- Mahatma Gandhi assassinated in India
- House Un-American Activities Committee accuses Alger Hiss of spying for the Soviet Union
- Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia
- U.S. Congress ratifies Marshall Plan, approving $17 billion in European aid
- State of Israel created; admits over 200,000 European war refugees
- Soviet Union seals off land routes to Berlin; West responds with massive airlift of provisions
- President Harry S Truman re-elected in upset over Thomas E. Dewey
- President Truman integrates the U.S. Armed Forces
MAJOR EVENTS:
- U.S. continues to cope with severe postwar inflation while rocked by labor unrest
- United Auto Workers succeed in linking wage increases to cost-of-living index in contract with General Motors
- Congress enacts federal rent controls
BUSINESS & ECONOMY:
- Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male is the first large-scale study of individuals’ sexual habits, with stunning revelations about infidelity, homosexuality and other issues
- U.S. government conducts extensive missile tests in New Mexico desert
- 200-inch telescope at Mount Palomar begins operation
- Cortisone introduced as an arthritis treatment
- "Big bang" theory of the universe’s origin postulated
- Orville Wright dies
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:
- World Series: Cleveland over Boston, 4-2
- Olympics held in London
- "Citation" wins Preakness, Belmont and Kentucky Derby
- Boxer Joe Louis retires
- Babe Ruth dies
SPORTS:
- Movies: Hamlet, Macbeth (Orson Welles), The Naked City, Oliver Twist, The Fallen Idol
- Songs: Nature Boy, Buttons and Bows, All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth
- TV Shows: Howdy Doody, Philco TV Playhouse, Toast of the Town, Kraft Television Theatre, Meet the Press
- Books: The Big Fisherman, Lloyd C. Douglas; Crusade in Europe, Dwight D. Eisenhower; Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton; The Ides of March, Thorton Wilder; Tales of the South Pacific, James Michener; The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
- Long-playing (33-1/3 RPM) record invented
- Boxing and wrestling are TV’s prime attractions
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT:
- Selective Service inaugurated, providing a continuous peacetime military draft until repealed in 1973
- New York’s Idlewild Airport opens (renamed JFK Airport in 1963)
- Swiss outdoorsman George de Mestral invents Velcro
- Noted food critic Duncan Hines founds a company to make prepackaged cake mixes
EVERYDAY LIFE:
- Popcorn sold on a mass scale for the first time
- "Scrabble" introduced
