1946

Years: 1943 1944 1945 - 1946 - 1947 1948 1949

Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s

Events of 1946

January

• January 7 - The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with 1937 borders, and divide the country into 4 occupation zones.
• January 10 - The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly is held in London.
• January 10 - Project Diana bounces radar waves off the Moon, measuring the exact distance between the earth and the moon, and proving that communication is possible between Earth and outer space, effectively opening the space age.
• 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 16 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as a head of a French provisional government.
• January 17 - The UN Security Council holds its first session.
• January 17 - Senator Dennis Chavez (D-NM) calls for a vote on an FEPC bill which calls for an end to discrimination in the workplace. A filibuster prevents it from passing.
• January 20 - Charles De Gaulle resigns as president of France.
• January 22 - Iran: Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at the Chuwarchira Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. He is the new president, Hadschi Baba Scheich is the prime minister.
• January 25 - The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.
• January 28 - The Canadian schooner Bluenose founders on a Haitian reef.
• January 29 - The Central Intelligence Group is established (the CIA in 1947).
• January 31 - Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes 6 constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

February

• February 1 - Trygve Lie of Norway is selected to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
• February 1 - The Kingdom of Hungary becomes a republic.
• February 14 - The Bank of England is 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 20 - An explosion kills more than 400 coal miners in West Germany.
• February 24 - Juan Peron is elected president of Argentina.
• February 28 - In Philadelphia, General Electric strikers and police clash.

March

• March 2 - British troops withdraw from Iran according to treaty; the Soviets do not.
• March 2 - Ho Chi Minh is elected President of North Vietnam.
• March 4 - C.G.E. Mannerheim resigns as president of Finland.
• March 5 - In his speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill talks about the 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 6 - A communist-dominated government under Petru Groza assumes power in Romania.
• March 7 - The 18th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
• March 9 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi becomes president of Finland.
• March 10 - British troops begin withdrawing from Lebanon.
• March 15 - Clement Attlee promises independence to India as soon as they can agree on a constitution.
• March 19 - The Soviet Union and Switzerland resume diplomatic relations.
• March 19 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
• March 22 – The United Kingdom grants Transjordan, as it is then known, its independence; 3 years later the country changes its name to Jordan.
• March 29 - The Gold Coast has an African majority in its parliament.

April

• April 1 - A 14-meter high tsunami strikes Hilo and Laupāhoehoe on the Big Island of Hawaii; 173 are killed, thousands injured.
• April 1 - The Malayan Union is formed.
• April 1 - Singapore becomes a Crown colony.
• April 3 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila, the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
• April 10 - In Japan, women vote for the first time, during elections for the House of Representatives of the 90th Imperial Diet.
• April 17 - Syria's independence from France is officially recognised.
• April 18 - The United States recognizes Josip Broz Tito's government in Yugoslavia.
• April 18 - The League of Nations, in its last meeting, transfers its mission to the United Nations and disbands itself.
• April 23 - The Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League (Which is now the CBA) is founded.
• April 29 - Trial against war criminals begin in Tokyo; the accused include Hideki Tojo, Shigenori Togo and Hiroshi Oshima.

May

• May 1 - At least 800 Indigenous Australian pastoral workers walk off the job in Northwest Western Australia, starting one of the longest industrial strikes in Australia.
• May 2 - Six inmates unsuccessfully try to escape from Alcatraz Prison.
• 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 is elected leader of the Congress Party in India.
• May 10 - The first V-2 rocket is successfully launched at the White Sands Missile Range.
• May 20 - The British House of Commons decides to nationalize mines.
• May 21 - At the Los Alamos Laboratory, Dr. Louis Slotin saves his coworkers but receives a fatal dose of ionizing radiation (the incident is initially classified).
• May 22 - The Kingdom of Transjordan is founded.
• May 25 - The parliament of Transjordan makes emir Abdullah their king.
• May 26 - Czechoslovak parliamentary election, with Communist victory (38%), last before communist take power
• May 31 - A Greek referendum supports the return of the monarchy.

June

• June 1 - Ion Antonescu, prime minister and "Conducator" (Leader) of Romania during World War II is executed; he was found guilty of betraying the Romanian people for benefits of Germany and sentenced to death by the Bucharest People's Tribunal.
• June 2 - In a referendum, Italians decide to turn Italy from a monarchy into a republic. 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 Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) accedes the throne after the mysterious death of his brother, King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII).
• June 10 - Italy is declared a republic.
• June 13 - Humbert II of Italy leaves the country and goes into exile in Portugal; Alcide de Gasperi becomes head of state.
• June 17 - A tornado on the Detroit River kills 17.
• June 17 - Laurence Olivier's Henry V opens in the United States nearly 2 years after its release in England. It is the first Shakespeare film in color, and critics hail it as the finest film of a Shakespeare play ever made.

July

• July 4 - Ankara University is founded in Turkey.
• July 4 - After over 381 years of Western dominance, the Philippines achieves full independence.
• July 5 - Bikinis go on sale in Paris.
• July 7 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American saint to be canonized.
• July 21 - An Irgun bomb explodes in Jerusalem because of secretive talks between Jews and Britain to consolidate the state of Israel.
• July 22 - King David Hotel bombing: The Irgun bombs the King David Hotel (headquarters of the British civil and military administration) in Jerusalem, 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 device during Operation Crossroads.
• July 25 - At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.

August

• August 1 - The Hungarian Forint is introduced in Hungary by the government, ending the world's biggest hyperinflation in the country.
• August 4 - The 1946 Dominican Republic earthquake (magnitude 8.0) hits the northern Dominican Republic, killing 100, and leaving 20,000 homeless.
• August 18 - The Vergarolla explosion in Croatia kills 70.
• August 19 - Violence between Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta leaves 3,000 dead.
• August 25 - Ben Hogan wins the PGA Championship.

September

• September 4 - Street violence between Muslims and Hindus erupts in Bombay.
• September 8 - Bulgaria is declared a People's Republic after a referendum; King Simeon II leaves.
• September 24 - Cathay Pacific Airways is founded by Roy C Farrell and H de Kantzow.
• September 28 - George II of Greece returns to Athens.

October

• October 1 - Mensa is founded in the United Kingdom.
• October 2 - Communists take over in Bulgaria.
• October 13 - France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.
• October 15 - Nuremberg Trials: Hermann Göring, founder of the Gestapo and recently convicted as a war criminal, poisons himself hours before his scheduled execution.
• October 23 - The United Nations' first meeting in Long Island is held.

November

• November 6 - Senate and House elections in the United States both give majorities to the Republicans.
• November 8 - Vietnamese riot in Haiphong and clash with French troops. The French cruiser Suffren opens fire, killing 6,000 Vietnamese.
• November 10 - At least 1,400 people are killed in an earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter Scale, in the Ancash Region and Quiches District in Peru.
• November 10 - The Slimbridge Wetland Reserve opens in England.
• November 12 - A truce is declared between Indonesian nationalist troops and the Dutch army in Indonesia.
• November 12 - in Chicago, a branch of the Exchange National Bank (now part of the LaSalle Bank) opens the first 10 drive-up teller windows.
• November 15 - The Netherlands recognizes the Republic of Indonesia.
• November 17 - Eight British servicemen are killed in Jerusalem by Zionists.
• November 19 - Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.
• November 19 - Romanian general election, 1946: The Romanian Communist Party wins 79.86% of the vote through widespread intimidation tactics and electoral fraud.
• November 22 - Tony Benn is elected as Treasurer of the Oxford Union.
• November 23 - The Workers Party of South Korea is founded.
• 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 1 - Miguel Alemán Valdés takes office as President of Mexico.
• December 2 The International Whaling Commission was signed in Washington to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry".
• December 7 - A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, United States kills 119.
• December 11 - UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund) is founded.
• December 12 - The United Nations severs relations with Franco's Spain and recommends that member countries sever diplomatic relations.
• December 12 - Léon Blum founds a government of socialist parties in France.
• December 12 - A communist government takes power in Tabriz, Iranian Azerbaijan Province.
• December 19 - Martial law is declared in Vietnam.
• December 20 - At least 1,362 people are killed in an earthquake and associated tsunami in Japan.
• December 22 - The Havana Conference begins between U.S. organized crime bosses in Havana, Cuba.
• December 24 - France's Fourth Republic is founded.
• December 31 - President Harry Truman delivers Proclamation 2714, which officially ends hostilities in World War II.

Births

• January 23 - Boris Berezovsky, Jewish oligarch (d. 2013)
• February 23 - Joseph Sobran, American conservative journalist (d. 2010)
• April 22 - Bruce Ivins, antharx scientist (d. 2008)
• April 24 - Doug Christie, Canadian attorney and free speech advocate (d. 2013)
• June 14 - Donald Trump, American businessman and presidential candidate.
• August 20 - Louis Beam, American White nationalist and advocate of leaderless resistance
• December 20 - Thomas Tarrants, pastor and former Ku Klux Klan terrorist

Deaths

• January 3 - William Joyce, Irish-American fascist (b. 1906)
• January 3 - Karl Maria Wiligut, German occultist (b. 1866)
• January 4 - Theodore Schurch, British/Swiss spy working for National Socialist Germany (b. 1918)
• March 12 - Ferenc Szálasi, Hungarian National Socialist leader (b. 1897)
• October 16 - Nuremberg martyrs
  • Hans Frank, (b. 1900)
  • Wilhelm Frick, (b. 1877)
  • Alfred Jodl, (b. 1890)
  • Ernst Kaltenbrunner, (b. 1903)
  • Wilhelm Keitel, (b. 1882)
  • Alfred Rosenberg, (b. 1893)
  • Fritz Sauckel, (b. 1894)
  • Arthur Seyss-Inquart, (b. 1892)
  • Julius Streicher, (b. 1887)
  • Joachim von Ribbentrop, (b. 1893)