1948

1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar).

Years: 1945 1946 1947 - 1948 - 1949 1950 1951
Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century Template:C20YearInTopic

Contents

1 Events

Events

January 1 - Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways. Arab militants lay siege to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. First day of the Italian republican constitution.
January 4 - Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
January 5 - Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
January 17 - Truce between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops in Java
January 26 - Man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 out of 15 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadimacha Hirasawa is later sentenced for the crime.
January 30 - Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is murdered by a Hindu extremist.
January 30 - 1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
February 1 - Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.
February 4 - Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth. King George VI becomes King of Ceylon.
February 18 - Eamon de Valera, head of government since 1932, loses power to an opposition coalition. John A. Costello is appointed Taoiseach of Éire (formerly called the Irish Free State) by President O'Kelly.
February 24 - The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia.

March 8 - The United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violated the Constitution.
March 10 - Czech foreign minister Jan Masaryk killed in fall from his office window.
March 20 - First elections in Singapore
April 3 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
April 7 - The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
April 9 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further ten years of violence in all of Colombia (La violencia).
April 9 - The Deir Yassin massacre takes place in Palestine.

May 1 - 213 communists executed in Greece.
May 2 - Hour of Charm's last broadcast.
May 11 - Luigi Einaudi becomes president of Italy.
May 14 - Israel is declared as an independent state.
May 14 - The murder of a three-year-old girl in Blackburn, England leads to the fingerprinting of more than 40,000 men in the city in an attempt to find the murderer.
May 15 - Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia attack Israel.
May 16 - Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
May 18 - The First Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.
May 26 - The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557 which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as the auxiliary of the United States Air Force.
May 30 - A dike along the Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes. 15 people died and tens of thousands are left homeless.