What Happened in 1949 — Events, Births & Deaths

Luis Muñoz Marín is inaugurated as the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established.

In his State of the Union address, United States President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.

The first "networked" television broadcasts took place as KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania goes on the air connecting the east coast and mid-west programming.

Chinese Civil War: The Communist forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist government.

The first Emmy Awards are presented in the United States; the venue is the Hollywood Athletic Club.

The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).

These Are My Children, the first television daytime soap opera, is broadcast by the NBC station in Chicago, United States.

The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time.

The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.

Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of Israel.

Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.

The Armistice Agreements are signed, to formally end the hostilities of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute.

President of France Vincent Auriol and ex-Vietnamese emperor Bảo Đại sign the Élysée Accords, giving Vietnam greater independence from France and creating the State of Vietnam to oppose Viet Minh-led Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") is convicted of treason.

Hanns Albin Rauter, a chief SS and Police Leader in the Netherlands, is convicted and executed for crimes against humanity.

More than 92,000 kulaks are suddenly deported from the Baltic states to Siberia.

Cold War: A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joins NATO.

The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.

The Government of Canada repeals Japanese-Canadian internment after seven years.

Cold War: Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements in the United States.

The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force, declaring Éire to be a republic and severing Ireland's "association" with the Commonwealth of Nations.

Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War.

Chinese Civil War: Establishment of the People's Liberation Army Navy.

The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed.

The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash.

EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation.

Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.

Aeroflot Flight 17 crashes on approach to Severny Airport in Novosibirsk, killing 25.

In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established.

Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany.

Thailand elects Orapin Chaiyakan, the first female member of Thailand's Parliament.

George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published in the United States

Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first mammal and first monkey in space.

The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, starring William Boyd, is aired on NBC.

The Israel–Syria Mixed Armistice Commission brokers the last of four ceasefire agreements to end the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.

Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner.

The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League finalize the merger that would create the National Basketball Association.

In Ecuador, an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6,000.

In Montana, 12 smokejumper firefighters and a US Forest Service fire guard are killed in the Mann Gulch Fire.

An amendment to the National Security Act of 1947 enhances the authority of the United States Secretary of Defense over the Army, Navy and Air Force, and replaces the National Military Establishment with the Department of Defense.

The 6.7 Ms Karlıova earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 320–450 dead.

Matsukawa derailment: Unknown saboteurs cause a passenger train to derail and overturn in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, killing three crew members and igniting a political firestorm between the Japanese Communist Party and the government of Occupied Japan that will eventually lead to the Japanese Red Purge.

Kemi strike: Two protesters die in the scuffle between the police and the strikers' protest procession in Kemi, Finland.

Hungary adopts the Hungarian Constitution of 1949 and becomes a People's Republic.

The Queen Charlotte earthquake is Canada's strongest since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake.

The treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization goes into effect.

Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.

The retreat of the Democratic Army of Greece into Albania after its defeat on Gramos mountain marks the end of the Greek Civil War.

Paul Robeson performs a second concert in Peekskill, New York eight days after the Peekskill riots.

The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives.

Zeng Liansong's design is chosen as the flag of the People's Republic of China.

The Berlin Airlift ends.

WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the United States, opens in Atlanta.

The communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed.

The Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders in the United States convicts eleven defendants of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the federal government.

The Greek Communist Party announces a "temporary cease-fire", thus ending the Greek Civil War.

The cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters is laid.

The Battle of Guningtou in the Taiwan Strait begins.

An Air France Lockheed Constellation crashes in the Azores, killing all 48 people on board.

All 55 people on board Eastern Air Lines Flight 537 are killed when the Douglas DC-4 operating the flight collides in mid-air with a Bolivian Air Force Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft over Alexandria, Virginia.

The Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference ends with the Netherlands agreeing to transfer sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to the United States of Indonesia.

Chinese Civil War: The Battle of Dengbu Island occurs.

The first oil was taken in Oil Rocks (Neft Daşları), the world's oldest offshore oil platform.

The People's Liberation Army Air Force is founded.

The Iva Valley Shooting occurs after the coal miners of Enugu in Nigeria go on strike over withheld wages; 21 miners are shot dead and 51 are wounded by police under the supervision of the British colonial administration of Nigeria.

The Constituent Assembly of India adopts the constitution presented by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar.

Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others is adopted.

Sir Duncan George Stewart, governor of the Crown Colony of Sarawak, was fatally stabbed by a member of the Rukun 13.

Chinese Civil War: The Government of the Republic of China moves from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.

Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.

The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Indonesian National Revolution: The Netherlands officially recognizes Indonesian independence. End of the Dutch East Indies.