1949

Years: 1946 1947 1948 - 1949 - 1950 1951 1952
Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1949 in art 1949 in aviation 1949 in film 1949 in literature 1949 in music 1949 in radio 1949 in science 1949 in sports 1949 in television 1949 state leaders 1949 in Canada

Events

January 4 - RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage
January 4 - February 22 - Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada - winds of up to 72 mph - tens of thousands ofd cattle and sheep perish
January 5 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
January 11 - Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.
January 25 - The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
January 25 - In the first Israeli election, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.
January 26 - Australian Citizenship comes into being.
February 8 - Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary is sentenced to life imprisonment for treason against the Hungarian Communist government.
February 1 - Rationing of clothes ends in Britain
February 12 - The Vatican announces the excommunication of all persons involved in the trial and conviction of Cardinal Mindszenty.
February 14 - The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first convenes.
February 14 - Antonio Carmona re-elected president of Portugal for lack of opposing candidate
February 19 - Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.

March 1 - World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis announces his retirement from boxing.
March 1 - Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch
March 1-2 - US Air Force crew under Captain James Gallagher completes the first round-the-world non-stop flight in a plane Lucky Lady II; it was refueled in flight four times
March 2 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II lands in Fort Worth, Texas after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight.
March 3 - The Tucker automobile Corporation folds.
April 23 - Chinese communist troops take Nanking
March 28 - United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.
April 1 - Newfoundland joins Canada.
April 1 - Southern Ireland leaves the Commonwealth and becomes the Republic of Ireland
April 4 - NATO is formed.
April 18 - Eire formally became the Republic of Ireland.

May 5 - The Council of Europe is founded by the signing of the Treaty of London.
May 9 - Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco.
May 11 - Israel is admitted to the U.N. as its 59th member.
May 11 - Siam changes its name to Thailand.
May 11 - Israel joins United Nations
May 12 - Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
May 20 - The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.
May 22 - After two months in Bethesda Naval Hospital, James Forrestal commits suicide, under circumstances that seem suspicious to many.
May 23 - The Federal Republic of Germany is established.
June - EDSAC, the first stored-program computer, begins operation at Cambridge University.
June 2 - Transjordan becomes kingdom of Jordan
June 6 - With the passage of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act by the Indian government, Mahabodhi Temple is restored to partial Buddhist control.
June 8 - Red Scare: Such celebrities as Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.
June 29 - Last US troops withdraw from South Korea
June 29 - Dock strike in the UK
June 29 - Beginning of Apartheid - The South African Citizenship Act suspends the granting of citizenship to British Commonwealth immigrants after five years and imposes a ban on mixed marriages

August 5 - In Ecuador an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 8000
August 8 - Bhutan becomes independent
August 14 - Gang of Salvatore Giuliano explodes mines under police barracks outside Palermo, Sicily
August 14 - Military coup in Syria outs the president
August 28 - Last surviving veterans of the United States Civil War meet in Indiapolis - all six
August 29 - First meeting of the Council of Europe
August 29 - Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.
September 6 - Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to German control.
September 7 - Federal Republic of Germany officially founded. Konrad Adenauer is the first federal chancellor
September 9 - Dynamite bomb destroys Canadian Pacific Airlines Dakota near Quebec
September 13 - Soviet Union vetoes United Nations membership of Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan and Portugal
September 24 - Laszlo Rajik, ex-foreign minister of Hungary, in sentenced to death
September 29 - First Plenary Session of the National People's Congress approves design for the Flag of the People's Republic of China.
September 29 - Mrs. Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" during World War II.

October 1 - Birth of the People's Republic of China.
October 7 - Democratic Republic of Germany DDR established officially
October 13 - Severe flooding in Guatemala
October 16 - Civil war ends in Greece - communist troops surrender
October 17 - Chinese communist troops take Canton
November 26 - The Indian Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution.
December 8 - Nationalist Chinese finis their evacuation to Taiwan
December 14 - Traicho Kostov, ex-vice prime minister of Bulgaria, is sentenced to death
December 15 - Typhon strikes fishing fleet off Korea - several thousand reported dead
December 16 - Sukarno elected president of Republic of Indonesia
December 17 - Burma recognizes [People's Republic of China]]
December 27 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands grants Indonesia sovereignty.
December 30 - India recognizes People's Republic of China

1949 in film
- February 10 - Death of a Salesman opens (Morosco Theatre in New York City).
- All the King's Men
- Twelve O'Clock High
- Sands of Iwo Jima starring John Wayne
1949 in literature
- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
1949 in music
1949 in sports
- March 1 - World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis announces his retirement from boxing.
- A form of drag racing, using a hand-held stop watch for timing, begins on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
- Red Byron won the inaugural NASCAR Championship.
1949 in television
- January 3 - Colgate Theatre premieres on NBC.
- January 11 - A 2 hour special on all networks celebrates the linking of the eastern and midwestern networks via coaxial cable
- January 17 - The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, airs.
- January 31 - The first Emmy Awards are presented and broadcasted on television from Los Angeles
- May - The first telethon, benefitting the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund, is hosted by Milton Berle and lasts for 24 hours
- August 25 - RCA announces the development of a compatible color TV system.
- December 29 - KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.