Top News Stories from 1946

World Events

• First meeting of United Nations General Assembly opens in London (Jan. 10).
• League of Nations dissolved (April).
• Italy abolishes monarchy (June).
• The Philippines gains independence from the United States (July 4).
• 12 Nazi leaders (including 1 tried in absentia) are sentenced to hang, 7 imprisoned, and 3 acquitted in the Nuremberg trials (Oct. 1). Background: Defining Genocide
• Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech warns of Soviet expansion. Background: The Cold War
• Juan Perón becomes president of Argentina.

U.S. Events

• US Atomic Energy Commission is established.
• Benjamin Spock's childcare classic published.
• Worst work stoppages since 1919, with coal, electrical, and steel industries hit hardest.
• First automatic electronic digital computer, ENIAC, dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania.

Economics

Sports

World Series

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

World Cup

Entertainment

Events

• The Cannes Film Festival debuts in France.
• The Best Years of Our Lives debuts, and is immediately recognized as a classic post-War film that accurately—and poignantly—portrays the readjustment families face when loved ones return from battle. The film won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor.
• Faraway Hill, what many television historians consider to be the first network soap opera, debuts on the DuMont network.
• George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein establish the New York City Ballet. It makes its home at Lincoln Center in 1964.
• Roberto Rossellini's Neorealist ode to the Italian Resistance, Rome, Open City, presents an alternative to Hollywood with its use of street cinematography, lyrically capturing the despair and confusion of post-World War II Europe.

Movies

• It's a Wonderful Life, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Razor's Edge

Music

• Carmen Cavallaro, "Dancing in the Dark"
• "Chiquita Banana"
• Coleman Hawkins, "Say It Isn't So"
• Frank Sinatra, "The Voice of Frank Sinatra"
• "Tenderly"
• "There's No Business Like Show Business"
• "Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah"

Books

• Elizabeth Bishop, North and South
• Albert Camus, The Stranger
• Robert Lowell, Lord Weary's Castle
• Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding
• Benjamin Spock, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
• Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men
• Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
• Eudora Welty, Delta Wedding
• William Carlos Williams, Paterson, Part One

Science

• US Atomic Energy Commission is formed (Aug. 1). Background: nuclear energy
• Vincent du Vigneaud (US) synthesizes penicillin.
• The US Army makes radar contact with the moon for the first time. Background: Astronomy

Death

• W.C. Fields
• Gertrude Stein
• H.G. Wells

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