1949

Related subjects: Years

SOS Children opened its first Children's Village in the Austrian 1949. Visit SOS Children UK to find out more about our work.

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Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1910s 1920s 1930s – 1940s – 1950s 1960s 1970s
Years:	1946 1947 1948 – 1949 – 1950 1951 1952

1949 by topic:
Subject
Archaeology Architecture Art Aviation Awards Comics Film Literature ( Poetry) Meteorology Music ( Country) Rail transport Radio Science Spaceflight Sports Television
By country
Australia Canada People's Republic of China Ecuador France Germany Greece India Ireland Israel Italy Japan Luxembourg Malaya Mexico New Zealand Norway Pakistan Philippines Singapore South Africa Soviet Union United Kingdom United States
Leaders
Sovereign states State leaders Religious leaders Law
Birth and death categories
Births Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments Disestablishments
Works and introductions categories
Works Introductions

1949 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar	1949 MCMXLIX
Ab urbe condita	2702
Armenian calendar	1398 ԹՎ ՌՅՂԸ
Assyrian calendar	6699
Bahá'í calendar	105–106
Bengali calendar	1356
Berber calendar	2899
British Regnal year	13 Geo. 6 – 14 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2493
Burmese calendar	1311
Byzantine calendar	7457–7458
Chinese calendar	戊子年十二月初三日 (4585/4645-12-3) — to — 己丑年十一月十二日 (4586/4646-11-12)
Coptic calendar	1665–1666
Ethiopian calendar	1941–1942
Hebrew calendar	5709–5710
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2005–2006
- Shaka Samvat	1871–1872
- Kali Yuga	5050–5051
Holocene calendar	11949
Igbo calendar
- Ǹrí Ìgbò	949–950
Iranian calendar	1327–1328
Islamic calendar	1368–1369
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 24 (昭和24年)
Juche calendar	38
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4282
Minguo calendar	ROC 38 民國38年
Thai solar calendar	2492

Year 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January

January 1 – UN sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistan War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which is still continuing as of 2013.
January 2 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
January 4 – RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage.
January 4 – February 22 – Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada – winds of up to 72 mph – tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish.
January 5 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
January 11 - Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.
January 16 – Şemsettin Günaltay forms the new government of Turkey. (18th government, last single party government of CHP)

January 17: Beetle in U.S.

January 17 – The first VW Type 1 to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York by Dutch businessman Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models were sold in America that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff the car had no future in the U.S. (The Type 1 went on to become an automotive phenomenon.)
January 19 – The Poe Toaster first appears at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe.
January 20 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman is inaugurated for his full term.
January 25
- Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA or COMECON) established by Soviet Union and other communist nations.
- The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
- In the first Israeli election, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.
January 26 – Australian citizenship comes into being and Constitution of India was prepared.
January 31 – Forces from the Communist Party of China enter Beijing.

February

February 1 – Rationing of clothes ends in Britain.
February 10 – Death of a Salesman opens in the Morosco Theatre and runs for 742 performances.
February 13 – António Óscar Carmona is re-elected president of Portugal for lack of an opposing candidate.
February 19 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
February 22
- Cincinnati Gardens opens in Cincinnati.
- Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow, gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention in the United States.

March

March 1
- World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires.
- Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch.
March 2 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight (it was refueled in flight 4 times).
March 17 – The Shamrock Hotel in Houston, Texas, owned by oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy, has its grand opening.
March 20 – The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western, and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Oakland, California, as the first long distance train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment.
March 25 – An extensive deportation campaign is conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Soviet authorities deport more than 92,000 people from the Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.
March 26 – The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert (i.e. no scenery or costumes), is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Centre. The second half is telecast a week later. This is the only complete opera that Toscanini ever conducts on television.
March 28
- United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.
- English astronomer Fred Hoyle coins the term Big Bang during a BBC Third Programme radio broadcast.
March 29 – The 21st Academy Awards ceremony is held.
March 31 – The former British colony of Newfoundland joins Canada as its 10th province.

April

April 1
- Éire leaves the British Commonwealth and becomes the Republic of Ireland.
- The Tokyo Stock Exchange is founded.
April 4 – The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., creating the NATO defense alliance.
April 7 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, opens on Broadway and goes on to become R&H's second longest-running musical. It becomes an instant classic of the musical theatre. The score's biggest hit is the song "Some Enchanted Evening".
April 8 – Kathy Fiscus, 3½ years old, dies from falling down an abandoned well in San Marino, California.
April 14 – The day the N'Ko alphabet is held to have been completed by Solomana Kante.
April 18 – Éire formally becomes the Republic of Ireland.
April 20 – The Royal Navy frigate Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of Mao's Communist forces. Under heavy fire, she grounds off Rose Island. After an abortive rescue attempt on April 26, she anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the Communists to let the ship leave drag on for weeks.
April 23 – Chinese Communist troops take Nanjing.
April 27 – British Commonwealth of Nations renamed The Commonwealth.
April 28
- India issues the London Declaration, enabling it (and, thereafter, any other nation) to remain in the British Commonwealth despite becoming a republic, creating the position of ' Head of the Commonwealth', and renaming the organisation as the 'Commonwealth of Nations'.
- Former Philippine First Lady Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others are also killed.
April 29 – The News Review reveals neither Selhurst College nor its headmaster H. Rochester Sneath exist.

May

May 1 – Nereid, a moon of Neptune, is discovered by Gerard P. Kuiper.
May 5 – The Council of Europe is founded by the signing of the Treaty of London.
May 6 – EDSAC, the first practicable stored-program computer, runs its first program at Cambridge University.
May 9 – Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco, upon the death of his maternal grandfather Louis II.
May 11
- Israel is admitted to the United Nations as its 59th member.
- Siam officially changes its French name to "Thaïlande" (English name to "Thailand"), having officially changed its Thai name to "Prated Thai" since 1939.
May 12 – Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
May 20
- The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.
- The Kuomintang regime declares Taiwan under martial law.
May 22 – After two months in Bethesda Naval Hospital, James Forrestal commits suicide, under circumstances that seem suspicious to many.
May 23 – The Federal Republic of Germany is established.

June

June 2 – Transjordan becomes the Kingdom of Jordan.
June 5 – Thailand elects Orapin Chaiyakan, the first Thai female member of Thailand's Parliament.
June 6 – With the passage of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act by the Indian government, Mahabodhi Temple is restored to partial Buddhist control.
June 8
- Red Scare: Celebrities including Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.
- George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.
June 14 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, becomes the first primate to enter space, on U.S. Hermes project V-2 rocket Blossom IVB, but is killed on impact at return.
June 19 – Glenn Dunaway wins the inaugural NASCAR race at Charlotte Speedway, a 3/4 mile oval in Charlotte, North Carolina, but is disqualified due to illegal springs. Jim Roper is declared the official winner.
June 24 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC.
June 29
- Dock workers strike in the UK.
- Apartheid: The South African Citizenship Act suspends the granting of citizenship to British Commonwealth immigrants after 5 years and imposes a ban on mixed marriages.

July

July 1 – The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India was established
July 11 – Pamir is the last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn under sail alone.
July 19 – The Kingdom of Laos is officially formed but is not independent from the French Army.
July 20 – Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their 19-month war.
July 27 – The de Havilland Comet, the Worlds First Jet-Powered Airliner, makes its first flight.
July 27 – Rhodesia beats the New Zealand All Blacks 10-8 in Bulawayo. The only non test nation to achieve this feat.
July 30 – Birth of legal aid in England and Wales.
July 31 – Captain Kerans of the HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall, under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army on both sides of the Yangtze River, and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day.

August

August 5 – A 6.75 Richter scale earthquake in Ecuador kills 6,000 and destroys 50 towns.
August 8 – Bhutan becomes independent
August 12 – The Fourth Geneva Convention is agreed to.
August 14
- The Salvatore Giuliano Gang explodes mines under a police barracks outside Palermo, Sicily.
- A military coup in Syria ousts the president.
August 21 – Deportivo Saprissa enters Costa Rica – soccer's first division.
August 22 – The Queen Charlotte earthquake is Canada's largest earthquake since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake.
August 24 – North Atlantic Treaty Organization established.
August 28 – The last 6 surviving veterans of the American Civil War meet in Indianapolis.
August 29
- The Council of Europe meets for the first time.
- The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, code named " Joe 1". Its design imitates the American plutonium bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.
August 31 – The retreat of the Greek Democratic Army in Albania after its defeat at Mount Grammos marks the end of the Greek Civil War.

September

September 6
- Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, kills thirteen neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.
- Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to Germany.
September 7 – The Federal Republic of Germany is officially founded. Konrad Adenauer is the first federal chancellor.
September 9
- Albert Guay affair: A dynamite bomb destroys Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-3 in Quebec.
- Notorious World War II veteran Edwin Alonzo Boyd commits his first career bank robbery in Toronto.
September 13 – The Soviet Union vetoes United Nations membership for Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan and Portugal.
September 17 – The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives.
September 19 – The United Kingdom government devalues the pound sterling from $4.03 to $2.80, leading to many other currencies being devalued.
September 23 – U.S. Harry S. Truman announced that the USSR had the atomic bomb
September 24 – Laszlo Rajk, ex-foreign minister of Hungary, is sentenced to death.
September 29
- The First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference approves a design for the Flag of the People's Republic of China.
- Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as " Tokyo Rose" during World War II.

October

October 1: People's Republic of China founded.

October 1 – The People's Republic of China is officially proclaimed.
October 7 – The Democratic Republic of Germany DDR is established officially
October 13 – Severe flooding hits Guatemala.
October 16 – Civil war ends in Greece with a communist surrender.
October 17 – Chinese communist troops take Guangzhou
October 27
- Chinese communist troops fail to take Quemoy in the Battle of Kuningtou; their advance towards Taiwan is halted.
- An airliner flying from Paris to New York crashes in the Azores island of São Miguel. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu and French boxer Marcel Cerdan.

November

December 15: Typhoon at Korea.

Dec. 16: Sukarno, first President of Indonesia.

November 15 – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for assassinating Mohandas Gandhi.
November 24 – The ski resort in Squaw Valley, California officially opens.
November 26 – The Indian Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution .
November 27 – Indonesia is recognized.
November 28 – Winston Churchill makes a landmark speech in support of the idea of a European Union at Kingsway Hall, London.

December

December 7 – The government of the Republic of China finishes its evacuation to Taiwan, and declares Taipei its temporary capital city.
December 8 – United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) established as a UN agency.
December 10 – Robert Menzies elected prime minister of Australia.
December 14 – Traicho Kostov, ex-vice prime minister of Bulgaria, is sentenced to death.
December 15 – A typhoon strikes a fishing fleet off Korea, killing several thousand.
December 16 – Sukarno is elected president of the Republic of Indonesia.
December 17 – Burma recognizes the People's Republic of China.
December 27 – Queen Juliana of the Netherlands grants Indonesia sovereignty.
December 30 – India recognizes the People's Republic of China.

Date unknown

Currywurst

The Currywurst is invented in Berlin.
The Malta Labour Party is founded.
The Vatican announces that bones uncovered in its subterranean catacombs could be the apostle Peter; 19 years later, Pope Paul VI announces confirmation that the bones belong to this first pope.
The first 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun prototypes are completed.
1949 was the first year in which no African-American was reported lynched in the USA.
Joseph Stalin launches a savage attack on Soviet Jews, accusing them of being pro-Western and antisocialist.
Samuel Putnam publishes his new translation of Don Quixote, the first in what we would consider modern English. It is instantly acclaimed and, in 2008, is still in print.
Fernand Braudel's La Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'Epoque de Philippe II is published.