istoryworld
All Events
US architect Philip Johnson builds the Glass House in Connecticut in the International Style
Exceptional Scythian remains are found in frozen burial mounds at Pazyryk, in the Altai region of Siberia
Radical young members, including Nelson Mandela, take control of the ANC
Ealing Studios produce a film of Compton Mackenzie's 1947 novel Whisky Galore, about an alcoholic windfall on the island of Barra
The first Soviet atomic bomb, called by the Americans Joe One, is successfully tested in Kazakhstan
Karl von Frisch demonstrates that bees make use of the polarized light of the sun to calculate direction
Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munchin star as three US sailors on shore leave in the screen version of On the Town
The Christian Democrats win the first elections in Germany since 1933, and Konrad Adenauer becomes chancellor of West Germany
French author Simone de Beauvoir publishes The Second Sex, a widely influential feminist polemic
Bertolt Brecht establishes a new theatrical company, the Berliner Ensemble, in East Germany
Carol Reed directs The Third Man, starring Orson Welles and written by Graham Greene
Enid Blyton introduces her most successful character, Noddy, a small boy who can't avoid nodding when he speaks
French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss publishes Elementary Structures of Kinship
British atomic physicist Klaus Fuchs is discovered to be a Soviet agent, passing nuclear secrets to the USSR
The world's first commercial jet airliner, the Comet, designed by de Havilland, goes into service with BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation)
Eire is renamed the republic of Ireland and withdraws from the Commonwealth, severing the last link with the British crown
Mao Zedong, standing on the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing, proclaims the new People's Republic of China
Mao Zedong's long-standing ally Zhou Enlai heads both the home and foreign departments of the new republic
The British government declares that northern Ireland will remain British unless the parliament in Stormont decides otherwise
The technique of radiocarbon dating is developed by US chemist Willard Libby
Robert Menzies returns as Australia's prime minister, and remains in the post for an unbroken sixteen years
Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) sets up a new Republic of China in Taiwan, vowing to recapture the rest of the nation in due course
The Dutch concede independence for Indonesia with Achmed Sukarno as president
Batavia reverts to its original name of Jakarta and becomes the capital of Indonesia
George Orwell publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four, a novel set in a terrifying totalitarian state of the future, watched over by Big Brother
