What Happened in 1946 — Events, Births & Deaths

Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf suffers a concussion during a freak racing accident; he dies from the injury the following day. The annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.

The first day of a three-day "disastrous" tornado outbreak across the south-central United States leaves 41 people dead and at least 412 others injured.

The first general election ever in Vietnam is held.

Andrei Zhdanov, Chairman of the Finnish Allied Commission, submits to the Finnish War Criminal Court an interrogation report by General Erich Buschenhagen, a German prisoner of war, on the contacts between Finnish and German military personnel before the Continuation War and a copy of Hitler's Barbarossa plan.

The first General Assembly of the United Nations assembles in the Methodist Central Hall, Westminster. Fifty-one nations are represented.

The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the Moon and receiving the reflected signals.

Enver Hoxha, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Albania, declares the People's Republic of Albania with himself as head of state.

The UN Security Council holds its first session.

General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

In Iran, Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at Chahar Cheragh Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad; he becomes the new president and Haji Baba Sheikh becomes the prime minister.

Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.

The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1 relating to Military Staff Committee is adopted.

Cold War: Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling that of the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

The Democratic Republic of Vietnam introduces the đồng to replace the French Indochinese piastre at par.

Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary-General.

The Parliament of Hungary abolishes the monarchy after nine centuries, and proclaims the Hungarian Republic.

The People's Republic of Korea is dissolved in the North and replaced by the communist-controlled Provisional People's Committee of North Korea.

The New Testament of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first significant challenge to the Authorized King James Version, is published.

World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.

African American United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard is severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point where he loses his vision in both eyes. The incident later galvanizes the civil rights movement and partially inspires Orson Welles' film Touch of Evil.

The Bank of England is nationalized.

ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors

The "Long Telegram", proposing how the United States should deal with the Soviet Union, arrives from the US embassy in Moscow.

Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became known as Peronism, is elected to his first term as President of Argentina.

The Bank of England is nationalised.

The sixth President of Finland, Gustaf Mannerheim, submits his resignation for health reasons.

Cold War: Winston Churchill delivers his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College, Missouri.

Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, kills 33 and injures hundreds more.

Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, is captured by British troops.

French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion become overseas départements of France.

The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in professional American football since 1933.

The United Kingdom grants full independence to Transjordan.

A British Cabinet Mission arrives in India to discuss and plan for the transfer of power from the British Raj to Indian leadership.

Cold War: The United States Department of State releases the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.

The 8.6 Mw Aleutian Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong). A destructive tsunami reaches the Hawaiian Islands resulting in dozens of deaths, mostly in Hilo, Hawaii.

The Malayan Union is established. Protests from locals led to the establishment of the Federation of Malaya two years later.

Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.

Greek judge and archeologist Panagiotis Poulitsas is appointed Prime Minister of Greece in the midst of the Greek Civil War.

Soviet troops end their year-long occupation of the Danish island of Bornholm.

A Fleet Air Arm Vickers Wellington crashes into a residential area in Rabat, Malta during a training exercise, killing all four crew members and 16 civilians on the ground.

The Soviet Union annexes East Prussia as the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

About 500 postal workers in Tel Aviv and Jaffa went on strike.

The last French troops are withdrawn from Syria.

The International Court of Justice holds its inaugural meeting in The Hague, Netherlands.

Jackie Robinson makes his regular season debut for the Montreal Royals of the International League, to make them the first integrated modern professional baseball team.

The League of Nations officially dissolves, giving most of its power to the United Nations.

The U.S. Weather Bureau records that a tornado which struck Timber Lake, South Dakota was 4 miles (6.4 km), among the widest tornadoes on record.

Manuel Roxas is elected the last President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East convenes and indicts former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders for war crimes.

Start of three-year Pilbara strike of Indigenous Australians.

In San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Five people are killed in the riot.

The International Military Tribunal for the Far East begins in Tokyo with twenty-eight Japanese military and government officials accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded.

Estonian schoolgirls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which preceded the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn.

King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by Umberto II.

First successful launch of an American V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground.

Physicist Louis Slotin is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The start of a two-day tornado outbreak across the Central United States that spawned at least 15 significant tornadoes.

The Emirate of Transjordan becomes independent from the United Kingdom as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan after ratifying the Treaty of London and making their Amir, Abdullah I, their King.

Ion Antonescu, "Conducator" ("Leader") of Romania during World War II, is executed.

Birth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After the referendum, King Umberto II of Italy is exiled.

in Argentina assumes its first presidency Juan Domingo Perón.

A fire in the La Salle Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, kills 61 people.

The United Kingdom's BBC returns to broadcasting its television service, which has been off air for seven years because of World War II.

Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, a Socialist, calls for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa.

The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake strikes Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

In the Canadian Citizenship Act, the Parliament of Canada establishes the definition of Canadian citizenship.

The Kielce pogrom against Jewish Holocaust survivors in Poland.

After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.

Micheline Bernardini models the first modern bikini at a swimming pool in Paris.

Mother Francesca S. Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized.

Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.

The State of North Borneo, now Sabah, Malaysia, is annexed by the United Kingdom.

King David Hotel bombing: A Zionist underground organisation, the Irgun, bombs the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, site of the civil administration and military headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, resulting in 91 deaths.

The Crossroads Baker device is the first underwater nuclear weapon test.

Aloha Airlines begins service from Honolulu International Airport.

Leaders of the Russian Liberation Army, a force of Russian prisoners of war that collaborated with Nazi Germany, are executed in Moscow, Soviet Union for treason.

Santa Claus Land, the world's first themed amusement park, opens in Santa Claus, Indiana, United States.

An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 hits northern Dominican Republic. One hundred are killed and 20,000 are left homeless.

The government of the Soviet Union presented a note to its Turkish counterparts which refuted the latter's sovereignty over the Turkish Straits, thus beginning the Turkish Straits crisis.

First flight of the nuclear capable Convair B-36, heaviest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft at the time.

Mass riots in Kolkata begin; more than 4,000 people would be killed in 72 hours.

The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad.

Ordinance No. 46 of the British Military Government constitutes the German Länder (states) of Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein.

The Workers' Party of North Korea, predecessor of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, is founded at a congress held in Pyongyang, North Korea.

The Interim Government of India is formed, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru as vice president with the powers of a Prime Minister.

United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes announces that the U.S. will follow a policy of economic reconstruction in postwar Germany.

A referendum abolishes the monarchy in Bulgaria.

The Council of Europe is founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.

The first Cannes Film Festival is held, having been delayed for seven years due to World War II.

Six days after a referendum, King Christian X of Denmark annuls the declaration of independence of the Faroe Islands.

Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong.

The top-secret Clifford-Elsey Report on the Soviet Union is delivered to President Truman.

An American Overseas Airlines Douglas DC-4 crashes near Ernest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, killing 39.

France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.

Nuremberg trials: Ten defendants found guilty by the International Military Tribunal are executed by hanging.

Over twenty-two hundred engineers and technicians from eastern Germany are forced to relocate to the Soviet Union, along with their families and equipment.

A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space.

The Constitution of Japan is adopted through Emperor's assent.

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the Peruvian Andes mountains kills at least 1,400 people.

Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.

Indonesian National Revolution: 96 Indonesian including I Gusti Ngurah Rai were killed during the Battle of Margarana with Dutch forces.

French naval bombardment of Hai Phong, Vietnam, kills thousands of civilians.

A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.

The subsequent Nuremberg trials begin with the Doctors' Trial, prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.

The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 13 relating to acceptance of Siam (now Thailand) to the United Nations is adopted.

Start of the First Indochina War.

It's a Wonderful Life premieres at the Globe Theatre in New York to mixed reviews.

An earthquake in Nankaidō, Japan causes a tsunami which kills at least one thousand people and destroys 36,000 homes.

An 8.1 Mw earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Nankaidō, Japan, kills over 1,300 people and destroys over 38,000 homes.

The first European self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is initiated within the Soviet Union's F-1 nuclear reactor.

President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.