Top News Stories From 1949 - Infoplease

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Search Previous Year | Next Year World | U.S. | Economics | Sports | Entertainment | Science Year by Year: 1900-2014 View a 1949 calendar

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 More Economics...

Sports

Sports Links

Pro Football Summary Pro Basketball Summary Pro Baseball Summary

World Series

NY Yankees d. Brooklyn Dodgers (4-1)

NBA Championship

Minneapolis Lakers d. Washington Capitols

Stanley Cup

Toronto d. Detroit

Wimbledon

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

Ponder

NCAA Basketball Championship

Kentucky d. Oklahoma A&M

NCAA 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

Death

• James Forrestal
• Bill Robinson
• Richard Strauss

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