What Happened in 1948 — Events, Births & Deaths

Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming an independent republic.

The Semiramis Hotel bombing kills at least 23 people.

Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of a supposed UFO.

The Renville Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia is ratified.

The Flag of Quebec is adopted and flown for the first time over the National Assembly of Quebec. The day is marked annually as Québec Flag Day.

British South American Airways' Tudor IV Star Tiger disappears over the Bermuda Triangle.

Following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in his home compound, India's prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, broadcasts to the nation, saying "The light has gone out of our lives". The date of the assassination becomes observed as "Martyrs' Day" in India.

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

The Al-Waziri coup briefly ousts the ruling Hamidaddin dynasty of Yemen; Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamid ed-Din is killed.

The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.

NASCAR is incorporated.

In a coup d'état led by Klement Gottwald, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia takes control of government in Prague to end the Third Czechoslovak Republic.

The 1948 Accra riots erupt following a march by ex-servicemen of the Gold Coast Regiment towards the seat of the colonial government at Christiansborg Castle, where they were fired upon by Superintendent Colin Imray, leading to the killing of Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey and the arrest of the Big Six in the Gold Coast.

Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO.

Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in the first sign of the Tito–Stalin split.

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.

The first successful tornado forecast predicts that a tornado will strike Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.

Cold War: Communist forces respond to the introduction of the Deutsche Mark by attempting to force the western powers to withdraw from Berlin.

Faroe Islands gain autonomy from Denmark.

Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, authorizing $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.

In Jeju Province, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses known as the Jeju uprising begins.

The Finno-Soviet Treaty is signed in Moscow.

The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.

Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in Colombia.

Fighters from the Irgun and Lehi Zionist terror groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, killing over 100 Palestinians.

In an ambush, 78 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital, and a British soldier, are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah. This event came to be known as the Hadassah medical convoy massacre.

The Organization of European Economic Co-operation is formed.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 relating to Kashmir conflict is adopted.

Arab–Israeli War: The port city of Haifa is captured by Jewish forces.

Igor Stravinsky conducts the premiere of his American ballet, Orpheus at the New York City Center.

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

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Shelley v. Kraemer that covenants prohibiting the sale of real estate to blacks and other minorities are legally unenforceable.

The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress.

Czechoslovakia's Ninth-of-May Constitution comes into effect.

Arab–Israeli War: The Kfar Etzion massacre occurs, a day prior to the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel, thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

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

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wins the 1948 Republic of China presidential election and is sworn in as the first President of the Republic of China at Nanjing.

Finnish President J. K. Paasikivi releases Yrjö Leino from his duties as interior minister after the Finnish parliament adopted a motion of censure of Leino with connection to his illegal handing over of nineteen people to the Soviet Union in 1945.

Thomas C. Wasson, the US Consul-General, is assassinated in Jerusalem, Israel.

Arab–Israeli War: Egypt captures the Israeli kibbutz of Yad Mordechai, but the five-day effort gives Israeli forces time to prepare enough to stop the Egyptian advance a week later.

The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 80-557, which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force.

Daniel François Malan is elected as Prime Minister of South Africa. He later goes on to implement Apartheid.

United Nations Truce Supervision Organization is founded.

A dike along the flooding Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. Fifteen people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.

Anti-Jewish riots in Oujda and Jerada take place.

Edvard Beneš resigns as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing the Ninth-of-May Constitution, making his nation a Communist state.

Foundation of the International Council on Archives under the auspices of the UNESCO.

Members of the Malayan Communist Party kill three British plantation managers in Sungai Siput; in response, British Malaya declares a state of emergency.

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

Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Britain, France and the United States announce that on June 21, the Deutsche Mark will be introduced in western Germany and West Berlin. Over the next six days, Communists increasingly restrict access to Berlin.[citation needed]

In Western Allied-occupied Germany, the Currency Reform of 1948 goes into effect, introducing the Deutsche Mark. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany responded by imposing the Berlin Blockade four days later.

The ship HMT Empire Windrush brought the first group of 802 West Indian immigrants to Tilbury, marking the start of modern immigration to the United Kingdom.

King George VI formally gives up the title "Emperor of India", half a year after Britain actually gave up its rule of India.

Cold War: Start of the Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.

The United States Congress passes the Displaced Persons Act to allow World War II refugees to immigrate to the United States above quota restrictions.

Cold War: The first supply flights are made in response to the Berlin Blockade.

William Shockley files the original patent for the grown-junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.

Cold War: The Tito–Stalin Split results in the expulsion of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia from the Cominform.

Boxer Dick Turpin beats Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era.

National Health Service Acts create the national public health system in the United Kingdom.

The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called the Women's Air Force (WAF).

The official establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea).: 121

Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion orders the expulsion of Palestinians from the towns of Lod and Ramla.

Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is shot and wounded near the Italian Parliament.

Following token resistance, the city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane.

U.S. president Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military of the United States.

Olympic Games: The Games of the XIV Olympiad: After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, open in London.

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

USS Nevada is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships.

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

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

Between 15 and 150 unarmed members of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement are killed by Pakistani police.

An Idaho Department of Fish and Game program to relocate beavers known as Beaver drop occurred. This program relocated beavers from Northwestern Idaho to Central Idaho by airplane and then parachuting the beavers into the Chamberlain Basin.

The First Republic of Korea (South Korea) is established in the southern half of the peninsula.

Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob M. Lomakin is expelled by the United States, due to the Kasenkina Case.

The World Council of Churches is formed by 147 churches from 44 countries.

The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.

Northwest Airlines Flight 421 crashes in Fountain City, Wisconsin, killing all 37 aboard.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.

In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister; as such, he is the French negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.

The flag of North Korea is adopted with the passing of the country's first constitution by the Supreme People's Assembly.

Kim Il Sung is appointed as premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). This is celebrated annually as its national holiday.

Deputy Prime Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel orders the Army to move into Hyderabad to integrate it with the Indian Union.

Margaret Chase Smith is elected United States senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

The Indian Army captures the city of Aurangabad as part of Operation Polo.

The Indian Army captures the towns of Jalna, Latur, Mominabad, Surriapet and Narkatpalli as part of Operation Polo.

The F-86 Sabre sets the world aircraft speed record at 671 miles per hour (1,080 km/h).

The Lehi (also known as the Stern gang) assassinates Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to mediate between the Arab nations and Israel.

The Nizam of Hyderabad surrenders his sovereignty over the Hyderabad State and joins the Indian Union.

Operation Polo is terminated after the Indian Army accepts the surrender of the army of Hyderabad.

Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate without completing another senator's term.

Gail Halvorsen officially starts parachuting candy to children as part of the Berlin Airlift.

Israeli-Palestine conflict: The All-Palestine Government is established by the Arab League.

The Honda Motor Company is founded.

Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation, a monument honoring three presidents of the United States, was dedicated at the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina.

A KLM Lockheed L-049 Constellation crashes on approach to Glasgow Prestwick Airport, killing 40.

A deadly smog event begins in Donora, Pennsylvania, eventually killing 20 and sickening thousands.

Paul Hermann Müller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.

Ecological disaster in Donora, Pennsylvania.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Safsaf massacre: Israeli soldiers capture the Palestinian village of Safsaf in the Galilee; afterwards, between 52 and 64 villagers are massacred by the IDF.

A luzzu fishing boat overloaded with passengers capsizes and sinks in the Gozo Channel off Qala, Gozo, Malta, killing 23 of the 27 people on board.

Athenagoras I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, is enthroned.

Aftermath of World War II: In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.

Chinese Civil War: The SS Kiangya, carrying Nationalist refugees from Shanghai, explodes in the Huangpu River.

The Genocide Convention is adopted.

The Human Rights Convention is signed by the United Nations.

Arab–Israeli War: The United Nations passes General Assembly Resolution 194, creating a Conciliation Commission to mediate the conflict.

Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann are granted a patent for their cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game.

The Finnish Security Police is established to remove communist leadership from its predecessor, the State Police.

Indonesian National Revolution: The Dutch military captures Yogyakarta, the temporary capital of the newly formed Republic of Indonesia.

Sjafruddin Prawiranegara established the Emergency Government of the Republic of Indonesia (Pemerintah Darurat Republik Indonesia, PDRI) in West Sumatra.

Seven Japanese military and political leaders convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed by Allied occupation authorities at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan.

Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.

The last Soviet troops withdraw from North Korea.

The DC-3 airliner NC16002 disappears 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of Miami.