Top News Stories from 1947
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade Nobel Peace Prize: American Friends Service Committee (US) and British Society of Friends' Service Council (UK)
More World Statistics... - Britain nationalizes coal mines (Jan. 1).
- Peace treaties for Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland signed in Paris (Feb. 10).
- Soviet Union rejects US plan for UN atomic-energy control (March 4).
- Marshall Plan proposed to help European nations recover economically from World War II (June).
- India and Pakistan gain independence from Britain (Aug. 15).
- The Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered at Qumran.
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President: Harry S Truman
Vice President: none
Population: 144,126,071
Life expectancy: 66.8 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 6.1
More U.S. Statistics... - Hollywood "Black List" created by HUAC.
- Truman Doctrine proposes "containment" of communist expansion (March 12).
- Taft-Hartley Act passed. Background: Labor Unions.
- Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $244.6 billion
Federal spending: $34.50 billion
Federal debt $257.1 billion
Consumer Price Index: $22.3
Unemployment: 3.9%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. Brooklyn Dodgers (4-3)NBA Championship
Philadelphia Warriors d. Chicago StagsStanley Cup
Toronto d. MontrealWimbledon
Women: Margaret Osborne d. D. Hart (6-2 6-4)Men: Jack Kramer d. T. Brown (6-1 6-3 6-2)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Jet PilotNCAA Basketball Championship
Holy Cross d. OklahomaNCAA Football Champions
Notre Dame (9-0-0)Entertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes Fiction:
All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren
Music: Symphony No. 3, Charles Ives
Academy Award, Best Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives (Goldwyn; RKO Radio)
Nobel Prize for Literature: André Gide (France)
Miss America: Barbara Walker (TN)
More Entertainment Awards... Events
- The Yankees beat the Dodgers in seven games in the first televised World Series.
- Meet the Press debuts on NBC. The first news show will become television's longest-running program.
- Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire opens at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre, with Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski and Jessica Tandy as Blanche DuBois. The play wins the 1948 Pulitzer Prize.
Movies
- Gentleman's Agreement, Miracle on 34th Street, Great Expectations, The Bishop's Wife
Music
- Doris Day, "Confess"
- Al Jolson, Al Jolson Album
- "Woody Woodpecker"
- "A Fellow Needs A Girl"
- Frankie Lane, "That's My Desire"
- Glenn Miller, "Glenn Miller Masterpieces—Vol. 2"
Books
- Saul Bellow, The Victim
- Gerald Warner Brace, The Garretson Chronicle
- Martin Flavin, The Enchanted
- Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
- Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
- Thomas Mann, Dr. Faustus
- Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Sir Robert Robinson (UK), for research in plant substances
Physics: Sir Edward Appleton (UK), for discovery of layer that reflects radio short waves in the ionosphere
Physiology or Medicine: Carl F. and Gerty T. Cori (US), for work on animal starch metabolism; Bernardo A. Houssay (Argentina), for study of pituitary
More Nobel Prizes in 1998... - The carbon-14 method of radiocarbon dating is developed by Willard F. Libby (US).
- The microwave oven is invented by Percy Spencer (US).
- John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William B. Shockley (US) develop the transistor. Background: Computers and Internet
- Captain Chuck Yeager, USAF, breaks the sound barrier in the the X-1 rocket-powered research plane at Muroc Air Force Base, California (Oct. 14). Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
- Thor Heyerdahl crosses the Pacific in the Kon-Tiki.
