1946: Encyclopedia II - 1946 - Events

1946 - Events

1946 - January

• January 2 - Unable to resume his rule over Albania after World War II, King Zog abdicated but retained his claim to the throne.
• January 4 - Theodore Schurch becomes the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940
• January 7 - Allied recognize Austrian republic with 1937 borders - the country is divided into four occupation zones
• January 10 - First meeting of the United Nations
• January 10 - Project Diana bounces Radar waves off the moon, measuring the exact distance between the earth and the moon and proving that the communication was possible between the earth and outerspace, effectively opening the space age.
• January 11 - Enver Hoxha declares the people's republic of Albania with himself as prime minister.
• January 11 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob's ashes go back to Colombia.
• January 16 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as a head of a French provisional government
• January 17
  • The UN Security Council holds its first session
  • Senator Dennis Chavez (D-NM) calls for a vote on an FEPC bill which called for the end to discrimination in the work place. A filibuster prevents it from passing.
• January 20 - Charles De Gaulle resigns as president of France
• January 25 - The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor
• January 28 - Bluenose founders on a Haitian reef
• January 29 - CIA established
• January 31 - Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

1946 - February

• February 1 - Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
• February 2 - Kingdom of Hungary becomes a republic.
• February 14 - The Bank of England nationalized
• February 14 - ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania
• February 15 - Canada indicts 22 communist agents.
• February 24 - Juan Peron elected president of Argentina
• February 28 - In Philadelphia, strikers of General Electric and police clash

1946 - March

• March 2 - British troops withdraw from Iran according to treaty - Soviets do not.
• March 2 - Ho Chi Minh elected the President of North Vietnam
• March 4 - C.G.E. Mannerheim resigns from the post of president of Finland
• March 5 - In his speech in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill talks about Iron Curtain.
• March 6 - Vietnam War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union. David Gilmour, the guitarist of Pink Floyd is born.
• March 9 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi becomes president of Finland
• March 10 - British troops begin withdrawal from Lebanon
• March 15 - Clement Attlee promises independence to India as soon as they can agree on constitution
• March 19 - Soviet Union and Switzerland reform diplomatic relations.
• March 19 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France
• March 22 - Transjordan gains independence
• March 29 - Gold Coast has an African majority in the parliament

1946 - April

• April 1 - 14-meter high tsunami strikes Hilo, Hawaii - 173 dead, thousands injured.
• April 1 - Formation of the Malayan Union.
• April 1 - Singapore becomes a Crown colony
• April 3 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
• April 7 - Syria's independence from France is officially recognised
• April 10 - In Japan, women vote for the first time in parliamentarian elections
• April 18 - USA recognizes Josip Broz Tito's government in Yugoslavia
• April 18 - Last meeting of League of Nations – it transfers its mission to United Nations and disbands itself.
• April 29 - Trial against war criminals begin in Tokyo – accused include Hideki Tojo, Shigenori Togo and Hiroshi Oshima.

1946 - May

• May 2 - Six prisoners unsuccessfully try to escape from the Alcatraz prison island
• May 7 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with about 20 employees.
• May 9 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates, and is succeeded by his son Humbert II.
• May 10 - Nehru elected leader of the Congress Party in India
• May 20 - In Britain, the House of Commons decides to nationalize mines.
• May 21 - Radiation accident in Los Alamos laboratory; Dr Louis Slotin saves his coworkers but receives a fatal dose of radiation. Incident is initially classified
• May 22 - Kingdom of Transjordan founded.
• May 25 - The parliament of Transjordan makes emir Abdullah their king.
• May 31 - Greece referendum supports return of monarchy

1946 - June-July

• June 2 - In a referendum Italians decide to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After this referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia was exiled. Women vote for the first time.
• June 6 - The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City.
• June 8 - In Indonesia, Sukarno incites his supporters to fight Dutch colonial occupation
• June 9 - In Thailand, king Rama IX accedes the throne.
• June 10 - Italy declared republic
• June 13 - Humbert II of Italy leaves the country and goes into exile in Portugal; Alcide de Gasperi becomes head of state.
• June 17 - Tornado on the Detroit river - 17 dead
• July 4 - After over 425 years of Western Dominance , the Philippines achieves full independence.
• July 5 - Bikinis go on sale in Paris
• July 7 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American saint to be canonized.
• July 21 - Irgun bomb explodes in Jerusalem.
• July 22 - King David Hotel bombing: Irgun bombs King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the British civil and military administration killing 90.
• July 25 - Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus USS Saratoga is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean when the United States detonates the "Baker Day" device.
• July 25 - At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.

1946 - August-November

• August 18 - Founding of Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California.

• August 19 - Violence between Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta – 3000 dead.
• August 25 - Ben Hogan wins PGA Championship
• September 4 - Street violence between Muslims and Hindus in Bombay.
• September 8 - Bulgaria declared a People's Republic after a referendum – King Simeon II leaves.
• September 28 - George II of Greece returns to Athens
• October 2 - Communists take over in Bulgaria
• October 13 - France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.
• October 15 - Nuremberg Trials: Founder of the Gestapo and recently convicted Nazi war criminal, Hermann Göring, poisons himself hours before his scheduled execution.
• October 23 - United Nations' first meeting in Long Island.
• November 8 - Vietnamese riot in Haiphong and clash with French troops. French cruiser Suffren opens fire. 6000 Vietnamese killed.
• November 12 - Truce between Indonesian nationalist troops and Dutch army in Indonesia.
• November 12 - A branch of the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, Illinois opens the first ten drive-up teller windows.
• November 15 - Netherlands recognized Republic of Indonesia.
• November 19 - Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden joins the United Nations
• November 27 - Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."

1946 - December

• December 11 - UNICEF founded.
• December 12 - United Nations severs relations with Franco's Spain and recommends the member countries to sever diplomatic relations
• December 12 - Leon Blum founds a government of socialist parties in France
• December 19 - Martial law in Vietnam
• December 22 - Havana Conference begins between US organized crime bosses in Havana, Cuba
• December 24 - France's Fourth Republic founded
• December 26 - Flamingo Hotel opens in Las Vegas.
• December 31 - President Harry Truman officially proclaims an end of hostilities in World War II.

1946 - Unknown dates

• The 20mm M61 Vulcan gatling gun is invented.
• Devil's Island penal colony closes permanently.
• Female suffrage in Belgium, Romania, Yugoslavia, Argentina and Canadian province of Quebec. First female police officers in Korea and Japan.
• Chinese Civil War intensifies between Kuomintang and Communist Party of China.
• First Tupperware sold in department and hardware stores.
• Grantley Adams becomes the premier of Barbados.
• Alcatraz Island prison riot.
• The British government takes emergency powers to deal with the balance-of-payments crisis.
• Eva Perón tours Spain, Italy and France on behalf of Argentina, a circuit called the Rainbow Tour.
• Breathalyzer machine for estimating blood alcohol concentration was invented.
• Howard Hyde Russell established the Anti-Saloon League.
• George Orwell writes Politics and the English Language

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Events", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki