BIGpedia - 1946 - Encyclopedia and Dictionary Online

1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. (see link for calendar)

Years: 1943 1944 1945 - 1946 - 1947 1948 1949
Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Events

January

January 4 - Theodore Schurch becomes the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940
January 7 - Allied recognize Austrian republic with 1937 borders - the country is divided into four occupation zones
January 10 - First meeting of the United Nations
January 11 - Enver Hoxha declares the people's republic of Albania with himself as prime minister.
January 11 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob's ashes go back to Colombia.
January 17 - The UN Security Council holds its first session
January 20 - Charles De Gaulle resigns as president of France
January 25 - The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor
January 28 - Bluenose founders on a Haitian reef
January 31 - Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

February

February 1 - Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
February 2 - Kingdom of Hungary becomes a republic.
February 14 - The Bank of England nationalized
February 14 - ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania
February 15 - Canada indicts 22 communist agents.
February 24 - Juan Peron elected president of Argentina
February 28 - In Philadelphia, strikers of General Electric and police clash

March

March 2 - British troops withdraw from Iran according to treaty - Soviets do not.
March 2 - Ho Chi Minh elected the President of North Vietnam
March 4 - C.G.E. Mannerheim resigns from the post of president of Finland
March 5 - In his speech in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill talks about Iron Curtain.
March 6 - Vietnam War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
March 9 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi becomes president of Finland
March 10 - British troops begin withdrawal from Lebanon
March 15 - Clement Attlee promises independence to India as soon as they can agree on constitution
March 19 - Soviet Union and Switzerland reform diplomatic relations.
March 19 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France
March 22 - Transjordan gains independence
March 29 - Gold Coast has an African majority in the parliament
March 31 - Herbert Hoover visits Finland

April

April 1 - 14-meter high tsunami strikes Hilo, Hawaii - 173 dead, thousands injured.
April 1 - Singapore becomes a Crown colony
April 3 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
April 7 - Syria's independence from France is officially recognised
April 10 - In Japan, women vote for the first time in parliamentarian elections
April 18 - USA recognizes Josip Broz Tito's government in Yugoslavia
April 18 - Last meeting of League of Nations – it transfers its mission to United Nations and disbands itself.
April 29 - Trial against war criminals begin in Tokyo – accused include Hideki Tojo, Shegenori Togo and Hiroshi Oshima .

May

May 7 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with about 20 employees.
May 9 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates, and is succeeded by his son Humbert II.
May 10 - Nehru elected leader of the Congress Party in India
May 20 - In Britain, the House of Commons decides to nationalize mines.
May 21 - Radiation accident in Los Alamos laboratory; Dr Louis Slotin saves his coworkers but receives a fatal dose of radiation. Incident is initially classified
May 22 - Kingdom of Transjordan founded.
May 25 - The parliament of Transjordan makes emir Abdullah their king.
May 28 - K. Satchidanandan Malayalam poet
May 29 - Fernando Buesa, Basque politician (d. 2000)
May 31 - Greece referendum supports return of monarchy

June-July

June 2 - In a referendum Italians decide to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After this referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia was exiled. Women vote for the first time.
June 6 - The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City.
June 8 - In Indonesia, Sukarno incites his supporters to fight Dutch colonial occupation
June 9 - In Thailand, king Rama IX accedes the throne.
June 10 - Italy declared republic
June 13 - Humbert II of Italy leaves the country – Alcide de Gasperi becomes head of state.
June 17 - Tornado on the Detroit river - 17 dead
July 4 - After over 400 years, the Philippines achieves full independence.
July 5 - The bikini is introduced.
July 7 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American saint to be canonized.
July 21 - Irgun bomb explodes in Jerusalem.
July 22 - King David Hotel bombing: Irgun bombs King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the British civil and military administration killing 90.
July 25 - Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus USS Saratoga is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean when the United States detonates the "Baker Day " device.
July 25 - At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.

August-November

August 19 - Violence between Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta – 3000 dead.
August 25 - Ben Hogan wins PGA Championship
September 4 - Street violence between Muslims and Hindus in Bombay.
September 8 - Bulgaria declared a People's Republic after a referendum – King Simeon II leaves.
September 28 - George II of Greece returns to Athens
October 2 - Communists take over in Bulgaria
October 13 - France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.
October 15 - Nuremberg Trials: Founder of the Gestapo and recently convicted Nazi war criminal, Hermann Göring, poisons himself hours before his scheduled execution.
October 23 - United Nations' first meeting in Long Island.
November 8 - Vietnamese riot in Haiphong and clash with French troops. French cruiser Suffren opens fire. 6000 Vietnamese killed.
November 12 - Truce between Indonesian nationalist troops and Dutch army in Indonesia.
November 12 - A branch of the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, Illinois opens the first ten drive-up teller windows .
November 15 - Netherlands recognized Republic of Indonesia.
November 19 - Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden joins the United Nations
November 27 - Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."

December

December 11 - UNICEF founded.
December 12 - United Nations severs relations with Franco's Spain and recommends the member countries to sever diplomatic relations
December 12 - Leon Blum founds a government of socialist parties in France
December 19 - Martial law in Vietnam
December 24 - France's Fourth Republic founded
December 26 - Flamingo Hotel opens in Las Vegas.
December 31 - President Harry Truman officially proclaims an end of hostilities in World War II.

unknown dates

Phantom rockets over Sweden
The 20mm M61 Vulcan gatling gun is invented
Devil's Island penal colony closes permanently
Female suffrage in Belgium, Romania, Yugoslavia, Argentina and Canadian province of Quebec. First female police officers in Korea and Japan.
Chinese Civil War intensifies between Kuomintang and Communist Party of China.
First Tupperware sold in department and hardware stores
Grantley Adams becomes the premier of Barbados
Alcatraz Island prison riot
The British government takes emergency powers to deal with the balance-of-payments crisis

Year in topic

1946 in film
- The Best Years of Our Lives
- Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart
- Henry V
- The Razor's Edge
- Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious starring Cary Grant
- The Big Sleep (1946 film) starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
- Paisà by Roberto Rossellini
- Il sole orge ancora by Aldo Vergano
1946 in literature
- The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill
- Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
- Animal Farm by George Orwell – becomes book of the year in USA
- All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
- Baby and child care by Benjamin Spock
1946 in music
1946 in rail transport
1946 in sports
1946 in television
- February 4 – RCA demonstrates all-electronic color television system.
- February 18 - The first Washington-New York telecast through AT&T coaxial cable is termed success by engineers and viewers.
- April 22 - CBS color television program is successfully transmitted over a 450-mile coaxial cable link from New York to Washington
- May 9 - The first variety show premieres, Hour Glass, on NBC.
- June 7 - The BBC begins broadcasting again and reshows the Mickey Mouse cartoon, that had been interrupted seven years earlier at the start of the World War II.
- June 19 - The first televised heavyweight title fight between Joe Louis and Billy Conn is broadcast from Yankee Stadium. The fight was seen by 141,000 people, the largest television audience to see a fight.
- October 2 - The first TV network soap opera, Faraway Hill, airs on the DuMont Network.
- December 24 - The first church service is telecast, Grace Episcopal Church in New York, on WABD.
- ToKyo Tushin Kogyo founded, which would later become Sony
- Zoomar introduces the first professional zoom lens

Births

Deaths

January 29 - Harry Hopkins, politician
February 5 - George Arliss, actor
March 23 - Gilbert N. Lewis, physical chemist.
March 24 - Alexander Alekhine, chess champion
April 1 - Noah Beery, Sr., actor
April 3 - Alf Common, first £1000 footballer
April 22 - Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1872)
May 17 - William Jefferson Blythe III, father of U.S. President Bill Clinton
May 19 - Booth Tarkington, American novelist
June 1 - Ion Antonescu, Romanian prime minister and dictator (b. 1882)
June 10 - Jack Johnson, African-American boxer
July 8 - Orrick Glenday Johns, poet and playwright
July 13 - Alfred Stieglitz, photographer (b. 1864)
July 15 - Razor Smith, Surrey slow bowler who took 247 wickets in 1910 (b. 1877)
Alfred Stock German chemist
August 13 - H.G. Wells, English science fiction writer
October 4 - Barney Oldfield, American automobile racer and pioneer (b. 1878)
October 15 - Hermann Göring, Nazi leader, marshall of the Third Reich, head of the Airforce (suicide)
October 16 - Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian Nazi leader, governor of The Netherlands during the German occupation (1940-1945) (executed)
November 14 - Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer
December 10 - Walter Johnson, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1887)
December 25 - W.C. Fields, British actor and comedian

Unknown date

Arlene Feynman, wife of Richard Feynman

1946

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June-July

August-November

December

unknown dates

Year in topic

Births

January

February-March

April-June

July-August

September

October

November-December

Deaths

Unknown date

Nobel Prizes