Top News Stories from 1949
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade Nobel Peace Prize: Lord John Boyd Orr (Scotland)
More World Statistics... - Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO (Apr. 4).
- German Federal Republic (West Germany) established (Sept. 21).
- Communist People's Republic of China formally proclaimed by Chairman Mao Zedong (Oct. 1).
- South Africa institutionalizes apartheid.
- Britain recognizes the independence of the Republic of Ireland. Northern Ireland remains a part of the United Kingdom.
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President: Harry S Truman
Vice President: Alben W. Barkley
Population: 149,188,130
Life expectancy: 68.0 years
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 5.4
More U.S. Statistics... - US recognizes the state of Israel.
- Truman proposes Point Four program to help world's less developed areas (Jan. 20).
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $267.8 billion
Federal spending: $38.84 billion
Federal debt $252.6 billion
Consumer Price Index: $23.8
Unemployment: 3.8%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. Brooklyn Dodgers (4-1)NBA Championship
Minneapolis Lakers d. Washington CapitolsStanley Cup
Toronto d. DetroitWimbledon
Women: Louise Brough d. M. duPont (10-8 1-6 10-8)Men: Ted Schroeder d. J. Drobny (3-6 6-0 6-3 4-6 6-4)
Kentucky Derby Champion
PonderNCAA Basketball Championship
Kentucky d. Oklahoma A&MNCAA Football Champions
Notre Dame (10-0-0)Entertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes Fiction:
Guard of Honor, James Gould Cozzens
Music: Louisiana Story music, Virgil Thomson
Drama: Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
Academy Award, Best Picture: Hamlet (British) (J. Arthur Rank-Two Cities; Universal-International)
Nobel Prize for Literature: William Faulkner (US)
Miss America: Jacque Mercer (AZ)
More Entertainment Awards... Events
- The first Emmy Awards are handed out on January 25, with Pantomime Quiz Time earning top honor as the Most Popular Television Program.
- Cable television debuts, bringing better reception to rural areas where the conventional television signal is weak.
- Milton Berle hosts the first telethon, which benefits cancer research.
- 45 rpm records are sold in the U.S.
Movies
- All the King's Men, Twelve O'Clock High, Sands of Iwo Jima, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Third Man
Music
- "Some Enchanted Evening"
- "Ghost Riders in the Sky"
- "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
- "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"
- Kiss Me Kate soundtrack
- Samuel Barber, Piano Sonata
- Ernest Bloch, Scherzo Fantasque
- Vaughn Monroe, Vaughn Monroe Sings
Books
- Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
- John Dos Passos, The Grand Design
- Shirley Jackson, The Lottery
- Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask
- Reinhold Niebuhr, Faith and History
- George Orwell, 1984
- Norman Vincent Peale, A Guide to Confident Living
- Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember
- Eudora Welty, Golden Apples
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: William Francis Giauque (US), for research in thermodynamics, especially effects of low temperature
Physics: Hideki Yukawa (Japan), for mathematical prediction, in 1935, of the meson
Physiology or Medicine: Walter Rudolf Hess (Switzerland), for research on brain control of body; and Antonio Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz (Portugal), for development of brain operation
More Nobel Prizes in 1998... - Capt. James Gallagher and USAF crew make first round-the-world nonstop flight from Ft. Worth, Texas, and returning to same point: 23,452 miles in 94 hours, 1 minute (Feb. 27–March 2). Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
- The antibiotics oxytetracycline and neomycin are developed. Background: Health & Nutrition
- The Soviet Union begins testing atomic weapons. Background: nuclear weapons
