1948
The year 48 is the year in which Vicki Irene Schwab was born in Ft. Worth, Texas.
The first Polariod Camera in 1948 & The First McDonalds - It Begins!
1948 Fall Fashions & 1948 Nash Ambassador
1948 - Slowly the fashions were becoming more daring with the Bikini gaining in popularity slowly and the first prefab post war housing to solve housing shortages were starting to appear both in Europe and the USA as they could be built quickly to accommodate the growing need and were cheap to build and for people to buy , the quality was not great but they did enable the baby boom after the war years by providing young couples with a home to start their family. In Europe the cold war took a new turn when the Soviet Union blockaded West Berlin in Germany and the US countered with an 11 month airlift of food and supplies. Also due to demand and inflationary pressure prices rose and many believed that governments should bring back some price controls. And Televisions are appearing in more and more homes.
How Much things cost in 1948
Yearly Inflation U.S.A. 7.74% UK 6.6%
Average Cost of new house $7,700.00
Average wages per year $2,950.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 16 cents
Average Cost of a new car $1,250.00
Loaf of Bread 14 cents
LB of Hamburger Meat 45 cents
Science and Mechanics Magazine 20 cents
Movie Ticket 60 Cents
Below are some Prices for UK guides in Pounds Stirling
Average House Price 1,751
What Events Happened in 1948
* Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways
* Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is murdered on 26th January by a Hindu extremist
* Israel is declared as an independent state.
* The Land Rover Series I is shown for the first time at the Amsterdam Car Show
* Western European Treaty is signed
* The Foreign Assistance Act ( The Marshall Plan ) is agreed to provide more than $13 billion in aid to war torn Europe between 1948 and 1951
* The UN creates the WHO World Health Organization
* The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration on Human Rights
* British National Health Service Act creating the NHS Created
* India attacks the Pakistan City of Hyderabad
* Instances of Polio ( Infantile Paralysis ) increase around the world.
* The United States and Great Britain begins a massive airlift of food, water, and medicine on June 26th to the citizens of West Berlin following the Soviet Blockade.
* Burma Gains Independence
* Holden cars starts manufacture in Australian
* NASCAR holds its first race for modified stock cars at Daytona Beach
* Earthquake in Turkmenistan USSR Kills 110,000
* 6.7 magnitude earthquake hits Ecuador in the Andes creating landslides burying 100,000 homes
* Sri Lanka Gains Independence From Great Britain
* The National Party of the Dutch Afrikaners begins the policy of apartheid in South Africa
* The vSummer Olympics are held in London, England
* The Winter Olympic Games are held in St. Moritz, Switzerland
Technology
* Porsche is founded
* 1 million households own Televisions was 5,000 just 3 years earlier
Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country ( or attributed to First Use ) 1948
Computer England by Freddie William's team
Long Playing Record USA made of vinyl and played at 33 rpm
Velcro Switzerland by George deMestral
Popular Culture
The game of Scrabble is introduced by James Brunot ( was an earlier invention
by Alfred Butts in the 30's ) they saw the game when called Lexiko and started
making it in their home and changed the name to Scrabble
* FILM The Red Shoes
* FILM The Road to Rio
* FILM Easter Parade
* Musical South Pacific Opens on Broadway
Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1948:
January
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12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31
* January 1 - Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways.
* January 1 - Arab militants lay siege to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City
of Jerusalem.
* January 1 - First day of the Italian republican constitution.
* January 1 - First day of the New Jersey State 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 22 - British foreign secretary Bevin proposes the formation of a Western
Union between Britain, France and the Benelux countries to stand up against
the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Brussels is signed March 17 as a consequence,
a predecessor to NATO.
* January 26 - Teigin poison case: a man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12
of 16 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money;
artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced to death for the crime, but is
never executed.
* January 30 - Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by
Nathuram Godse.
* January 30 - 1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
February
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1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
* 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 25 - The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia. This day
was celebrated by the regime as the "Victorious February" (Czech:"Vítezný
únor"; Slovak:"Vítazný Február")
until November 1989.
March
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31
* March 8 - McCollum v. Board of Education: the United States Supreme Court
rules that religious instruction in public schools violated the U.S. Constitution.
* March 16 - Largest flood in the history of Brampton, Ontario.
* March 17 - Hells Angels founded in California.
* March 20 - First elections in Singapore.
* March 20 - Renowned Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini makes his television
debut, conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in an all-Wagner program.
April
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5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
* April 1 - Scientists Ralph Alpher and George Gamow publish the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow
paper about the big bang.
* April 3 - President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorizes
$5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
* April 3 - Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is played on television in
its entirety for the first time, in a concert featuring Arturo Toscanini conducting
the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The chorus is conducted by Robert Shaw.
* April 7 - The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
* April 7 - Buddhist monastery burns in Shanghai - 20 monks dead.
* 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.
* April 24 - End of the Costa Rican Civil War
* April 30 - Land Rover unveiled at Amsterdam Motor Show
May
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
* May 4 - Laurence Olivier's film version of Hamlet receives its world premiere
in London.
* May 11 - Luigi Einaudi becomes President of the Italian Republic.
* May 14 - Declaration of Independence of Israel.
* 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 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Mandate of Palestine is officially terminated
by Britain; Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia enter
Palestine and attack the nascent State of 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 28 - Daniel Francois Malan defeats Jan Smuts and becomes Prime Minister
of South Africa, ushering in the heinous era of Apartheid which was finally
dismantled by F W de Klerk 1994
* May 30 - A dike along the Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon
within minutes: 15 people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.
June
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7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30
* June 3 - Palomar Observatory telescope finished in California.
* June 16
o Communist guerillas kill three rubber planters in Malaya.
o Three armed men hijack Cathay Pacific passenger plane Miss Macao and shoot
the pilot; the plane crashes - one of 27 survives.
* June 17 - A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Air Lines Flight 624 crashes near
Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.
* June 18
o State of Emergency declared in Malaysia for communist insurgency - Malayan
Emergency begins.
o First democratic general election with universal suffrage in Italy.
* June 20 - U.S.Congress: Commencement of Congressional Recess for the remainder
of 1948 after an overtime session closed on this Saturday at 0700 D.C. time
(to be shortly interrupted by Truman's recall from Congressional recess for
July 20, 1948).
* June 21 - The Deutsche Mark becomes official currency of the future Federal
Republic of Germany.
* June 22- The ship Empire Windrush brings the first group of several hundred
black immigrants to Tilbury near London from the Caribbean countries. This would
be the start of multiculturalism in Britain.
* June 24
o Cold War: The Berlin Blockade begins.
o The first World Health Assembly of World Health Organisation is held in Geneva.
* June 26 - William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction
transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
* June 28
o Cominform Resolution marks the beginning of the Informbiro period in Yugoslavia
and Soviet/Yugoslav split.
o David Lean's Oliver Twist, based on Charles Dickens's famous novel, premieres
in the UK. It will be banned for 3 years in the U.S. because of alleged anti-Semitism
in depicting master criminal Fagin, played by Alec Guinness.
o Earthquake hits Fukui, Japan killing 3,895.
July
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5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31
* July 5 - National Health Service Acts enacted in United Kingdom.
* July 6 - The world's first Air Car-ferry service was flown by a Bristol Freighter
of Silver City Airways from Lympne to Le Touquet.
* July 13 - The Coptic and Ethiopian Churches reach an agreement leading to
the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalous Patriarchate.
Five bishops are immediately consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria, and
the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV is granted the power to consecrate new bishops,
who are empowered to elect a new Patriarch for their church.
* July 15
o Attempted assassination of Palmiro Togliatti, general secretary of the Italian
Communist Party, incites number of strikes all over the country.
o First London chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous
* July 20 - Cold War: President Harry S. Truman issues the second peacetime
military draft in the United States amid increasing tensions with the Soviet
Union (the first peacetime draft occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt).
* July 24 - Great oil fire in the harbor of Naantali, *Finland
* July 26 - U.S. President signs Executive Order 9981, ending racial segregation
in the United States Armed Forces.
* July 28 - Around 200 die in explosion at a chemical plant in Ludwigshafen,
Germany.
* July 29 - 1948 Summer Olympics begin in London, the first Summer Olympics
since World War II.
* July 31 - At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later
renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
August
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31
* August 1 - The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.
* August 10 - August 23 - Herrenchiemsee Convent prepares the draft for the
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.
* August 15 - Establishment of the Republic of Korea.
* August 23 - World Council of Churches established.
* August 25 - House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised
congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers
and Alger Hiss.
September
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6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30
* September 4 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.
* September 5 - Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France.
* September 6 - Juliana becomes Queen of the Netherlands.
* September 11 - Death of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Founder and first
Governor General of Pakistan (b. 1876). Pakistan is in a state of shock as it
mourns the departure of the father of the nation. The day is a public holiday
nation-wide.
* September 12 - Invasion of the State of Hyderabad by the Indian Army on the
day after the Pakistani leader Jinnah's death to assist damage control. Operation
Polo led to the deaths of an estimated tens of thousands of Hyderabadi Muslims.
* September 17 - Stern Gang assassinates count Folke Bernadotte.
* September 29 - Laurence Olivier's Hamlet opens in the United States.
October
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4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
* October 5 - The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake kills 100,000
* October 11 - Cleveland Indians defeat the Boston Braves to win the World Series,
four games to two.
* October 16 - The 57th Street Art Fair, the oldest juried art fair in the American
midwest, is founded.
* October 26 - Killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania.
November
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8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
* November 2 - United States presidential election, 1948: Harry S. Truman
defeats Thomas E. Dewey and Strom Thurmond for the US presidency.
* November 12 - In Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven
Japanese military and government officials to death, including General Hideki
Tojo, for their roles in World War II.
* November 15 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent becomes Canada's twelfth prime minister.
* November 16 - Operation Magic Carpet to transport Jews from Yemen to Israel
begins.
* November 17 - Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi divorces his second wife, the former
Princess Fawzia of Egypt.
* November 20 - Geoffrey B. Orbell rediscovers the Takahe, last seen 50 years
ago, near Lake Te Anau, New Zealand.
* November 24 - In Venezuela, president Rómulo Betancourt is ousted by
a military coup. A military junta takes over the government.
* November 27 - The Calgary Stampeders defeat the Ottawa Rough Riders 12-7 before
20,013 fans at Toronto's Varsity Stadium to capture their first Grey Cup and
complete the only perfect season to date in Canadian Football.
December
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
* December 10 - United Nations General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
* December 26 - Last Soviet troops withdraw from North Korea.
* December 28 - Member of Muslim Brotherhood assassinates Egyptian Prime Minister
Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi.
* December 30 - The play Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances.
* December 31 - 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Israeli troops drive Egyptians from Negev.
Also in 1948:
* Brandeis University is founded.
* Casimir effect discovered by Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir.
* Fresh Kills, world's largest landfill, opens in Staten Island, New York.
* Playwright Arthur Miller writes "Death of a Salesman."
* The law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is founded.
* Miranda, the innermost moon of Uranus, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper.
* Oakridge Transit Centre opened in Vancouver, British Columbia.
* RAND Corporation is established as a nonprofit policy research and analysis
institution.
* The Slovak city Gúta was renamed to Kolárovo.
* Tunnel of Vielha is opened in Val d'Aran, Spanish Pyrenees.
* The Caspian Tiger became extinct in Kazakhstan by this date.
* The Rhode Island Highlanders Pipe Band was founded.