| 1947-05-01
Portella della Ginestra massacre against May Day celebrations in Sicily by the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano; 11 persons were killed and 33 wounded.
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| 1947-01-09
Elizabeth "Betty" Short, the Black Dahlia, is last seen alive.
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| 1947-12-02
Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Riots break out in Jerusalem in response to the approval of the 1947 UN Partition Plan.
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| 1947-11-17
American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th Century.
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| 1947-01-03
Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
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| 1947-09-30
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Yemen join the United Nations.
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| 1947-11-29
The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine (The Partition Plan).
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| 1947-03-01
The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations.
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| 1947-08-04
The Supreme Court of Japan is established.
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| 1947-12-14
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.
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| 1947-06-24
Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.
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| 1947-10-20
United States of America and Pakistan establish diplomatic relations for the first time.
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| 1947-02-25
State of Prussia ceases to exist.
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| 1947-09-18
The United States Air Force becomes an independent branch of the United States armed forces.
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| 1947-11-18
The Ballantyne's Department Store fire in Christchurch, New Zealand, kills 41 (New Zealand's worst ever fire).
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| 1947-07-11
The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France.
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| 1947-09-30
The World Series, featuring the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, is televised for the first time.
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| 1947-09-16
Typhoon Kathleen hit Saitama, Tokyo and Tone River area, at least 1,930 killed.
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| 1947-04-16
Texas City Disaster: An explosion on board a freighter in port causes the city of Texas City, Texas, to catch fire, killing almost 600.
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| 1947-12-30
King Michael of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet-backed Communist government of Romania.
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| 1947-10-14
Captain Chuck Yeager of the U.S. Air Force flies a Bell X-1 rocket-powered experimental aircraft, the Glamorous Glennis, faster than the speed of sound - over the high desert of Southern California - and becomes the first pilot and the first airplane to do so in level flight.
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| 1947-08-17
The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed.
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| 1947-08-15
India gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes an independent nation within the Commonwealth.
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| 1947-10-26
The Maharaja of Kashmir agrees to allow his kingdom to join India.
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| 1947-11-17
The U.S. Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
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| 1947-07-20
The Viceroy of India says the people of the North-West Frontier Province overwhelmingly voted the previous day to join Pakistan rather than India.
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| 1947-02-10
Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia.
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| 1947-07-10
Muhammad Ali Jinnah is recommended as the first Governor-General of Pakistan by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
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| 1947-03-25
An explosion in a coal mine in Centralia, Illinois kills 111.
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| 1947-12-17
First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.
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| 1947-09-17
James V. Forrestal is sworn in as the first Secretary of Defense of United States.
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| 1947-01-01
The American and British occupation zones in Germany, after the World War II, merge to form the Bizone, that later became the Federal Republic of Germany.
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| 1947-12-06
The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated.
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| 1947-06-10
Saab produces its first automobile.
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| 1947-08-15
Founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah is sworn in as first Governor General of Pakistan at Karachi.
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| 1947-07-08
Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.
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| 1947-05-03
New post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
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| 1947-11-20
The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey in London.
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| 1947-04-16
Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
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| 1947-07-06
The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.
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| 1947-09-15
RCA releases the 12AX7 vacuum tube.
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| 1947-10-05
The first televised White House address is given by U.S. President Harry S. Truman.
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| 1947-11-13
Russia completes development of the AK-47, one of the first proper assault rifles
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| 1947-02-16
Canadians are granted Canadian citizenship after 80 years of being British subjects. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes the first Canadian citizen.
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| 1947-07-20
Police in Burma arrest former Prime Minister U Saw and 19 others on charges of assassinating Prime Minister U Aung San and seven members of his cabinet.
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| 1947-08-08
Pakistan's National Flag is approved.
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| 1947-03-12
The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
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| 1947-10-20
The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
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| 1947-04-15
Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
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| 1947-02-21
In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
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| 1947-01-15
The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short ("The Black Dahlia") is found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California.
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| 1947-04-09
The Glazier-Higgins-Woodward tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
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| 1947-11-06
Meet the Press makes its television debut (the show went to a weekly schedule on September 12, 1948).
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| 1947-12-25
The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.
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| 1947-06-05
Marshall Plan: In a speech at Harvard University, United States Secretary of State George Marshall calls for economic aid to war-torn Europe.
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| 1947-03-17
First flight of the B-45 Tornado strategic bomber.
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| 1947-04-28
Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
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| 1947-08-07
Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
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| 1947-02-17
The Voice of America begins transmitting radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union.
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| 1947-07-05
Larry Doby signs a contract with the Cleveland Indians baseball team, becoming the first black player in the American League. (Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the National League 11 weeks earlier.)
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| 1947-08-14
India and Pakistan gain Independence from the British Indian Empire under the administration of United Kingdom and joins the British Commonwealth.
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| 1947-10-30
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which is the foundation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), is founded.
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| 1947-04-09
The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel.
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| 1947-09-24
The Majestic 12 committee is allegedly established by secret executive order of President Harry Truman
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| 1947-04-30
In Nevada, the Boulder Dam is renamed Hoover Dam a second time.
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| 1947-11-09
Junagadh is annexed as to Indian military intervention.
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| 1947-07-09
The engagement of Britain's Princess Elizabeth to Lt. Philip Mountbatten is announced.
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| 1947-04-06
The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievement.
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| 1947-01-22
KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood, California.
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| 1947-02-03
The lowest temperature in North America is recorded in Snag, Yukon.
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| 1947-11-02
In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.
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| 1947-07-19
The Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and 6 of his cabinet and 2 non-cabinet members are assassinated by Galon U Saw.
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| 1947-02-28
228 Incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of 30,000 civilian lives.
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| 1947-11-25
Red Scare: The "Hollywood Ten" are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios.
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| 1947-06-23
The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.
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| 1947-07-01
The Philippine Air Force is established.
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| 1947-05-22
Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.
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| 1947-10-01
The F-86 Sabre flies for the first time.
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| 1947-08-07
The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
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| 1947-07-04
The "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before British House of Commons, suggesting bifurcation of British India into two sovereign countries – India and Pakistan.
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| 1947-12-23
The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.
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| 1947-11-25
New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.
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| 1947-10-24
Walt Disney testifies to the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists.
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| 1947-09-15
Typhoon Kathleen hit the Kanto Region in Japan killing 1,077.
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| 1947-12-16
William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
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| 1947-02-23
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.
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| 1947-07-26
Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
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| 1947-12-22
The Constituent Assembly of Italy approves the Constitution of Italy.
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| 1947-06-25
The Diary of a Young Girl (better known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is published.
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