What happened in 1946

World4

• Jan 7The Allies of World War II recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into four occupation zones.
• May 21Manhattan Project physicist Louis Slotin accidentally triggers a fission reaction at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and, although saving his coworkers, gives himself a lethal dose of ionizing radiation, making him the second victim of a criticality accident in history (the incident is initially treated as classified information).
• Jun 14The Baruch Plan is proposed to the United Nations.
• Jul 5The bikini is first modeled in Paris.

Japan3

• Apr 3Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines, for leading the Bataan Death March.
• May 7Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded, with about 20 employees.
• Dec 211946 Nankai earthquake: At least 1,362 people are killed in an earthquake and associated tsunami in Japan.

North America12

• Jan 19The Bell XS-1 is test flown for the first time (unpowered), with Bell's chief test pilot Jack Woolams at the controls.
• Jan 22The National Intelligence Authority, and its operational arm, the Central Intelligence Group, are established in the United States; these become part of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947.
• FebENIAC unveiledAn electronic, general-purpose computer built in the United States. It used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighed about 27 tonnes, and was built to calculate where artillery shells would land.
• Mar 5In a speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill talks about the Iron Curtain.
• Mar 7The 18th Academy Awards Ceremony is held. Best Picture goes to The Lost Weekend.
• Mar 8The Bell 47 becomes the first helicopter certified for civilian use in the United States
• Apr 1The 8.6 Aleutian Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong). A destructive tsunami reaches the Hawaiian Islands, resulting in many deaths, mostly in Hilo. Between 165 and 173 are killed.
• Jun 25The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (World Bank) begins operations.
• Jul 1Nuclear testing: Operation Crossroads, a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in Micronesia, is initiated by the detonation of Able at an altitude of 520 feet (158 m).: Undersea Atomic Test Baker]]
• Jul 16The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within the Department of the Interior is formed by the merger of the Grazing Service and United States General Land Office.
• Dec 11UNICEF (the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) is founded.
• Dec 20Film It's a Wonderful Life is released in the United States; it becomes an enduring classic.

Europe29

• Jan 17The United Nations Security Council holds its first session, at Church House, Westminster in London.
• Mar 19French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
• Apr 18The inaugural session of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) takes place at The Hague.
• Jun 1Ion Antonescu, prime minister and "Conducator" (Leader) of Romania during World War II, is executed: he was found guilty of betraying the Romanian people for the benefit of Germany and sentenced to death by the Bucharest People's Tribunal.
• Jun 21946 Italian institutional referendum: Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a republic. In the simultaneous 1946 Italian general election, the first since the end of World War II and also the first in which women are allowed to vote, the Christian Democracy party, led by Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, wins most seats in the Constituent Assembly of Italy and forms a coalition government. Christian Democracy leads the Italian government continuously until 1981.
• Jun 17Formal ratification of the Treaty of London grants independence to the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan.
• Jul 4The Kielce Pogrom takes place in Poland.
• Aug 1The Scandinavian Airlines System is founded as a consortium of the flag carriers of Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
• Sep 11946 Turin Grand Prix, the first official Formula One Grand Prix, is held in Italy.
• Sep 5Gruber–De Gasperi Agreement signed between Austria and Italy to preserve the rights of the German-speaking population of South Tyrol within Italy.
• Oct 1Mensa, an international organization for people with a high intelligence quotient (IQ), is founded by Roland Berrill, an Australian-born lawyer, and Lancelot Ware, an English biochemist and lawyer, in Oxford.
• Oct 14The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.
• Oct 15Nuremberg trials: Hermann Göring, founder of the Gestapo and recently convicted Nazi war criminal, poisons himself two hours before his scheduled execution.
• Oct 16The remaining ten Nazi war criminals sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials are executed by hanging, in a gymnasium in the Palace of Justice, Nuremberg.
• Dec 2The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling is signed in Washington, D.C., to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry" through establishment of the International Whaling Commission.

14 more in the app

USSR / Russia1

• Dec 25The first artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in Europe is initiated, within the Soviet (Russian) nuclear reactor F-1.

Asia19

• Jan 6The first general election ever in Vietnam is held.
• Jan 22Iran crisis of 1946: Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad, at the Chahar Cheragh Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. He is the new president; Haji Baba Sheikh is the prime minister.
• Mar 2Ho Chi Minh is elected President of North Vietnam.
• Mar 6First Indochina War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France, which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
• Jun 8In Indonesia, Sukarno incites his supporters to fight Dutch colonial occupation.
• Jun 9In Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) accedes to the throne after the death of his elder brother, King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII). He will reign until his death on October 13, 2016.
• Aug 16The All Hyderabad Trade Union Congress is founded in Secunderabad, India.
• Sep 2The Interim Government of India takes charge, with Jawaharlal Nehru as vice president, as part of the transition from the British Raj to full independence for India and Pakistan.
• Sep 24Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong, by American Roy Farrell and Australian Sydney de Kantzow.
• Nov 12A truce is declared between Indonesian nationalist troops and the Dutch army in Indonesia.
• Nov 15By the Linggadjati Agreement, the Netherlands recognizes the Republic of Indonesia.
• Dec 12Iran crisis of 1946: Iranian troops recapture the Azerbaijan province.
• Dec 15Iran crisis of 1946: Iranian troops recapture the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad.
• Dec 19Viet Minh forces begin a war against French occupying forces in Vietnam, succeeding in 1954 with France's surrender at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
• The Chinese Civil War intensifies between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party.

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Middle East3

• May 25The Emirate of Transjordan becomes the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan when its parliament makes the ruling amir Abdullah their king on the day it ratifies the Treaty of London.
• Jul 22King David Hotel bombing: The Irgun bombs the King David Hotel (headquarters of the British civil and military administration) in Jerusalem, killing 90.
• Aug 16The Kurdistan Democratic Party is founded in South Kurdistan.

Latin America2

• Aug 4The 1946 Dominican Republic earthquake (magnitude 8.0) hits the northern Dominican Republic, killing 100 and leaving 20,000 homeless.
• Dec 22The Havana Conference begins between U.S. organized crime bosses in Havana, Cuba.

Oceania2

• Jul 25Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, when the United States detonates the Baker device during Operation Crossroads.
• Sep 281946 Australian federal election: Ben Chifley's Labor government is re-elected with a reduced majority, defeating the Liberal/Country Coalition led by former Prime Minister Robert Menzies. This is the first occasion where a Labor government successfully wins two elections in a row on a federal level, albeit with a swing against them; among the casualties are former Prime Minister Frank Forde. This is also the first election contested by the newly formed Liberal Party, which had replaced the United Australia Party as the main centre-right political party in Australia.