January
January 1
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) inaugurated.
Railways of Britain are nationalized to form British Railways.
The Constitution of the Italian Republic goes into effect.
The latest New Jersey State Constitution goes into effect.
January 4 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu its first Prime Minister.
January 5 – Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
January 12 – Mahatma Gandhi begins his fast-unto-death in Delhi to stop communal violence during the Partition of India.
January 17 – A truce is declared between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops in Java.
January 22 – British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin proposes the formation of a Western Union between Britain, France and the Benelux countries to stand up against the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Brussels is signed March 17 as a consequence, a predecessor to NATO.
January 26 – Teigin poison case: a man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 of 16 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced to death for the crime, but is never executed.
January 29 – Plane crash at Los Gatos Creek, near Coalinga, California, kills four US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a protest song ("Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)") by Woody Guthrie.
January 30
Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is shot by Nathuram Godse in New Delhi. Also on this day Orville Wright of the pioneering aviators the Wright Brothers dies in Dayton, Ohio.
1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
January 31 – The British crown colony of the Malayan Union, Penang and Malacca form the Federation of Malaya.[1]
February
February 1
The Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.
The proclamation of Federation of Malaya
February 4 – Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) becomes an independent kingdom within the British Commonwealth.
February 16 – Miranda, the innermost moon of Uranus, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper.[2]
February 18 – Éamon de Valera, Irish head of government since 1932, loses power to an opposition coalition. John A. Costello is appointed Taoiseach by President Seán O'Kelly.
February 19 – The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.
February 21 – The stock car racing organization NASCAR is founded by Bill France, Sr.
February 25 – The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia, a day celebrated by that regime as "Victorious February" (Czech: Vítězný únor; Slovak: Víťazný Február) until November 1989.
February 28 – Riots take place in Accra, capital of the British colony of Gold Coast, when a peaceful protest march by ex-servicemen was broken up by police, leaving several members of the group dead, among them Sergeant Adjetey, one of the leaders.
March
March 8 – McCollum v. Board of Education: The United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violates the U.S. Constitution.
March 12 – The Costa Rican Civil War begins.
March 16 – The largest flood in the history of Brampton, Ontario, occurs.[3]
March 17
Treaty of Brussels signed by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, providing for economic, social and cultural collaboration and collective self-defence.
The Hells Angels motorcycle gang is founded in California.
March 18 – The Round Table Conference in The Hague, Netherlands for the preparation of the decolonization process for Aruba and the other Dutch Colonies. Aruba presents the mandate of the Aruban People for Aruba to become an Independent Country, under the souvereignty of the House of Orange, based on Aruba's first state constitution presented officially since August 1947, and a (4th) Member State of the future Dutch Commonwealth.
March 20
Singapore holds its first elections.
Renowned Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini makes his television debut, conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in an all-Wagner program.
The 20th Academy Awards ceremony is held. Gentleman's Agreement wins the Academy Award for Best Picture.
April
April 1 – Physicists Ralph Asher Alpher and George Gamow publish the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper about the Big Bang.[4]
April 3
President of the United States Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
Jeju Uprising - residents revolt on Jeju island, South Korea, eventually leading to the deaths of between 14,000 and 30,000.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is played on television in its entirety for the first time in a series of concerts featuring Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the United States. The chorus is conducted by Robert Shaw.
April 5 – 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine: Haganah launches Operation Nachshon; beginning of the 1948 Palestinian exodus.
April 7
The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
A fire in a Buddhist monastery in Shanghai kills 20 monks.
April 9
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further 10 years of violence (La Violencia) across Colombia.
The Deir Yassin massacre takes place in British Mandatory Palestine.
April 13 – The Hadassah medical convoy massacre takes place in British Mandatory Palestine.
April 16 – The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is founded as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).
April 18 – Italian general election, 1948:: The first democratic general election with universal suffrage is held in Italy. The Christian Democracy party achieves a majority over the Popular Democratic Front Communist-Socialist coalition.
April 19 – Burma joins the United Nations.
April 24 – The Costa Rican Civil War ends.
April 30 – Organization of American States (OAS) founded.
April 30 – The English-built Land Rover is unveiled at the Amsterdam Motor Show.
May
May – The RAND Corporation is established as an independent nonprofit policy research and analysis institution.
May 4 – Laurence Olivier's film version of Hamlet makes its world premiere in London.
May 11 – Luigi Einaudi becomes President of the Italian Republic.
Israeli Declaration of Independence, 1948
May 14 – The Israeli Declaration of Independence is made.
May 15
1948 Arab–Israeli War: The British Mandate of Palestine is officially terminated; expeditionary forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria and Iraq invade Israel and clash with Israeli forces.
The murder of a 3-year-old girl in Blackburn, England leads to the fingerprinting of more than 40,000 men in the city in an attempt to find the murderer.[5]
May 16 – Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
May 18 – The first Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.
May 22 – The Soviets launched the largest Lithuanian deportation to Siberia.
May 25 – The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) was founded on this date at Ellinwood Malate Church in Manila, Philippines.
May 26 – The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557, which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as the auxiliary of the United States Air Force.
May 28 – Daniel François Malan defeats Jan Smuts and becomes Prime Minister of South Africa, ushering in the era of apartheid, which is finally dismantled by F. W. de Klerk in 1994.
May 30 – A dike along the Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes; 15 people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.
June
June 3 – The Palomar Observatory telescope is finished in California.
June 10 – Hasan Saka forms the new government of Turkey. (17th government; Hasan Saka had served twice as a prime minister)
June 11 – The first monkey astronaut, Albert I, is launched into space from White Sands, New Mexico.
June 16
Communist guerrillas kill 3 rubber planters in Malaya.
Three armed men hijack the Cathay Pacific passenger plane Miss Macao and shoot the pilot; the plane crashes, killing 26 of 27 people on board.
June 17 – A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Airlines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.
June 18
Malayan Emergency: A state of emergency is declared in the Malayan Union due to a communist insurgency.
LP record – Columbia Records introduced its long playing 33 1/3 rpm phonograph format.
June 20 – The U.S. Congress recesses for the remainder of 1948, after an overtime session closes at 7:00 a.m. D.C. time (to be shortly interrupted by Truman's recall from Congressional recess for July 20, 1948).
June 21 – The Deutsche Mark becomes official currency of the future Federal Republic of Germany.
June 22 – The ship MV Empire Windrush brings a large group of Afro-Caribbean immigrants to Tilbury near London, the start of a large wave of immigration to Britain.
Airplane C-54 at airport Berlin-Tempelhof.
June 24
Cold War: The Berlin Blockade begins.
The first World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization is held in Geneva.
June 26 – William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
June 28
The Cominform Resolution marks the beginning of the Informbiro period in Yugoslavia and the Soviet/Yugoslav split.
David Lean's Oliver Twist, based on Charles Dickens's famous novel, premieres in the UK. It is banned for 3 years in the U.S. because of alleged anti-Semitism in depicting master criminal Fagin, played by Alec Guinness.
1948 Fukui earthquake strikes Fukui, Japan. 3,769 dead, 22,203 injured.
July
July 5 – The National Health Service Acts are enacted in United Kingdom.
July 6 – The world's first Air Car-ferry service is flown by a Bristol Freighter of Silver City Airways from Lympne to Le Touquet.
July 13 – The Coptic and Ethiopian Churches reach an agreement leading to the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalous Patriarchate. Five bishops are immediately consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria, and the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV is granted the power to consecrate new bishops, who are empowered to elect a new Patriarch for their church.
July 15
Attempted assassination of Palmiro Togliatti, general secretary of the Italian Communist Party results in numerous strikes all over the country.
First London chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous is founded.
July 20 – Cold War:
President Harry S. Truman issues the second peacetime military draft in the United States, amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union (the first peacetime draft occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt)
Eugene Dennis, William Z. Foster, and ten other CPUSA leaders are arrested and charged under the Alien Registration Act
July 22 – The Dominion of Newfoundland votes to join Canada after a referendum.
July 24 – A great oil fire breaks out in the harbor of Naantali, Finland.
July 26 – U.S. President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, ending racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces.
July 28 – Around 200 die in explosion at a chemical plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
July 29 – The 1948 Summer Olympics begin in London, the first since the 1936 Summer Olympics
July 31 –
At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated
Elizabeth Bentley appears under subpoena before HUAC regarding Communist espionage; implicates Whittaker Chambers
August
August 1 – The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.
August 3 – Whittaker Chambers appears under subpoena before HUAC and alleges that several former U.S. Federal official were communists, including Harry Dexter White and Alger Hiss
August 5 – Alger Hiss appears before HUAC to deny the allegations of Whittaker Chambers
August 10 – August 23 – The Herrenchiemsee Convent prepares the draft for the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
August 13 – Harry Dexter White and Donald Hiss refute allegations of Communism by Whittaker Chambers before HUAC
August 14 – 1948 Ashes series: The Australian batsman Don Bradman, playing his last Test cricket match, against England at The Oval, is bowled by Eric Hollies for a duck; however, "The Invincibles" win the match by an innings and 149 runs, and The Ashes 4-0.
August 15 – The southern half of Korea is established as South Korea.
August 16 – Babe Ruth dies in his sleep at the age of 53.
August 17 – HUAC holds a private session between Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers
August 18 – Danube Commission created by Belgrade Convention (enters into force 11 May 1949).
August 20 – Lee Pressman, Nathan Witt, and John Abt, represented by Harold I. Cammer, plead the Fifth Amendment in response to allegations of Communism by Whittaker Chambers before HUAC
August 23 – The World Council of Churches is established.
August 24 – The first meeting of the charter members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) is held.[6]
August 25 – HUAC holds its first-ever televised congressional hearing, featuring "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss
August 27 – Whittaker Chambers states that Alger Hiss was a communist on Meet the Press radio
September
September 4 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.
September 5 – Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France.
September 6 – Juliana becomes Queen of the Netherlands.
September 9 – The northern half of Korea is formally declared North Korea, with Kim Il-sung as prime minister.
September 11 – Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder and first Governor-General of Pakistan, dies. Pakistan is in a state of shock as it mourns the departure of the father of the nation. The day is a public holiday nation-wide.
September 12 – The State of Hyderabad is invaded by the Indian Army on the day after Pakistani leader Jinnah's death, to assist damage control. Operation Polo leads to the independence of Hyderabad state and its amalgamation into the Indian union.
September 17 – Lehi members assassinate Swedish count Folke Bernadotte.
September 20 – Establishment of the city Rabwah
September 27 – Alger Hiss files a slander suit against Whittaker Chambers for his August 27 radio statement
September 29 – Laurence Olivier's Hamlet opens in the United States.
October
October 6 – The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake kills 110,000.
October 10 – R-1 missile on test becomes the first Soviet launch to enter space.
October 11 – The Cleveland Indians defeat the Boston Braves to win the World Series, 4 games to 2.
October 16 – The 57th Street Art Fair, the oldest juried art fair in the American Midwest, is founded.
October 26 – Killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania.
October 28 – The massacre of Dawaymeh begins.
November
November 1 – Foley Square trial of Eugene Dennis and ten other CPUSA leaders begins in New York City
November 2 – United States presidential election, 1948: Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman defeats Republican Thomas E. Dewey and "Dixiecrat" Strom Thurmond.
November 12 – In Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials to death, including General Hideki Tojo, for their roles in World War II.
November 15 – Louis Stephen St. Laurent becomes Canada's 12th prime minister.
November 16
Operation Magic Carpet to transport Jews from Yemen to Israel begins.
The University of the Andes (Universidad de los Andes) is founded in Bogotá, Colombia.
November 17 –
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi divorces his second wife, the former Princess Fawzia of Egypt.
Whittaker Chambers produces secret government papers handwritten and typewritten by Alger Hiss during pretrial examination.
November 20 – Geoffrey B. Orbell rediscovers the Takahē, last seen 50 years previously, near Lake Te Anau, New Zealand.
November 24 – In Venezuela, president Rómulo Gallegos is ousted by a military junta.
November 27 – The Calgary Stampeders defeat the Ottawa Rough Riders 12–7 before 20,013 fans at Toronto's Varsity Stadium to capture their first Grey Cup and complete the only perfect season to date in Canadian Football.
December
December 1 – José Figueres Ferrer abolishes the army in Costa Rica, making it the first country in history to do so
December 2 – HUAC subpoenas and retrieves the "Pumpkin Papers" from the farm of Whittaker Chambers
December 6 – Richard Nixon parades microfilm from the "Pumpkin Papers" to the press
December 10 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 11–12 – Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali massacre: Scots Guards shoot 24 Chinese villagers in Malaya
December 15 – The United States Department of Justice indicts Alger Hiss on two counts of perjury
December 20 – Laurence Duggan falls to his death from the 16th storey window of his Manhattan office
December 26 – The last Soviet troops withdraw from North Korea
December 28 – A Muslim Brotherhood member assassinates Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi
December 30 – The musical Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances
December 31 – 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Israeli troops drive the Egyptians from Negev
January 1
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) inaugurated.
Railways of Britain are nationalized to form British Railways.
The Constitution of the Italian Republic goes into effect.
The latest New Jersey State Constitution goes into effect.
January 4 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu its first Prime Minister.
January 5 – Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
January 12 – Mahatma Gandhi begins his fast-unto-death in Delhi to stop communal violence during the Partition of India.
January 17 – A truce is declared between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops in Java.
January 22 – British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin proposes the formation of a Western Union between Britain, France and the Benelux countries to stand up against the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Brussels is signed March 17 as a consequence, a predecessor to NATO.
January 26 – Teigin poison case: a man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 of 16 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced to death for the crime, but is never executed.
January 29 – Plane crash at Los Gatos Creek, near Coalinga, California, kills four US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a protest song ("Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)") by Woody Guthrie.
January 30
Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is shot by Nathuram Godse in New Delhi. Also on this day Orville Wright of the pioneering aviators the Wright Brothers dies in Dayton, Ohio.
1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
January 31 – The British crown colony of the Malayan Union, Penang and Malacca form the Federation of Malaya.[1]
February
February 1
The Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.
The proclamation of Federation of Malaya
February 4 – Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) becomes an independent kingdom within the British Commonwealth.
February 16 – Miranda, the innermost moon of Uranus, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper.[2]
February 18 – Éamon de Valera, Irish head of government since 1932, loses power to an opposition coalition. John A. Costello is appointed Taoiseach by President Seán O'Kelly.
February 19 – The Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence convenes in Calcutta.
February 21 – The stock car racing organization NASCAR is founded by Bill France, Sr.
February 25 – The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia, a day celebrated by that regime as "Victorious February" (Czech: Vítězný únor; Slovak: Víťazný Február) until November 1989.
February 28 – Riots take place in Accra, capital of the British colony of Gold Coast, when a peaceful protest march by ex-servicemen was broken up by police, leaving several members of the group dead, among them Sergeant Adjetey, one of the leaders.
March
March 8 – McCollum v. Board of Education: The United States Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violates the U.S. Constitution.
March 12 – The Costa Rican Civil War begins.
March 16 – The largest flood in the history of Brampton, Ontario, occurs.[3]
March 17
Treaty of Brussels signed by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, providing for economic, social and cultural collaboration and collective self-defence.
The Hells Angels motorcycle gang is founded in California.
March 18 – The Round Table Conference in The Hague, Netherlands for the preparation of the decolonization process for Aruba and the other Dutch Colonies. Aruba presents the mandate of the Aruban People for Aruba to become an Independent Country, under the souvereignty of the House of Orange, based on Aruba's first state constitution presented officially since August 1947, and a (4th) Member State of the future Dutch Commonwealth.
March 20
Singapore holds its first elections.
Renowned Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini makes his television debut, conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in an all-Wagner program.
The 20th Academy Awards ceremony is held. Gentleman's Agreement wins the Academy Award for Best Picture.
April
April 1 – Physicists Ralph Asher Alpher and George Gamow publish the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper about the Big Bang.[4]
April 3
President of the United States Harry S. Truman signs the Marshall Plan, which authorizes $5 billion in aid for 16 countries.
Jeju Uprising - residents revolt on Jeju island, South Korea, eventually leading to the deaths of between 14,000 and 30,000.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is played on television in its entirety for the first time in a series of concerts featuring Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in the United States. The chorus is conducted by Robert Shaw.
April 5 – 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine: Haganah launches Operation Nachshon; beginning of the 1948 Palestinian exodus.
April 7
The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.
A fire in a Buddhist monastery in Shanghai kills 20 monks.
April 9
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's assassination provokes a violent riot in Bogotá (the Bogotazo), and a further 10 years of violence (La Violencia) across Colombia.
The Deir Yassin massacre takes place in British Mandatory Palestine.
April 13 – The Hadassah medical convoy massacre takes place in British Mandatory Palestine.
April 16 – The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is founded as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).
April 18 – Italian general election, 1948:: The first democratic general election with universal suffrage is held in Italy. The Christian Democracy party achieves a majority over the Popular Democratic Front Communist-Socialist coalition.
April 19 – Burma joins the United Nations.
April 24 – The Costa Rican Civil War ends.
April 30 – Organization of American States (OAS) founded.
April 30 – The English-built Land Rover is unveiled at the Amsterdam Motor Show.
May
May – The RAND Corporation is established as an independent nonprofit policy research and analysis institution.
May 4 – Laurence Olivier's film version of Hamlet makes its world premiere in London.
May 11 – Luigi Einaudi becomes President of the Italian Republic.
Israeli Declaration of Independence, 1948
May 14 – The Israeli Declaration of Independence is made.
May 15
1948 Arab–Israeli War: The British Mandate of Palestine is officially terminated; expeditionary forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria and Iraq invade Israel and clash with Israeli forces.
The murder of a 3-year-old girl in Blackburn, England leads to the fingerprinting of more than 40,000 men in the city in an attempt to find the murderer.[5]
May 16 – Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel.
May 18 – The first Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking.
May 22 – The Soviets launched the largest Lithuanian deportation to Siberia.
May 25 – The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) was founded on this date at Ellinwood Malate Church in Manila, Philippines.
May 26 – The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557, which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as the auxiliary of the United States Air Force.
May 28 – Daniel François Malan defeats Jan Smuts and becomes Prime Minister of South Africa, ushering in the era of apartheid, which is finally dismantled by F. W. de Klerk in 1994.
May 30 – A dike along the Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon within minutes; 15 people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.
June
June 3 – The Palomar Observatory telescope is finished in California.
June 10 – Hasan Saka forms the new government of Turkey. (17th government; Hasan Saka had served twice as a prime minister)
June 11 – The first monkey astronaut, Albert I, is launched into space from White Sands, New Mexico.
June 16
Communist guerrillas kill 3 rubber planters in Malaya.
Three armed men hijack the Cathay Pacific passenger plane Miss Macao and shoot the pilot; the plane crashes, killing 26 of 27 people on board.
June 17 – A Douglas DC-6 carrying United Airlines Flight 624 crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing all 43 people on board.
June 18
Malayan Emergency: A state of emergency is declared in the Malayan Union due to a communist insurgency.
LP record – Columbia Records introduced its long playing 33 1/3 rpm phonograph format.
June 20 – The U.S. Congress recesses for the remainder of 1948, after an overtime session closes at 7:00 a.m. D.C. time (to be shortly interrupted by Truman's recall from Congressional recess for July 20, 1948).
June 21 – The Deutsche Mark becomes official currency of the future Federal Republic of Germany.
June 22 – The ship MV Empire Windrush brings a large group of Afro-Caribbean immigrants to Tilbury near London, the start of a large wave of immigration to Britain.
Airplane C-54 at airport Berlin-Tempelhof.
June 24
Cold War: The Berlin Blockade begins.
The first World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization is held in Geneva.
June 26 – William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
June 28
The Cominform Resolution marks the beginning of the Informbiro period in Yugoslavia and the Soviet/Yugoslav split.
David Lean's Oliver Twist, based on Charles Dickens's famous novel, premieres in the UK. It is banned for 3 years in the U.S. because of alleged anti-Semitism in depicting master criminal Fagin, played by Alec Guinness.
1948 Fukui earthquake strikes Fukui, Japan. 3,769 dead, 22,203 injured.
July
July 5 – The National Health Service Acts are enacted in United Kingdom.
July 6 – The world's first Air Car-ferry service is flown by a Bristol Freighter of Silver City Airways from Lympne to Le Touquet.
July 13 – The Coptic and Ethiopian Churches reach an agreement leading to the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalous Patriarchate. Five bishops are immediately consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria, and the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV is granted the power to consecrate new bishops, who are empowered to elect a new Patriarch for their church.
July 15
Attempted assassination of Palmiro Togliatti, general secretary of the Italian Communist Party results in numerous strikes all over the country.
First London chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous is founded.
July 20 – Cold War:
President Harry S. Truman issues the second peacetime military draft in the United States, amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union (the first peacetime draft occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt)
Eugene Dennis, William Z. Foster, and ten other CPUSA leaders are arrested and charged under the Alien Registration Act
July 22 – The Dominion of Newfoundland votes to join Canada after a referendum.
July 24 – A great oil fire breaks out in the harbor of Naantali, Finland.
July 26 – U.S. President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, ending racial segregation in the United States Armed Forces.
July 28 – Around 200 die in explosion at a chemical plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
July 29 – The 1948 Summer Olympics begin in London, the first since the 1936 Summer Olympics
July 31 –
At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated
Elizabeth Bentley appears under subpoena before HUAC regarding Communist espionage; implicates Whittaker Chambers
August
August 1 – The U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations is founded.
August 3 – Whittaker Chambers appears under subpoena before HUAC and alleges that several former U.S. Federal official were communists, including Harry Dexter White and Alger Hiss
August 5 – Alger Hiss appears before HUAC to deny the allegations of Whittaker Chambers
August 10 – August 23 – The Herrenchiemsee Convent prepares the draft for the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany
August 13 – Harry Dexter White and Donald Hiss refute allegations of Communism by Whittaker Chambers before HUAC
August 14 – 1948 Ashes series: The Australian batsman Don Bradman, playing his last Test cricket match, against England at The Oval, is bowled by Eric Hollies for a duck; however, "The Invincibles" win the match by an innings and 149 runs, and The Ashes 4-0.
August 15 – The southern half of Korea is established as South Korea.
August 16 – Babe Ruth dies in his sleep at the age of 53.
August 17 – HUAC holds a private session between Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers
August 18 – Danube Commission created by Belgrade Convention (enters into force 11 May 1949).
August 20 – Lee Pressman, Nathan Witt, and John Abt, represented by Harold I. Cammer, plead the Fifth Amendment in response to allegations of Communism by Whittaker Chambers before HUAC
August 23 – The World Council of Churches is established.
August 24 – The first meeting of the charter members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) is held.[6]
August 25 – HUAC holds its first-ever televised congressional hearing, featuring "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss
August 27 – Whittaker Chambers states that Alger Hiss was a communist on Meet the Press radio
September
September 4 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands abdicates for health reasons.
September 5 – Robert Schuman becomes Prime Minister of France.
September 6 – Juliana becomes Queen of the Netherlands.
September 9 – The northern half of Korea is formally declared North Korea, with Kim Il-sung as prime minister.
September 11 – Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, founder and first Governor-General of Pakistan, dies. Pakistan is in a state of shock as it mourns the departure of the father of the nation. The day is a public holiday nation-wide.
September 12 – The State of Hyderabad is invaded by the Indian Army on the day after Pakistani leader Jinnah's death, to assist damage control. Operation Polo leads to the independence of Hyderabad state and its amalgamation into the Indian union.
September 17 – Lehi members assassinate Swedish count Folke Bernadotte.
September 20 – Establishment of the city Rabwah
September 27 – Alger Hiss files a slander suit against Whittaker Chambers for his August 27 radio statement
September 29 – Laurence Olivier's Hamlet opens in the United States.
October
October 6 – The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake kills 110,000.
October 10 – R-1 missile on test becomes the first Soviet launch to enter space.
October 11 – The Cleveland Indians defeat the Boston Braves to win the World Series, 4 games to 2.
October 16 – The 57th Street Art Fair, the oldest juried art fair in the American Midwest, is founded.
October 26 – Killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania.
October 28 – The massacre of Dawaymeh begins.
November
November 1 – Foley Square trial of Eugene Dennis and ten other CPUSA leaders begins in New York City
November 2 – United States presidential election, 1948: Democratic incumbent Harry S. Truman defeats Republican Thomas E. Dewey and "Dixiecrat" Strom Thurmond.
November 12 – In Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials to death, including General Hideki Tojo, for their roles in World War II.
November 15 – Louis Stephen St. Laurent becomes Canada's 12th prime minister.
November 16
Operation Magic Carpet to transport Jews from Yemen to Israel begins.
The University of the Andes (Universidad de los Andes) is founded in Bogotá, Colombia.
November 17 –
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi divorces his second wife, the former Princess Fawzia of Egypt.
Whittaker Chambers produces secret government papers handwritten and typewritten by Alger Hiss during pretrial examination.
November 20 – Geoffrey B. Orbell rediscovers the Takahē, last seen 50 years previously, near Lake Te Anau, New Zealand.
November 24 – In Venezuela, president Rómulo Gallegos is ousted by a military junta.
November 27 – The Calgary Stampeders defeat the Ottawa Rough Riders 12–7 before 20,013 fans at Toronto's Varsity Stadium to capture their first Grey Cup and complete the only perfect season to date in Canadian Football.
December
December 1 – José Figueres Ferrer abolishes the army in Costa Rica, making it the first country in history to do so
December 2 – HUAC subpoenas and retrieves the "Pumpkin Papers" from the farm of Whittaker Chambers
December 6 – Richard Nixon parades microfilm from the "Pumpkin Papers" to the press
December 10 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
December 11–12 – Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali massacre: Scots Guards shoot 24 Chinese villagers in Malaya
December 15 – The United States Department of Justice indicts Alger Hiss on two counts of perjury
December 20 – Laurence Duggan falls to his death from the 16th storey window of his Manhattan office
December 26 – The last Soviet troops withdraw from North Korea
December 28 – A Muslim Brotherhood member assassinates Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Fahmi Nokrashi
December 30 – The musical Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances
December 31 – 1948 Arab-Israeli War: Israeli troops drive the Egyptians from Negev