Highlights of 1946

 

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MAJOR EVENTS:
  • Winston Churchill warns of an "iron curtain" falling over Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe
  • UN General Assembly meets for the first time; John D. Rockefeller donates money for a UN headquarters in New York
  • Nuremburg war crimes trial returns death sentences for 12 Nazis, including Ribbentrop and Goering; 2 life sentences; and 2 acquittals. Goering commits suicide before his scheduled execution.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY:
  • U.S. industry idled by widespread labor strikes; federal government takes control of railroads
  • Most wartime price controls eliminated

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:
  • Atomic Energy Commission created
  • Xerographic photocopying process invented
  • U.S. Navy tests atomic bomb at Bikini in the South Pacific

SPORTS:
  • World Series:St. Louis over Boston, 4-3
  • Joe Louis defends heavyweight title for 23rd time
  • "Assault" wins Belmont, Preakness and Kentucky Derby

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT:
  • Movies:The Best Years of Our Lives, Notorious, Great Expectations
  • Songs: Tenderly, Come Rain or Come Shine, Zip-a-dee-doo-dah
  • TV Shows: Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, Esso Newsreel (programming limited to approximately 12 hours per week on two networks)
  • Books: Hiroshima, John Hersey; Baby and Child Care, Dr. Benjamin Spock; All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren

EVERYDAY LIFE:
  • Dr. Benjamin Spock's Baby and Child Care influences millions of new and expectant parents throughout the U.S.
  • Strapless bras become popular, ushering in a trend toward bare-shouldered women's fashions
  • "Tide", the first detergent designed for automatic clothes washing machines, introduced
  • First electric clothes dryers
  • Suntan lotions, developed for troops during World War II, marketed to consumers for the first time

FUN FACTS:
  • Shortest recorded boxing match ever; Couture defeats Walton in 10.5 seconds with one punch
  • Americans eat a record 714 million gallons of ice cream

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