February 14, 1946: ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, begins operation. This photo has been artificially darkened, obscuring details such as the women who were present and the IBM equipment in use.[1]February 1, 1946: Trygve Lie becomes first UN Secretary GeneralFebruary 16, 1946: The S-51, the first commercial helicopter, makes its first flightFebruary 9, 1946: Stalin says that Inter-Capitalist war is inevitable
Syria and the Soviet Union secretly signed a treaty for military advisers to come to Syria. A treaty between the USSR and Lebanon was signed two days later.[3]
The popular quiz showTwenty Questions, hosted byFred van Deventer, premiered on the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network and began a nine-year run on radio and later on the DuMont and ABC television networks.[8]
NBC Radio commentatorDrew Pearson broke the news of what would become known as the "Gouzenko Affair": a Soviet spy ring had been operating in Canada, and that the spy agencyGRU had been transmitting American atomic secrets fromOttawa to Moscow.[10]
Died:Friedrich Jeckeln, 51, SS commander during the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union, was hanged in public at Pobeda Square inRiga, along with five of his officers. Jeckeln oversaw the deaths of more than 250,000 people, mostly Jewish, during the Second World War.[11]
National weather forecasts returned to American newspapers after four years. Publication of maps had ceased on December 15, 1941, a week after the United States entered World War II.[12]
The first scheduled Trans-Atlantic commercial airplane flight was made when the "Star of Paris", aTWAConstellation, took off at2:21 pm from New York's La Guardia airport. The plane landed in Paris 14 hours and 48 minutes later.[13]
In its colony inVietnam, the military forces of France made a large scale assault to recapture theBến Tre Province, which had been under control of theViet Minh since August 25, 1945. The province was quickly brought back under French rule, but guerilla activity continued.[18]
Kim Il Sung was elected Chairman of the Interim People's Committee in the Soviet occupied portion ofKorea. Kim, who led the northern branch of the Korean Communist Party, would become the first leader ofNorth Korea.[19]
In what has been described as the beginning of theCold War,[20] Soviet leaderJoseph Stalin addressed a national radio audience in his first major public speech after the end of World War II. Stalin said that another war was inevitable because of the "capitalist development of the world economy", and that the USSR would need to concentrate on national defense in advance of a war with the Western nations.[21]
In the most well-known example of arecurrent nova,T Coronae Borealis, nicknamed the "blaze star", was seen to flare up almost 80 years after a nova seen on May 12, 1866.[22]
Charles "Lucky" Luciano, an American Mafia boss, was transported from a New York prison to an ocean liner, and deported to his native Italy.[23]
In the first election in the Soviet Union since 1937, there was a reported turnout of 101,450,936 voters (99.7% of those eligible). For the 682 deputies of theSoviet of the Union, and the 657 members of theSoviet of Nationalities, the candidates were unopposed and the choice was yes-or-no. Of the 1,339 candidates, there were 254 who were not Communist Party members.[24]
The ocean linerQueen Mary docked at Pier 90 in New York City, bringing 1,666 war brides and their 668 children.[25]
Commodore Ben Wyatt, Military Governor of theMarshall Islands, informed the 167 residents of theBikini Atoll that they would be relocated, so that atomic bomb testing could take place. Wyatt told the villagers that their sacrifice was "for the good of mankind and to end all wars".[27]
TheYalta Agreement was published one year to the day after it had been signed, in simultaneous releases inWashington, D.C. (9:00 am), London (2:00 pm), and Moscow (5:00 pm).[29]
In advance of the presidential election inArgentina, theU.S. State Department issued a 121-page "blue book", with evidence thatArgentina, and candidateJuan Perón, had aidedNazi Germany during World War II. Perón won the election in spite of the American publication.[31]
Sgt.Isaac Woodard, an African-American U.S. Army veteran, was beaten and blinded by the police chief inBatesburg, South Carolina. Woodard's maiming attracted national attention onOrson Welles's radio show and was later dramatized in the 1958 Welles movieTouch of Evil, as well as inWoody Guthrie's songThe Blinding of Isaac Woodard.[32] Woodard died in 1992. His assailant, Lindwood Shull, was acquitted by a federal court, and lived until 1997.
DuMont TV network
TheDuMont Television Network made the first network telecast, transmitting, by cable, video and audio of Lincoln's Birthday celebrations from its station in Washington, D.C. (W3XWT), to its New York affiliate,WABD. The NBC and CBS stations in New York also received the DuMont broadcast.[33]
Harold L. Ickes, theU.S. Secretary of the Interior since 1933, resigned in protest after President Truman said that Ickes could have been "wrong" in testimony given to a U.S. Senate committee about Truman's nominee for Undersecretary of the Navy. Ickes wrote "I cannot stay on when you, in effect, have expressed a lack of confidence in me."[34]
The U.S. Army introducedENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, to the public in a press conference at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The world's first electronic computer weighed 30 tons, had 18,000vacuum tubes, and was 8 feet (2.4 m) tall, 3 feet (0.91 m) deep, and 100 feet (30 m) long.[36][37][38] One of the computer's first tests was computing trajectories for rocket launching, "completing in ten days a job which would have required three months of concentrated effort by a mathematician".[39]
Twenty-two current and former Canadian government employees were arrested by theRoyal Canadian Mounted Police, after Soviet defectorIgor Gouzenko had provided a list of 1,700 North American informants who were providing classified information to the U.S.S.R.[40]
The firstUN Security Council veto was made, as the Soviet Union killed a resolution concerning the withdrawal of British and French forces fromSyria andLebanon.[42]
Frozenfrench fries were introduced. Pre-fried by Maxson Food Systems ofLong Island, New York, and made to be baked in the oven, the product was first sold at Macy's in New York, but were not immediately popular. American per-capita potato consumption had declined since 1910, and was not measured at previous levels until 1962, when french fries were a fast-food restaurant staple.[43]
TheSikorsky S-51, the first helicopter sold for commercial rather than military use, was flown for the first time.[44]
In a policy of preventing Jewish immigration toPalestine, British authorities intercepted the shipEnzo Sereni, with 915 refugees on board. The Zionist groupPalmach retaliated three days later with the destruction of a British Coast Guard station.[45]
TheRoyal Indian Navy Mutiny began at8:00 am at the port ofColaba nearBombay (nowMumbai). In the first mutiny in British India since 1857, a group of 1,600 sailors ("ratings") fromHMISTalwar walked out of the mess hall because of inadequate food, and began to chant, "No food, no work". The next day, another 20,000 ratings in Bombay joined the strike, and over the next days, rioting broke out.[46] Before order was restored on February 24, there were 223 deaths and 1,037 injuries.[47]
A federal judge inCalifornia ruled that segregation in four school districts was unconstitutional. Schools in El Modena, Garden Grove, Westminster and Santa Ana had separated Mexican-American students from English-speaking students. Two months later, California repealed a law permitting segregated schools for Asian-Americans. The decision inMendez v. Westminster was upheld on appeal in 1947.[49]
British Prime MinisterClement Attlee announced plans "to effect the transference of power to responsible India hands by a date not later than June 1948".[52]
The Allied Powers government in Japan ended the three century old tradition of "kōshō" licensedprostitution.[53]
Americans United for World Government was announced as the new name for the two-year-old global federalist group Americans United for World Organization. AUWG Chairman Raymond Swing announced that there was need for a world government to control atomic weapons.[55]
"The Long Telegram" was sent from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to theU.S. Department of State and would become the basis of American foreign policy for nearly fifty years. At more than 8,000 words, it was the longest telegraphed message sent to that time. The author,George F. Kennan, thechargé d'affaires at the American embassy, was responding to a specific inquiry from the State Department, and his answer was thecontainment strategy, to keep the Soviet Union from spreadingCommunism further without going to war.[56] Kennan sent the telegram at9:00 pm Moscow time (1:00 pm EST), and it was received in Washington at 3:52 EST.[57]
The first attacks in theTexarkana Moonlight Murders took place when a couple on a date, 25-year-old Jimmy Hollis and his girlfriend, Mary Larey, were attacked and seriously injured. Both survived, but six other people would be attacked over the next three months, five of them fatally, by a serial killer who has never been identified.[58]
Lieutenant GeneralTomoyuki Yamashita, who led the Japanese conquest ofSingapore and thePhilippines, was executed by hanging inManila for war crimes, followed by Lt. Col. Seichi Ohta, who had headed security for Japan's "thought police" (kempei tai), and interpreter Takuma Higashigi.
African American residents ofColumbia, Tennessee, took up arms after white residents sought to lynch James Stephenson, a 19-year-old U.S. Navy veteran. Four white police officers were shot and wounded after trying to enter the black section of town, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol moved in the next morning, arresting more than 100 residents, two of whom died in jail. TheCivil Rights Congress, a Communist Party USA defense fund, was formed to aid in the defense of the arrest subjects.[61]
The Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands(SED) was started in the Soviet Zone of Germany, when the Social Democratic Party was pressured to unite with the Communist Party. The SED, Communist in all but name, would ruleEast Germany for all but the last six months of that nation's existence.[62]
The Scandinavian phenomenon of "ghost rockets" was first observed, by observers inFinland. Thousands of reported sightings of the unidentified objects were made throughout 1946.[63]
Former U.S. PresidentHerbert Hoover was asked by PresidentHarry Truman to assist in persuading Americans to assist in famine relief worldwide.[64]
Forrestal
After reviewing a report fromNational Urban League executiveLester Granger's tour of naval bases worldwide, U.S. Navy SecretaryJames Forrestal issued the order (applying to theUnited States Navy only), "Effective immediately, all restrictions governing the types of assignments for which Negro naval personnel are eligible are hereby lifted."[65]
U.S. SenatorArthur H. Vandenberg ofMichigan further set the tone for theCold War, in a famous speech in which he asked the rhetorical question, "What is Russia up to now?", and criticized the Truman Administration's policy of appeasement toward the Soviets. Vandenberg, the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would become its Chairman when the Republican Party won a majority in both houses in the 1946 mid-term elections.[66]
Ho Chi Minh, the newly elected President ofVietnam, sent a telegram to U.S. PresidentHarry S. Truman, asking that the United States use its influence to persuade France not to send occupation forces back into Vietnam, and to "interfere urgently in support of our independence". Truman's reply was that the U.S. would support France, and Ho sought assistance from the Soviet Union instead.[67]
Born:Robin Cook, Scottish politician, Leader of the British House of Commons, 2001–2003; inBellshill,Lanarkshire; (d. 2005)
^The original photo can be seen in the article:Rose, Allen (April 1946)."Lightning Strikes Mathematics".Popular Science:83–86. Retrieved15 April 2012.
^Andrew W. Cordier and Wilder Foote, eds.,Public Papers of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations, Vol. 1, (Columbia University Press, 1969) p359
^Rami Ginat,Syria and the Doctrine of Arab Neutralism: From Independence to Dependence (Sussex Academic Press, 2005), p38
^John E. Jessup,An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945–1996 (Greenwood Press, 1998), p290
^Takemae Eiji,The Allied Occupation of Japan (Continuum, 2003), pp123–124
^"Two Sun Spots 'Blackout' Globe Radio",Salt Lake Tribune, February 3, 1946, p1
^"13 Die, 20 Lost As Home for Aged Blazes",Salt Lake Tribune, February 1946, p1
^"Fred Van Deventer Dead at 67; Originated Radio '20 Questions'",The New York Times, December 4, 1971, p. 34
^Weaver, Tom; Brunas, John (2011).Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films, 1931–1946 (2 ed.). McFarland. p. 557.ISBN978-0-786-49150-6.
^Amy W. Knight,How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies (Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2007), p104
^"The Creation of Memory and Myth", by Frank Costigliola, inCritical Reflections on the Cold War: Linking Rhetoric and History (Texas A & M University Press, 2000), p38
^Ruud van Dijk,Encyclopedia of the Cold War (Volume 1, Taylor and Francis, 2008), p848
^Michael E. Bakich,The Cambridge Guide to the Constellations (Cambridge University Press, 1995), p188
^"From 'Lucky' to Gotti: A Miscellany of American Mafiosi", by Ian Schott, inThe World's Greatest True Crime (Barnes & Noble Books, 2004), p21
^William Henry Chamberlin,Russia's Iron Age (READ BOOKS, 2007), p229; "Russ Unanimously Back Stalin, Soviet Regime",Salt Lake Tribune, February 12, 1946, p1
^"1666 Brides of Yanks Dock in N.Y.",Salt Lake Tribune, February 11, 1946, p1
^"Dutch Offer Indonesia 'Free' Status",Salt Lake Tribune, February 11, 1946, p1
^Gerard J. De Groot,The Bomb: A Life (Harvard University Press, 2004) p118
^Peter J. Thuesen,In Discordance with the Scriptures: American Protestant Battles over Translating the Bible (Oxford University Press, 1999) p85
^Gilbert Rozman,Japan and Russia: The Tortuous Path to Normalization, 1949–1999 (St. Martin's Press 2000) p34
^Spicer, Stuart (2001).Dream Schemes II: Exotic Airliner Art.MBI Publishing. p. 103.
^"U.S. Demands Ouster of Peron Regime".Salt Lake Tribune. February 13, 1946. p. 1.
^Stowe, Brook (2007).New York Theater Review. Black Wave Press. p. 55.
^Weinstein, David (2006).The Forgotten Network: DuMont and the Birth of American Television.Temple University Press. p. 16.
^"Ickes Quits Cabinet, Blasts Truman in Ed Pauley Row",Oakland Tribune, February 13, 1946, p1
^"Machine Computes Rocket-Fire Data".The New York Times. April 12, 1946. p. 11.
^"RUSSIAN SPY RING BARED",Winnipeg Free Press, February 16, 1946, p1; Ruth Millar,Saskatchewan Heroes & Rogues (Coteau Books, 2004), pp154–155
^"U.S. Steel Strike Comes to End",Salt Lake Tribune, February 16, 1946, p1
^David L. Bosco,Five to Rule Them All: The UN Security Council and the Making of the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 4
^Vince Staten,Can You Trust a Tomato in January?: The Hidden Life of Groceries and Other Secrets of the Supermarket Revealed at Last (Simon and Schuster, 1993), p113
^Eugene W. Rawlins,Marines and Helicopters 1946–1962 (U.S. Marine Corps, 1976), p. 2
^Joseph Heller,The Birth of Israel 1945–1949: Ben-Gurion and His Critics (University Press of Florida, 2000) p. 122
^O.P. Ralhan, ed.,Encyclopaedia Of Political Parties (Vol. 50, Anmol Publications, 1997) pp1009–1011
^"Bombay Quiet: Riot Killed 223, Hurt 1037",Salt Lake Tribune, February 25, 1946, p1
^"Pope Confers Red Hats on 28 Cardinals",Salt Lake Tribune, February 22, 1946, p1
^Encyclopedia of African American Education (SAGE Publications, 2008), p437
^Nicholas Fraser andMarysa Navarro,Evita: The Real Life of Eva Perón (W.W. Norton, 1996), p74
^Dieter Nohlen,Elections in the Americas (Oxford University Press, 2005)
^Christopher B. Strain,Pure Fire: Self-defense as Activism in the Civil Rights Era (University of Georgia Press, 2005) p30
^Busky, Donald F. (2002).Communism in History and Theory: The European Experience. Praeger. p. 20.
^Randle, Kevin; Estes, Russ (2000).Spaceships of the Visitors: An Illustrated Guide to Alien Spacecraft.Simon and Schuster. p. 47.
^"Truman Calls in Hoover To Halt World Famine",Salt Lake Tribune, February 1946, p1
^Benjamin Quarles,The Negro in the Making of America (Simon and Schuster, 1996), p259
^John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947 (Columbia University Press, 2000), p295
^Robert L. LaPointe,PJs in Vietnam: The Story of Airrescue in Vietnam As Seen Through the Eyes of Pararescuemen (Northern PJ Press, 2000) pp26–27;photograph of telegram
