1946 - Definition

1946 is the common year starting on Tuesday. (see link for calendar)

Events

January

• January 4 - Theodore Schurch becomes the last person to be executed for offences committed under the Treachery Act of 1940
• January 7 - Allied recognize Austrian republic with 1937 borders - the country is divided into four occupation zones
• January 10 - First meeting of the United Nations
• January 11 - Enver Hoxha declares the people's republic of Albania with himself as prime minister.
• January 11 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob's ashes go back to Colombia.
• January 17 - The UN Security Council holds its first session
• January 20 - Charles De Gaulle resigns as president of France
• January 25 - The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor
• January 28 - Bluenose founders on a Haitian reef
• January 31 - Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

February

• February 1 - Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
• February 2 - Kingdom of Hungary becomes a republic.
• February 14 - The Bank of England nationalized
• February 14 - ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania
• February 15 - Canada indicts 22 communist agents.
• February 24 - Juan Peron elected president of Argentina
• February 28 - In Philadelphia, strikers of General Electric and police clash

March

• March 2 - British troops withdraw from Iran according to treaty - Soviets do not.
• March 2 - Ho Chi Minh elected the President of North Vietnam
• March 4 - C.G.E. Mannerheim resigns from the post of president of Finland
• March 5 - In his speech in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill talks about Iron Curtain.
• March 6 - Vietnam War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
• March 9 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi becomes president of Finland
• March 10 - British troops begin withdrawal from Lebanon
• March 15 - Clement Attlee promises independence to India as soon as they can agree on constitution
• March 19 - Soviet Union and Switzerland reform diplomatic relations.
• March 19 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France
• March 22 - Transjordan gains independence
• March 29 - Gold Coast has an African majority in the parliament
• March 31 - Herbert Hoover visits Finland

April

• April 1 - 14-meter high tsunami strikes Hilo, Hawaii - 173 dead, thousands injured.
• April 1 - Singapore becomes a Crown colony
• April 3 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
• April 7 - Syria's independence from France is officially recognised
• April 10 - In Japan, women vote for the first time in parliamentarian elections
• April 18 - USA recognizes Josip Broz Tito's government in Yugoslavia
• April 18 - Last meeting of League of Nations – it transfers its mission to United Nations and disbands itself.
• April 29 - Trial against war criminals begin in Tokyo – accused include Hideki Tojo, Shegenori Togo and Hiroshi Oshima.

May

• May 7 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with about 20 employees.
• May 9 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates, and is succeeded by his son Humbert II.
• May 10 - Nehru elected leader of the Congress Party in India
• May 20 - In Britain, the House of Commons decides to nationalize mines.
• May 21 - Radiation accident in Los Alamos laboratory; Dr Louis Slotin saves his coworkers but receives a fatal dose of radiation. Incident is initially classified
• May 22 - Kingdom of Transjordan founded.
• May 25 - The parliament of Transjordan makes emir Abdullah their king.
• May 28 - K. Satchidanandan Malayalam poet
• May 29 - Fernando Buesa, Basque politician (d. 2000)
• May 31 - Greece referendum supports return of monarchy

June-July

• June 2 - In a referendum Italians decide to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After this referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia was exiled. Women vote for the first time.
• June 6 - The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City.
• June 8 - In Indonesia, Sukarno incites his supporters to fight Dutch colonial occupation
• June 9 - In Thailand, king Rama IX accedes the throne.
• June 10 - Italy declared republic
• June 13 - Humbert II of Italy leaves the country – Alcide de Gasperi becomes head of state.
• June 17 - Tornado on the Detroit river - 17 dead
• July 4 - After over 400 years, the Philippines achieves full independence.
• July 5 - The bikini is introduced.
• July 7 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American saint to be canonized.
• July 21 - Bomb of Irgun Zvai Leumi explodes in Jerusalem.
• July 22 - King David Hotel bombing: Irgun bombs King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the British civil and military administration killing 90.
• July 25 - Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus USS Saratoga is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean when the United States detonates the "Baker Day" device.
• July 25 - At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.

August-November

• August 19 - Violence between Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta – 3000 dead.
• August 25 - Ben Hogan wins PGA Championship
• September 4 - Street violence between Muslims and Hindus in Bombay.
• September 8 - Bulgaria declared a People's Republic after a referendum – King Simeon II leaves.
• September 28 - George II of Greece returns to Athens
• October 2 - Communists take over in Bulgaria
• October 13 - France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.
• October 15 - Nuremberg Trials: Founder of the Gestapo and recently convicted Nazi war criminal, Hermann Göring, poisons himself hours before his scheduled execution.
• October 23 - United Nations' first meeting in Long Island.
• November 8 - Vietnamese riot in Haiphong and clash with French troops. French cruiser Suffren opens fire. 6000 Vietnamese killed.
• November 12 - Truce between Indonesian nationalist troops and Dutch army in Indonesia.
• November 12 - A branch of the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, Illinois opens the first ten drive-up teller windows.
• November 15 - Netherlands recognized Republic of Indonesia.
• November 19 - Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden joins the United Nations
• November 27 - Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."

December

• December 11 - UNICEF founded.
• December 12 - United Nations severs relations with Franco's Spain and recommends the member countries to sever diplomatic relations
• December 12 - Leon Blum founds a government of socialist parties in France
• December 19 - Martial law in Vietnam
• December 24 - France's Fourth Republic founded
• December 26 - Flamingo Hotel opens in Las Vegas.
• December 31 - President Harry Truman officially proclaims an end of hostilities in World War II.

unknown dates

• Phantom rockets over Sweden
• The 20mm M61 Vulcan gatling gun is invented
• Devil's Island penal colony closes permanently
• Female suffrage in Belgium, Romania, Yugoslavia, Argentina and Canadian province of Quebec. First female police officers in Korea and Japan.
• Chinese Civil War intensifies between Kuomintang and Communist Party of China.
• First Tupperware sold in department and hardware stores
• Grantley Adams becomes the premier of Barbados
• Alcatraz Island prison riot
• The British government takes emergency powers to deal with the balance-of-payments crisis

Year in topic

• 1946 in film
  • The Best Years of Our Lives
  • Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart
  • Henry V
  • The Razor's Edge
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious starring Cary Grant
  • The Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
  • Paisà by Roberto Rossellini
  • Il sole orge ancora by Aldo Vergano
• 1946 in literature
  • The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill
  • Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell – becomes book of the year in USA
  • All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
  • Baby and child care by Benjamin Spock
• 1946 in music
• 1946 in rail transport
• 1946 in sports
• 1946 in television
  • February 4 – RCA demonstrates all-electronic color television system.
  • February 18 - The first Washington-New York telecast through AT&T coaxial cable is termed success by engineers and viewers.
  • April 22 - CBS color television program is successfully transmitted over a 450-mile coaxial cable link from New York to Washington
  • May 9 - The first variety show premieres, Hour Glass, on NBC.
  • June 7 - The BBC begins broadcasting again and reshows the Mickey Mouse cartoon, that had been interrupted seven years earlier at the start of the World War II.
  • June 19 - The first televised heavyweight title fight between Joe Louis and Billy Conn is broadcast from Yankee Stadium. The fight was seen by 141,000 people, the largest television audience to see a fight.
  • October 2 - The first TV network soap opera, Faraway Hill, airs on the DuMont Network.
  • December 24 - The first church service is telecast, Grace Episcopal Church in New York, on WABD.
  • ToKyo Tushin Kogyo founded, which would later become Sony
  • Zoomar introduces the first professional zoom lens

Births

January

• January 3 - John Paul Jones, bassist from Led Zeppelin
• January 5 - Diane Keaton, actress
• January 6 - Syd Barrett, guitarist and singer
• January 8 - Robby Krieger, musician ("The Doors")
• January 11 - Naomi Judd, country music singer
• January 11 - John Piper, American theologian
• January 12 - George Duke, musician
• January 14 - Harold Shipman, British serial killer
• January 16 - Kabir Bedi, actor
• January 16 - Ronnie Milsap, singer
• January 16 - Katia Ricciarelli, opera singer
• January 18 - Joseph Deiss, member of the Swiss Federal Council
• January 19 - Dolly Parton, singer, actress
• January 20 - David Lynch, film director
• January 21 - Johnny Oates, baseball player and manager (d. 2004)
• January 22 - Serge Savard, Hall of Fame ice hockey player, executive
• January 24 - Michael Ontkean, actor
• January 26 - Gene Siskel, film critic (d. 1999)
• January 31 - Terry Kath, musician (d. 1978)

February-March

• February 6 - Jim Turner, American politician
• February 11 - M C Walker, CEO of Iceland Frozen Foods
• February 11 - Timothy Chambers, pediatrician
• February 14 - Bernard Dowiyogo, president of Nauru (d. 2003)
• February 14 - Gregory Hines, dancer, actor (d. 2003)
• February 20 - Jerome Geils of the J Geils band
• February 20 - Brenda Blethyn, actress
• February 21 - Tyne Daly, actress
• February 21 - Alan Rickman, actor
• February 24 - Barry Bostwick, actor
• February 25 - Franz Xaver Kroetz, dramatist
• February 27 - José Carreras, Spanish tenor
• February 28 - Robin Cook, British politician
• March 3 - Leszek Miller, Prime Minister of Poland
• March 6 - David Gilmour, musician ("Pink Floyd")
• March 7 - Peter Wolf, musician ("J Geils Band")
• March 12 - Liza Minnelli, singer and actress
• March 21 - Timothy Dalton, actor ("James Bond")
• March 22 - André Heller, artist
• March 31 - Gonzalo Márquez, Major League Baseball player (d. 1984)

April-June

• April 4 - Dave Hill, Slade, guitarist
• April 7 - Colette Besson, French runner
• April 12 - Ed O'Neill, actor
• April 25 - Talia Shire, actress
• April 30 - Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden, Swedish monarch (1973- )
• May 7 - Thelma Houston, singer
• May 9 - Candice Bergen, actress
• May 10 - Donovan Leitch, musician
• May 10 - Dave Mason, musician ("Traffic")
• May 11 - Robert Jarvik, physicist, inventor
• May 17 - Udo Lindenberg, musician
• May 18 - Reggie Jackson, Baseball Hall of Famer
• May 19 - André the Giant, wrestler (d. 1993)
• May 20 - Cher, American singer
• May 22 - George Best, footballer
• May 23 - David Graham, golf champion
• May 26 - Mick Ronson, guitarist (d. 1993)
• June 6 - Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper
• June 14 - Donald Trump, American real estate magnate
• June 15 - Noddy Holder, Slade, singer
• June 23 - Kathy Wilkes
• June 24 - Ellison Onizuka, astronaut (d. 1986)

July-August

• July 2 - Richard Axel, scientist
• July 6 - George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States
• July 6 - Sylvester Stallone, actor
• July 8 - Elizabeth Gomez, minister and poet
• July 9 - Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC (d. 1980)
• July 10 - Robert W. Jones, Minister and Writer
• July 15 - Linda Ronstadt, singer, songwriter
• July 16 - Ron Yary, Pro Football Hall of Famer
• July 22 - Mireille Mathieu, French singer
• July 25 - Rita Marley, Jamaican-Cuban singer, widow of Bob Marley
• July 30 - Neil Bonnett, NASCAR driver (d. 1994)
• August 3 - Jack Straw, British politician
• August 19 - Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States
• August 19 - Beat Raaflaub, Swiss conductor
• August 20 - N.R. Narayana Murthy, Indian businessman
• August 25 - Rollie Fingers, baseball pitcher
• August 29 - Bob Beamon, American long jumper

September

• September 5 - Freddie Mercury, British singer
• September 7 - Francisco Varela, biologist
• September 10 - Jim Hines, American athlete
• September 10 - Don Powell, Slade, drummer
• September 15 - Tommy Lee Jones, actor (The Fugitive, Men in Black)
• September 15 - Oliver Stone, American film director (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK)
• September 21 - Moritz Leuenberger, member of the Swiss Federal Council
• September 23 - Franz Fischler, politician
• September 24 - Lars Emil Johansen, Prime Minister of Greenland
• September 30 - Héctor Lavoe, salsa music singer

October

• October 1 - Tim O'Brien, American author
• October 6 - Lloyd Doggett, American politician
• October 7 - Catharine MacKinnon
• October 8 - Margot Adler
• October 8 - Hanan Ashrawi
• October 9 - Tansu Ciller, Turkish politician
• October 10 - Pearlette Louisy
• October 13 - Edwina Currie
• October 16 - Suzanne Somers, actress
• October 17 - Bob Seagren, American pole vaulter and actor
• October 21 - Lyn Allison, Australian politician
• October 22 - Eileen Gordon, British politician
• October 23 - Graca Machel
• October 24 - Karen Silkwood
• October 26 - Pat Sajak, game show host
• October 27 - Ivan Reitman, movie director, producer
• October 29 - Kathryn J. Whitmire
• October 31 - Caroline Jackson, UK politician

November-December

• November 1 - Marina Abramovic
• November 2 - Giuseppe Sinopoli, Italian conductor, composer (d. 2001)
• November 4 - Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States
• November 5 - Herman Brood, Dutch rock 'n' roll artist
• November 5 - Gram Parsons, country music/rock musician
• November 11 - Corrine Brown, US politician
• November 20 - Greg Cook, American football quarterback
• November 20 - Judy Woodruff
• November 24 - Ted Bundy, American serial killer
• November 30 - Barbara Cubin
• December 4 - Angela Browning, British politician
• December 9 - Sonia Gandhi, Indian politician
• December 16 - Trevor Pinnock, English conductor, harpsichordist
• December 18 - Steven Spielberg, American film director
• December 26 - Joyce Jillson

Deaths

• January 29 - Harry Hopkins, politician
• February 5 - George Arliss, actor
• March 23 - Gilbert N. Lewis, physical chemist.
• March 24 - Alexander Alekhine, chess champion
• April 1 - Noah Beery, actor
• April 22 - Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1872)
• May 17 - William Jefferson Blythe III, father of U.S. President Bill Clinton
• May 19 - Booth Tarkington, American novelist
• June 1 - Ion Antonescu
• June 10 - Jack Johnson, African-American boxer
• July 8 - Orrick Glenday Johns, poet & playwright
• Alfred Stock German chemist
• August 13 - H.G. Wells, science fiction writer
• October 15 - Hermann Göring, prominent Nazi leader, marshall of the Third Reich, head of the Airforce (suicide)
• October 16 - Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Austrian Nazi leader, governor of The Netherlands during the German occupation (1940-1945) (executed)
• November 14 - Manuel de Falla, composer
• December 10 - Walter Johnson, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1887)
• December 25 - W.C. Fields, Actor/Comedian

unknown date

• Arlene Feynman, wife of Richard Feynman

Nobel Prizes

• Physics - Percy Williams Bridgman
• Chemistry - James B. Sumner, John Howard Northrop, Wendell Meredith Stanley
• Medicine - Hermann Joseph Muller
• Literature - Hermann Hesse
• Peace - Emily Greene Balch John Mott