Also Within This Year in History:
1947
In 1947, both India and Pakistan won independence from Great Britain. America launched the Marshall Plan to help war-torn Europe rebuild, and the U.N. partitioned Palestine, creating the state of Israel. In the U.S., Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball and test pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the X-1 rocket plane. And in Roswell, New Mexico, a mysterious object crashed in the desert, driving speculation about extraterrestrial life.
On February 12, 1947, as Europe continues to recover from the devastation of World War II, French fashion designer Christian Dior launches his first collection: the “New Look.” For some,…
With the words, “Hello! This is New York calling,” the U.S. Voice of America (VOA) begins its first radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union. The VOA effort was an important…
In a dramatic speech to a joint session of Congress, President Harry S. Truman asks for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey to forestall communist domination of the two nations.…
In response to fears and Congressional investigations into communism in the United States, President Harry S. Truman issues an executive decree establishing a sweeping loyalty investigation of federal employees. As…
On April 9, 1947, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sends 16 Black and white activists on a bus ride through the American South to test a recent Supreme Court…
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson, age 28, becomes the first African American player in Major League Baseball’s modern era when he steps onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete…
A giant explosion occurs during the loading of fertilizer onto the freighter Grandcamp at a pier in Texas City, Texas, on April 16, 1947. Nearly 600 people lost their lives…
Multimillionaire and financier Bernard Baruch, in a speech given during the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives, coins the term “Cold War” to describe relations between…
President Harry S. Truman officially opens the first White House bowling alley on April 19, 1947. The two‑lane bowling alley, situated in the West Wing, had been constructed earlier that…
On May 3, 1947, Japan’s postwar constitution goes into effect. The progressive constitution granted universal suffrage, stripped Emperor Hirohito of all but symbolic power, stipulated a bill of rights, abolished…
On May 11, 1947, the B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announces it has developed a tubeless tire, a technological innovation that would make automobiles safer and more efficient. The…
In one of the most significant speeches of the Cold War, Secretary of State George C. Marshall calls on the United States to assist in the economic recovery of postwar…
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, the man who brought organized crime to the West Coast, is shot and killed at his mistress Virginia Hill’s home in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel had been…
State Department official George Kennan, using the pseudonym “Mr. X,” publishes an article entitled “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in the July edition of Foreign Affairs. The article focused on…
Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov walks out of a meeting with representatives of the British and French governments, signaling the Soviet Union’s rejection of the Marshall Plan. Molotov’s action…
On July 18, 1947, President Harry S. Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act. This act revised an older succession act that was passed in 1792 during George Washington’s first term.…
In a ceremony held at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, General Dwight D. Eisenhower appoints Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, making her the first…
President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act, which becomes one of the most important pieces of Cold War legislation. The act established much of the bureaucratic framework for…
On August 7, 1947, Kon‑Tiki, a balsa wood raft captained by Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, completes a 4,300‑mile, 101‑day journey from Peru to Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti.…
The Indian Independence Bill, which carves the independent nations of India and Pakistan out of the former Mogul Empire, comes into force at the stroke of midnight on August 15,…
