published his seminal study of General Motors: “The Concept of the
Corporation.” In it he introduced the idea of decentralization as a
principle of organization, in contrast to the practice of command
and control in business.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_of_the_Corporation)(Econ,
11/19/05, p.72)
1946 Geraldine Townsend Fitch
and Theodore H. White authored “Blunder Out of China.”
(http://blog.librarylaw.com/librarylaw/court_cases/)
1946 William Gresham authored
the best-seller “Nightmare Alley.” It was made into a 1947 film
starring Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell.
(SSFC, 1/1/06, p.M6)
1946 Margaret Halsey
(1911-1997) published "Color Blind: A White Woman Looks at the
Negro." She wrote that at the heart of racism was the need for a
cheap labor supply and a fear of blacks’ sexuality.
(SFC, 2/8/97, p.A24)
1946 Halldor Laxness
(1902-1998) of Iceland published "Independent People." It helped him
win the Nobel Prize in literature in 1955.
(SFC, 2/11/98,
p.A24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halld%C3%B3r_Laxness)
1946 Denise Levertov (d.1997 at
74) published her first volume of verse: "The Double Image."
(SFC,12/23/97, p.D4)
1946 Curzio Malaparte, an
Italian fascist intellectual, authored “Kaputt,” an autobiographical
novel that described the cruelty of Nazi fanaticism.
(WSJ, 1/19/08, p.W8)
1946 Carey McWilliams authored
“Southern California: An Island on the Land.” It contained a chapter
about the Los Angeles water scandal from the turn of the century,
which in 1971 helped inspire Robert Town to write the screenplay for
“Chinatown” (1974).
(SFC, 9/25/09, p.E2)
1946 George Mikes (1912-1987),
a Hungarian living in England, published “How to Be An Alien.” It
was about a foreigner’s view of England.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.110)
1946 John Rewald published his
"History of Impressionism."
(WSJ, 2/10/96, p.A16)
1946 William Carlos Williams
authored his epic poem "Paterson."
(ON, 4/02, p.6)
1946 The Japanese internment
camps (b.2/19/1942), established under the 1942 US Executive Order
9066, closed. Financial losses to those held were later estimated at
$500 million in 2001 dollars. Mine Okubo authored "Citizen 13660,"
an illustrated account of her experiences at Japanese internment
camps in California and Utah. In 2001 Greg Robinson authored "By
Order of the President."
(SFC, 2/26/01, p.A24)(WSJ, 10/8/01, p.A25)
1946 Dr. Benjamin Spock
(1903-1998) published his "Common Sense Book of Baby and Child
Care."
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.A5)
1946 Mickey Spillane
(1918-2006), comic book writer, authored his first Mike Hammer
detective novel, “I, the Jury.”
(SFC, 7/18/06, p.B5)
1946 Robert Penn Warren
(1905-1989) published his Pulitzer Prize winning novel "All the
King’s Men." It was based on the life of Huey Long of Louisiana. In
1949 it was turned into a movie. In 1997 Joseph Blotner wrote
Warren’s biography.
(WSJ, 8/26/06, p.P8)(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.P12)
1946 Theodore H. White and
Annalee Whitmore (d.2002 at 85), war correspondents, authored
"Thunder Out of China," an examination of China’s role in WW II.
(SFC, 2/11/02, p.B5)
1946 The term intentional
fallacy, an important principle of New Criticism, was first used by
W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley in their essay "The Intentional
Fallacy," in which they said: "the design or intention of the author
is neither available nor desirable as a standard for judging the
success of a work of literary art." The phrase "intentional fallacy"
is somewhat ambiguous, but it means "a fallacy about intent" and not
"a fallacy committed on purpose."
(WSJ, 8/2/08, p.W9)
1946 The musical "Gypsy Lady"
was written by George Forrest and Robert Wright.
(SFC, 10/13/99, p.C2)
1946 The musical "St. Louis
Woman" was based on a novel by Arna Bontemps. The music was by
Harold Arlen and the lyrics by Johnny Mercer and featured the
Nicholas Brothers tap dancing duo in lead roles.
(WSJ, 5/6/98, p.A20)(SSFC, 1/29/06, p.B7)
1946 George Balanchine left the
Ballet Russe after 2 years and founded the New York City Ballet. He
married Maria Tallchief (21) whom he developed into the nation’s
grand ballerina in such performances as: "Four Temperments" (music
by Hindemith), "Orpheus," "Firebird," "Swanlake," "Nutcracker,"
"Scotch Symphony," and "Sylvia Pas de Deux." In 1997 Maria Tallchief
wrote her memoir: "Maria Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina."
(WSJ, 4/17/97, p.A20)(WSJ, 10/10/00, p.A24)
1946 George Balanchine created
his one-act work "La Sonnambula." It was inspired by the music of
Vittorio Rieti, which was based on the "La Sonnambula" opera of
Vincenzo Bellini.
(WSJ, 10/31/01, p.A22)
1946 Accordionist Joe Smiell
(b.1925), born in Pittsburgh, Pa., put together a brass band in the
SF Bay Area to play traditional music of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. His son Joseph joined the band in 1972.
(SFC, 9/14/10,
p.D1)(www.buttonboxmusic.com/Pages/JSmiell.html)
1946 Muddy Waters began working
regularly at clubs in Chicago playing an amplified electric guitar
and local strudios began recording his songs.
(ON, 8/20/11, p.6)
1946 Gross movie revenues for
the year were $1,692 million with 4,067 million admissions and
average ticket price was $0.42.
(WSJ, 4/24/95, p.R-5)
1946 Jinx Falkenburg (d.2003)
and husband Tex McCrary pioneered talk radio programming with the
"Hi Jinx" morning show at WEAF in NYC.
(SFC, 8/29/03, p.A28)
1946 7,000 TV sets were sold as
commercial TV became established.
(TMC, 1994, p.1946)
1946 Syd Cassyd formed the
Television Arts and Sciences Academy. He envisioned it to as a tool
for enlightenment, education, science and technology.
1946 Paul Fagan opened the
six-room Kauiki Inn for his friends on the island of Maui. It was
later expanded and renamed the Hotel Hana-Maui. He then constructed
a ballpark in the center of Hana and brought over his baseball team
for spring training.
(SFEC, 9/8/96, p.T8)
1946 Nathan Safir founded
KCOR-AM radio and helped develop KCOR-TV the first full-time Spanish
language radio and TV stations in the US.
(SFC, 9/11/96, p.C2)
1946 Benjamin Britten composed
his opera "The Rape of Lucretia."
(WSJ, 8/7/01, p.A12)
1946 Teddy Edwards (d.2003 at
78) recorded the 1st bop solo for tenor sax with Howard McGhee's
ensemble's recording of "Up in Dodo's Room."
(SFC, 4/24/03, A21)
1946 Bill Monroe recorded his
song, "Blue Moon of Kentucky," as a stately Southern waltz.
(WSJ, 9/16/96, p.A14)
1946 Ella Mae Morse (b.1924)
recorded her hit "House of Blue Lights." It was later considered
influential in the evolution of rock-'n-'roll.
(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A23)
1946 Les Paul (1915-2009) and
the Andrew Sisters recorded the hit song “Rumors Are Flying.”
(SFC, 8/14/09, p.D6)
1946 Bobby Troup (1918-1999)
wrote his song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.” It was first recorded
by Nat King Cole.
(SSFC, 12/25/11,
p.N6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_66_%28song%29)
1946 Chuck Wayne was the
guitarist in the Woody Herman Herd band. They recorded the Ralph
Burns 3-part composition "Summer Sequence." Wayne had discovered
be-bop from pianist George Washington in a Dixieland band led by
clarinetist Joe Marsala after 2 years in the army.
(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)
1946 Kurt Weill composed
"Street Scene," a hybrid of operatic and musical-theater styles.
(WSJ, 10/24/01, p.A20)
1946 Ben Weber composed
"Fantasia" (Variations), that represented the lyrical and
soft-grained side of serialism.
(WSJ, 7/2/98, p.A20)
1946 Actress Mitzi Gaynor got
her start in San Francisco with the Civic Light Opera Company’s
“Roberta.” She went on to become a stage and screen star.
(SSFC, 6/29/08, DB p.58)
1946 The 1940 opera "Betrothal"
by Prokofiev had its premiere in Prague. The plot was based on the
1775 comedy "The Duenna" by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.D1)
1946 The Nevada Club (d.1997)
in downtown Reno opened. It used slot machines made by the Jennings
company of Chicago.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, p.D3)
1946 Yakov Malkiel (d.1998 at
83) founded the journal "Romance Philology." He helped create the UC
Berkeley linguistics department in 1952 and over his life published
822 works.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.D7)
1946 William Schuman founded
the Juilliard String Quartet
(SFC, 5/13/96, p.D-2)
1946 Allmore Aaron (d.1997 at
83) and his brother Len founded the Aaron Brothers art and framing
store in Hollywood. They sold the chain in 1977 which grew to 72
stores in 1997.
(SFC, 5/2/97, p.B2)
1946 Warren E. Avis (1915-2007)
founded the Avis Rent-A-Car System to bring rental cars directly to
airline passengers at Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Mich., and
Miami Int’l. Airport.
(WSJ, 4/28/07, p.A6)
1946 The Claremont Men’s
College was founded in southern California by Donald C. McKenna
(d.1997 at 90) and others for returning veterans with an emphasis on
business and public affairs. The college began admitting women in
1981.
(SFC,11/27/97, p.B8)
1946 Vance "Pinto" Colvig
served as the voice of Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records executive
Alan Livingston created Bozo for recordings. For years, promoter and
entertainer Larry Harmon (d.2008), who bought the rights to Bozo,
claimed to have both created the character and being the original.
(AP, 5/28/04)(SFC, 7/4/08, p.B8)
1946 Roger Straus (d.2004) and
John Farrar founded a publishing firm. They later brought in Bob
Giraux as editor-in-chief. Straus headed Farrar, Straus and Giraux
until his death.
(Econ, 6/5/04, p.81)
1946 David Barham (1913-1991)
founded Hot Dog on a Stick at Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, Ca.
(WSJ, 2/3/07,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Barham)
1946 Paul Falknor Iams
(1915-2003), self-taught animal nutritionist, started Iams Food Co.
(SFC, 11/3/04, p.B15)
1946 In Ohio William Powell, a
black man, began hand building his Clearview Golf Club. The club
opened for 9-hole play in 1948. By 1978 he had expanded to 18 holes.
In 2001 it was added to the national register of historic places.
(WSJ, 10/25/08,
p.W6)(www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-75087113.html)
1946 Emily Greene Balch
(1867-1961), American lawyer, share the Nobel Peace Prize with John
Raleigh Mott. Balch helped in one way or another with many projects
of the League of Nations - among them, disarmament, the
internationalization of aviation, drug control, the participation of
the United States in the affairs of the League.
(AP,
10/9/09)(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1946/balch-bio.html)
1946 John Raleigh Mott
(1865-1955), organizer (YMCA), shared the Nobel Peace Prize with
Emily Greene Balch.
(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1946/mott-bio.html)
1946 Wendell M. Stanley and
John H. Northrup of UC Berkeley won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Northrop (b.1891), US biochemist, won for his work on crystallized
enzymes.
(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A17)
(AP, 10/9/09)
1946 Hermann Hesse (1877-1962),
Swiss-born German philosopher poet and author, was awarded the Nobel
Prize in literature "for his inspired writings which, growing in
boldness and penetration, exemplify the classical humanitarian
ideals and high qualities of style."
(http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1946/)
1946 The National Basketball
Association (NBA) was founded.
(WSJ, 11/1/96, p.A1)
1946 The Boston Red Sox lost
the World Series.
(SFC, 10/28/04, p.A7)
1946 William Saroyan was
awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Times of Your Life." He
refused the award. The novel was turned into a film in 1948.
(SFEM, 4/27/97, p.10)
1946 The Allies formed the
International Tracing Service to identify and document victims of
the Nazi persecution. In 1955 the service was turned over to the
Swiss-based Int’l. Committee of the Red Cross.
(SFEC, 2/9/97, p.C13)
1946 The Congressional
Reorganization Act was passed.
(SFC, 2/10/97, p.A20)
1946 A US Congress Recision Act
took away citizenship and benefits promised by Pres. Roosevelt to
Filipinos who had been drafted to fight under Gen. MacArthur. It was
enacted in part because of a $200 million grant to the Philippines
following the war.
(SSFC, 12/30/01, p.A25)(SFC, 12/30/03, p.A15)
1946 The US Agricultural
Marketing Act of this year established grade standards for fruits
and vegetables including peanuts.
(http://tinyurl.com/qjuu2)
1946 John F. Kennedy at 29 was
elected Congressman from Massachusetts.
(TMC, 1994, p.1946)
1946 Ronald Reagan was a
sponsor and director of the Committee for a Democratic Far East
Policy. The organization had been designated as subversive by the
Attorney General under Executive Order 10450. He was also a member
of the American Veterans Committee, whose California chapter was
cited as "communist dominated."
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F7)
1946 A US Navy Radiological
Defense Laboratory decontamination center was established at the SF
naval shipyard Hunters Point.
(SFC, 4/8/05, p.F2)
1946 The Balcones Research
Center was established in Austin, Texas. It carried out
government-supported defense and electronics research. Tracor, a big
defense firm, grew out of this and itself spun off some 20
technology related firms, which established Austin as a high-tech
business cluster.
(Econ, 10/14/06, p.17)
1946 A US district court case
in Orange County, Ca., Mendez vs. Westminster, ruled that race-based
housing restrictions were illegal. State law had allowed segregation
against Mexican Americans. Restrictions after WW I had confined
blacks in LA to the south and east sides creating near-ghettos in
areas such as Watts, Inglewood and Compton. The Mendez case was
upheld on April 14, 1947, and was used to support the 1954 Supreme
Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.29)(SFC, 5/9/07, p.A15)
1946 The US Grand National
Rodeo began an uninterrupted string of yearly shows at the Cow
Palace in Daly City, Ca.
(SFC, 2/28/08, p.A11)
1946 In northern California the
coast batteries around the SF Bay were deactivated.
(SFC, 6/13/08, p.A22)
1946 Labor strikes were
the worst in US history.
(TMC, 1994, p.1946)
1946 In Georgia Lawrence D.
Duke Sr. (d.1999 at 86), ass't. state attorney general, successfully
campaigned against the state charter for the KKK and the Columbians
Inc., a virulent anti-black and anti-Jewish Klan offshoot.
(SFC, 4/2/99, p.D6)
1946 Robert Byrd (1917-2010)
was elected to the West Virginia state House of Delegates.
(Econ, 7/3/10, p.82)
1946 A $345 million suspension
bridge, designed by Othmar Ammann, was approved to cross the
Verrazano Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island, NYC. The
Brooklyn side would be anchored on Old Fort Hamilton and the Staten
Island side on Fort Wadsworth. Fort Lafayette was cleared to make
room for the Brooklyn tower. In 1960 the rest of Fort Lafayette was
leveled. Rubble was ferried to Staten Island side to facilitate the
construction of the west tower.
(AH, 2/06, p.72)
1946 The first African American
switchboard operator was hired by Pacific Telephone.
(SFC, 1/11/99, p.A18)
1946 Crown Cork & Seal Co.
introduced the 1st seamless, lined and lithographed aerosol
canister, the Spra-tainer. Aaron Lapin (d.1999 at 85) of Clayton
Corp. used the canister to hold his whipping cream and named the
product Reddi-wip, which he sold through milk men in St. Louis.
(SFC, 7/15/99, p.A25)
1946 Georges Doriot
(1899-1987), a French-born Harvard professor, took public his
Boston-based American Research & Development Corporation,
America’s first venture fund. In 1972 ARD was taken over by
Textron. In 2008 Spencer E. Ante authored “Creative Capital: Georges
Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital.”
(WSJ, 5/21/08, p.A17)(Econ, 3/14/09, SR p.9)
1946 GM’s Chevrolet division
was the first automobile company to advertise on network television.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1946 The Mattel toy company was
co-founded by Ruth Handler, her husband Elliot, and Harold “Matt”
Mattson. The name came from a combination of Matt and Elliot. In
2009 Jerry Oppenheimer authored “Toy Monster: The Big, Bad world of
Mattel.”
(WSJ, 2/18/09, p.A15)
1946 Michelin patented its
radial tire.
(Econ, 9/11/04, p.60)
1946 William E. Moore
(1917-2004) founded Kelly-Moore Paint in San Carlos, Ca., with
William Kelly, his former retired boss at Glidden.
(SFC, 11/25/04, p.B5)
1946 The last DC-3 airplane was
built. It was introduced in 1935 and many were still in use in 2001.
(SFC, 1/26/01, p.A12)
1946 James Chapman (1916-1996),
regional director for Ford Motor Co., hired Babe Ruth as consultant
to Ford’s sponsorship of American League Junior Baseball.
(SFC, 10/15/96, p.A19)
1946 Russian immigrant Dietrich
Gustav Rempel opened Rempel Manufacturing on Morgan Avenue in Akron,
Ohio. He produced a line of latex squeak toys under the Sunnyslope
name. Artist Fred G. Reiner designed his toys.
(SFC, 12/21/05, p.G6)(SFC, 4/12/06, p.G4)
1946 Dr. Jules Stein, founder
of Music Corp. of America hired Lew Wasserman (1913-2002) as
director of advertising and public relations. Wasserman went on to
expand the company as MCA Inc. into a major entertainment
conglomerate.
(SFC, 6/4/02, p.A18)
1946 Walter Reuther was elected
president of the United Auto Workers. He proceeded to lead a 113-day
strike at GM, the longest national strike against one of the Big
Three.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)
1946 Buckminster Fuller
(1895-1983) put together his prototype Dymaxion House (dynamic
maximum tension).
(WSJ, 12/4/01, p.A16)
1946 Chemist H.B. Parmele
reported to his superiors at Lorillard Tobacco Co. that: "Certain
scientists and medical authorities have claimed for many years that
the use of tobacco contributes to cancer development in susceptible
people. Just enough evidence has been presented to justify the
possibility of such a presumption."
(SFC, 6/16/96, p.B10)
1946 Dr. Wolff of Cornell Univ.
discovered that migraines and other headaches involve the
enlargement of cranial blood vessels.
(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A5)
1946 Vitamin C was first
marketed in pill form.
(SFC, 12/21/96, p.E4)
1946 C.D. Atkins (d.2000),
Edwin L. Moore and Louis MacDowell, researchers for the Florida
Citrus Commission, were granted a patent for developing a process
for making orange juice concentrate. The research was done in a
federal lab and they assigned the patent to the government.
(WSJ, 6/22/00, p.A22)
1946 The new U of M Survey
Research Center began with a monthly survey of consumer attitudes
about the economy.
(MT, Fall. ‘97, p.4)
1946 The Smithsonian was
designated as the manager of the Canal Zone Biological Area and
renamed it as the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).
(Smith., 5/95, p.10)
1946 A Coast Guard airplane
crashed in the Bank of Manhattan Building.
(HT, 5/97, p.28)
1946 Elie Nadelman (b.1882),
Polish-born sculptor, died. He moved to Paris in 1904 and to the US
in 1914 with the support of Helena Rubenstein. His work included
"The Dancer" (1920-1924).
(WSJ, 5/15/03, p.D8)
1946 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
(b.1895), renowned photographer and the founding head of the
Institute of Design in Chicago, died.
(SFC, 7/20/02, p.D10)
1946 The International Court of
Justice, the main judicial organ of the United Nations, was
established.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judges_of_the_international_court_of_justice)
1946 The People's Assembly
proclaimed Albania a "people's republic"; purges of non-communists
from government positions began. The People's Assembly adopted a new
constitution. Enver Hoxha became prime minister, defense minister,
foreign minister and commander-in-chief.
(www, Albania, 1998)
1946 Sultan Haji Hassanal
Bolkiah of Brunei, potentate, was born. He is the latest ruling
member of one of the world's oldest dynasties. His assets total some
$30 billion.
(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)
1946 A dissenting Mormon sect
from Utah set up a community practicing polygamy in Bountiful, BC,
Canada. In 2009 2 leaders of the Bountiful commune appeared in court
to answer criminal charges.
(Econ, 1/24/09, p.44)
1946 Ben Weider (d.2008 at 85)
and his brother Joe, Canadian body builders, co-founded the
International Brotherhood of Body Builders (IFBB). In 1968 they
brought Austrian body builder Arnold Schwarzenegger to California.
(SSFC, 10/19/08, p.B6)
1946 Lincoln Toys began
operating in Walkerville, Ont., and continued to 1958.
(SFC, 10/1/08, p.G6)
1946 In Croatia Cardinal
Alojzije Stepinac (d.1960) was imprisoned by the Communists and
sentenced to 16 years of hard labor for his support of the Ustasha
fascists. He was declared a martyr in 1998 by Pope John Paul II.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A8)
1946 Dahomey (later Benin)
became an Overseas Territory of France.
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/3638535.stm)
1946 In England Lancelot Ware
(d.2000 at 85), Oxford postgraduate student, and barrister Roland
Berrill (d.1961) founded the High IQ Club, later known as Mensa.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A19)(www.mensa.org/)
1946 Churchill coined the
phrase "Iron Curtain," to describe the borders of the USSR.
(TMC, 1994, p.1946)
1946 In England V.S. Pritchett
became the director of the weekly New Statesman. He had begun
contributing to the left-wing weekly in 1926.
(SFC, 3/22/97, p.A21)
1946 The British M16
intelligence agency absorbed the Special Operations Executive.
(Econ, 3/19/05, p.34)
1946 Allan Nunn May (d.2003 at
91), British atomic scientist, was unmasked as a Soviet spy. In 1942
he joined a team of Cambridge scientists for the Manhattan Project
and was recruited by the Soviets in Montreal in 1943. may was
sentenced to 10 years of hard labor and served 6.
(SFC, 1/25/03, p.A17)
1946 Heathrow Airport, a base
near London for fighter planes during WWII, was converted to
civilian use.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.91)
1946 French archeologist Pierre
Montet (d.1966) resumed his excavations at Tanis, Egypt, and
continued work there until 1951. In 1958 he published an account of
his discoveries titled “La Necropole Royale de Tanis.”
(Arch, 5/05, p.25)
1946 Pablo Picasso began
designing pottery in Vallauris, France. The area had been a pottery
center since Roman times.
(SFC, 12/10/08, p.G4)
1946 The Jean Delannoy film "La
Symphonie Pastorale," adapted from a Gide novel, won Cannes' top
prize. The film told the story of a blind orphan who falls in love
with a married pastor.
(AP, 6/19/08)
1946 The Lido nightclub opened
on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
(SFC, 11/22/02, p.D9)
1946 The French retook Hoa Binh
in Vietnam with a drop by airborne forces. They had abandoned it in
October 1950 in the panic following Viet Minh victories on Colonial
Route 4.
(HNQ, 8/16/01)
1946 France granted Malians
French citizenship and limited self-rule.
(www.angelfire.com/ri/georgev/bg8.html)
1946 Heinrich Springer and his
son Axel founded a newspaper in Hamburg that grew to become Axel
Springer Verlag AG, Germany’s biggest and most influential newspaper
group.
(WSJ, 10/20/04, p.A1)
1946 In Germany the
conservative Christian Social Union was founded as a more inclusive
heir to the Bavarian People’s Party.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.43)
1946 The Hong Kong airline
Cathay Pacific began operations with two DC3 planes.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.96)
1946 Eric Halpern, a Jewish
émigré from Austria, started the Far Eastern Review in
Hong Kong. In 1987 it was taken over by Dow Jones. In 2004 it ended
as a weekly publication and re-emerged as a monthly. In 2009 Dow
Jones announced its closure.
(Econ, 9/26/09, p.58)
1946 Hungary’s Prime Minister
Laszlo Bardossy was executed for his role in the deaths of hundreds
of thousands of Jews.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D2)
1946 The Republic of Indonesia
stripped all royal families of power.
(SSFC, 2/17/08, p.A20)
1946 In Iran Shah Mohammad Reza
Pahlavi separated from his Egyptian wife, Queen Fawzieh. He took up
with Parvin Ghaffari in a 3-year affair later documented by Ghaffari
in her 1997 book "Until Darkness."
(SFC, 7/12/97, p.C1)
1946 The Italian film “Paisan”
was directed by Roberto Rossellini (1906-1977). It was comprised of
6 short films dealing with the Allied liberation of Italy.
This was the 2nd film of his war trilogy.
(SFC, 1/22/10, p.E2)
1946 In Italy Umberto II
(d.1983) ruled for just 26 days before he was sent into exile. Italy
established itself as a republic.
(SFC, 5/6/97, p.A11)(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A12)
1946 Enrico Piaggio designed
the 1st Vespa motor scooter as a practical solution to
transportation needs in postwar Italy. Corradino D’Ascanio,
helicopter pioneer, came up with the idea for the 2-wheeled Vespa
scooter.
(SFC, 8/16/03, p.F1)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.64)
1946 In Italy the Carpigiani
firm, a maker of ice-cream making machines, was founded. Bruto
Carpigiani (d.1945) had designed the first machine and his brother
Poerio did the marketing.
(Econ, 8/18/07, p.55)
1946 In Japan parliamentary
elections were held and women were allowed to vote for the first
time. 39 female legislators were elected.
(SFC, 7/30/99, p.D8)
1946 In Japan the Keidanren
(Business Federation) was formed to be the mouthpiece of business
interests. The Keizai Doyukai (Association of Corporate Executives)
also formed.
(Econ, 5/31/08, p.68)
1946 Tokyo Telecommunications,
the precursor to Sony Corp., was established in Japan.
(WSJ, 3/7/05, p.A8)
1946 Kurd leader Mustafa
Barzani fled Kurdistan with hundreds of followers to the Soviet
Union.
(SFC, 9/4/96, p.A7)
1946 In Slovakia Vojtech Tuka
was executed. He had been the prime minister of pro-Nazi Slovakia
during the war.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A12)
1946 Choi Hong Hi (1918-2002),
helped found the South Korean Army. He developed the tae kwon do (to
kick with the foot, to strike with the fist, art) martial arts style
in the 1940s and named it in 1955.
(SFC, 7/2/02, p.A17)
1946 The Swiss government
agreed to turn over half of some German assets in vaults to help war
refugees and other victims. The agreement was not kept.
(SFC, 12/1/97, p.A10)
1946 The Muslim Brotherhood,
founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hasan al-Banna (d.1949), opened a branch
in Syria. Branches soon began spreading across the globe.
(WSJ, 12/8/95, p.A-8)(WSJ, 9/21/01, p.A16)(WSJ,
9/7/04, p.A20)(Econ, 6/4/05, p.44)
1946-1948 Wayne Miller (27) on a Guggenheim
fellowship documented the South Side of Chicago in photographs.
(SFEM, 1/25/98, p.6)
1946-1948 US scientific researchers infected
hundreds of Guatemalan mental patients with sexually transmitted
diseases. The researchers were trying to determine whether the
antibiotic penicillin could prevent syphilis infection, not just
cure it. The practice only came to light in 2010 thanks to the work
of an academic researcher. On Oct 1, 2010, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius issued a formal apology to Guatemala, and to Guatemalan
residents of the United States. A 2011 report said 2,082 people were
infected with syphilis, gonorrhea or chancroid. Previous studies had
said about 1,300 people were exposed, including soldiers,
prostitutes, prisoners and mental patients.
(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39456324/ns/health-sexual_health/)(AP,
12/7/11)
1946-1949 Some 12 million ethnic Germans were
expelled from their homes in eastern Europe after WW II.
(Econ, 11/3/07, p.60)
1946-1949 The Greek Civil War uprooted some
700,000 refugees. The Cham were ethnic Albanians drive from Greece
after WW II. Their expropriated property was worth about $3.25
million.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A10)
1946-1950 C. Girard Davidson was ass’t. secretary
of the Interior under pres. Truman. He was also part of an advisory
group to the president that recommended recognition for the state of
Israel, and a veto of the Taft-Hartley Labor Act [passed in 1947]
that among other things barred union-employer contracts that
required all workers to be union members.
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.C2)
1946-1952 Miguel Aleman Valdez was president of
Mexico. He was known as the "Enterprise President." He gave the PRI
a pro-business cast and an odor of corruption.
(WSJ, 11/19/96, p.A18)(WSJ, 8/13/97, p.A12)
1946-1952 Richard Nixon served in the US Congress
as Congressman and Senator from California. In 1999 Irwin F. Gellman
published "The Contender: Richard Nixon, The Congress Years,
1946-1952."
(WSJ, 8/9/99, p.A16)
1946-1953 Trygve Lie of Norway served as the
Secretary-General of the UN.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A1)
1946-1958 The US conducted 67 nuclear test blasts
at the Bikini and Eniwetok atolls over this period. The tests in the
northern Marshall Islands released radioactive iodine said to be 150
times worse than the contamination from Chernobyl in 1986. A Nuclear
Claims Tribunal was later set up by the government of the US and the
Marshall Islands to compensate those displaced or suffering health
problems due to the tests. The 150 million dollars the US provided
for paying settlements ran out in 2005. The US State Department said
there is no obligation to pay more.
(SFC, 3/8/99, p.A16)(Econ, 1/12/08, p.38)(AFP,
12/12/08)
1946-1960 The show "Hometown Jamboree" ran on
radio and television. It was produced by Cliffie Stone (d.1998) and
gave career boosts to such stars as Tennessee Ernie Ford, Johnny
Cash, Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves and Tex Ritter.
(SFC, 1/20/98, p.A18)
1946-1961 The Tanganyika Territory was a British
trusteeship.
(WUD, 1994, p.1452)
1946-1970 Some 62,000 steel drums of nuclear waste
were dumped into the oceans from 1946-1970. In 1976 EPA scientists
reported that they had discovered plutonium in the ocean sediment
off the SF coast and radioactive cesium leaking from containers 120
miles east of Ocean City, Md.
(SFC, 8/17/01, p.WB6)
1946-1977 PCBs were released into the Hudson River
by 2 General Electric plants and were buried in sediment along 197
miles that was later declared a Superfund site. The EPA expected GE
to dredge some 35 miles at a cost of some $1 billion. GE fought the
cleanup law and was also involved in Superfund sites at Hoboken NJ
and Milford NH. Cleanup of the Hudson River began in 2009 at an
estimated cost of $750 million, to be paid by GE. The sludge was
scheduled to be buried in West Texas.
(SFC, 11/29/00, p.A10)(SFC, 5/16/09, p.A5)(SFC,
6/22/09, p.A9)
1946-1992 Charles Hillinger worked for the Los
Angeles Times. He was assigned as a roving reporter in the early 50s
and by 1969 expanded to a world beat. His 1998 "Hillinger’s
California: All 58 Counties" was one of 2 books compiled from his
6,000 plus columns.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, p.D1,8)
Go to 1947