| Jan 31 |
American baseball player Nolan Ryan born. |
| Feb 21 |
In New York City, Edwin Land
demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera,
to a meeting of the Optical Society of America. |
| Mar 12 |
The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to
help stem the spread of Communism. |
| Apr 15 |
Jackie Robinson becomes the first
African American to play Major League Baseball. |
| May 2 |
Miracle on 34th Street, the timeless
Christmas classic, is released in theaters. |
| Jun 5 |
Secretary of State George Marshall
outlines the Marshall Plan for U.S. aid to Europe. |
| Jul 7 |
A downed UFO is allegedly found in
the Roswell UFO incident, written about by Stanton T. Friedman. |
| Jul 29 |
After being shut off on November 9,
1946 for a refurbishment, ENIAC, one of the world's first digital
computers, is turned on after a memory upgrade. It remains in
continuous operation until October 2, 1955. |
| Aug 7 |
Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft,
the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands
after a 101 day, 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean,
proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South
America. |
| Aug 15 |
After 150 yrs of British colonial
rule India gains independence from British. |
| Aug 31 |
Communists take power in Hungary. |
| Oct 14 |
American test pilot Captain Chuck
Yeager flies a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first
man to do so in level flight. |
| Nov 2 |
In California, designer Howard
Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose, the largest
fixed-wing aircraft ever built (flight lasts only 8 minutes). |
| Nov 6 |
Meet the Press makes its television
debut on the NBC television network. |
| Nov 29 |
The United Nations General Assembly
votes to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews, resulting in
the creation of the State of Israel. |
| Dece 22 |
The first practical transistor is
demonstrated. |
| Undated: |
| - |
Cambridge University begins to admit
women as full students. |
|
- |
Raytheon produces the first
commercial microwave oven. |
| - |
In a cave in and around the Wadi Qumran,
several tall pottery jars containing leather scrolls are
discovered, which later become known as the Dead Sea scrolls |
| - |
By discovery of Promethium in products of
nuclear fission, the last gap of the periodic table is
closed. |
|
