istoryworld
All Events
Wernher von Braun and his team of scientists are taken to the USA to develop the German V-2 rocket into an intercontinental ballistic missile
Vichy leader Pierre Laval, sentenced in a French court as a collaborator, is executed
Vidkun Quisling, Fascist president of occupied Norway from 1942, is tried and executed for treason
Fifty-one states agree the Charter of the United Nations, thus establishing the UN
Twenty-two German defendants are put on trial in Nuremberg, charged with war crimes
Evelyn Waugh publishes Brideshead Revisited, a novel about a rich Catholic family in England between the wars
In George Orwell's fable Animal Farm a ruthless pig, Napoleon, controls the farmyard using the techniques of Stalin
Richard Wright publishes Black Boy, an account of his early life in Mississippi and then Chicago
All Saints is used variously for worship by the Anglican and the Greek Orthodox Church, and as a recording studio
Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum announce their discovery of bacterial conjunction, meaning that in effect bacteria mate and transfer genes
Sergei Eisenstein completes Part 2 of his intended epic film trilogy Ivan the Terrible
Sadler's Wells Ballet moves to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden (and is known from 1956 as the Royal Ballet)
Perón, with the orchestrated support of gangs of thugs, is elected president of Argentina
The takeover of the Bank of England launches an extensive programme of nationalization by the Attlee government
Eudora Welty sets her novel Delta Wedding in a contemporary southern plantation
Howard Hawks directs Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep
Syria becomes fully independent with the withdrawal of French forces
Aung San's party, the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, wins a landslide victory in the Burmese election
Frederick Ashton choreographs Symphonic Variations, to music by César Franck
David Lean directs Trevor Howard and and Celia Johnson in Noel Coward's Brief Encounter
Sonatine, for flute and piano, brings early success to French composer Pierre Boulez
The Communists become the largest party in Czechoslovakia, winning 38% of the vote in a free election
A new style of American painting, involving artists such as Arshile Gorky and Jackson Pollock, is given the name Abstract Expressionism
US pediatrician Benjamin Spock recommends a permissive approach in his Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, set in a down-and-out bar of the kind he had known in his youth, is performed in New York
