1947 - Wikiwand

1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1947th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 947th year of the 2nd millennium, the 47th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year of the 1940s decade.

From top to bottom, left to right: The Partition of India leads to the creation of the independent nations of India and Pakistan, triggering mass migrations, communal violence, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands, and soon escalating into the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 over the disputed region of Kashmir; the Roswell incident in New Mexico and the broader 1947 flying disc craze fuel widespread speculation about UFOs; the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine intensifies between Jewish and Arab communities following the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine; the February 28 incident erupts in Taiwan, as anti-government protests are violently suppressed by the Kuomintang, leading to the deaths of an estimated 18,000 to 28,000 people and ushering in decades of martial law; the Marshall Plan, proposed by U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, offers extensive economic aid to rebuild war-torn Europe, stabilize economies, and counter Soviet influence, becoming a cornerstone of postwar recovery; the Truman Doctrine, announced by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, commits the United States to supporting nations threatened by communism through economic and military aid, marking a major shift in American foreign policy and the formal start of the Cold War; the Texas City disaster occurs when a massive explosion of ammonium nitrate aboard a ship in Texas City, Texas, kills at least 581 people and causes widespread destruction; the Hachikō Line derailment in Japan becomes the country’s deadliest train accident, killing 184 people; and Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball’s color barrier by debuting with the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming a pivotal figure in the American civil rights movement.

Quick Facts

1947 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1947 MCMXLVII
Ab urbe condita	2700
Armenian calendar	1396 ԹՎ ՌՅՂԶ
Assyrian calendar	6697
Baháʼí calendar	103–104
Balinese saka calendar	1868–1869
Bengali calendar	1353–1354
Berber calendar	2897
British Regnal year	11 Geo. 6 – 12 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2491
Burmese calendar	1309
Byzantine calendar	7455–7456
Chinese calendar	丙戌年 (Fire Dog) 4644 or 4437 — to — 丁亥年 (Fire Pig) 4645 or 4438
Coptic calendar	1663–1664
Discordian calendar	3113
Ethiopian calendar	1939–1940
Hebrew calendar	5707–5708
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2003–2004
- Shaka Samvat	1868–1869
- Kali Yuga	5047–5048
Holocene calendar	11947
Igbo calendar	947–948
Iranian calendar	1325–1326
Islamic calendar	1366–1367
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 22 (昭和２２年)
Javanese calendar	1878–1879
Juche calendar	36
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4280
Minguo calendar	ROC 36 民國36年
Nanakshahi calendar	479
Thai solar calendar	2490
Tibetan calendar	མེ་ཕོ་ཁྱི་ལོ་ (male Fire-Dog) 2073 or 1692 or 920 — to — མེ་མོ་ཕག་ལོ་ (female Fire-Boar) 2074 or 1693 or 921

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It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

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Events

January

Thumb — January 1: Nigeria gains autonomy.

January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in the 20th century causes extensive disruption of travel.^[1] Given the low ratio of private vehicle ownership at the time, it is mainly remembered in terms of its effects on the railway network.^[2]
January 1 – The Canadian Citizenship Act comes into effect, providing a Canadian citizenship separate from British law.
January 4 – First issue of weekly magazine Der Spiegel published in Hanover, Germany, edited by Rudolf Augstein.^[3]
January 10 – The United Nations adopts a resolution to take control of the free city of Trieste.^[4]
January 15 – Elizabeth Short, an aspiring actress nicknamed the "Black Dahlia", is found brutally murdered in a vacant lot in Los Angeles; the mysterious case is never solved.
January 16 – Vincent Auriol is inaugurated as president of France.
January 19 – Ferry SS Heimara sinks in the South Euboean Gulf of Greece killing 392.
January 24 – In the third phase of the Greek Civil War, Dimitrios Maximos forms a monarchist government in Athens and begins a brief term as prime minister.^[5]
January 26 – A KLM Douglas DC-3 aircraft crashes soon after taking off from Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, killing all 22 people on board, including Prince Gustaf Adolf, second in line to the Swedish throne, and American opera singer Grace Moore.^[6]

February

February 3
- The lowest air temperature in North America (−63 degrees Celsius) is recorded in Snag, in the Yukon Territory.
- P.L. Prattis becomes the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press galleries.
February 5
- Bolesław Bierut becomes the President of Poland.
- The Government of the United Kingdom announces the £25 million Tanganyika groundnut scheme, for cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory.^[7]
February 7 – The South Pacific Commission (SPC) is founded.
February 8 – The Karlslust dance hall fire in Berlin, Germany, kills over 80 people.
February 10 – In Paris, France, peace treaties are signed between the World War II Allies and Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Finland. Italy cedes most of Istria to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later Croatia).
February 12
- A meteorite creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.
- In Burma, the Panglong Agreement is reached between the Burmese government under its leader, General Aung San, and the Shan, Kachin, and Chin ethnic peoples at the Panglong Conference. U Aung Zan Wai, Pe Khin, Major Aung, Sir Maung Gyi, Sein Mya Maung and Myoma U Than Kywe are among the negotiators.
February 17 – Cold War: The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
February 20
- An explosion at the O'Connor Electro-Plating Company in Los Angeles leaves 17 dead, 100 buildings damaged, and a 22-foot-deep (6.7 m) crater in the ground.
- The U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Hermes program V-2 rocket Blossom I is launched into space, carrying plant material and fruitflies, the first living things to enter space.
February 21 – Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", his Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America in New York City.
February 23 – The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.
February 25
- The German state of Prussia is officially abolished, by the Allied Control Council.^[8]
- Hachikō Line derailment: The worst-ever train accident in Japan kills 184 people.
- John C. Hennessy Jr. brings the first Volkswagen Beetle to the United States. He purchased the 1946 automobile from the U.S. Army Post Exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, while serving in the U.S. Army. The Beetle is shipped from Bremerhaven, arriving in New York this day.^[9]
February 28 – In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down, with large loss of civilian lives.

March

March 1
- The International Monetary Fund begins to operate.
- German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun marries his first cousin, 18-year-old Maria von Quirstorp.
March 4 – The Treaty of Dunkirk (effective September 8) is signed between the United Kingdom and France, providing for mutual assistance in the event of attack.
March 12 – The Cold War begins: The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed, to help stem the spread of Communism.
March 14 – The Thames flood and other widespread flooding occurs, as the exceptionally harsh British winter of 1946–1947 ends in a thaw.^[10]^[11]
March 15 – Hindus and Muslims clash in Punjab.
March 19 – The 19th Academy Awards Ceremony is held. The movie The Best Years of Our Lives wins the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with several other Academy Awards.
March 25 – A coal mine explosion in Centralia, Illinois, United States; 111 miners are killed.
March 28 – A World War II Japanese booby trap explodes on Corregidor Island, killing 28 people.
March 29 – A rebellion against French rule erupts in Madagascar.
March 31 – The leaders of the Kurdish People's Republic of Mahabad, the second Kurdish state in the history of Iran, are hanged at Chuwarchira Square in Mahabad, after the state has been overrun by the Iranian army.

April

April – The previous discovery of the 'Dead Sea Scrolls' in the Qumran Caves (above the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) by Bedouin shepherds, becomes known.^[12]
April 1
- Jackie Robinson, the first African American in Major League Baseball since the 1880s, signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
- Paul I becomes King of Greece, aged 45, following the death of his brother, King George II.^[13]
- The 1947 Royal New Zealand Navy mutinies begin.
April 4 – The International Civil Aviation Organization begins operations.
April 7
- The Arab Ba'ath Party is established by merger in Damascus.
- The largest recorded sunspot group appears on the solar surface.^[14]
April 9
- Multiple tornadoes strike Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, killing 184 and injuring 970.
- The Journey of Reconciliation in the Southern United States begins, organized by the Congress of Racial Equality.
April 15 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play Major League Baseball since the 1880s.
April 16
- Texas City disaster: The ammonium nitrate cargo of French-registered Liberty ship SS Grandcamp explodes in Texas City, Texas in one of the largest man-made non-nuclear explosions in history, killing at least 581, including all but one member of the city fire department, injuring at least 5,000 and destroying 20 city blocks. Of the dead, remains of 113 are never found, and 62 are unidentifiable.
- American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch describes the post–World War II tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States as a "Cold War".
- The first public demonstration of a TV camera zoom lens, the Jerry Fairbanks Zoomar, is held at NBC studios in New York.^[15]
April 18
- The British Royal Navy detonates 6,800 tons of explosives, in an attempt to demolish the fortified island of Heligoland, Germany, in another of the largest man-made non-nuclear explosions in history.^[16]
- 'Mrs. Ples', an Australopithecus africanus skull, is discovered in the Sterkfontein area in Transvaal, South Africa.
April 20 – King Frederik IX succeeds his father, Christian X, on the throne of Denmark.^[17]

May

May 1 – Portella della Ginestra massacre: The Salvatore Giuliano gang of Sicilian separatists opens fire on a Labour Day parade at Portella della Ginestra, Sicily, killing 11 people and wounding 27.
May 2 – The movie Miracle on 34th Street, a Christmastime classic, is first shown in theaters.
May 3 – The new post-war Constitution of Japan goes into effect.
May 11 – The Ferrari 125 S, the first car to bear the Ferrari name, debuts.
May 22 – The Cold War begins: To fight the spread of Communism, President Harry S. Truman signs an Act of Congress that implements the Truman Doctrine. This Act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece. The Cold War ends in 1991.
May 25 – Hyundai Togun, the initial name of the Hyundai Group, is founded by Chung Ju-young.^[18]
May 29
- An Air Iceland Douglas C-47 on a domestic flight in Iceland crashes into a mountainside killing all 25 people on board.
- A United States Army Air Forces Douglas C-54 Skymaster crashes on approach to Naval Air Station Atsugi, Japan, killing all 41 on board in the worst aviation accident in Japanese history up to this time.
May 30 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 605: A Douglas C-54 Skymaster crashes near Bainbridge, Maryland, killing all 53 aboard (49 passengers, 4 crew), in America's worst commercial aviation disaster to this date.
May 31 – Alcide de Gasperi forms a new government in Italy, the first postwar Italian government not to include members of the Italian Communist Party.

June

June – The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is introduced.
June 5 – U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan for American reconstruction and relief aid to Europe, in a speech at Harvard University.
June 7 – The Romanian Army founds the association football club CCA (Clubul Central al Armatei – The Army's Central Club), which will become the most successful Romanian football team during its time as CSA Steaua București.^[19]
June 10 – SAAB in Sweden produces its first automobile.
June 11–15 – The first Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod is held in Wales.^[20]
June 15 – The Estado Novo in Portugal orders 11 military officers and 19 university professors, who are accused of revolutionary activity, to resign.
June 21 – The Parliament of Canada votes unanimously to pass several laws regarding displaced foreign refugees.
June 23 – The United States Senate follows the House of Representatives, in overriding President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft–Hartley Act.
June 24 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington. Over 800 copycat sightings are reported throughout the US in the coming following weeks.
June 25 – The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is published for the first time as Het Achterhuis: Dagboekbrieven 14 juni 1942 – 1 augustus 1944 ("The Annex: Diary Notes from 14 June 1942 – 1 August 1944") in Amsterdam, two years after the writer's death in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

July

July 1 – The United States begins the National Malaria Eradication Program, successfully eradicating malaria in 1951.
July 6
- 1947 Sylhet referendum: A referendum is held in Sylhet to decide its fate in the Partition of India.^[21]
- The first prototype AK-47 assault rifles are built to the design of Mikhail Kalashnikov.
July 8 – Roswell UFO incident: A supposedly downed extraterrestrial spacecraft is reportedly found near Roswell, New Mexico.

July 9
- 'Flying disc' photographs published in Phoenix
- King George VI of the United Kingdom announces the engagement of his daughter Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten.
July 11 – The ship Exodus leaves France for Palestine, with 4,500 Jewish Holocaust survivor refugees on board.
July 17 – Indian passenger ship SS Ramdas is capsized by a cyclone at Mumbai, India, with 625 people killed.
July 18
- Following wide media and UNSCOP coverage, the Exodus is captured by British troops, and refused entry into Palestine at the port of Haifa.
- President Harry S. Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act into law, which places the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate next in the line of succession, after the vice president.
July 19 – Burmese nationalist Aung San, and six members of his newly formed cabinet, are assassinated during a cabinet meeting.
July 26 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into law to create the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
July 27–28 – English endurance swimmer Tom Blower becomes the first person to swim the North Channel, from Donaghadee in Northern Ireland to Portpatrick in Scotland.
July 29 – After being shut down on November 9, 1946, for a refurbishment, the ENIAC computer in the United States is turned back on again, and remains in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.

August

August 1 – Indonesian airline Garuda Indonesia is established.
August 2 – 1947 BSAA Avro Lancastrian Star Dust accident: A British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian airliner crashes into a mountain during a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile (the wreckage will not be found until 1998).
August 5 – The Netherlands ends Operation Product, the first of its major military 'police actions' in Indonesia.
August 7
- Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands, after a 101-day, 4,300 mile, voyage across the Eastern Pacific Ocean, demonstrating that prehistoric peoples could have traveled to the Central Pacific islands from South America.
- The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
August 14
- The Muslim majority regions formed by the Partition of India gain independence from the British Empire as the Dominion of Pakistan. While the transition is officially at midnight on this day, Pakistan celebrates its independence on August 14, compared with India on the 15th, because the Pakistan Standard Time is 30 minutes behind the standard time of India.
- Muhammad Ali Jinnah becomes the first governor-general of Pakistan. Liaquat Ali Khan takes office as the first prime minister of Pakistan.
August 15
- The greater Indian subcontinent, with a mixed population of Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Zoroasters, Jews, Christians, Muslims and others formed by the Partition of India, gains independence from the British Empire, as the Dominion of India. 190 years British rule (1757–1947) in India comes to an end.
- Jawaharlal Nehru takes office as the first prime minister of India, taking his oath from Louis Mountbatten, Viscount Mountbatten of Burma, Governor-General of India (but no longer viceroy).
August 16 – In Greece, General Markos Vafiadis takes over the government until 1949.
August 23 – The prime minister of Greece, Dimitrios Maximos, resigns.
August 27 – The French government lowers the daily bread ration to 200 grams, causing riots in Verdun and Le Mans.
August 30 – A fire at a movie theater in Rueil, a suburb of Paris, France, kills 83 people.
August 31 – In Hungary, communists fail to gain a majority in parliamentary elections (despite widespread fraud) and turn to direct action as part of the country's transition to Communism (1944–1949).

September

September 9
- Women's suffrage is agreed by Argentina's Congress.
- A moth lodged in a relay is found to be the cause of a malfunction in the Harvard Mark II electromechanical computer, logged as the "First actual case of bug being found."^[22]^[23]
September 13 – Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru suggests the exchange of four million Hindus and Muslims between India and Pakistan.
September 15–16 – Typhoon Kathleen strikes the Bōsō Peninsula and the entire Kantō region in Japan. Heavy rains cause the Arakawa and Tone Rivers to overflow and embankment collapse. The resulting floods and debris flow kill between 1,077 and 1,920 people, injuring 1,547^[24] and leaving 853 missing.^[25]
September 17–21 – The 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane in southeastern Florida, and also in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana causes widespread damage, and kills 50 people.
September 18 – In the United States:
- The National Security Act of 1947 becomes effective on this day, creating the United States Air Force, National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.
- The Department of War becomes the Department of the Army, a branch of the new Department of Defense.
September 22 – The Information Bureau of the Communist and Workers' Parties (Cominform) is founded by the International Communist Movement.
September 30 – Pakistan and Yemen join the United Nations.

October

October – First recorded use of the word computer in its modern sense, referring to an electronic digital machine.^[26]
October 1 – The North American F-86 Sabre jet fighter aircraft makes its first flight.
October 5 – President Harry S. Truman delivers the first televised White House address, speaking on the world food crises.
October 14 – United States Air Force test pilot Captain Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 rocket plane faster than the speed of sound, the first time it has been accomplished.
October 20 – A war begins in Kashmir, along the border between India and Pakistan, initiating the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948. Also, Pakistan establishes diplomatic relations with the United States of America.
October 24 – The first Azad Kashmir Government is established within Pakistan, headed by Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan as its first President supported by the government of Pakistan.
October 30 – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is established.

November

November 2 – In Long Beach, California, United States, designer and airplane pilot Howard Hughes carries out the one and only flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules ("Spruce Goose"), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built and flown. This flight only lasts 8 minutes.
November 6 – The television program Meet the Press makes its debut, on the NBC-TV network in the United States.
November 9 – Junagadh is invaded by the Indian army.
November 10 – The arrest of four steel workers in Marseille begins a French communist riot, that also spreads to Paris.
November 13 – Wataru Misaka makes the roster of the New York Knicks to become the first person of color to play in modern professional basketball, months after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Misaka has led the Utah Utes to the 1944 NCAA and 1947 NIT championships.^[27]
November 15
- The International Telecommunication Union becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations.
- The Universal Postal Union (UPU) becomes a specialized agency of the United Nations (effective July 1 1948).
November 16
- In Brussels, 15,000 people demonstrate against the relatively short prison sentences of Belgian Nazi criminals.
- Great Britain begins withdrawing its troops from Palestine.
November 17–December 23 – John Bardeen and Walter Brattain working under William Shockley at AT&T's Bell Labs in the United States demonstrate the transistor effect, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.^[28]
November 17 – The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
November 18 – Ballantyne's fire: A fire in Ballantynes department store in Christchurch, New Zealand, kills 41 people.
November 20
- Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh: Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II), the daughter of George VI of the United Kingdom, marries The Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey in London.
- Paul Ramadier resigns as Prime Minister of France. He is succeeded by Robert Schuman, who calls in 80,000 army reservists to quell rioting miners in France.
November 21 – The United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment begins in Havana, Cuba. This conference ends in 1948, when its members complete the Havana Charter.
November 24 – McCarthyism: The United States House of Representatives votes 346–17 to approve citations of Contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten", after the screenwriters and directors refuse to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of communist influences in the movie business. The ten men are blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios on the following day.^[29]
November 25
- The New Zealand Parliament ratifies the Statute of Westminster, and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
- The new Pakistan Army and Pashtun mercenaries overrun Mirpur in Kashmir, resulting in the death of 20,000 Hindus and Sikhs.^[30]
November 27 – In Paris, France, police occupy the editorial offices of the communist newspapers.
November 29 – The United Nations General Assembly votes for the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine which will partition Mandatory Palestine between Arab and Jewish regions, resulting in the creation of the State of Israel.

December

December 3
- French communist strikers derail the Paris-Tourcoing express train because of false rumors that it is transporting soldiers; 21 people are killed.
- The Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Marlon Brando in his first great role, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway in New York City; Jessica Tandy also stars as Blanche Du Bois.^[31]
December 4 – French Interior Minister Jules S. Moch takes emergency measures against his country's rioters, after six days of violent arguments in the National Assembly.
December 6
- Arturo Toscanini conducts a concert performance of the first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello, for a broadcast on NBC Radio in the United States. The second half of the opera is broadcast a week later.^[32]
- Women are admitted to full membership of the University of Cambridge in England.^[33] following a vote in September.^[34]
December 9 – French labor unions call off the general strike, and re-commence negotiations with the French government.
December 12 – The Iranian Royal Army takes back power in the Azerbaijan province.
December 14 – Santiago Bernabeu Stadium is officially inaugurated in Madrid, and hosts its first match.^[35]
December 21 – During the mass migration of Hindus and Muslims between the new states of India and Pakistan, 400,000 are slaughtered.
December 22 – The Italian Constituent Assembly votes to accept the new Constitution of Italy.
December 30
- The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 jet fighter aircraft (NATO reporting name Fagot) makes its first flight in the Soviet Union.
- King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate and the Romanian monarchy is abolished.^[36]

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