istoryworld
All Events
The National Insurance Act secures state benefits in Britain for the sick, old and unemployed
The marriage of George Balanchine and Maria Tallchief unites two major stars of the US ballet scene
The first of about 20 US tests of atomic and hydrogen bombs is carried out on Bikini Atoll, in the Pacific
Australian painter Sidney Nolan begins a series of paintings on the theme of Ned Kelly
Irgun terrorists detonate a bomb in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people
Robert Lowell's second collection, Lord Weary's Castle, contains 'The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket' and 'Mr Edwards and the Spider'
Communist leader Enver Hoxha begins nearly 40 years as dictator of Albania
ENIAC is the world's first general-purpose electronic calculator
Ezra Pound, charged with treason for his wartime broadcasts, begins twelve years in a US hospital for the criminally insane
US poet Elizabeth Bishop publishes her first collection of poems, North and South
Benjamin Britten bases his Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra on a theme by Purcell
Germany's former foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, is sentenced to death at Nuremberg and is hanged
German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler is acquitted of the charge of collaborating with the Nazis
The Indochina War breaks out in Vietnam between the French colonial forces and the Vietminh
Rationing in Britain gets worse rather than better, with bread and potatoes now added to the list
Titus Groan begins British author Mervyn Peake's trilogy of gothic novels
British conductor Thomas Beecham founds the third orchestra of his career, calling it the Royal Philharmonic
The Japanese emperor Hirohito renounces his traditional divine status and declares that he is mortal
William Joyce, widely known as Lord Haw-Haw, is hanged by the British as a traitor
Winston Churchill, in a speech in Fulton, Missouri, expresses the harsh truth that an iron curtain has descended across Europe
Twenty-five Japanese defendants are put on trial in Tokyo, charged with war crimes
The discredited League of Nations is finally disbanded
Twelve of the defendants at Nuremberg are sentenced to death by hanging
Hermann Goering, sentenced to death at Nuremberg, kills himself with a potassium cyanide capsule the night before he is due to be hanged
John D. Rockefeller Jr. gives land along the East River in New York for a permanent United Nations headquarters
