In 1947, both India and Pakistan won independence from Great Britain. America launched the Marshall Plan to help war-torn Europe rebuild, and the U.N. partitioned Palestine, creating the state of Israel. In the U.S., Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball and test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the X-1 rocket plane. And in Roswell, New Mexico, a mysterious object crashed in the desert, driving speculation about extraterrestrial life.
Feb
12
On February 12, 1947, as Europe continues to recover from the devastation of World War II, French fashion designer Christian Dior launches his first collection: the “New Look.” For some, its lavish sense of exaggerated femininity marked a welcome departure from wartime austerity. For others, it prompted harsh backlash.
Feb
17
With the words, “Hello! This is New York calling,” the U.S. Voice of America (VOA) begins its first radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union. The VOA effort was an important part of America’s propaganda campaign against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Mar
12
In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asks for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations. Historians have often cited Truman’s address, which came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, as the official declaration of the Cold War.
American President Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972) signing the Foreign Aid Assistance Act, which provided a programme of foreign aid to Greece and Turkey. The provision of economic support to any nation resisting communist pressure came to be known as the Truman Doctrine. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)
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Mar
21
Apr
09
On April 9, 1947, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sends 16 Black and white activists on a bus ride through the American South to test a recent Supreme Court decision striking down segregation on interstate bus travel. The so-called Journey of Reconciliation, which lasted two weeks, was an important precursor to the Freedom Rides of the 1960s.
Apr
15
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, age 28, becomes the first African American player in Major League Baseball's modern era when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years. Exactly 50 years later, on April 15, 1997, Robinson’s groundbreaking career was honored and his uniform number, 42, was retired from Major League Baseball by Commissioner Bud Selig in a ceremony attended by over 50,000 fans at New York City’s Shea Stadium. Robinson’s was the first-ever number retired by all teams in the league.
Jackie Robinson, in military uniform, becomes the first African American to sign with a white professional baseball team. He signs a contract with the minor league club in Montreal, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Bettmann Archive
Apr
16
Multimillionaire and financier Bernard Baruch, in a speech given during the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives, coins the term “Cold War” to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. The phrase stuck, and for over 40 years it was a mainstay in the language of American diplomacy.
Apr
16
A giant explosion occurs during the loading of fertilizer onto the freighter Grandcamp at a pier in Texas City, Texas, on April 16, 1947. Nearly 600 people lost their lives and thousands were injured when the ship was literally blown to bits.
Apr
19
May
03
On May 3, 1947, Japan’s postwar constitution goes into effect. The progressive constitution granted universal suffrage, stripped Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power, stipulated a bill of rights, abolished peerage, and outlawed Japan’s right to make war. The document was largely the work of Supreme Allied Commander Douglas MacArthur and his occupation staff, who had prepared the draft in February 1946 after a Japanese attempt was deemed unacceptable.
May
11
Jun
05
In one of the most significant speeches of the Cold War, Secretary of State George C. Marshall calls on the United States to assist in the economic recovery of postwar Europe. His speech provided the impetus for the so-called Marshall Plan, under which the United States sent billions of dollars to Western Europe to rebuild the war-torn countries.
Jun
20
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, the man who brought organized crime to the West Coast, is shot and killed at his mistress Virginia Hill’s home in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel had been talking to his associate Allen Smiley when three bullets were fired through the window and into his head, killing him instantly.
Jul
01
State Department official George Kennan, using the pseudonym “Mr. X,” publishes an article entitled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in the July edition of Foreign Affairs. The article focused on Kennan’s call for a policy of containment toward the Soviet Union and established the foundation for much of America’s early Cold War foreign policy.
Jul
02
Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov walks out of a meeting with representatives of the British and French governments, signaling the Soviet Union’s rejection of the Marshall Plan. Molotov’s action indicated that Cold War frictions between the United States and Russia were intensifying.
Jul
18
Jul
18
Jul
26
President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act, which becomes one of the most important pieces of Cold War legislation. The act established much of the bureaucratic framework for foreign policymaking for the next 40-plus years of the Cold War.
Aug
07
On August 7, 1947, Kon-Tiki, a balsa wood raft captained by Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, completes a 4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru to Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti. Heyerdahl wanted to prove his theory that prehistoric South Americans could have colonized the Polynesian islands by drifting on ocean currents.
The Kon Tiki sails to Polynesia, George Washington founded the Order of Purple Heart, a tightrope is between the World Trade Center Towers, and Joe Lieberman is Al Gore’s Vice President candidate in This Day in History video. The date is August 7th. Frenchman, Philippe Petit, walks the tightrope between the Twin Towers and Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl reaches Polynesia.
Aug
15
The Indian Independence Bill, which carves the independent nations of India and Pakistan out of the former Mogul Empire, comes into force at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947. The long-awaited agreement ended 200 years of British rule and was hailed by Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi as the “noblest act of the British nation.” However, religious strife between Hindus and Muslims, which had delayed Britain’s granting of Indian independence after World War II, soon marred Gandhi’s exhilaration. In the northern province of Punjab, which was sharply divided between Hindu-dominated India and Muslim-dominated Pakistan, hundreds of people were killed in the first few days after independence.
Aug
23
On August 23, 1947, the first Little League World Series championship game—the culmination of a three-day tournament in Williamsport, Pennsylvania—features teams from Pennsylvania. Before roughly 2,500 fans, Maynard, a team from Williamsport, defeats Lock Haven, 16-7, to win the title at Original Field. Although it is called the "World Series," 11 of the 12 teams in the tournament are from Pennsylvania; the outlier is a team from Atlantic City, N.J.
Sep
30
On September 30, 1947, the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 5-3, in Game 1 of the World Series—the first Fall Classic game broadcast on television. It is the second "Subway Series" between and Yankees and Dodgers and first World Series to involve a Black player. Jackie Robinson of the Dodgers broke Major League Baseball's color barrier six months earlier.
Oct
05
On October 5, 1947, President Harry Truman (1884-1972) makes the first-ever televised presidential address from the White House, asking Americans to cut back on their use of grain in order to help starving Europeans.
In this This Day in History video clip learn about different events that have occurred on October 5th. Some of the events include Chief Joseph surrenders and the Beatles releasing their first single, Love Me Do. Also, Barry Bonds hits the most home runs in a single season and President Truman makes the first television address.
Oct
14
U.S. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.
Captain Charles E Yeager standing next to the Air Force's Bell X-1 supersonic research aircraft, Muroc Army Air Force Base, California, October 1947. Yeager named it the Glamorous Glennis after his wife. He became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)
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Oct
20
On October 20, 1947, the notorious Red Scare kicks into high gear in Washington, as a Congressional committee begins investigating communist influence in one of the world’s richest and most glamorous communities: Hollywood.
A group of protesters demonstrate holding placards against Communist sympathizers outside the Fox Wilshire Theatre in occasion of the premiere of film 'Exodus', which marked the end of the 'Hollywood Blacklist' when screen player Dalton Trumbo, a Communist Party member from 1943 to 1948 and member of the Hollywood Ten, was credited as the screenwriter of the film, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, US, December 1960. (Photo by American Stock Archive/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
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Nov
02
The Hughes Flying Boat—at one time the largest aircraft ever built—is piloted by designer Howard Hughes on its first and only flight. Built with laminated birch and spruce (hence the nickname the Spruce Goose) the massive wooden aircraft had a wingspan longer than a football field and was designed to carry more than 700 men to battle.
American aircraft designer Howard Hughes prepares for the trial run of his strategic airlift flying boat, the Hughes H-4 Hercules (aka the 'Spruce Goose'), Los Angeles harbor, 2nd November 1947. The brief flight was the aircraft's first and only time airborne.
Bettmann Archive
Nov
20
Nov
24
The House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt against 10 Hollywood writers, directors, and producers. These men had refused to cooperate at hearings dealing with communism in the movie industry held by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The “Hollywood Ten," as the men were known, are sentenced to one year in jail. The Supreme Court later upheld the contempt charges.
Nov
29
Despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations votes for the partition of Palestine into two sections: an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state.
In this “This Day in History” video clip learn about different events that have occurred on November 29th. Some of these events include Richard Bird flying over the South Pole and President Johnson establishing the Warren commission. Also, George Harrison died and Israel is officially called a country.
Dec
03
On December 3, 1947, Marlon Brando’s famous cry of “STELLA!” first booms across a Broadway stage, electrifying the audience at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre during the first-ever performance of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire.
Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy in “A Streetcar Named Desire” on Broadway.
John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
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