Timeline 1949

Timeline 1949

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1949        Jan 1, Bulgaria inaugurated a 5-year plan.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1193)
1949        Jan 1, Czechoslovakia announced a 5-year plan to attain economic independence from the West.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1186)
1949        Jan 1, The UN brokered a cease-fire in Kashmir. It granted Kashmir the right to vote on whether to remain in India or to join Pakistan. No vote took place.
    (SSFC, 12/30/01, p.A22)(SFC, 6/8/02, p.A20)

1949        Jan 3, Gary (Robert) Lavelle baseball, was born: pitcher: SF Giants, [all-star: 1977, 1983], Toronto Blue Jays, Oakland Athletics.
    (440 Int'l. 1/3/99)

1949        Jan 5, In his State of the Union address, President Truman labeled his administration the "Fair Deal." Alben Barkley (1877-1956) served as Truman’s vice-president.
    (WUD, 1994 p.120)(AP, 1/5/98)(WSJ, 2/12/02, p.A18)

1949        Jan 6, Victor Fleming (b.1889), Hollywood film director, died. He won his only Oscar for directing 60% of “gone with the Wind” (1939). In 2008 Michael Sragow authored “Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master.”
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Fleming)(WSJ, 12/11/08, p.A17)

1949        Jan 7, Sec. of State Marshall resigned for health reasons and was succeeded by Dean Acheson.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1207)

1949        Jan 10, George Foreman, world heavyweight champion from 1973 to 1974, was born. He lost it to Mohammed Ali and regained it in 1994 at the age of 46.
    (HN, 1/10/99)
1949        Jan 10, RCA introduced the 45 RPM record.
    (MC, 1/10/02)

1949        Jan 11, Surrender talks in China between the Nationalists and Communists opened as Tientsing was virtually lost to the Communists.
    (HN, 1/11/99)

1949        Jan 14, There was a Black-Indian race rebellion in Durban, South Africa; 142 died.
    (MC, 1/14/02)

1949        Jan 15, Chinese Communists occupied Tientsin after a 27-hour battle with Nationalist forces.
    (HN, 1/15/99)

1949        Jan 17, Andy Kaufman, comedian, actor (Latka Gravas-Taxi), was born in NYC.
    (MC, 1/17/02)

1949        Jan 19, The Chiang Government moved the capital of China to Canton.
    (HN, 1/19/99)

1949        Jan 20, Ivana Trump, former wife of Donald Trump, was born.
    (MC, 1/20/02)
1949        Jan 20, Pres. Truman was inaugurated for his 2nd term. He presented a 4-point plan for American foreign policy. Point 4 called for "a bold new program" of assistance to economically underdeveloped areas. In his inaugural address, Truman branded communism a "false philosophy" as he outlined his program for U.S. world leadership.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 1/20/99)

1949        Jan 22, Police broke into Rm. 203 of the Mark Twain Hotel in San Francisco and arrested Billie Holiday (1915-1959) and her manager, John Levy, on charges of possession of opium. Her defense attorney, Jake Erlich, fingered Levy as an informer and persuaded the jury to return a verdict of not guilty.
    (SFC, 5/19/96, DB, p.39)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Holiday)

1949        Jan 23, The Communists Chinese forces began their advance on Nanking.
    (HN, 1/23/99)

1949        Jan 24, John Belushi, comedian, actor (SNL, Blues Brothers), was born in Chicago, Ill.
    (MC, 1/24/02)

1949        Jan 25, Axis Sally, who broadcasted Nazi propaganda to U.S. troops in Europe, stood trial in the United States for war crimes.
    (HN, 1/25/99)
1949        Jan 25, Poland joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1200)
1949        Jan 25, "Comecon," or the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, was the Soviet Union’s attempt to create a program that would be the Communist equivalent of the Marshall Plan, an American program to rebuild postwar western Europe. After the formal division of Germany into east and west, the Soviets attempted to create the organization to replicate for Eastern Europe what the Marshall Plan was to do for the west. The Soviet-backed organization started with Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania becoming founding members (in addition to the Soviet Union). Albania and East Germany joined shortly thereafter. Comecon was never able to match the effectiveness of the American program because of the lack of resources in the weaker Communist countries and inflexible Soviet leadership concerned primarily with strengthening the Soviet Union. The organization, which sought coordination between the nations’ centrally-planned economies lasted until 1990 when the democratization movements in eastern Europe made Comecon's purpose moot. In 1991, Comecon was renamed the Organization for International Economic Cooperation.
    (HNQ, 6/30/99)(HNQ, 1/22/01)

1949        Jan 28, NY Giants signed their 1st black players, Monte Irvin & Ford Smith.
    (MC, 1/28/02)

1949        Jan 30, In India, 100,000 people prayed at the site of Gandhi's assassination on the first anniversary of his death.
    (HN, 1/30/99)

1949        Jan 31, The first TV daytime soap opera, "These Are My Children," was broadcast from the NBC station in Chicago.
    (AP, 1/31/98)

1949        Jan, Samuel Beckett finished writing En Attendant Godot. He translated it into English as "Waiting for Godot" in 1953.
    (WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A10)

1949        Feb 1, Louis B. Mayer, the Mayer in Metro Goldwin Mayer (MGM), became a millionaire once more. He sold his breeding farm of race horses for one-million dollars.
    (440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1949        Feb 1, RCA Victor countered Columbia Records’ 33-1/3 ‘long play’ phonograph disk on this day, with not only a smaller, 7-inch record (with a big hole in the center), but an entire phonograph playing system, as well. Soon, the newfangled product, which started a revolution (especially with the new rock and roll music) soon made the 78-rpm record a ‘blast from the past’. The 45-rpm disk did well for about 20 years. Then it started to lose ground to cassette tapes, eight tracks and albums.
    (440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1949        Feb 1, Joseph J. Kleiner was awarded a patent for the Becton Dickinson Vacutainer Tube, a stoppered glass tube that maintained a vacuum for drawing blood. Kleiner had joined BD as a consultant in 1943.
    (Echo, 6/2009, p.3)(www.bd.com/aboutbd/history/)
1949        Feb 1, The 200" (5.08-m) Hale telescope was 1st used.
    (MC, 2/1/02)

1949        Feb 2, Ben Hogan (d.1997), golf star, was severely injured in a head-on car crash with a bus. Since his discharge from the Army in 1945, he had won 37 tournaments. In 1951 a Hollywood movie with Glenn Ford was made about Hogan and titled "Follow the Sun."
    (SFC, 7/26/97, p.E1)
1949        Feb 2-22, Lithuanian partisan leaders gathered and established Lithuanian Freedom Fighters' Union instead of General Democratic Resistance Movement.
    (LHC, 2/2/03)

1949        Feb 7, Joe DiMaggio of the NY Yankees became the 1st $100,000/year baseball player.
    (MC, 2/7/02)

1949        Feb 8, In Hungary Cardinal Mindszenty was sentenced to life imprisonment for high treason.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)(EWH, 1968, p.1188)

1949        Feb 10, Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" opened at Broadway's Morosco Theater with Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman. The play depicting the false dreams of Willy Loman won a Tony Award and a Pulitzer Prize.
    (WSJ, 10/4/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 5/13/96, p. A-16)(AP, 2/10/08)
1949        Feb 10, Elections in Northern Ireland showed that at least 2/3 of the population favored continued union with Great Britain.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1166)

1949        Feb 12, "Annie Get Your Gun" closed at the Imperial Theater in NYC after 1147 performances.
    (MC, 2/12/02)
1949        Feb 12, Moslem Brotherhood chief Hassan el Banna was shot to death in Cairo.
    (HN, 2/12/97)

1949        Feb 13, A mob burned a radio station in Ecuador after the broadcast of H.G. Wells’ "War of the Worlds."
    (HN, 2/13/98)

1949        Feb 14, The United States charged the USSR with interning up to 14 million in labor camps.
    (HN, 2/14/98)
1949        Feb 14, 1st session of Knesset (Jerusalem Israel).
    (MC, 2/14/02)

1949        Feb 17, Chaim Weitzman was elected the 1st president of Israel.
    (MC, 2/17/02)

1949        Feb 19, Ezra Pound won the Bollingen Prize.
    (HFA, ‘96, p.22)
1949        Feb 19, Mass arrests of communists took place in India.
    (MC, 2/19/02)

1949        Feb 21, Nicaragua and Costa Rica signed a friendship treaty ending hostilities over their borders.
    (HN, 2/21/98)

1949        Feb 24, A V-2 WAC-Corporal was the 1st rocket to outer space. It was fired at White Sands, NM, and reached 400 km.
    (MC, 2/24/02)
1949        Feb 24, Israel and Egypt signed an armistice agreement.
    (MC, 2/24/02)

1949        Feb 26, A USAF plane began a 1st nonstop around-the-world flight.
    (SC, 2/26/02)

1949        Feb 27, Chaim Weizmann became the 1st Israeli president.
    (MC, 2/27/02)

1949        Mar 1, Joe Louis retired as heavyweight boxing champion.
    (SC, 3/1/02)

1949        Mar 2, The Lucky Lady II (USAF B-50 Superfortress), landed at Fort Worth , Texas, after completing the first non-stop, round-the-world flight: 23,452-mis in 94 hours.
    (AP, 3/2/98)(SC, 3/2/02)
1949        Mar 2, 1st automatic street light was in New Milford, CT.
    (SC, 3/2/02)

1949        Mar 4, In the USSR foreign minister V.M. Molotov was replaced by A. Vishinsky and Minister of Defense Marshal N.A. Bulganin was replaced by Marshal A.M. Vassilievsky. Molotov and Bulganin continued as members of the politburo.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1197)(TOH, 1982, p.1949)
1949        Mar 4, Security Council of UN recommended membership for Israel.
    (SC, 3/4/02)

1949        Mar 6, Robert Storm Petersen (b.1882), Danish cartoonist, writer, animator, illustrator, painter and humorist, died. He is known almost exclusively by his pen name Storm P.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Storm_Petersen)

1949        Mar 10, Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington D.C. of treason. She served 12 years in prison.
    (AP, 3/10/98)

1949        Mar 15, Almost four years after the end of World War II, clothes rationing in Great Britain ends.
    (HN, 3/15/99)

1949        Mar 16, Bertha Knox Gilkey, welfare and tenement rights for urban women, was born.
    (MC, 3/16/02)

1949        Mar 19, The 1st museum devoted exclusively to atomic energy opened at Oak Ridge, Ten.
    (MC, 3/19/02)
1949        Mar 19, The Soviet People’s Council signed the constitution of the German Democratic Republic, and declared that the North Atlantic Treaty was merely a war weapon.
    (HN, 3/19/98)

1949        Mar 23, Sidney Kingsley's "Detective Story" premiered in NYC.
    (SS, 3/23/02)
1949        Mar 23, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
    (www.wikipedia.org)

1949        Mar 24, At the Academy Awards, "Hamlet" won best picture of 1948 and its star, Laurence Olivier, best actor; Jane Wyman won best actress for "Johnny Belinda"; "Treasure of Sierra Madre" won best director for John Huston and best supporting actor for the director's father, Walter Huston.
    (AP, 3/24/99)

1949        Mar 25, UC Pres. Robert Gordon Sproul proposed a faculty loyalty oath. The Univ. of Calif. Board of Regents later voted to require all employees to sign a loyalty oath.
    (SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1949        Mar 25, Hanns A. Rauter (54), German SS-commandant in Netherlands, was executed.
    (MC, 3/25/02)
1949        Mar 25, Soviet occupiers of Lithuania began Operation "Priboj," a 2nd major deportation program (Mar 25-28).
    (LHC, 3/25/03)

1949        Mar 28, Sec. of Defense James Forrestal resigned due to a mental breakdown. He was worn out by his futile efforts to bring about the unification of the armed services. He was succeeded by Louis A. Johnson. Johnson proceeded to slash defense expenses. He retired all but 5 aircraft carriers and dismantled the first supercarrier.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Forrestal)

1949        Mar 30, Friedrich C.R. Bergius (64), chemist (brown coal, Nobel 1931), died.
    (MC, 3/30/02)

1949        Mar 31, Newfoundland, later called Newfoundland and Labrador, entered confederation as Canada's 10th province. In 1999 Wayne Johnston authored “The Colony of Unrequited Dreams,” a novel about postconfederation Newfoundland and its 1st premier, Joe Smallwood. In 2000 Johnston authored “Baltimore’s Mansion,” a personal memoir of Newfoundland.
    (SFEC, 6/25/00, BR p.6)(AP, 3/31/08)
1949        Mar 31, Churchill declared that the A-bomb was the only thing that kept the USSR from taking over Europe.
    (HN, 3/31/98)

1949        Mar, Some 20,000 Estonian civilians were rounded up and deported to Siberia under orders from Joseph Stalin.
    (SFC, 4/3/04, p.A10)

1949               Apr 1, "Happy Pappy" premiered. It was the first all-black-cast variety show.
    (OTD)

1949        Apr 3, Israel signed a ceasefire agreement with Transjordan.
    (www.wikipedia.org)

1949        Apr 4, The (NATO) North Atlantic Treaty Organization pact was signed by the US, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada. It provided for mutual defense against aggression and for close military cooperation.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1684)(TOH, 1982, p.1949)(HN, 4/4/98)

1949        Apr 5, The 60 year old St. Anthony's Hospital burned and killed 77 in Effingham, Ill.
    (MC, 4/5/02)

1949        Apr 7,    The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific" opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theater for 1928 performances.
    (AP, 4/7/97)(MC, 4/7/02)

1949        Apr 12, Scott Turow, writer and attorney, was born.
    (HN, 4/12/01)

1949        Apr 14, The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg’s made its last judgment.
    (MC, 4/14/02)
1949        Apr 14, Joseph A. Cushman (68), US paleontologist, died.
    (MC, 4/14/02)

1949        Apr 15, The Berkeley radio station KPFA-FM began broadcasting over on a 550-watt surplus government transmitter. Lewis Hill made the first broadcast over the first listener-supported radio station in the US.
    (SFC, 4/7/99, p.A21)

1949        Apr 18, The Republic of Ireland withdrew from the British Commonwealth and was officially proclaimed in Dublin on the anniversary of the 1916 Easter rebellion. King George VI sent his good wishes.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1166)(AP, 4/18/97)(HN, 4/18/98)

1949        Apr 19, Paloma Picasso, [Gilot], actress (Immoral Tales), was born Paris, France.
    (MC, 4/19/02)
1949        Apr 19, The Foreign Assistance Act authorized $5.43 billion for the European Recovery Program.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1207)
1949        Apr 19, The Amethyst Affair began when the British frigate Amethyst came under fire from Communist Chinese artillery and ran aground in the Yangtze River. A tense, 103-day standoff followed until the frigate made a daring escape on July 30. The Amethyst lost 22 men killed and 31 wounded in the ordeal. Rescue attempts by the Royal Navy resulted in another 23 British sailors killed.
    (HNQ, 2/5/99)

1949        Apr 20, Jockey Bill Shoemaker won his 1st race, in Albany, California.
    (MC, 4/20/02)
1949        Apr 20, Scientists at the Mayo Clinic announced they'd succeeded in synthesizing a hormone found to be useful in treating rheumatoid arthritis; the substance was named "cortisone."
    (AP, 4/20/99)

1949        Apr 21, Patti LuPone, actress, singer (Evita, Life Goes On), was born in Northport, NY.
    (MC, 4/21/02)

1949        Apr 23, The Chinese Red army entered and occupied Nanjing. Reporter Chang Kuo-sin (d.2006) was the 1st to flash the news that the Nationalist government had collapsed.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing)(SFC, 2/11/06, p.B5)

1949        Apr 24, In the 3rd Tony Awards: "Death of a Salesman" and "Kiss Me Kate" won.
    (MC, 4/24/02)

1949        Apr 25, Michael Brown, keyboardist (Left Bank-Don't Walk Away Renee), was born.
    (SS, 4/25/02)
1949        Apr 25, E.L. Johnson discovered asteroid #1922: Zulu.
    (SS, 4/25/02)

1949        Apr 26, Look Magazine proclaimed that radio was "doomed" and that within 3 years television would completely overshadow it.
    (440 Int’l. Internet, 4/26/97, p.2)

1949        May 2, Arthur Miller won Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman."
    (MC, 5/2/02)

1949        May 4, Graham Swift, British novelist (The Sweet Shop Owner, Out of this World), was born.
    (HN, 5/4/01)

1949        May 5, The treaty constituting the Statute of the Council of Europe was signed by ten countries: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, accompanied by Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Robert Schuman, foreign minister of France, defined a country as European by its democratic and institutional adherence to common European values.
    (http://tinyurl.com/tye8k)(Econ, 11/18/06, p.21)

1949        May 6, P.M.B. Maurice Maeterlinck (b.1862), Belgian philosopher, playwright (Grand Fairie) and essayist, died in Nice, France. He won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Literature.
    (WUD, 1994, p.861)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Maeterlinck)

1949        May 8, The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland), was formally approved. It was subsequently ratified by all states except Bavaria. With the signature of the Allies it came into effect on May 23, 1949, as the constitution of West Germany.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Law_for_the_Federal_Republic_of_Germany)(EWH, 1968, p.1180)

1949        May 9, Billy Joel, Bronx, rock vocalist (Piano man, Capt Jack, Bridge), was born.
    (MC, 5/9/02)
1949        May 9, In Monaco Prince Rainier (26) succeeded his grandfather, Prince Louis II.
    (SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T3)

1949        May 11, The 1st Polaroid camera sold $89.95 in NYC.
    (MC, 5/11/02)
1949        May 11, Israel was admitted to the United Nations as the world body's 59th member by a vote of 37-12. The capital was moved to Tel Aviv.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)(AP, 5/11/97)(MC, 5/11/02)
1949        May 11, Siam changed its named to Thailand.
    (AP, 5/11/97)

1949        May 12, S.V.L. Pandit of India was received as the first foreign woman ambassador to the US.
    (SC, Internet, 5/12/97)
1949        May 12, The Soviet Union announced an end to the Berlin blockade. [see Sep 30, 1949]
    (WUD, 1994, p.1684)(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.A10)(HN, 5/12/98)

1949        May 13, The 1st British-produced jet bomber, Canberra, made its 1st test flight.
    (MC, 5/13/02)

1949        May 14, Pres. Truman signed a bill establishing a rocket test range at Cape Canaveral.
    (MC, 5/14/02)

1949        May 15, In Hungary a general election with open voting gave complete victory to the Communist controlled National Independence Front. They purged their opponents, proclaimed a new constitution, nationalized all major industries, and announced a five-year plan.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1188)(WUD, 1994, p.1684)

1949        May 17, The British House of Commons adopted the Ireland Bill that recognized the independence of the Republic of Ireland, but affirmed the position of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1166)

1949        May 18, Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America incorporated.
    (SC, 5/18/02)
1949        May 18, James T. Adams, US historian (Pulitzer 1921), died.
    (SC, 5/18/02)

1949        May 22, Former US Sec. of Defense James Forrestal fell to his death from a small window of the 16th floor of the Bethesda Naval Hospital. The Montgomery County (Maryland) County coroner called it a suicide within hours of the death.
    (http://keyholepublishing.com/Death%20of%20James%20Forrestal.htm)

1949        May 23, The Federal Republic of (West) Germany with Bonn as the capital officially came into existence under a new constitution.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1684)(Econ, 3/28/09, p.59)

1949        May 25, Jamaica Kincaid, author (Annie John, Lucy), was born in Antigua as Elaine P. Richardson.
    (HN, 5/25/01)(SC, 5/25/02)
1949        May 25, Chinese Red army occupied Shanghai.
    (SC, 5/25/02)
1949        May 25, Simon H. Spoor (47), intelligence officer, general (WWII), died.
    (SC, 5/25/02)

1949        May 26, Hank Williams Jr, country singer (Honky Tonk), was born in Shreveport, La.
    (MC, 5/26/02)

1949        May 27, Russians stopped train traffic to and from West Berlin.
    (MC, 5/27/02)

1949        May 28, Sue Holderness, actress (Marlene-Only Fools & Horses, Sandbaggers), was born.
    (MC, 5/28/02)

1949        May 29, Gary Brooker, rock keyboardist (Procol Harum), was born in Essex, England.
    (SC, 5/29/02)
1949        May 29, Francis Rossi, guitarist, vocalist (Status Quo-Down Down, Picture of a Matchstick Man), was born in London, England.
    (SC, 5/29/02)
1949        May 29, Candid Camera, TV comedy Variety, moved to NBC.
    (SC, 5/29/02)

1949        Jun 1, KSL TV channel 5 in Salt Lake City, UT (CBS) began broadcasting.
    (DT, 6/1/97)
1949         Jun 1, The first magazine on microfilm was offered to subscribers by Newsweek.
    (DT, 6/1/97)

1949        Jun 2, Transjordan was renamed the Hashemite Kingdom Jordan.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)(SC, 6/2/02)

1949        Jun 3, Wesley Anthony Brown became the 1st negro to graduate from US Naval Academy.
    (MC, 6/3/02)

1949        Jun 5, Ken Follett, novelist (Eye of the Needle, On The Wings of Eagles), was born.
    (HN, 6/5/01)

1949        Jun 6, Robert Englund, actor (Freddy Kreuger-Nightmare on Elm St, V), was born.
    (MC, 6/6/02)

1949        Jun 8, Emmanuel Ax, pianist (Artur Rubinstein Comp-1974), was born in Lvov, Poland.
    (MC, 6/8/02)

1949        Jun 10, In Albania Koci Xoxe, former Communist vice-premier, and a number of other officials were convicted as Yugoslav agents. Xoxe was executed on Jun 11. As arrests continued large numbers of Albanians fled the country.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1191)

1949        Jun 13, Vietnam state was established at Saigon with Bao Dai as chief of state. Installed by the French, Bao Dai entered Saigon to rule Vietnam.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)(SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)(HN, 6/13/98)

1949        Jun 14, The State of Vietnam was formed.
    (HN, 6/14/98)

1949        Jun 16, A gas turbine, electric locomotive was demonstrated in Erie, Pa.
    (MC, 6/16/02)
1949        Jun 16, Laszlo Rajk, the Hungarian Communist foreign minister, was arrested on charges of conspiracy. This set off a purge of Hungarian Communists accused of deviating from the Soviet line.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1188)
1949        Jun 18, Chris Van Allsburg, children's author and illustrator (Jumanji, The Polar Express), was born.
    (HN, 6/18/01)

1949        Jun 20, The Vatican, as a counter measure, excommunicated all active supporters of Communism in Czechoslovakia.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1187)

1949        Jun 24, "Hopalong Cassidy" became the 1st network western (NBC). William Boyd played Hopalong Cassidy on a radio program. He bought the rights to the Cassidy movies and edited them for TV. They proved popular and he made an additional 52 new episodes for TV. [see Nov 28, 1948]
    (SFC, 1/21/98, Z1 p.3)(MC, 6/24/02)

1949        Jun 25, In Bulgaria Communist Deputy Premier Traicho Kostov was arrested and charged with ideological deviation and treason. He and ten associates were found guilty and executed on Dec 16.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1194)

1949        Jun 27, W. Baade discovered asteroid #1566, Icarus.
    (SC, 6/27/02)

1949        Jun 28, The last U.S. combat troops were called home from Korea, leaving only 500 advisers.
    (HN, 6/28/98)(WSJ, 5/26/00, p.W8)

1949        Jun 29, US troops withdrew from Korea after WW II. [see Jun 28]
    (MC, 6/29/02)
1949        Jun 29, The government of South Africa enacted a ban against racially mixed marriages.
    (AP, 6/29/99)

1949        Jun 30, In Greece Prime Minister Sophoulis died and was succeeded by Alexander Diomedes.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1192)

1949        Jun, Czechoslovakia founded its own Catholic action committee to take the direction of Church affairs away from Archbishop Beran and the Church hierarchy.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1186)

1949        Jun-Jul, Tito concluded a treaty with the Western powers after Yugoslavia’s economic relations with the Soviet Union and satellite countries were broken off.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1684)

1949        Jul 2, "Red Barber's Clubhouse" sports show premiered on CBS (later NBC) TV.
    (SC, 7/2/02)
1949        Jul 2, Premier Georgi Dimitrov (b.1882), the founding leader of Bulgarian communism, died in Moscow while undergoing medical treatment. His remains were placed in a marble mausoleum in Sophia. He was succeeded by Vassil Kolarov. Dimitrov’s remains were buried in 1990. In 2003 Ivo Banac edited "The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov."
    (EWH, 1968, p.1194)(SFC, 9/10/99, p.A12)(WSJ, 6/6/03, p.W9)(SFC, 9/10/08, p.A5)

1949        Jul 4, Joyce Brothers, psychologist, author, columnist, was born.
    (MC, 7/4/02)

1949        Jul 6, The principality of Monaco joined UNESCO.
    (http://tinyurl.com/bdtj3p)

1949        Jul 7, The police drama "Dragnet," starring Jack Webb and Barton Yarborough, premiered on NBC radio. It became a TV series in 1951 and 1967.
    (AP, 7/7/99)(MC, 7/7/02)

1949        Jul 8, Vietta M. Bates became the first enlisted woman sworn into the U.S. Army when legislation was passed making the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps part of the regular Army.
    (HN, 7/8/98)

1949        Jul 10, 1st practical rectangular TV tube was announced in Toledo, Oh.
    (MC, 7/10/02)

1949        Jul 13, The militantly anti-communist Pope Pius XII excommunicated communist Catholics voters in Italy, an action aimed at the Italian Communist Party.
    (MC, 7/13/02)(AP, 5/5/06)

1949        Jul 20, Israel's 19 month war of independence ended with a ceasefire agreement with Syria. According to Israel's Foreign Ministry, 6,373 people, or nearly 1 percent of the Jewish population, were killed during Israel's War of Independence.
    (www.wikipedia.org)(AP, 12/8/07)

1949        Jul 21, The US Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) 82-13.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1207)(AP, 7/21/97)

1949        Jul 25, NATO was signed by Pres. Truman.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1207)

1949        Jul 27, The British 36-seat jet-propelled De Havilland Comet 1 flew for the first time.
    (www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Commercial_Aviation/Opening_of_Jet_era/Tran6.htm)

1949        Jul 28, Marilyn Quayle, wife of vice president Dan Quayle, was born.
    (SC, 7/28/02)

1949        Jul 29, Airlift in West-Germany to West-Berlin ended. [see Sep 30]
    (MC, 7/29/02)

1949        Jul 30, British warship HMS Amethyst escaped down Yangtze River after having been refused a safe passage by Chinese Communists after 3-month standoff.
    (MC, 7/30/02)

1949        Aug 2, James Fallows, writer and editor of U.S. News and World Report, was born.
    (HN, 8/2/00)

1949        Aug 3, The US Congress approved the celebration of Flag Day. Presidents had tried since 1916 to establish a national observance to show respect for the flag. It was President Truman who signed it into law, finally, establishing June 14th as Flag Day.
    (http://www1.va.gov/opa/feature/celebrate/flagday.asp)
1949        Aug 3, The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League merged to form the National Basketball Association.
    (AP, 8/3/97)

1949        Aug 7, Hungary announced a new constitution, similar to that of the Soviet Union.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1188)

1949        Aug 10, The National Military Establishment was renamed the Department of Defense. Pres. Truman signed a bill that established a department of defense with broader and more definite powers for the Sec. of defense.
    (AP, 8/10/97)(EWH, 1968, p.1207)

1949        Aug 11, President Truman nominated Gen. Omar N. Bradley to become the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
    (AP, 8/11/08)

1949        Aug 12, Mark Knopfler, guitar, vocals (Dire Straits-Sultans of Swing), was born.
    (SC, 8/12/02)
1949        Aug 12, Four Geneva Conventions were signed on this date. Signatories agreed that occupiers would not settle occupied territory with their own people. Protection of civilian life and property was added to the 4th Geneva Conventions. The Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War began on April 21. Two additional protocols were signed in 1977.
    (SFC, 8/11/00, p.A15)(Econ, 8/27/05, p.39)(www.spj.org/gc-texts.asp)

1949        Aug 14, In Germany elections for the Bundestag (lower house) gave the Christian Democrats a small lead over the Socialists. The Free Democrats held the balance. The US court at Nurnberg concluded the last of its war crimes trials with the sentencing of 19 officials and diplomats.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1180)

1949        Aug 16, Margaret Mitchell (48), US writer (Gone With the Wind), died.
    (MC, 8/16/02)

1949        Aug 24, Stephen Harrison Paulus, composer, was born in New Jersey.
    (MC, 8/24/02)
1949        Aug 24, The North Atlantic Treaty went into effect.
    (AP, 8/24/97)

1949        Aug 25, Martin Amis, English novelist, was born. His work included "Money, Time’s Arrow."
    (HN, 8/25/00)
1949        Aug 25, Gene Simmons, musician (group: Kiss: Rock and Roll All Nite, Beth, I Was Made For Lovin' You, Forever; actor: Red Surf, Runaway, Wanted Dead or Alive), was born.
    (MC, 8/25/02)

1949        Aug 28, A riot prevented Paul Robeson from singing near Peekskill, NY. A fundraising concert for the widows and orphans of the Spanish Civil War turned into the Peeksill riots. Helen Krimont Seitz (d.2001 at 90), a pioneer of modern day care, helped organize the concert.
    (SFC, 3/8/01, p.C4)(MC, 8/28/01)

1949            Aug 29, The USSR successfully detonated its first atomic bomb at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. It was a copy of the Fat Man bomb and had a yield of 21 kilotons.
    (www.atomicarchive.com/Timeline/Time1940.shtml)

1949        Aug 31, Richard Gere, actor (Breathless, Cotton Club), was born in Phila., Pa.
    (YN, 8/31/99)
1949        Aug 31, Six of the 16 surviving Union veterans of the Civil War attended the last-ever encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
    (HN, 8/31/98)

1949        Aug, In Indonesia armed conflict with both Dutch and British forces—as well as political factions in the formation of the republic—were eventually brought to an end, when the Netherlands finally agreed to transfer sovereignty to an independent United States of Indonesia.
    (HNQ, 8/17/00)

1949        Aug-Sep, In Finland a wave of Communist strikes were defeated by firm government action and the loyalty of non-Communist workers.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1203)

1949        Sep 1, The 1st network detective series, Private Eyes, premiered.
    (SC, 9/1/02)

1949        Sep 3, A US Air Force B-29 detected a radioactive cloud over the Pacific, which indicated that the Soviets had detonated an atomic device.
    (WSJ, 10/11/05, p.D8)

1949        Sep 6, Howard Unruh (28) killed 13 neighbors in 12 minutes in Camden, New Jersey. The dead included 5 men, 5 women and 3 children. Unruh (1921-2009) was eventually pronounced insane and spent the rest of his life in a state psychiatric hospital.
    (www.fact-index.com/h/ho/howard_unruh.html)(SFC, 10/21/09, p.D5)

1949        Sep 12, Irina Rodnina, USSR, pairs figure skater (Olympic-gold-1972, 76, 80), was born.
    (MC, 9/12/01)

1949        Sep 12-1949 Sep 15, In Germany Theodor Heuss (b.1884) was elected as President and Konrad Adenauer (73) as Chancellor of the Federal Republic. Adenauer, head of the Christian Democratic Union served until 963.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1180)(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(WSJ, 11/23/99, p.A21)

1949        Sep 13, The Ladies Professional Golf Association of America was formed in New York City, with Patty Berg as its first president.
    (AP, 9/13/97)

1949        Sep 15, "The Lone Ranger" premiered on ABC television with Clayton Moore (d.1999) as the masked hero and Jay Silverheels (1912-1980) as Tonto. Their 169 [221] episodes ran to 1957. Moore was replaced by John Hart for the 1952-1953 season due to a salary dispute.
    (AP, 9/15/99)(SFC, 12/29/99, p.A1,11)(SSFC, 6/19/05, Par p.2)
1949        Sep 15, Congress extended the Reciprocal Trade Agreement for 2 years.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1207)

1949        Sep 17, The North Atlantic Treaty Council (NATO) met for the 1st time.
    (MC, 9/17/01)
1949        Sep 17, More than 130 people died when fire gutted the Canadian passenger steamer Noronic at a pier in Toronto.
    (AP, 9/17/99)

1949        Sep 18, Frank Morgan, actor (Annie Get Your Gun, Wizard of Oz), died at 59.
    (MC, 9/18/01)

1949        Sep 21, The Communist People’s Republic of China was proclaimed under Mao Tse Tung with Chou En-Lai as Premier. "Today, the Chinese people have stood up." Mao-Tse-Tung led his people to power after half a century (50 yrs.) of civil strife. The Chinese Communists drove Chiang Kai-shek to Formosa. The capitalist stronghold of Shanghai fell to Mao Tse-tung Communist guerrillas. The Communist People’s Liberation Army brought with them to Beijing a northeastern folk dance called yang ge.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)(WSJ,12/10/93)(TMC, 1994, p.1945)(WSJ, 10/26/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 8/5/96, p.A1)(AP, 9/21/97)
1949        Sep 21, In Germany the Allied Occupation Statute came into force. The functions of the military government were transferred to the Allied high commission. The Federal Republic of [West] Germany was created under the 3-power occupation.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1180)(MC, 9/21/01)
1949        Sep 21, Manipur merged with India.
    (http://manipuronline.com/Manipur/merger.htm)

1949        Sep 22, The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. [see Aug 29]
    (AP, 9/22/97)

1949        Sep 23, US Pres. Truman announced evidence of the USSR's 1st nuclear device detonation thus breaking the US atomic monopoly.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1684)(MC, 9/23/01)
1949        Sep 23, Bill Veeck (d.1986), Baseball owner of the Cleveland Indians, held funeral services to bury 1948 pheasants.
    (MC, 9/23/01)(Internet)

1949        Sep 26, Jane Smiley, novelist, was born. Her work included "A Thousand Acres, Moo."
    (HN, 9/26/00)

1949        Sep 27, HUAC held hearings on alleged communist infiltration of the Radiation Laboratory at UC Berkeley.
    (SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)
1949        Sep 27, The USSR repudiated its 1945 treaty of friendship with Yugoslavia.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1197)

1949        Sep 28, "My Friend Irma" was 1st of 12 films starring Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis.
    (MC, 9/28/01)

1949        Sep 30, The Berlin airlift ended its operation after 277,264 flights. Through accidents 31 Americans lost their lives in support of the airlift. The Berlin Airlift, which began on June 26, 1948, and lasted 321 days, consisted of 272,264 flights by British and American airmen. They transported some 2.3 million tons of food to supply the 2.1 million residents of the blockaded portion of the city. The operation ended after 278,288 flights and delivery of 2,326,406 tons of supplies.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1180)(AP, 9/30/97)(SFC, 5/12/98, p.A14)(HNQ, 7/9/98)
1949        Sep 30, Poland denounced its treaty of friendship with Yugoslavia and confirmed its adherence to Soviet and Cominform policy.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1200)

1949        Sep, Theodor Heuss (b.1884) was elected president, and Konrad Adenauer as chancellor (until 1963) of the West German Federal Republic.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1684)

1949        Oct 1, Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung (Zedong) raised the first flag of the People's Republic of China during a ceremony in Beijing (National Day). As the Communists came to power there were over 400 ethnic groups in China. By 2009 the official number of ethnic groups was reduced to 56.
    (AP, 10/1/97)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.45)
1949        Oct 1, Republic of China (Taiwan) was formed on island of Formosa. The Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek had been defeated and fled to Taiwan and took control. Chiang Kai-shek established the "temporary" government of the Republic of China in Taipei and established martial law.
    (SFC, 6/9/97, p.A8)(SFC, 6/10/97, p.A9)

1949        Oct 2, USSR recognized the People's Republic of China.
    (MC, 10/2/01)

1949        Oct 4, United Nations' permanent NYC headquarters was dedicated.
    (MC, 10/4/01)

1949        Oct 6, Pres. Truman signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Act that appropriated more than one billion dollars for military aid primarily to members of the Atlantic Pact.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1207)
1949        Oct 6, American-born Iva Toguri D'Aquino, convicted of being Japanese wartime broadcaster Tokyo Rose, was sentenced in San Francisco to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000. She ended up serving more than six years. In 1976 she requested a presidential pardon.
    (SFC, 11/16/01, WB p.G4)(AP, 10/6/06)

1949        Oct 7, The German Democratic Republic of East Germany was established. Wilhelm Pieck (1876-1960) was president and Otto Grotewohl (b. 1894) was minister president.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1684)(AP, 10/7/97)

1949        Oct 9, Harvard Law School began admitting women.
    (HN, 10/9/98)

1949        Oct 9, In Austria general elections brought losses to both the People’s Party and the Socialists. Many former Nazis rallied behind the new Union of Independents. The government was composed of a coalition of the People’s Party and the Socialists.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1185)

1949        Oct 10, In Norway general elections increased the majority of the Labor Party and the Communists lost all their seats in the lower house.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1202)

1949        Oct 12, Eugenie Anderson became the first woman U.S. ambassador.
    (HN, 10/12/98)

1949        Oct 14, Leaders of the American Communist Party were convicted of conspiracy to advocate the violent overthrow of the US government. They were sentenced with fines and imprisonment.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1207)(MC, 10/14/01)
1949        Oct 14, Pat Valentino (1920-2008), SF boxer, was knocked out by Ezzard Charles in the 8th round at the Cow Palace in a boxing heavy-weight match before a crowd of 19,950.
    (SFC, 8/8/08, p.B5)
1949        Oct 14, The Chinese Red army occupied Canton.
    (MC, 10/14/01)
1949        Oct 14, In Czechoslovakia the government assumed full control over Church affairs and required all clergy to swear an oath of loyalty to the state. Most of the lower clergy complied.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1187)

1949        Oct 15, Laszlo Rajk, Hungarian Sec. of State and Foreign minister, was hanged.
    (MC, 10/15/01)

1949        Oct 16, In Greece the civil war ended after 3 years with the defeat of the rebel forces. This was made possible by both American aid and the closing of the Yugoslav frontier due to Tito’s quarrel with the Cominform.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1192)

1949        Oct 19, The People’s Republic of China was formally proclaimed.
    (HN, 10/19/98)

1949        Oct 21, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, was born.
    (WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)(MC, 10/21/01)

1949        Oct 22, In Dwor, Poland, the Danzig-Warsaw express derailed and more than 200 people were killed.
    (SFC, 6/4/98, p.A15)(AP, 2/18/04)

1949        Oct 25, Communist troops landed at the small village of Kuningt’ou (Kuningtou), hoping to capture Kinmen Island and prepare an assault on Taiwan. Nationalist Col. Lee Kuang-chi’en died in a 3-day battle, which turned back the communist assault. A plaque in honor of Col Lee was later changed, dropping references to anti-communism.
    (WSJ, 4/21/08, p.A14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kuningtou)

1949        Oct 26, President Truman signed a measure raising the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour. Home-delivered milk was 42 cents per half gallon.
    (SFC, 4/24/99, p.A10)(AP, 10/26/99)

1949        Oct 28, Eugenie Anderson became the 1st woman US ambassador. She was posted to Denmark.
    (HFA, ‘96, p.40)(MC, 10/28/01)

1949        Oct 29, Alonzo G. Moron of the Virgin Islands became the first African- American president of Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia.
    (HN, 10/29/98)

1949        Oct 30, Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's "Lost in the Stars" premiered in NYC.
    (MC, 10/30/01)

1949        Nov 3, Solomon R. Guggenheim (88), US art collector, died.
    (MC, 11/3/01)

1949        Nov 7, Costa Rica adopted a constitution that prohibited a standing army.
    (SFEC, 11/17/96, Z. 1 p.2)(http://tinyurl.com/7s7uc)
1949        Nov 7, King Faruk disbanded the Egyptian parliament.
    (MC, 11/7/01)
1949        Nov 7, Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky was appointed minister of defense and commander-in-chief of he Polish army.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1200)

1949        Nov 8, Bonnie Raitt, country singer (Green Light, The Glow), was born in Burbank, Ca.
    (MC, 11/8/01)

1949        Nov 11-13, The Polish central committee of the United Workers’ Party expelled a number of prominent members for "Titoist" leanings.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1200)

1949        Nov 13, Whoopi Goldberg, [Caryn Johnson], actress (Color Purple, Burglar, Ghost), was born in NYC.
    (MC, 11/13/01)

1949        Nov 18, Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player.
    (AP, 11/18/97)
1949        Nov 18, The U.S. Air Force grounded B-29s after two crashes and 23 deaths in three days.
    (HN, 11/18/98)

1949        Nov 19, Ahmad Rashad, [Bobby Moore], NFL receiver (Minn Vikings) and sportscaster, was born.
    (MC, 11/19/01)
1949        Nov 19, James Ensor (b.1860), Belgian artist, died. His paintings included “”The Scandalized Masks” (1883), "Ensor and General Leman Discussing Painting" (1890), and “Skeletons Fighting Over a Pickled Herring” (1891).
    (WSJ, 6/5/01, p.A23)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.82)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ensor)
1949        Nov 19, Prince Ranier III was crowned 30th Monarch of Monaco, six months after he succeeded his grandfather, Prince Louis the Second. Rainier III came to power and saw the future in banking, real estate and a more diverse economy with industries such as pharmaceuticals and plastics.
    (SFC, 1/8/97, p.C1)(HN, 11/19/98)(AP, 11/19/00)

1949        Nov 20, Jewish population of Israel reached 1,000,000.
    (MC, 11/20/01)

1949        Nov 21, The UN Assembly decided for the eventual independence of Italy’s former colonies. In the meantime they remained under UN supervision. United Nations granted Libya its independence in the year 1952.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1176)(HN, 11/21/98)

1949        Nov 24, Alexander C. Cushing (1914-2006) opened the Squaw Valley Development Company with his wife Justine Bayard Cushing (d.2003 at 85). The new Lake Tahoe area ski resort opened with a double chairlift and 2 rope tows.
    (SFC, 8/21/06, p.B1)(www.squaw.com/winter/history_overview.html)
1949        Nov 24, The Iron and Steel Act nationalized the steel industry in Britain.
    (HN, 11/24/98)
1949        Nov 24, In Germany the Petersburg agreement provided concessions to Western Germany from the Allied high commission in return for German membership in the Int’l. Ruhr Authority. The influx of 8 million Germans from the east caused widespread unemployment.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1180)

1949        Nov 25, [Boris] Alexander Godunov, dancer and actor (Die Hard), was born in Sakhalin, USSR.
    (MC, 11/25/01)
1949        Nov 25, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" appeared on music charts. It was originally an advertising jingle.
    (MC, 11/25/01)
1949        Nov 25, Luther "Bill" Robinson (71), "Bojangles" famed tap dancer, died.
    (MC, 11/25/01)

1949        Nov 26, India adopted a constitution as a republic within the British Commonwealth. Pandit Nehru became Prime Minister.
    (HN, 11/26/98)(AP, 11/26/07)

1949        Nov 28, Victor Ostrovsky, Canadian-Israeli, Mossad agent (By Way of Deception), was born.
    (MC, 11/28/01)

1949        Nov 29, U.S. announced it would conduct atomic tests at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific.
    (HN, 11/29/98)
1949        Nov 29, Petra Kelly, German peace activist and MP for the Green Party, was born.
    (MC, 11/29/01)
1949        Nov 29, Nationalist regime of China left for Formosa (Taiwan).
    (MC, 11/29/01)
1949        Nov 29, Uranium mine explosions in East Germany killed 3,700.
    (MC, 11/29/01)

1949        Nov 30, Chinese Communists captured Chungking.
    (AP, 11/30/97)

1949        Dec 6, Leadbelly (64), [Huddie William Ledbetter], blues singer, died. He was born January 29, 1885, on the Jeter Plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana.
    (http://leadbelly.lanl.gov/leadbelly.html)

1949        Dec 7, Tom Waits, Calif, rocker and song writer (Blue Valentine), was born.
    (MC, 12/7/01)
1949        Dec 7, The A.F.L. and the C.I.O. organized a non-Communist international trade union.
    (HN, 12/7/98)
1949        Dec 7, The Nationalist Chinese government escaped to Formosa.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1684)

1949        Dec 8, Jule Styne's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" opened at the NYC Ziegfeld Theater for 740 performances.
    (MC, 12/8/01)
1949        Dec 8, The Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa as the Communists pressed their attacks.
    (AP, 12/8/97)

1949        Dec 9, UN took trusteeship over Jerusalem.
    (HN, 12/9/98)

1949        Dec 10, 150,000 French troops massed at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
    (HN, 12/10/98)

1949        Dec 13, Knesset voted to transfer Israel's capital to Jerusalem.
    (MC, 12/13/01)

1949        Dec 14, Bulgarian ex-Premier Traicho Kostov was sentenced to die for treason in Sofia.
    (HN, 12/14/98)

1949        Dec 15, West Germany received its first allotment of funds from the Economic Co-operation Administration and thus became a full participant in the Marshall Plan.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1180)

1949        Dec 16, Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung was received at the Kremlin in Moscow.
    (HN, 12/16/98)

1949        Dec 20, Maurice Ravel and John Cranko's ballet "Beauty & the Beast" premiered.
    (MC, 12/20/01)

1949        Dec 25, Sissy Spacek, (Carrie, Badlands, Coal Miner's Daughter), was born in Quitman, Tx.
    (MC, 12/25/01)

1949        Dec 27, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted sovereignty to Indonesia after more than 300 years of Dutch rule. The Netherlands retained control of Irian Jaya, inhabited by Melanesians, until 1963.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1168)(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)(AP, 12/27/99)

1949        Dec 28, 20th Century Fox announced it would produce TV programs.
    (MC, 12/28/01)
1949        Dec 28, Hungary decreed the nationalization of all major industries and announced the start of a 5-year plan.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1188)

1949        Dec 30, France transferred sovereignty to Vietnam (Indo-China).
    (EWH, 1968, p.1171)

1949        Dec 31, Stalin’s 70th birthday was the occasion for a world-wide Communist celebration. Several Stalin "Peace prizes" were announced as part of the Soviet "peace offensive" of the cold war.
    (EWH, 1968, p.1197)

1949        William Forsythe, American choreographer, was born in NYC.
    (Econ, 10/1/05, p.81)

1949        Tom Waits, musician and actor, was born in Whittier. In 2001 Jay S. Jacobs authored "Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits." Ruth Carol authored the biography "Tom Waits."
    (SSFC, 4/15/01, BR p.7)

1949        Chagall painted his "Red Sun."
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) painted the abstract image "Two Standing Women." In 1997 it sold for 4.1 million. He also painted "Attic" in this year and “Sail Cloth,” which later sold for $13.1 mil. His abstract painting “Woman” done this year, sold in 1997 for $15.6 mil.
    (WSJ, 11/21/96, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/5rs5ct)(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.D8)(http://tinyurl.com/5woaq9)

1949        Jackson Pollock painted "No. 1 1949," later part of the LA MOCA collection.
    (SFC, 2/10/98, p.E4)(WSJ, 11/10/98, p.A20)

1949        Ben Shahn painted Death of a Miner."
    (WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)

1949        Ralph B. Baldwin, American astronomer, authored “The Face of the Moon,” in which he detailed how the moon’s craters were caused by meteor impacts rather than volcanic action as previously believed.
    (www.barringercrater.com/news/main.htm)

1949        Winter, L. Ron Hubbard first published information on Scientology in the winter issue of the Explorer’s Club Journal.
    (WSJ, 5/12/97, p.A15)

1949        T.S. Eliot wrote his play "The Cocktail Party" for Rudolph Bing’s Edinburgh Festival.
    (WSJ, 9/5/97, p.A10)

1949        Simone de Bouvier (Beauvoir) published "The Second Sex." It helped inspire the feminist movement.
    (WSJ, 1/18/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)

1949        Paul Brickall authored "The Great Escape." The story of Jackson Barrett Mahon (d.1999 at 78), an American fighter pilot, and the Allied POW escape from Stalag Luft III in Germany during WW II. The 1963 film "The Great Escape" starred Steve McQueen, was directed by John Sturges and was based on the true story. In 1999 Arthur A. Durand published Stalag Luft III: The Secret Story."
    (TVM, 1975, p.222)(SFC, 8/11/99, p.C5)(SFC, 12/23/99, p.A27)(SFEC, 1/2/00, BR p.1)

1949        Prof. Gordon Willey (1913-2002) authored "The Archeology of the Florida Gulf Coast."
    (SFC, 5/2/02, p.A27)

1949        Gwendolyn Brooks (d.2000), African-American poet, won a Pulitzer Prize for her 2nd book of poetry, "Annie Allen."
    (SFC, 12/4/00, p.E3)

1949        Vannevar Bush published "Modern Arms and Free Men." It became a best-seller. In 1997 G. Pascal Zachary published "Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century."
    (WSJ, 10/21/97, p.A20)

1949        Dorothy Bussy (d.1960), English novelist and translator, wrote her novella “Olivia.“ Writer Lytton Strachey and translator of Freud, James Strachey, were her brothers.
    (WSJ, 7/8/06, p.P8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Bussy)

1949        Herb Caen, SF columnist, published his successful "Baghdad-by-the-Bay." It went through 7 printings.
    (SFEC, 2/2/97, p.A12)

1949        Erich Fromm wrote "Man for Himself."
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        John Gunther, journalist and novelist, authored “Death Be Not Proud,” an account of his 17-year-old son’s battle with a brain tumor that ultimately took his life.
    (WSJ, 1/26/08, p.W8)

1949        Lewis Hanke (1905-1993) authored “The Spanish Struggle For Justice In The Conquest Of America.” In the 1930s Hanke founded the “Handbook of Latin American Studies” (HALS).
    (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/hlas/salalm.html)

1949        Zang Kejia (d.2004 at 99), poet, edited the "Selected Poems of Chairman Mao."
    (SFC, 2/7/04, p.A20)

1949        Le Corbusier wrote "Towards a New Architecture."
    (SFEM, 11/3/96, p.13)

1949        Doris Lessing (30), author, left her girlhood home in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) for England. The 2nd volume of her autobiography was "Walking in the Shade (1949-1962)."
    (SSFC, 2/24/02, p.M3)

1949        Ross Macdonald (d.1983) authored his detective novel "The Moving Target." His character Lew Archer solved crimes in what everyone understood was Santa Barbara.
    (SFEC, 3/28/99, BR p.1,6)

1949        James Michener (d.1997 at 90) wrote "The Fires of Spring."
    (SFC,10/17/97, p.A17)

1949        Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) wrote his book "Human Action." He was an advocate of the free market system and this was a definitive book on the subject.
    (WSJ, 1/30/97, p.A16)

1949        Theodore Roscoe authored "United State Submarine Operations in World War II."
    (SFC, 2/5/00, p.A19)

1949        Albert Schweitzer wrote "Hospital in the Jungle."
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        Paul Tillich wrote "The Shaking of the Foundations."
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        E.B. White authored "Here is New York."
    (SSFC, 9/8/02, p.C4)

1949        Nelson Algren wrote the novel "The Man with the Golden Arm."
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        The conservation classic “A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold (d.1948) was published.
    (www.treelink.org/woodnotes/vol2/no1/sandcnty.htm)

1949        Charles O’Neil (1904-1996) wrote his novel "The Three Wishes of Jamie McRuin." In 1952 he turned it into the Broadway musical Three Wishes for Jamie.
    (SFC, 9/5/96, p.C2)

1949        George Orwell’s (1903-1950) novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" was published. He was inspired by the Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin, who wrote an antiutopian novel warning against intoxication with technology. Orwell asserted that technology is an instrument of tyranny. In his novel Orwell described a machine called a versificator that generated music for the masses. “Those in power control the future by controlling the past.”
    (WSJ, 11/4/98, p.A12)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R14)(Econ, 6/10/06, Survey p.6)(Econ, 9/15/07, p.70)

1949        Gerald J. Whitrow (d.2000 at 87), mathematician and philosopher, published "The Structure of the Universe."
    (SFC, 6/27/00, p.A23)

1949        Jose Limon created his Othello-based ballet "the Moor’s Pavane."
    (SFEC, 3/29/98, DB p.41)

1949        Bozo the Clown made his TV debut on “Bozo’s Circus starring Pinto Colvig on KTTV-Channel 11 (CBS), Los Angeles.
    (NW, 11/11/02, p.54)(WGN-BTL, 2004)

1949        Jay Ward, cartoonist, created "Crusader Rabbit." It was the first cartoon made for TV.
    (SFEC, 12/15/96, DB p.63)

1949        Milton Berle hosted the first TV telethon. $1.1 million for cancer patients was raised in 14 hours.
    (SFEC, 8/15/99, Z1 p.8)

1949        Thomas Coffin (d.1999 at 83) became NBC's first television market research specialist. He was the first to conduct studies that showed that people bought products after seeing them on TV. He later was part of a panel that produced the 1972 report that TV violence had an adverse effect on children.
    (SFC, 5/31/99, p.A17)

1949        The first Emmy Awards for TV productions were made. Shirley Dinsdale Layburn (d.1999 at 72), a ventriloquist, received one for Most Outstanding Television Personality. Her puppet was Judy Splinters.
    (SFC, 5/12/99, p.C6)

1949        Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca (d.2001) starred on the "Admiral Broadway Revue" TV show, a forerunner of "Your Show of Shows," which ran to 1954.
    (SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A29)

1949        The samba dance came into fashion.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        Ray Charles made his debut recording of "Confession Blues" in Seattle.
    (SFC, 4/15/99, p.E9)

1949        Country singer Hank Lochlin (1918-2009) made a hit with his song “Send Me the Pillow You Dream On,” recorded with 4 Star Records. He re-recorded with RCA it in 1958.
    (SFC, 3/12/09, p.B6)

1949        Oscar Peterson, jazz pianist, was invited to play at the Philharmonic concert at Carnegie Hall. Onstage were Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Buddy Rich and Ray Brown.
    (SFEC, 8/16/98, DB p.52)

1949        Leonie Rysanek (1926-1998), singer-actress, made her debut at age 23 in Innsbruck. She became a leading opera singer and sang in 2,100 performances.
    (SFC, 3/9/98, p.D3)

1948        Hank Williams (d.1953) wrote and recorded "Lovesick Blues."
    (Hem., 4/97, p.69)(WSJ, 10/30/98, p.W9A)

1949        Jimmy Witherspoon (1923-1997), blues singer, recorded his first single "Ain’t Nobody’s Business." It became #1 on the R&B charts for 9 months.
    (SFEC, 9/21/97, p.C7)

1949        Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely had a million selling country music hit with "Slippin' Around," written by Floyd Tillman (d.2003 at 88).
    (SFC, 8/25/03, p.B4)

1949        The Frankie Yankovic recording of "Blue Skirt Waltz" sold over a million.
    (SFC, 10/15/98, p.C6)

1949        Popular songs of the year included: Bali Ha’i, Some Enchanted Evening, I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy, So in Love, Riders in the Sky, I Love Those Dear Hearts and Gentle People, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        The song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" began life as a poem handed to shoppers at the Montgomery Ward department store chain in 1939. It was recorded in 1949 by Gene Autrey after Perry Como turned it down.
    (SFC, 12/24/99, p.C8)

1949        Fantasy Records was founded by Max and Sol Weiss and Saul Zaentz in Oakland, CA.
    (SFEM, 3/23/97, p.28)

1949        William Schwann (d.1998 at 85) began a record catalog in Cambridge, Mass., that grew to become the Schwann Opus Catalog.
    (SFC, 6/19/98, p.B6)

1949        Mr. Magoo, a near-sighted cartoon character, was conceived by United Pictures of America, a group of former Disney animators.
    (WSJ, 7/31/97, p.A1)

1949        Walter Kerr began his writing career as a critic for the Commonweal, a Roman Catholic weekly.
    (SFC, 10/10/96, p.C6)

1949        In SF the V.C. Morris Gift Shop at 140 Maiden Lane was converted to the 2-story Circle Gallery Building by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1979 it became the Xanadu Gallery.
    (SSFC, 5/17/09, p.B2)
1949        The first prototype Eichler homes were built in the San Francisco Bay Area. Later designs were done by the SF firm of Claude Oakland & Assoc.
    (SFC, 7/17/96, z-1, p.1,6)

1949        Paul Tishman (1900-1996) founded Paul Tishman Inc., which specialized in urban renewal and government buildings. His projects included the Washington Square Village in Greenwich Village, NY, and the Student Art Center at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, NY. He was also an avid collector of African art. The collection was sold to Walt Disney Productions for Epcot Center.
    (SFC, 8/23/96, p.A26)

1949        The US National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private, non-profit group, was founded.
    (SFC, 4/29/09, p.B4)

1949        McHenry Tichenor (1898-1996) acquired KGBS in Harlingen, Texas, and founded the Tichenor Media System which introduced all-Spanish radio in the US.
    (SFC, 11/12/96, p.B2)

1949        The United Nations building was dedicated in New York.
    (TMC, 1994, p.1945)

1949        Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982), film actress, left her husband and became pregnant by Italian director Roberto Rossellini.
    (SFC, 3/15/02, p.D1)

1949        The term "postmodern" was coined.
    (SFEC, 11/7/99, BR p.4)

1949        The Pillsbury Bake-Off began as a contest for Americans with a knack for home cooking. In 1998 Ellie Matthews won a Pillsbury million dollar prize for her salsa couscous chicken. In 2008 Matthews authored “The Ungarnished Truth.”
    (WSJ, 3/22/08, p.W10)

1949        New York defeated Brooklyn in the baseball World Series 4:1.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        W.F. Giague of UC Berkeley won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in chemical thermodynamics.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A17)

1949        William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        Portuguese neurologist Antonio Egas Moniz (1874-1955) won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his pioneering work in prefrontal brain lobotomy (1936). It was later rejected as a valid medical technique.
    (SFEC,11/2/97, Z1 p.6)(WUD, 1994, p.925)(SFC, 10/8/01, p.A17)

1949        Hediki Yukawa (b.1907), Japanese physicist, won the Nobel Prize.
    (MC, 1/23/02)

1949        The UN warned of the danger of civil war in Korea.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        NATO was established.
    (TMC, 1994, p.1945)

1949        Pres. Truman appointed Tom C. Clark (-1967) and Sherman Minton (-1956) to the Supreme Court.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        Pres. Truman appointed Carlton Skinner (d.2004) as the 1st civilian governor of Guam. Skinner established the island‘s 1st university and wrote a constitution.
    (SSFC, 8/29/04, p.B7)

1949        Dean Acheson was appointed US Secretary of State.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        Perle Mesta, a Washington socialite, was appointed US ambassador to Luxembourg. Her flamboyant ways and gala parties inspired the Broadway musical "Call Me Madam."
    (SFC, 10/22/96, p.A18)

1949        The US granted $5.43 billion in foreign assistance to Europe.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        The US completed the withdrawal of its occupying forces in South Korea.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        The US launched a guided missile that went 250 miles.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        Frank Kurtz (1911-1996) flew the last B-17 Flying Fortress, nicknamed the "Swoose," to the Smithsonian Institution. His story was told by W.L. White in "Queens Die Proudly," and his wife’s book "My Rival, The Sky."
    (SFC, 11/7/96, p.B4)

1949        The senatorial race in New York in 1949 in which John Foster Dulles was opposed by leftist Herbert Lehman. Dulles had characterized Truman’s "Fair Deal" as ‘statist,’ while Truman made a special appeal for the election of Lehman. Lehman, as a result of this support won by 196,293 votes. Truman remarked that this marked an advance in the creation of a "welfare state."
    (ExC, TM, 2/10/98)

1949        The National Council for a Free Europe was set up, seemingly the initiative of American philanthropists, to help refugees. It was later revealed to be a CIA front group.
    (WSJ, 1/23/08, p.D8)

1949        Eleven leaders of the US Communist party were convicted for advocating the overthrow of the government.
    (TMC, 1994, p.1945)

1949         The US Govt. defined generic vodka as a neutral spirit reduced to between 110 and 80 proof and treated so as to be without distinctive character.
    (WSJ, 11/7/95, p.A-1)

1949        The US government ceded Great Gull Island in Long Island Sound to the American Museum of Natural History.
    (NH, 10/02, p.12)

1949        The US federal government designated Cape Perpetua in Oregon as a National Scenic Area.
    (SSFC, 9/21/08, p.E8)

1949        The US FCC Fairness Doctrine was established to require that broadcasting networks, all three of them, air all sides of issues. The doctrine was discontinued in 1987.
    (www.museum.tv/archives/etv/F/htmlF/fairnessdoct/fairnessdoct.htm)

1949        Barry Goldwater was elected to the Phoenix City Council as part of a group committed to cleaning up prostitution and gambling.
    (SFC, 5/30/98, p.A1)

1949        At the Waldorf Peace Conference American Communists and sympathizers, including Aaron Copland, feted a delegation of top Soviets.
    (WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A20)

1949        The Briggs vs. Elliot case was filed in federal court in Charleston. It was later merged with the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education, in which the 1954 Supreme Court overturned the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation in schools.
    (SFC, 3/8/01, p.C4)

1949        Pennsylvania enacted a state law requiring the reading of 10 Bible verses each day in schools followed by joint recitation of the Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.
    (SFC, 11/24/03, p.A18)

1949        The New York Stock Exchange established its rule 500 that required a 2/3 shareholder approval for companies to delist and no more than 10% shareholders objecting.
    (WSJ, 7/3/97, p.C1)

1949        In SF Eric Nord opened a bar in a cellar of the Sentinel Building at Columbus and Kearny and named it the hungry i. The i stood for id. In 1951 he sold it to Enrico Banducci.
    (SFC, 4/4/07, p.E3)

1949        Alfred Winslow Jones founded the first investment fund (hedge fund) that sold short some stocks while buying others, thus hedging some of the market risk. His intent was to guard against a stock market slump.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_fund)(WSJ, 1/3/07, p.R22)

1949        Harry Winston purchased the Hope diamond for $1 million.
    (WSJ, 2/14/96, p.A-1)

1949        Rear Adm. Delmar S. Fahrney, credited with the invention of the guided missile, purchased the George Brinton house in Pennsylvania and renamed it Rondelay.
    (WSJ, 4/3/98, p.W8)

1949        Robert Henry Abplanap (1922-2003) co-founded Precision Valve Corp. based on his new plastic aerosol valve. He later befriended Richard Nixon and supported him through his presidency.
    (SFC, 9/5/03, p.A23)

1949        The Hallmark logo was introduced and registered as a trademark in 1950. Joyce C. Hall began his company in 1910.
    (SFC, 12/21/05, p.G6)(http://pressroom.hallmark.com/hallmark_brand_distribution_facts.html)

1949        Earl Bakken (b.1924) founded Medtronic in Minneapolis, Minn.
    (Econ, 3/14/09, SR p.17)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Bakken)

1949        William Scandling, Will Laughlin and Harry Anderson founded Saga Corp., a food services operation, in Geneva, NY. It was named after Kanadasaga, an Indian village that preceded Geneva. In 1986 Marriot Corp. bought out the company.
    (SSFC, 9/11/05, p.A25)

1949        R.D. Hull, a Texas watchmaker, invented the spin-cast reel for fishing and got the Zero Hour Bomb Co. in Tulsa to manufacture it. The company soon changed its name to Zebco.
    (WSJ, 9/9/99, p.A25)

1949        GM held its first Motorama car show.
    (SFEC, 1/3/99, DB p.27)

1949        The Volkswagen Beetle went on sale in the US.
    (WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)

1949        Henry Ford II introduced contemporary styling.
    (WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)

1949        Mervin Morris opened the first Mervyns department store in San Lorenzo, Ca.
    (WSJ, 9/4/08, p.B6)

1949        Vernon C. Genn (1922-2006), founder of West Coast Engine and Equipment Co., pioneered the development of diesel engines to provide reliable cooling for refrigerated railroad cars.
    (SFC, 5/3/06, p.B7)(www.history-magazine.com/refrig.html)

1949        Industry experts in 1996 picked the 1949 Ford as the number 7 favorite car.
    (WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)

1949        An Air Force jet flew across the US in 3 hrs and 46 min.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        John Paul Stapp (d.1999), US Air Force medical researcher, took a rapid sled ride under the direction of Capt. Edward Murphy to test G-force on the body. Murphy installed the sensors wrong and the test failed to provide results. Murphy's Law was later attributed to Captain Edward A. Murphy Jr., US Air Force development engineer: "If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in catastrophe, then someone will do it that way." In 2003 Murphy was posthumously awarded one of the annual Ig Noble prizes. Murphy’s Law is a variant of Sod’s Law: an old and famous axiom saying "Anything that can go wrong, will."
    (SFC, 11/18/99, p.C7)(SFC, 10/6/03, p.A6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sod's_law)

1949        Marx Toys began producing several versions of the Dick Tracy squad car.
    (SFC, 1/29/97, z-1 p.2)

1949        Dr. Robert Bruce (d.2004) analyzed changes in circulatory and respiratory functions of normal adults during a treadmill test. In the early 1960s he developed the "Bruce Protocol," a treadmill test to reveal problems hidden when the heart is at rest.
    (SFC, 2/16/04, p.A1)

1949        Philip Hench discovered cortisone.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        Dr. Joseph Charles Muhler led a team at Indiana Univ. in the development of stannous fluoride, a tin compound, for the prevention of tooth decay. His work was underwritten by Proctor and Gamble and led to the national introduction of Crest toothpaste in 1956.
    (SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B8)

1949        Serum hepatitis was reported to have been transmitted to a blood-bank worker by an accidental needle stick.
    (SFC, 4/13/98, p.A6)

1949        Willard F. Libby published his paper on Radiocarbon Dating.
    (RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.13)

1949        The bookmobile "Parny" (named for the Greek god Parnassus) made its debut as part of the Los Angeles Public Library System.
    (LAT, 9/29/97, p.B2)

1949        Vladimir Nabokov, Russian émigré novelist, wrote a monograph on the neotropical blue butterflies.
    (Nat. Hist. 3/96, p.14)

1949        Fred S. Keller and William N. Schoenfeld (1916-1996) introduced an undergraduate psychology course at Columbia Univ. where students learned to test and manipulate the responses and habits of white rats.
    (SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)

1949        TV set sales hit 60,000 per week. The number of TV stations totaled 69.
    (TMC, 1994, p.1945)(SFC, 4/24/99, p.A10)

1949        Lillian Barber died in Texas in the last reported US case of smallpox.
    (SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)(NW, 10/14/02, p.51)

1949        US homicides totaled 8,033.
    (SFC, 4/24/99, p.A10)

1949        The coldest winter documented hit the West.
    (TMC, 1994, p.1945)

1949        A 7.1 slab earthquake hit beneath Olympia, Wa. It was the most damaging trembler of the century but few lives were lost.
    (SFC, 1/18/01, p.A15)

1949        The Mann Gulch Fire killed 13 smokejumpers. In 1990 "Young Men and Fire," by Norman MacLean (1902-1990) was published. The posthumously published book is considered the pinnacle of smoke jumping literature.
    (WSJ, 6/23/00, p.W9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Maclean)

1949        James Forestall, the first U.S. Secretary of Defense, committed suicide.
    (SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A4)

1949        Amadeo Peter Giannini, founder of the Bank of America, died. [2nd source says 1947]
    (SFC,12/23/97, p.A13)(SFC, 4/14/98, p.B4)

1949        Henry Salem Hubbell (b.1870), artist and member of the Giverny Circle of American Impressionists, died in Florida. His paintings included “The Samovar” 1906-1907.
    (http://home.earthlink.net/~curator3805/)

1949        Hans Pfitzner, German composer, died.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        Richard Strauss (b. 1864), German conductor and composer, died.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)(WUD, 1994, p.1405)

1949        Sigrid Undset (b.1882), Norwegian novelist, died.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1547)

1949        In Argentina constitutional amendments nationalized all energy resources.
    (WSJ, 10/4/96, p.A9)

1949        Bhutan decided that its policies would be guided by relations with India.
    (Econ, 12/18/04, p.55)

1949        Hans Stern (1922-2007), German-born jeweler, opened his first H. Stern boutique in Rio de Janeiro. By 2007 the firm had some 160 boutiques around the world.
    (WSJ, 11/3/07, p.A6)

1949        Time magazine named Winston Churchill as Man of the Year.
    (SFEC, 8/17/97, Par p.2)
1949        Britain devalued the pound from $4.03 to $2.80. Most European nations followed.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)
1949        A British sex survey, originally meant for national newspapers, was conducted but never published due to its content. The survey was public in 2006 and showed that one in five men had homosexual experiences and a quarter admitted to having sex with prostitutes. One in five women confessed to extra-marital affairs.
    (Reuters, 9/26/06)
1949        Leslie Ratner opened his first jewelry shop in Richmond, just outside of London. The operation grew to become Signet Corp. In 1987 Signet entered the US market with the purchase of the 117-store Sterling Corp. In 1990 it acquired Kay Jewelers.
    (WSJ, 6/26/06, p.A1)

1949        In China the Catholic Church was expelled.
    (SFC, 6/13/97, p.A19)
1949        The Chinese Red Army invaded Tibet believing it was liberating the serfs and peasants.
    (SFEM, 12/20/98, p.18)(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A8)

1949        In Colombia Pedro Antonio Marin (aka Manuel Marulanda) took up arms after Conservative Party henchmen began slaughtering supporters of the peasant-backed Liberal Party.
    (SFC, 1/7/99, p.A8)

1949        The Muslim republic of East Turkestan briefly existed in northwest China before the Communist takeover.
    (SFC, 5/2/01, p.A9)

1949        Anatole Dauman (d.1998 at 73) of Poland founded Argos Films in France.
    (SFC, 4/9/98, p.C14)
1949        French priest Abbe Pierre (1912-2007) started taking in homeless at a house in Neuilly-Plaisance, a suburb of Paris. His project came to be called Emmaus and by 2006 grew include 350 communities in 40 countries, including 110 in France.
    (Econ, 2/3/07, p.87)
1949        France banned children’s books and comic strips from presenting cowardice in a “favorable light,” on pain of up to a year in prison for errant publishers.
    (Econ, 12/20/08, p.81)
1949        The Statute of Council of Europe was established in Strasbourg, France, to promote democracy and human rights in Europe. The organization numbered 45 nations in 2004 but had little real power.
    (SFC, 4/7/00, p.A14)(Econ, 5/15/04, p.50)

1949        In Germany Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) formed the Berliner Ensemble. It was the most influential theater in post-war Germany.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)(WUD, 1994 p.183)(SFC, 12/29/99, p.E1)

1949        Yizhar Smilanksy, under the pen-name S. Yizhar) authored “Khirbet Khizeh,” a novella based on his experience in clearing a Palestinian village on the Israeli side of the 1949 ceasefire line.
    (Econ, 4/12/08, p.93)

1949        Southern Ireland was proclaimed the Republic of Eire in Dublin and recognized by Britain. Northern Ireland remained a part of the UK.
    (Compuserve, Online Encyclopedia)(TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        In Mexico City the first two private TV licenses were granted.
    (WSJ, 11/19/96, p.A18)

1949        In Monaco Rainier III came to power and saw the future in banking, real estate and a more diverse economy with industries such as pharmaceuticals and plastics.
    (SFC, 1/8/97, p.C1)

1949        Heinrich Boere (b.1922), part of a Waffen SS death squad of mostly Dutch volunteers, was sentenced to death in the Netherlands. The squad had been tasked with killing fellow countrymen in reprisal for attacks by the anti-Nazi resistance. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and Boere managed to escape to Germany. A German court has refused to extradite him because he might have German nationality as well as Dutch. In 2008 Dortmund prosecutor Ulrich Maass charged Heinrich Boere (86) with the 1944 murders of three men as a member of the Waffen SS death squad code-named Silbertanne, or Silver Pine.
    (AP, 3/8/08)(AP, 4/16/08)

1949        Yasser Arafat formed a Palestinian Students’ League.
    (SFC, 11/11/04, p.A18)

1949        In Romania Ticu Dumitrescu (1928-2000) was sentenced to 27 years prison for being an enemy of the state. From 1949 to 1964, he was incarcerated in communist jails or kept under house arrest.
    (AP, 12/5/08)

1949        South Africa established an apartheid program.
    (TOH, 1982, p.1949)

1949        The Russians exploded their first A-bomb.
    (TMC, 1994, p.1945)

1949-1987    The Kuomintang (KMT) ruled Taiwan under martial law during this period.
    (Econ, 11/22/08, p.54)

1949        The Dutch East Indies gained independence. The western half of Timor island was incorporated into the new nation of Indonesia when Holland transferred sovereignty. Aceh's leaders agreed to join the new nation.
    (SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)(SFC, 5/18/02, p.A15)(SFCM, 11/2/03, p.8)

1949        In southern Vietnam 17 communist fighters were killed by French colonial occupiers during a failed prison escape. In 2008 their mass grave was found in Luong Hoa Lac village, Tien Giang province, the site of the former prison.
    (AP, 4/14/08)

1949        The Yugoslav Republic received a $20 million US loan.
    (SFC, 4/24/99, p.A10)

1949-1950    David Park painted his classic "Rehearsal."
    (SFC, 10/22/98, p.E6)

1949-1950    Some 750,000 Chinese fled to Hong Kong as the Communists took over the mainland.
    (SFEC, 6/22/97, p.A14)

1949-1950    Some 35,000 Yemenite Jews were airlifted to Israel. Some 14,000 more followed in the early 1950s. Some children were separated from their parents and passed on to other parents.
    (SFC, 8/28/97, p.C2)

1949-1951    The City College of New York (CCNY) basketball team conspired to fix games over these seasons. A 1998 documentary on HBO covered the story. In 1978 Charley Rosen published "Scandals of ‘51: How the Gamblers Almost Killed College Basketball." In 1998 Rosen published "Barney Polan’s Game," a novel that took a deeper look into the point-shaving scandals.
    (WSJ, 3/19/98, p.A16)(SFC, 6/9/98, p.D4)
1949-1951    The Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in Middletown under the Atomic Energy Commission was the home of the only nuclear assembly plant in the US. Worker health was not monitored. Nuclear operations were moved to Texas in the 1970s.
    (SFC, 7/31/00, p.A3)
1949-1951    In Moldova SSR 2 waves of deportations were carried out, with some 40,000 Moldovans sent to Siberia and what is now Kazakhstan.
    (AP, 6/13/06)

1949-1952    Roy Haynes played and recorded with Charlie Parker’s quintet.
    (SFEM, 10/5/97, p.18)

1949-1952    Chuck Wayne, jazz guitarist, was part of the George Shearing Quintet.
    (SFC, 8/2/97, p.A21)

1949-52    Cambodian student Saloth Sar (aka Pol Pot) visited Paris and became absorbed in Communist ideology.
    (SFC, 6/14/97, p.A15)

1949-1953    Harry S. Truman served his 2nd term as US President.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1684)

1949-1957    J. Bracken Lee (1899-1996) governed Utah.
    (SFC, 10/22/96, p.A18)

1949-1963    Konrad Adenauer became chancellor of West Germany.
    (AHD, 1971, p.15)

1949-1967    More than 10,000 Eichler homes were built in the San Francisco Bay Area.
    (SFC, 7/17/96, z-1, p.1,6)

1949-1978    Ellsworth Lester Raymond, Kremlinologist, had served at the US embassy in Moscow during WW II. After the war he was on the faculty of New York Univ. and became head of Russian studies. He wrote the book "The Soviet State."
    (SFC, 8/24/96, p.A21)

1949-1984    Georgia O’Keeffe lived in a remodeled adobe house on 3 acres in Abiquiu, New Mexico.
    (SFC, 7/16/97, p.E3)

1949-1956    Four major Soviet nuclear tests were carried out near Semipalatinsk, Kazakstan. Higher than expected mutation rates on families in the area and their children were reported in 2002.
    (SFC, 2/8/02, p.A14)

1949-1989    In Kazakstan nuclear tests were carried out by the Soviets and reportedly contaminated some 500,000 local people. It was feared that nuclear waste left in boreholes and cavities beneath the surface may contaminate ground water and affect agriculture.
    (SFC,10/24/97, p.A19)

Go to 1950