1948

1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
1940–1949	USA [statistics and demography]	Immigration into the USA for the period 1940–49 stands at 856,608.
1948	Japan [surgery]	Abortion is freely available in Japan, where overpopulation continues to be a problem. The population stands now at about 80 million.
1948	USA [technology]	US physicists John Bardeen, William Bradley Shockley, and Walter Brattain develop the transistor in research at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the USA. A solid-state mechanism for generating, amplifying, and controlling electrical impulses, it revolutionizes the electronics industry by enabling the miniaturization of computers, radios, and televisions, as well as the development of guided missiles.
1948	USA [technology]	The first atomic clock is installed at the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC; it is based on the oscillation of the ammonia molecule and operates using the natural vibrations of atoms. It is extremely accurate, with an error margin of 2 seconds in every 2 million years.
1948	USA [television]	One million homes have television sets in the USA, compared to 5,000 in 1945.
1948	UK, USA [social theory]	The US-born British writer T S Eliot publishes his critical study Notes Towards the Definition of Culture.
1948	Germany [songs]	The German composer Richard Strauss completes his Vier letzte Lieder/Four Last Songs.
1948	USA [thought and scholarship]	The US theologian Paul Tillich publishes The Shaking of the Foundations.
1948	UK [toys and games]	The British solicitor's clerk Anthony Pratt develops the board game Cluedo. It is later marketed in the USA under the name Clue.
1948	England [fiction]	The English writer Graham Greene publishes his novel The Heart of the Matter.
1948	USA [fiction]	The US writer Norman Mailer publishes The Naked and the Dead. A novel depicting the lives of US soldiers in World War II, it quickly becomes a best-seller.
1948	South Africa [fiction]	The South African writer Alan Paton publishes Cry, the Beloved Country, a novel which brings international attention to apartheid in South Africa.
1948	England [fiction]	The English writer Henry Green publishes his novel Concluding.
1948	USA [aircraft]	The Consolidated B-36 bomber is introduced in the US Air Force. With a range of 16,000 km/10,000 mi, it is the first intercontinental bomber.
1948	USA, UK [biography]	The US monk Thomas Merton publishes Seven Storey Mountain, an autobiography published in Britain as Elected Silence.
1948	USA [biology]	US biologist Alfred Mirsky discovers ribonucleic acid (RNA) in chromosomes.
1948	India [Christianity]	Albanian missionary Agnes Bojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa, forms the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India.
1948	England [computing]	Manchester University in Manchester, England, demonstrates a computer with a simple memory, which permits some software development. The stored-program electronic computer, Mark I, designed by Tom Kilurn, is the first to use Von Neumann architecture and stores data in a type of cathode ray tube (Williams tube).
1948	France [orchestral music]	The French composer Olivier Messiaen completes his Turangalîla Symphony and his vocal work 5 Rechants.
1948	Hungary, UK [physics]	Hungarian-born British physicist Dennis Gabor invents holography, the production of three-dimensional images.
1948	USA [physics]	The Russian-born US physicist George Gamow and US physicist Ralph Alpher develop the ‘Big Bang’ theory of the origin of the universe, which says that a primeval explosion led to the universe expanding rapidly from a highly compressed original state.
1948	England [plays]	The romantic comedy The Lady's Not for Burning, by the English writer Christopher Fry, is first performed, in the Arts Theatre in London, England.
1948	France [plays]	The play Les Bonnes/The Maids, by the French writer Jean Genet, is first performed, in Paris, France.
1948	USA [poetry]	The US writer Ezra Pound publishes his poems The Pisan Cantos, sections of the Cantos Pound has been working on since 1915.
1948	UK [food and drink]	The confectionery company Rowntrees of York launch the Polo mint.
1948	UK [legislation]	All Commonwealth citizens qualify for British passports by the passing of the British Citizenship Act.
1948	UK [everyday life]	Bread rationing in Britain comes to an end.
1948	USA [musicals]	In New York City, the musical Kiss Me, Kate, with lyrics by Bella and Samuel Spewack, and music by Cole Porter, is first performed. It is based on William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
1 January 1948	Europe [trade]	The Benelux Customs Union comes into effect, creating a free-trade zone between Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It is a significant step towards closer European integration.
4 January 1948	Burma, UK [political events]	Burma achieves independence from Britain and becomes a republic.
12 January 1948	England [everyday life]	The London Cooperative Society opens the first supermarket in Britain, at Manor Park in London, England.
30 January 1948	India [births and deaths]	Mahatma Gandhi (honorific name of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi), leader of the nationalist movement to free India from British rule, assassinated in Delhi, India (78).
30 January 1948	USA [births and deaths]	Orville Wright, US pioneer of aviation who, with his brother Wilbur, was the first to achieve sustained powered flight, dies in Dayton, Ohio (76).
February 1948	Russia [births and deaths]	Sergey Mikhaylovich Eisenstein, Russian film director, dies in Moscow, USSR (50).
15 March - 12 April 1948	USA [unions and associations]	Over 200,000 US coal miners strike for more generous pension benefits. They return to work on April 12 after the United Mine Workers union president, John L Lewis, reaches an agreement with mine operators.
22 March 1948	England [births and deaths]	Andrew Lloyd Webber, English composer of popular musicals with lyricist Tim Rice, born in London, England.
18 April - 24 April 1948	UK [everyday life]	The Scout Movement in the UK has its first ‘bob-a-job’ week.
15 May 1948	Palestine, Israel, UK, Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria [decolonization]	The British mandate in Palestine ends, and the Jewish authorities proclaim the new state of Israel, with David Ben-Gurion as prime minister. Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, and Syria invade Israel and occupy areas in the south and east.
3 June 1948	USA [tools]	The 5-m/200-in Hale reflector telescope is opened at Mount Palomar Observatory, California; it remains the world's largest and most powerful telescope until 1974.
28 June 1948	Yugoslavia, USSR [international organizations]	Yugoslavia is expelled from the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) for its hostility to the USSR.
15 July 1948	UK [everyday life]	Alcoholics Anonymous, founded in the USA, sets up in the UK.
23 July 1948	USA [births and deaths]	D W Griffith, US pioneer of film-making, dies in Hollywood, California (73).
29 July 1948	England [Olympic Games]	To coincide with the opening day of the Olympic Games in London, England, the inaugural national Stoke Mandeville Games, the forerunner of the Paralympics for disabled athletes, are held at Stoke Mandeville hospital, Buckinghamshire, England.
29 July - 14 August 1948	UK [television]	The Olympic Games, hosted in London, England, is televised by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for the first time.
15 August 1948	South Korea, USA [political events]	The Republic of Korea is proclaimed in the city of Seoul, ending the US military administration of World War II in southern Korea.
9 September 1948	North Korea, South Korea [political events]	The Supreme People's Assembly in North Korea proclaims the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, with Pyongyang as its capital, and claims authority over the entire country of Korea. The prime minister is Kim Il Sung.
24 October 1948	USA [political events]	In speech to a US Senate committee, Bernard Baruch popularizes the phrase ‘Cold War’.
2 November 1948	USA [elections]	The Democratic candidate Harry S Truman wins the US presidential election. In the congressional elections the Democrats reclaim majorities in the House of Representative (263–171) and in the Senate (54–42).
12 November 1948	Japan [crime and punishment]	The main Japanese war crimes trial ends in Tokyo. The former prime minister during World War II, Hideki Tojo, and six others are sentenced to death; 16 receive life imprisonment; and two are given lesser sentences.
14 November 1948	UK [births and deaths]	Charles Philip Arthur George, British heir to the throne, eldest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, born in Buckingham Palace, London, England.
December 1948	USA [food and drink]	In the USA, the McDonald brothers open the first McDonalds when they convert their drive-in to a self-service hamburger restaurant. They grant Ray Kroc all franchise rights 12 years later, which begins the expansion that will make it the world's largest fast-food company.