A new world order began to emerge in 1948. The U.S. announced the Marshall Plan to help rebuild Europe, while a group of European nations formed an alliance that would evolve into NATO. The Berlin Blockade escalated tensions between the emerging superpowers. Israel became a Jewish state, and Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated less than a year after his country won independence from Great Britain. President Truman desegregated America’s military, while 42-year-old Negro League star Satchel Paige became Major League Baseball’s oldest rookie.
Jan
30
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement, is assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu extremist on January 30, 1948.
Flower symbolizing transience the perishability of the body and affirming the beauty of real of immaterial imperishable values, covered the body of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's face showed no trace of his violent death and looking at the serenity of his countenance one could almost imagine that he is listening with closed eyes to the scripture, which the Iskh priest is reading at left. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Bettmann Archive
Feb
21
On February 21, 1948, the National Association for Stock Car Racing—or NASCAR, as it will come to be widely known—is officially incorporated. NASCAR racing will go on to become one of America’s most popular spectator sports, as well as a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Feb
25
Under pressure from the Czechoslovakian Communist Party, President Edvard Benes allows a communist-dominated government to be organized. Although the Soviet Union did not physically intervene (as it would in 1968), Western observers decried the virtually bloodless communist coup as an example of Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe.
Mar
10
Mar
30
Henry Wallace, former vice president and Progressive Party presidential candidate, lashes out at the Cold War policies of President Harry S. Truman. Wallace and his supporters were among the few Americans who actively voiced criticisms of America’s Cold War mindset during the late-1940s and 1950s.
Apr
03
On April 3, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signs the Economic Assistance Act, which authorized the creation of a program that would help the nations of Europe recover and rebuild after the devastation wrought by World War II. Commonly known as the Marshall Plan, it aimed to stabilize Europe economically and politically so that European nations would not be tempted by the appeal of communist parties.
Apr
03
"The Lousiana Hayride," a country radio program broadcast out of Shreveport, Louisiana, premieres. The show would launch the careers not only of several country music giants, but also of a young, genre-crossing singer named Elvis Presley, the future King of Rock 'n' Roll.
Apr
30
May
03
May
04
May
14
May
15
On May 15, 1948, 3-year-old June Devaney, recovering from pneumonia at Queen’s Park Hospital in Blackburn, England, is kidnapped from her bed. Nurses discovered her missing at 1:20 a.m. the next day, and police were immediately summoned to investigate. Two hours later, her body was found with multiple skull fractures. The medical examiner determined that Devaney had been raped and then swung headfirst into a wall.
Jun
08
Jun
24
One of the most dramatic standoffs in the history of the Cold War begins as the Soviet Union blocks all road and rail traffic to and from West Berlin. The blockade turned out to be a terrible diplomatic move by the Soviets, while the United States emerged from the confrontation with renewed purpose and confidence.
Jun
26
On June 26, 1948, U.S. and British pilots begin delivering food and supplies by airplane to Berlin after the city is isolated by a Soviet Union blockade.
A group of German children stand atop building rubble, cheering a United States cargo airplane as it flies over a western section of Berlin. American and British forces have been airlifting food and supplies after Soviet forces surrounded and closed off the besieged city.
Bettmann Archive
Jul
20
Jul
26
On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, banning racial discrimination in the military. Truman’s order ended a long-standing practice of segregating Black soldiers and relegating them to more menial jobs.
Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Aug
03
In hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Whittaker Chambers accuses former State Department official Alger Hiss of being a communist and a spy for the Soviet Union. The accusation set into motion a series of events that eventually resulted in the trial and conviction of Hiss for perjury.
Aug
05
On August 5, 1948, American diver Sammy Lee takes gold at the London Olympics, just two days after his good friend and fellow diver Vicki Draves won her own gold. They are the first Asian Americans to win Olympic gold medals for the United States.
Aug
16
On August 16, 1948, baseball legend George Herman “Babe” Ruth dies from cancer in New York City. For two days following, his body lay in state at the main entrance to Yankee Stadium, and tens of thousands of people stood in line to pay their last respects. He was buried in Hawthorne, New York.
Sep
24
On September 24, 1948, Mildred Gillars—the notorious American citizen known as “Axis Sally,” who had been living in Germany and broadcasting Nazi radio propaganda during World War II—pleads not guilty to eight counts of treason. Her lawyer, James J. Laughlin, tells the judge that he wants to call President Harry S. Truman as a witness, but he doesn’t say why.
Sep
24
Motorcycle builder Soichiro Honda incorporates the Honda Motor Company in Hamamatsu, Japan. In the 1960s, the company achieved worldwide fame for its motorcycles (in particular, its C100 Super Cub, which became the world’s best-selling vehicle); in the 1970s, it achieved worldwide fame for its affordable, fuel-efficient cars. Today, in large part because of its continued emphasis on affordability, efficiency and eco-friendliness (its internal motto is “Blue skies for our children”), the company is doing better than most.
Oct
15
Oct
15
Oct
30
Nov
02
In one of the greatest upsets in presidential election history, Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman defeats his Republican challenger, Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York, by just over two million popular votes. In the days preceding the vote, political analysts and polls were so behind Dewey that on election night, long before all the votes were counted, the Chicago Tribune published an early edition with the banner headline “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.”
Nov
03
On November 3, 1948, the Chicago Tribune jumps the gun and mistakenly declares New York Governor Thomas Dewey the winner of the previous days' presidential race against incumbent Harry S. Truman in a front-page headline: “Dewey Defeats Truman.”
Nov
04
Nov
26
On November 26, 1948, the first “Land Camera”—better known today as the instant Polaroid camera—goes on sale at Jordan Marsh department store in Boston for $89.75. The invention of Edwin H. Land, who had enrolled at Harvard to study physics in 1926, but dropped out to conduct his own research, becomes an instant hit and sells out within minutes that first day.
Dec
23
In Tokyo, Japan, Hideki Tojo, former Japanese premier and chief of the Kwantung Army, is executed along with six other top Japanese leaders for their war crimes during World War II. Seven of the defendants were also found guilty of committing crimes against humanity, especially in regard to their systematic genocide of the Chinese people.
Dec
24
On Christmas Eve 1948, a family of three moves into a home in Dover, Massachusetts with unusually large windows—the world’s first fully solar house, an idea decades ahead of its time. Nobody had ever tried living in a residence heated only by the sun, much less through a frigid New England winter.
The south side of the “Sun House” in Dover, Massachusetts, December 1948. The world’s first fully solar-powered residence was designed by Dr. Maria Telkes, along with Boston architect Eleanor Raymond. It was built on the estate of sculptor and philanthropist Amelia Peabody.
Dan Goshtigian/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
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