1948

1948 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar	1948; MCMXLVIII
Ab urbe condita	2701
Armenian calendar	1397; ԹՎ ՌՅՂԷ
Assyrian calendar	6698
Bahá'í calendar	104–105
Balinese saka calendar	1869–1870
Bengali calendar	1355
Berber calendar	2898
British Regnal year	12 Geo. 6 – 13 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2492
Burmese calendar	1310
Byzantine calendar	7456–7457
Chinese calendar	丁亥年 (Fire Pig); 4644 or 4584; — to —; 戊子年 (Earth Rat); 4645 or 4585
Coptic calendar	1664–1665
Discordian calendar	3114
Ethiopian calendar	1940–1941
Hebrew calendar	5708–5709
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2004–2005
- Shaka Samvat	1869–1870
- Kali Yuga	5048–5049
Holocene calendar	11948
Igbo calendar	948–949
Iranian calendar	1326–1327
Islamic calendar	1367–1368
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 23; (昭和２３年)
Javanese calendar	1879–1880
Juche calendar	37
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4281
Minguo calendar	ROC 37; 民國37年
Nanakshahi calendar	480
Thai solar calendar	2491
Tibetan calendar	阴火猪年; (female Fire-Pig); 2074 or 1693 or 921; — to —; 阳土鼠年; (male Earth-Rat); 2075 or 1694 or 922

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1910s 1920s 1930s – 1940s – 1950s 1960s 1970s
Years:	1945 1946 1947 – 1948 – 1949 1950 1951

1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1948th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 948th year of the 2nd millennium, the 48th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1940s decade.

Events

January 1 – Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways. Arab militants lay siege to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. First day of the Italian republican constitution.
January 4 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
January 5 – Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
January 17 – Truce between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops in Java
January 26 – Teigin poison case – Man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 out of 15 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced for the crime.
January 30 – Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is murdered by a Hindu extremist.
January 30 – 1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
February 1 – Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.
February 4 – Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth. King George VI becomes King of Ceylon.
February 18 – Éamon de Valera, head of government since 1932, loses power to an opposition coalition. John A. Costello is appointed Taoiseach of Éire (formerly called the Irish Free State) by President O'Kelly.
February 24 – The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia.
Works begins on the Crazy Horse Memorial.
May 13 – First Kashmir War between India and Pakistan
April-May – Israel's independence day.

Births

January 9 - Asztalos Lajos, Hungarian politician and priest
January 14 – Carl Weathers, actor
January 14 – T-Bone Burnett, producer, musician
January 16 – John Carpenter, director
January 24 – Elliot Abrams, deputy national security adviser
February 5 – Barbara Hershey, actress
February 19 - Tony Iommi, English guitarist (Black Sabbath)
February 20 – Jennifer O'Neill, actress
March 6 - Stephen Schwartz, American lyricist
March 12 - James Taylor, American folk guitarist
March 22 – Andrew Lloyd Webber
March 26 - Fodor Cseh, Hungarian politician and Shepherds
March 26 - Steven Tyler, American singer (Aerosmith)
May 5 - Bill Ward, English drummer (Black Sabbath)
May 12 – Ivan Kral, Czech-American musician
May 13 – Leon Coetzee, loverboy and attorney
May 26 - Stevie Nicks, American singer (Fleetwood Mac)
May 31 - John Bonham, English drummer (Led Zeppelin) (d. 1980)
June 22 – Todd Rundgren, singer, songwriter, producer
July 4 - Jeremy Spencer, English guitarist (Fleetwood Mac)
July 8 - Raffi, Canadian children’s musician
July 21 - Cat Stevens, English folk musician
July 23 - John Hall, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans)
July 30 – Jean Reno, actor
August 5 - David Hungate, American bass guitarist (Toto)
August 6 - Alan Howarth, American sound designer
August 20 - Robert Plant, English singer (Led Zeppelin)
August 30 – Victor Skumin, professor, philosopher, writer.
September 20 - Chuck Panozzo, American bass guitarist (Styx)
September 20 - John Panozzo, American drummer (Styx) (d. 1996)
September 26 - Olivia Newton-John, Australian entertainer (d. 2022)
September 29 – Theo Jörgensmann, German jazz clarinet player
October 9 – Jackson Browne, songwriter
October 17 – Margot Kidder, Canadian actress
October 25 – Diana Burrell, English composer
November 6 - Glenn Frey, American singer-songwriter and musician (Eagles) (d. 2016)
November 14 - King Charles III, British monarch
November 28 – Agnieszka Holland, Polish director and script writer
December 3 – Ozzy Osbourne, singer/songwriter (Black Sabbath)
December 10 - Abu Abbas, terrorist
December 22 - Rick Nielsen, American guitarist (Cheap Trick)
December 27 – Gérard Depardieu, French actor

Deaths

January 21 – Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer
January 30 – Mohandas Gandhi, Leader of Indian Non-Violent Independence movement (assassinated)
January 30 – Orville Wright of the Wright brothers, co-inventor of the airplane
February 2 – Bevil Rudd, South African athlete
February 11 – Sergey Eisenstein, movie director
March 6 – Ross Lockridge, Jr., novelist
March 10 – Zelda Fitzgerald (Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald)
March 10 – Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia
March 31 – Egon Erwin Kisch, journalist and writer
April 9 – Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (b. 1903)
April 17 – Suzuki Kantaro, Japanese admiral and prime minister
May 15 – Father Edward J. Flanagan, priest, founder of Boys Town
May 28 – Unity Mitford, British friend of Hitler
June 25 – William C. Lee, Maj, General United States Army (b. 1895)
July 23 – David Wark Griffith, movie director
August 12 – Harry Brearley, inventor of stainless steel
August 16 – Babe Ruth, Baseball Hall of Famer
September 11 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah, first Governor-General and founder of Pakistan.
October 24 – Franz Lehár, composer
November 28 – D.D. Sheehan first independent Labour MP. in Ireland
December 23 – Kenji Doihara, Koki Hirota, Seishiro Itagaki, Heitarō Kimura, Iwane Matsui, Akira Mutō, and Hideki Tōjō, Japanese war leaders (hanged)
December 31 – Sir Malcolm Campbell, land and water racer (b. 1885)

Movies Released

New Books

Ape and Essence – Aldous Huxley
Catalina – W. Somerset Maugham
Concluding – Henry Green
Cry, the Beloved Country – Alan Paton
The Foundling – Georgette Heyer
The Golden Warrior – Hope Muntz
Guard of Honor – James Gould Cozzens
The Heart of the Matter – Graham Greene
The Hearth and the Eagle – Anya Seton
The House of Sleep – Anna Kavan
Ides of March – Thornton Wilder
John Aubrey and His Friends – Anthony Powell
Joseph and His Brothers – Thomas Mann
Last Of The Conquerors – William Gardner Smith
The Living Is Easy – Dorothy West
The Mask of Circe – C. L. Moore
Melissa (novel) – Taylor Caldwell
My Glorious Brothers – Howard Fast
The Naked and the Dead – Norman Mailer
Parris Mitchell of King's Row – Henry Bellamann
Raintree County – Ross Lockridge, Jr.
Seraph On The Sewanee – Zora Neale Hurston
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose – Dr. Seuss
The Twenty-One Balloons – William Pène du Bois
The White Goddess – Robert Graves
The World is Not Enough – Zoe B. Oldenbourg
The Young Lions – Irwin Shaw

Hit Songs

"Buttons and Bows" – Dinah Shore
"Confess" – Doris Day & Buddy Clark
"Confess" – Patti Page (the first multi-tracked song)
"Deck Of Cards" – Phil Harris
"Don't Have To Tell Nobody" – Frankie Laine
"Gloria" – The Mills Brothers
"I Love You So Much (It Hurts Me)" – The Mills Brothers
"I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" – Frankie Laine
"I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" – Art Mooney
"I'm My Own Grandpa" – Guy Lombardo & The Guy Lombardo Trio
"Is It True What They Say About Dixie" – Al Jolson & The Mills Brothers
"It's Magic" – Doris Day
"Little White Lies" – Dick Haymes & The Four Hits And A Miss
"Love Somebody" – Doris Day & Buddy Clark
"Mañana" – Peggy Lee
"Monday Again" – Frankie Laine
"My Happiness" – The Pied Pipers
"My Happiness" – Jon and Sondra Steele
"Nature Boy" – Nat King Cole
"Nature Boy" – Sarah Vaughan
"On A Slow Boat To China" – Kay Kyser, Harry Babbitt & Gloria Wood
"Red River Valley" – Jo Stafford
"Red Roses For A Blue Lady" – Vaughn Monroe
"Rosetta" – Frankie Laine
"So Tired" – Russ Morgan
"Someday You'll Want Me To Want You" – Vaughn Monroe
"The Things We Did Last Summer" – Georgia Gibbs
"A Tree In the Meadow" – Margaret Whiting
"Twelfth Street Rag" – Pee Wee Hunt
"Underneath the Arches" – Andrews Sisters
"What Could Be Sweeter" – Frankie Laine
"Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams" – Georgia Gibbs
"Woody Woodpecker" – Kay Kyser
"You Call Everybody Darlin'" – Al Trace
"You Can't Be True, Dear" – Ken Griffin