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1948

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Clockwise, from top left:Israeli Declaration of Independence; British Foreign SecretaryErnest Bevin signing theTreaty of Brussels; The1948 Summer Olympics opens inLondon,United Kingdom; The trial of persons accused of participation and complicity in theAssassination of Mahatma Gandhi; a damaged building after the1948 Fukui earthquake; an AustralianAvro Lincoln bomber dropping 500 lb (230 kg) bombs in theMalayan Emergency; Pro-Communist demonstrations before the1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état; West Berliners watch aDouglas C-54 Skymaster land atTempelhof Airport in theBerlin Blockade.

Calendar year

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century 20th century 21st century
Decades:	1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
Years:	1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951
	v t e

1948 by topic
Subject
Animation Archaeology Architecture Art Aviation Awards Comics Film Literature Poetry Meteorology Music Country Jazz Rail transport Radio Science Spaceflight Sports Football Television American British
By country
Afghanistan Australia Belgium Brazil Bulgaria Canada China Denmark France Germany India Indonesia Ireland Israel Japan Luxembourg Malaya New Zealand Norway Pakistan Palestine Mandate Philippines Portugal South Africa South Korea Soviet Union Spain Sweden Thailand Turkey United Kingdom United States Venezuela
Lists of leaders
Sovereign states Sovereign state leaders Territorial governors Religious leaders Law
Birth and death categories
Births Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments Disestablishments
Works category
Works Introductions
v t e

1948 in variouscalendars
Gregorian calendar	1948 MCMXLVIII
Ab urbe condita	2701
Armenian calendar	1397 ԹՎ ՌՅՂԷ
Assyrian calendar	6698
Baháʼí calendar	104–105
Balinese saka calendar	1869–1870
Bengali calendar	1354–1355
Berber calendar	2898
British Regnal year	12 Geo. 6 – 13 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2492
Burmese calendar	1310
Byzantine calendar	7456–7457
Chinese calendar	丁亥年 (Fire Pig) 4645 or 4438 — to — 戊子年 (Earth Rat) 4646 or 4439
Coptic calendar	1664–1665
Discordian calendar	3114
Ethiopian calendar	1940–1941
Hebrew calendar	5708–5709
Hindu calendars
-Vikram Samvat	2004–2005
-Shaka Samvat	1869–1870
-Kali Yuga	5048–5049
Holocene calendar	11948
Igbo calendar	948–949
Iranian calendar	1326–1327
Islamic calendar	1367–1368
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 23 (昭和２３年)
Javanese calendar	1879–1880
Juche calendar	37
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4281
Minguo calendar	ROC 37 民國37年
Nanakshahi calendar	480
Thai solar calendar	2491
Tibetan calendar	阴火猪年 (female Fire-Pig) 2074 or 1693 or 921 — to — 阳土鼠年 (male Earth-Rat) 2075 or 1694 or 922

Wikimedia Commons has media related to1948.

1948 (MCMXLVIII) was aleap year starting on Thursday of theGregorian calendar, the 1948th year of theCommon Era (CE) andAnno Domini (AD) designations, the 948th year of the2nd millennium, the 48th year of the20th century, and the 9th year of the1940s decade.

Calendar year

Events

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January

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Main article:January 1948

January 1
- TheGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.^[1]
- The currentConstitutions ofItaly and ofNew Jersey (both later subject to amendment) go into effect.^[2]
- The railways of Britain are nationalized, to formBritish Railways.^[3]
January 4 –Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming an independent republic, named the 'Union of Burma', withSao Shwe Thaik as its first President andU Nu its first Prime Minister.
January 5 – In the United States:
- Warner Brothers shows the first colornewsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and theRose Bowl Game).
- The firstKinsey Report,Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, is published.
January 7 –Mantell UFO incident:Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of anunidentified flying object.
January 12 –Mahatma Gandhi begins his fast-unto-death inDelhi, to stop communal violence during thePartition of India.
January 17 – A truce is declared between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops inJava.
January 22 – British foreign secretaryErnest Bevin proposes the formation of a Western Union between Britain, France and theBenelux countries to stand up against the Soviet Union. TheTreaty of Brussels is signedMarch 17 as a consequence, a predecessor toNATO.
January 26 – Teigin poison case: a man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 of 16 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artistSadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced to death for the crime, but is never executed.
January 29 –A DC-3 aircraft crash at Los Gatos Creek, nearCoalinga, California, kills 4 US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a protest song ("Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)") byWoody Guthrie.
January 30
- Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Indian pacifist and leaderMahatma Gandhi is shot byNathuram Godse inNew Delhi.
- The1948 Winter Olympics open inSt Moritz, Switzerland.
January 31 – The Britishcrown colony of theMalayan Union,Penang andMalacca form theFederation of Malaya.^[4]

February

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Main article:February 1948

February 1
- TheSoviet Union begins to jamVoice of America broadcasts.
- TheFederation of Malaya is proclaimed.
February 4 –Ceylon (later known asSri Lanka) becomes an independent country, within theBritish Commonwealth continuing to adopt KingGeorge VI as theKing of Ceylon.
February 11 – GeneralDouglas Gracey becomesCommander-in-chief ofPakistan Army.
February 16 –Miranda, innermost of the largemoons of Uranus, is discovered byGerard Kuiper.^[5]
February 18 –Éamon de Valera, Irish head of government from 1918 to 1932, loses power to an opposition coalition.John A. Costello is appointedTaoiseach by PresidentSeán T. O'Kelly, until1960.
February 19 – TheConference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes inCalcutta.
February 21 – The United Statesstock car racing organizationNASCAR is founded byBill France Sr. with other drivers.^[6]
February 22 – The first of theBen Yehuda Street bombings in Jerusalem kills between 49 and 58 civilians and injures between 140 and 200.
February 25 –1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état:Edvard Beneš,President of Czechoslovakia, cedes control of the country to theCommunist Party, a day celebrated by that regime as "Victorious February" (Czech:Vítězný únor;Slovak:Víťazný Február) untilNovember 1989.
February 28
- Accra Riots: Riots take place inAccra, capital of the British colony ofGold Coast, when a peaceful protest march by ex-servicemen is broken up by police, leaving several members of the group dead, among them Sergeant Adjetey, one of the leaders.
- The2nd Congress of the Communist Party of India convenes inCalcutta.

March

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Main article:March 1948

March 8 –McCollum v. Board of Education: TheUnited States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violates theU.S. Constitution.
March 12 – TheCosta Rican Civil War begins.
March 17
- TheTreaty of Brussels is signed by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, providing for economic, social and cultural collaboration and collective self-defence.
- TheHells Angels motorcycle gang is founded inCalifornia.
March 18 – The Round Table Conference convenes inThe Hague, Netherlands, to prepare the decolonization process for the Caribbean island ofAruba and the other Dutch Colonies. Aruba presents the mandate of the Aruban People for Aruba to become an independent country, under the sovereignty of the House of Orange, based on Aruba's first state constitution presented officially since August 1947, and a (4th) member state of the future Dutch Commonwealth.
March 20
- Singapore holds its first elections.
- Renowned Italian conductorArturo Toscanini makes his television debut, conducting theNBC Symphony Orchestra in an all-Wagner program in the United States.
- The20th Academy Awards Ceremony is held in Los Angeles.Gentleman's Agreement wins theAcademy Award for Best Picture.

April

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Main article:April 1948

April – Children's Bargain Town, a predecessor oftoy and child-relatedretailer Toys "R" Us, is founded inWashington, D.C., United States.^[7]
April 1 – PhysicistsRalph Asher Alpher andGeorge Gamow publish theAlpher–Bethe–Gamow paper, about theBig Bang.^[8]
April 3
- United States PresidentHarry S. Truman signs theMarshall Plan, which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
- Jeju Uprising: Residents revolt onJeju island, South Korea, eventually leading to the deaths of between 14,000 and 30,000.
- Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is played on television in its entirety for the first time, in a series of concerts featuringArturo Toscanini conducting theNBC Symphony Orchestra in the United States. The chorus is conducted byRobert Shaw.
April 5 –1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine: Haganah launchesOperation Nachshon, provoking the1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight.
April 7– TheWorld Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
April 9
- Liberal politicianJorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot inBogotá (theBogotazo) and a further 10 years of violence (La Violencia) across Colombia.
- TheDeir Yassin massacre takes place in BritishMandatory Palestine.
April 13 – TheHadassah medical convoy massacre takes place, in BritishMandatory Palestine.
April 16 – TheOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is founded, as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).
April 18 –Italian general election, 1948: The first democratic general election withuniversal suffrage is held in Italy. TheChristian Democracy party achieves a majority over thePopular Democratic Front Communist-Socialist coalition.
April 19
- Burma joins the United Nations.
- TheAmerican Broadcasting Company (otherwise known as ABC) begins television services, on WFIL-TV inPhiladelphia (laterWPVI-TV).
April 22
- Civil War in Mandatory Palestine:Battle of Haifa – Jewish paramilitary groupHaganah capturesHaifa from theArab Liberation Army.
- WTVR begins television services. WTVR is the first TV station south of Washington D.C., giving it the nickname "The South's First Television station".
April 23 – FirstNational Games of Pakistan held inKarachi.
April 24 – TheCosta Rican Civil War ends.
April 30
- TheOrganization of American States (OAS) is founded.
- The English-builtLand Rover is unveiled at the Amsterdam Motor Show.

May

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Main article:May 1948

May – TheRAND Corporation is established, as an independent nonprofit policy research and analysis institution, in the United States.
May 9 –Solar eclipse of May 9, 1948: An annular solar eclipse is visible in Japan and South Korea, and is the 32nd solar eclipse ofSolar Saros 137. This eclipse is very short, lasting just 0.3 seconds. The path width is just about 200 meters wide (approximately 218 yards).
May 11 –Luigi Einaudi becomesPresident of the Italian Republic.

Israeli Declaration of Independence, 1948

May 14 – TheIsraeli Declaration of Independence is made.David Ben-Gurion becomes the first prime minister, a provisional position that will become formalized on February 14, 1949.
May 15
- 1948 Arab–Israeli War: TheBritish Mandate of Palestine is officially terminated; expeditionary forces fromEgypt,Transjordan,Syria andIraq invadeIsrael and clash with Israeli forces.
- Themurder of June Anne Devaney a 3-year-old girl inBlackburn, England. To solve the crime, officers took 46,253 sets offingerprints before identifying her murderer.
- Australian cricket team in England in 1948: The touringAustralians set an all-timefirst-class record, by scoring 721 runs in a day againstEssex.
May 16
- Chaim Weizmann is elected as the firstPresident of Israel
- New York City Fire Department Rescue 5 is founded forStaten Island.
May 18 – The firstLegislative Yuan of theRepublic of China officially convenes inNanjing.
May 22 – The Soviets launchOperation Vesna, the largest Lithuanian deportation to Siberia.
May 25 – The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) is founded at Ellinwood Malate Church in Manila.
May 26 – TheUnited States Congress passes Public Law 557 which permanently establishes theCivil Air Patrol as the auxiliary of theUnited States Air Force.
May 28 –Daniel François Malan defeatsJan Smuts and becomes Prime Minister ofSouth Africa, which starts the era ofapartheid (which is finally dismantled byF. W. de Klerk in1994).
May 29 – TheCasimir effect is predicted by Dutch physicistHendrik Casimir.^[9]
May 30 – A dike along theColumbia River breaks, obliteratingVanport, Oregon, within minutes; 15 people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.

June

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Main article:June 1948

June 1 –Puma, a globalsports goods brand, is founded inBavaria,West Germany, byRudolf Dassler,^[10] having split from his brother "Adi".
June 3 – ThePalomar Observatory telescope is finished in California.
June 10 –Hasan Saka forms the new government of Turkey. (17th government; Hasan Saka had served twice as a prime minister)
June 11 – The firstmonkey astronaut, Albert I, is launched into space from White Sands, New Mexico.
June 15 – Chinese newspaperRenmin Ribao (People's Daily) is first published in Beijing, China.^[11]
June 17 –United Airlines Flight 624, aDouglas DC-6, crashes nearMount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing 43 and injuring 84 people on board.
June 18
- Malayan Emergency: Astate of emergency is declared in theFederation of Malaya, due to a communist insurgency.
- Columbia Records introduces its33+1⁄3 rpmlong playing phonograph format.
June 20 – TheU.S. Congress recesses for the remainder of 1948, after an overtime session closes at 7:00 a.m. (to be shortly interrupted by Truman's recall from Congressional recess for July 20, 1948).
June 21
- TheDeutsche Mark becomes the official currency of the futureFederal Republic of Germany.
- TheManchester Baby becomes the firststored-program computer to successfully execute a program.
June 22
- The shipHMT Empire Windrush brings more than 800 Afro-Caribbean immigrants toTilbury near London, the start of a large wave of immigration to Britain.
- David Lean'sOliver Twist, based onCharles Dickens's famous novel, premieres in the UK. It is banned for 3 years in the U.S., because of allegedantisemitism in depicting master criminalFagin, played byAlec Guinness.

AC-54 Skymaster landing atBerlin Tempelhof Airport

June 24
- Cold War: TheBerlin Blockade begins.
- The firstWorld Health Assembly of theWorld Health Organization is held in Geneva.
June 26
- William Shockley files the original patent for thegrown-junction transistor, the firstbipolar junction transistor.
- TheBerlin Airlift begins.
June 28
- TheCominform Resolution marks the beginning of theInformbiro period inYugoslavia and theSoviet/Yugoslav split.
- The 6.8M_w Fukui earthquake strikesFukui, Japan; 3,769 are killed, 22,203 injured.
- Lotte Group, a globalconglomerate inNortheast Asia (South Korea andJapan), is founded.^{[citation needed]}

July

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Main article:July 1948

July 5 – TheNational Health Service in the United Kingdom begins functioning, giving the right to universal healthcare, free at point of use.^[12]
July 6 – The world's first Air Car-ferry service is flown by a Bristol Freighter of Silver City Airways, fromLympne toLe Touquet across theEnglish Channel.
July 13 – TheCoptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria andEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Churches reach an agreement, leading to the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalousPatriarchate. Fivebishops are immediately consecrated by thePatriarch of Alexandria and the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV is granted the power to consecrate new bishops, who are empowered to elect a new Patriarch for their church.
July 14 – The attempted assassination ofPalmiro Togliatti, general secretary of theItalian Communist Party, results in numerous strikes all over the country.
July 15 – The first London chapter ofAlcoholics Anonymous is founded.
July 16 – Three armed men hijack theCathay Pacific passenger planeMiss Macao and shoot the pilot; the plane crashes, killing 26 of 27 people on board.
July 20 –Cold War:
- PresidentHarry S. Truman issues the second peacetimemilitary draft in the United States, amid increasing tensions with theSoviet Union (the first peacetime draft occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt)
- Eugene Dennis,William Z. Foster and ten otherCommunist Party USA leaders are arrested and charged under theAlien Registration Act.
July 22 – TheDominion of Newfoundland votes to join Canada, after areferendum.
July 26 – U.S. President Truman signsExecutive Order 9981, endingracial segregation in theUnited States Armed Forces.
July 28 – Around 200 die in an explosion at a chemical plant inLudwigshafen, Germany.
July 29 – The1948 Summer Olympics begin in London, the first since the1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
July 31
- At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamedJohn F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
- American defectorElizabeth Bentley, previously working on behalf of the Soviet Union, appears under subpoena before theHouse Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of theUnited States House of Representatives regarding Communist espionage; she implicatesWhittaker Chambers.
July–October –Claude E. Shannon publishes "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" inBell System Technical Journal (US), regarded as a foundation ofinformation theory^[13] and all modern digital communications and adopting the termBit.

August

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Main article:August 1948

August 3 –Whittaker Chambers appears under subpoena before theHUAC and alleges that several former U.S. Federal officials were communists, includingHarry Dexter White andAlger Hiss.
August 5 –Alger Hiss appears before theHUAC, to deny the allegations ofWhittaker Chambers.
August 10–23 – TheHerrenchiemsee convention prepares the draft for theBasic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
August 12 –Babrra massacre: About 600 unarmed members of theKhudai Khidmatgar movement are shot dead on the orders of the Chief Minister of theNorth-West Frontier Province,Abdul Qayyum Khan Kashmiri, on Babrra ground in theHashtnagar region ofCharsadda District, North-West Frontier Province (modern-dayKhyber Pakhtunkhwa),Pakistan.
August 13 –Harry Dexter White andDonald Hiss refute allegations ofCommunism byWhittaker Chambers, before theHUAC.
August 14 –1948 Ashes series: Australianbatsman Don Bradman, playing his lastTest cricket match, against England atThe Oval, is bowled byEric Hollies for aduck (leaving his career Testbatting average at 99.94); however,"The Invincibles" win the match by aninnings and 149 runs, andThe Ashes 4–0.
August 14 –Beaver drop, anIdaho Department of Fish and Game program to relocatebeavers from Northwestern Idaho to theChamberlain Basin in Central Idaho. The program involved parachuting beavers into the Chamberlain Basin.^[14]
August 15 – The southern half of Korea is established as theRepublic of Korea (South Korea).
August 17 – TheHUAC holds a private session betweenAlger Hiss andWhittaker Chambers.
August 18 – TheDanube Commission is created by theBelgrade Convention (enters into force11 May 1949).
August 19 –Toho strikes: Asitdown strike atToho film studio inTokyo ended after the studio was surrounded by 2,000 police and a platoon ofU.S. Eighth Army soldiers.
August 20 –Lee Pressman,Nathan Witt andJohn Abt, represented byHarold I. Cammer, plead theFifth Amendment, in response to allegations of Communism byWhittaker Chambers before theHUAC.
August 23 – TheWorld Council of Churches is established inAmsterdam, the Netherlands.
August 24 – The first meeting of the charter members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) is held.^[15]
August 25 – TheHUAC holds its first-ever televised congressional hearing, featuring "Confrontation Day" betweenWhittaker Chambers andAlger Hiss.
August 27 –Whittaker Chambers states thatAlger Hiss was a communist onMeet the Press radio.

September

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Main article:September 1948

September 4 – QueenWilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.
September 5 –Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France.
September 6 –Juliana is formallyinaugurated to succeed her mother, as queen regnant of the Netherlands.
September 9 – The northern half of Korea is formally declared theDemocratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), withKim Il Sung as prime minister.
September 11 –Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder and firstGovernor-General of Pakistan, dies. Pakistan is in a state of shock as it mourns the departure of the father of the nation. The day is apublic holiday nationwide.
September 13–18 –Indian annexation of Hyderabad ("Operation Polo"): Theprincely state ofHyderabad is invaded by theIndian Armed Forces in a "police action", in the aftermath of Pakistani leaderJinnah's death. TheNizam of Hyderabad surrenders his state, which is amalgamated into the newly independentDominion of India; thousands are killed as a result of this event.
September 13 –Margaret Chase Smith is elected United States Senator, becoming the first woman to serve in both theU.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
September 17 –Lehi members, also known as the Stern Gang, assassinate Swedish countFolke Bernadotte, United Nations Mediator in Palestine, in Jerusalem.
September 18 – An inaugural motor race is held atGoodwood Circuit, West Sussex, England.
September 20 – The city ofRabwah is established in Pakistan.
September 27 –Alger Hiss files a slander suit againstWhittaker Chambers, for his August 27 radio statement in the United States.
September 29 –Laurence Olivier's film ofHamlet opens in the U.S.

October

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Main article:October 1948

October 5 – The International Union for the Protection of Nature (later known as theInternational Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN) is established inFontainebleau, France.
October 6 –1948 Ashgabat earthquake: A 7.3M_s earthquake nearAshgabat,Soviet Turkmenistan kills 10,000–110,000.
October 10 – TheR-1 missile on test becomes the firstSoviet launch to enter space.
October 16 – The57th Street Art Fair in Chicago, the oldest juried art fair in the American Midwest, is founded.
October 20 –Brandeis University is formally founded inMassachusetts.
October 26 –Donora Smog of 1948: A killer smog settles intoDonora, Pennsylvania.
October 29 –1948 Arab–Israeli War: Massacres of Palestinian Arab villagers by theIsrael Defense Forces:
- Al-Dawayima massacre: Between 30 and 145 are killed.
- Safsaf massacre: At least 52 are killed.
October 30 –Gozoluzzu disaster: Aluzzu fishing boat overloaded with passengers capsizes and sinks in theGozo Channel offQala,Gozo,Malta, killing 23 of the 27 people on board.^[16]

November

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Main article:November 1948

November 1
- TheFoley Square trial ofEugene Dennis and ten otherCPUSA leaders begins, in New York City.
- Athenagoras I is elected the 268thEcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
- A boiler and ammunition explosion aboard a merchant ship evacuating troops of theRepublic of China Army fromYingkou, China forTaiwan causes thousands of deaths.^[17]^[18]
Truman hold upsan erroneous banner headline of theChicago Daily Tribune.
November 2 –1948 United States presidential election: Democratic incumbentHarry S. Truman defeats RepublicanThomas E. Dewey, "Dixiecrat"Strom Thurmond and Progressive party candidateHenry A. Wallace.
November 12 – In Tokyo, an internationalwar crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials to death, including GeneralHideki Tojo, for their roles in World War II.
November 15 –Louis Stephen St. Laurent becomes Canada's 12thprime minister.
November 16
- Operation Magic Carpet to transport Jews from Yemen to Israel begins.
- TheUniversity of the Andes (Universidad de los Andes) is founded inBogotá, Colombia.
November 17
- Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi divorces his second wife, the former PrincessFawzia of Egypt.
- Whittaker Chambers produces secret government papers, handwritten and typewritten byAlger Hiss, during pretrial examination.
November 20 –Geoffrey B. Orbell rediscovers theTakahē, last seen 50 years previously, nearLake Te Anau, New Zealand.
November 24 – In Venezuela, presidentRómulo Gallegos is ousted by amilitary junta.
November 27 – TheCalgary Stampeders defeat theOttawa Rough Riders 12–7 before 20,013 fans at Toronto'sVarsity Stadium, to win their firstGrey Cup and complete the onlyperfect season to date inCanadian football.

December

[edit]

Main article:December 1948

Dutch forces in theDutch East Indies, 1948

December 1 –José Figueres Ferrer abolishes the army inCosta Rica, making it the first country in history to do so.
December 2 – The United StatesHouse Un-American Activities Committee subpoenas and retrieves the "Pumpkin Papers" from the farm ofWhittaker Chambers.
December 4 – The Chinese LinerSS Kiangya sinks after an explosion occurs at the stern, which is thought to be a Japanese naval from fromWorld War 2, killing up to 3920 people.
December 6 –Richard Nixon displays microfilm from the "Pumpkin Papers" to the press.
December 9 – TheUnited Nations General Assembly adopts theGenocide Convention.
December 10 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights.
December 11–12 –Malayan Emergency:Batang Kali massacre:Scots Guards shoot 24Chinese villagers inMalaya.
December 15 – TheUnited States Department of Justice indictsAlger Hiss, on two counts ofperjury.
December 17 – TheFinnish Security Police is established to removecommunist leadership from its predecessor, theState Police.
December 19 – In the AmericanNational Football League, thePhiladelphia Eagles defeat theChicago Cardinals 7–0, to win the championship.
December 20
- Indonesian National Revolution: The Dutch military captures Yogyakarta, the temporary capital of the newly formed Republic of Indonesia.
- American economist and former State Department officialLaurence Duggan falls to his death, from the 16th story window of his Manhattan office.
December 23 – 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.
December 26
- The last Soviet troops withdraw fromNorth Korea.
- CardinalJózsef Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.
December 28 – AMuslim Brotherhood member assassinates Egyptian Prime MinisterMahmud Fahmi Nokrashi.
December 30 – The musicalKiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances in New York City.
December 31 –Arab-Israeli War: Israeli troops drive Egyptians from theNegev.

Date unknown

[edit]

TheFresh Kills Landfill, the world's largest, opens onStaten Island, New York.
The Slovak city Gúta is renamedKolárovo.
TheVielha Tunnel is opened, giving access to theVal d'Aran in the SpanishPyrenees; at this time it is the longest road tunnel in the world.^[19]
The Oakridge Transit Centre opens inVancouver,British Columbia.
The last recorded sighting is made of theCaspian tiger, inKazakhstan.
A pack of wolves kills about 40 children inDarovskoy District, in Russia.^[20]
The last edition of theIndex Librorum Prohibitorum is published in theVatican.
Charles Warrell creates the firstI-Spy books in the United Kingdom.
Rev. W. Awdry's third book,James the Red Engine, is published in the United Kingdom.
Inspired by World War II fighter planes,Cadillac introduces the first automobile to sporttailfins.
The inaugural6 Hours of Watkins Glen sports car endurance race is held in the United States.