And so the U.S. continues to develop its international personality while other countries around the world continue their march towards freedom.
January 1st. WTTG TV channel 5 begins broadcasting
January 2: Mahatma Gandhi begins march for peace in East Bengali/
January 3 – 1st opening session of Congress televised.
William Dawson becomes 1st Black to head a congressional committee.
January 8: General George Marshall becomes first Secretary of State.
January 10: British stop ships Independence and In-Gathering from landing in Israel.
January 20th Brigadier General Edwin K. Wright, becomes Deputy Director of the CIA
January 22nd 1st commercial TV station west of the Mississippi opens in Hollywood, CA
January 24th NFL adds 5th official and allows sudden death in playoffs.
February 3rd 1st Black reporter in Congressional press gallery (Percival Prattis)
February 7th: Arabs and Jews reject British proposal to split Palestine.
February 10th: WWII peace treaties signed
February 12th: Daytime fireball & meteorite fall seen in Eastern Siberia
Record 100.5 KG sailfish caught off Galapagos Islands
February 17th: Voice of America begins broadcasting to USSR
February 20th: Chemical mixing error causes explosion that destroys 42 blocks in LA
Lord Mountbatten appointed as last viceroy of India
State of Prussia ceases to exist.
February 21: First broadcast of TV soap opera.
February 21: First instant developing camera demonstrated in NYC.
February 23: General Eisenhower opens drive to rais $170 million in aid for European Jews.
February 28: Taiwan civil disorder is put down the the loss of 30,000 civilian lives.
March 1st: International Monetary Fund begins operation.
March 4th: WWJ TV, channel 4 (NBC) begins broadcasting in Detroit.
March 6th: XB-45, 1st US 4-engine jet bomber makes 1st test flight, Muroc, CA
March 12th: President Harry Truman introduces Truman-doctrine to fight communism.
March 15th: John Lee appointed 1st Black commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy.
March 20th: 180 metric ton blue whale (record) caught in South Atlantic.
March 21st: President Harry Truman signs Executive Order 9835 requiring all Federal employees to have allegiance to the United States.
March 24th: John D. Rockefeller Jr. donates NYC East River site to the UN.
April 1st: First Jewish immigrants to Israel disembark at Port of Eliat.
April 8th Largest recorded sunspots observed (7,000).
April 9th: Atomic Energy Commission confirmed
April 10th: Jackie Robinson becomes 1st Black in major league baseball (Dodgers)
April 16th: Lens to provide zoom effect demonstrated (NYC).
May 1st:Lt. General Hoyt S. Vandenberg ends term as 2nd head of CIA
Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, USN becomes 3rd Director of CIA
May 3rd: Japan forms a constitutional democracy. New Post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
May 7th: Paraguayian government unleashes contra revolt.
May 13th: Senate approves the Taft-Hartley Act limiting the power of unions.
May 22nd: “Truman Doctrine” goes into effect, aiding Turkey & Greece
1st US ballistic missile fired
May 31st: Communists grab power in Hungary
June 1st Photosensitive glass developed
June 4th House of Representatives approves Taft-Hartley Act
June 5th Secretary of State George C. Marshall outlines “Marshall Plan”
June 6th: Treaty drawn for establishment of International Patent Institute
June 16th: First network News – Dumont’s “News from Washington”
Pravda denounces Marshall Plan
June 17th: Pan Am Airways chartered as 1st worldwide passenger airline
June 19th: 1st plane (F-80) exceeds 600 m.p.h.
June 20th: President Truman vetoes Taft-Hartley Act
June 23rd: Truman’s veto of Taft-Hartley Act overridden by Congress
June 24th: Flying saucers sighted over Mount Rainier by Pilot Ken Arnold
Jackie Robinson hits his first of 19 home runs.
June 25th: Tennis shoe introduced.
June 27th: NBC, channel 4 begins broadcasting
July 6th: the AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union
July 7-8: Reports that a UFO has crash landed in Roswell New Mexico are broadcast and disputed.
July 9th: Princess Elizabeth and Lt. Philip Mountbatten are engaged.
Spain votes for Franco monarchy
July 18th: British seize “Exodus 1947″ ship of Jewish immigrants to Palestine
King George VI signs Indian Independence Bill
President Truman signs Presidential Succession Act
US beings administering Trust Territory of Pacific Islands
July 19th: Prime Minister of shadow Burma Government, six cabinet members, and two non-cabinet members assassinated by the British, causing political chaos that continues to this day.
July 23rd: First (U.S. Navy) Air squadron of jets flown
July 25th: US Air Force, Navy & War department form U.S. Department of Defense
US Department of Army created
July 26th: National Security Act establishes CIA
August 15th: India declares independence from Britain. Islamic part becomes Pakistan
Sept. 29: Record World Series crowd of 73,365 at Yankee Stadium.
Oct. 1: US control of Haitian customs & governmental revenue ends.
Oct 2: revised International Telecommunication Convention adopted
Oct. 3: 1st telescope lens 200” in diameter completed.
Channel 7 ABC begins
Oct 5: First presidential television address televised from White House
Oct. 9: First telephone conversation between a moving car and an airplane.
Oct. 11: Brazil and Chile break diplomatic relations with USSR
Oct. 14th: Chuck Yeager makes 1st supersonic flight.
Oct. 19th: Charles de Gaulle wins French elections
Oct. 23rd: NAACP petition on racism presented to the UN
Oct. 26th: British military occupation of Iraq ends
Oct. 27th: Channel 2, NBC begins broadcasting
Oct. 30th: 23 countries sign GATT agreement in Geneva
Nov. 17th: The U.S. Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
15,000 demonstrate in Brussels against mild sentence of nazis
Nov. 20th: 1st permanent TV installed on seagoing vessel (New Jersey)
Nov. 24th: Un-American Activities Committee finds “Hollywood 10″ in contempt because of their refusal to reveal whether they were communists.
Nov. 29th: UN General Assembly partitions Palestine between Arabs and Jews.
and the reign of terrorism begins in that part of the world
Dec. 10th: USSR & Czechoslovakia sign trade agreement
Dec. 12th: United Mine Workers union withdraws from AFL
Dec. 13th Maine Turnpike opens to traffic
Dec. 14th: The National Association for Stock Car Automobiles (NASCAR) opens on Daytona Beach, FL
Dec. 23rd: Transistor invented by Bardeen, Brattain & Shockley of Bell Labs
Dec. 25th: The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.
Dec. 26th: Heavy snow blankets Northeast, burying NYC under 25.8” of snow in 16 hours and LA sets a record high of 84 degrees.
Dec. 27th: First “Howdy Doody Show”
Dec. 29th: Ship carrying Jewish immigrants driven away from Palestine
Dec. 30th: King Michael of Romania, forced by Communists to abdicate his throne. Romanian Republic declared.