Top News Stories from 1947

World Events

• Britain nationalizes coal mines (Jan. 1).
• Peace treaties for Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland signed in Paris (Feb. 10).
• Soviet Union rejects US plan for UN atomic-energy control (March 4).
• Marshall Plan proposed to help European nations recover economically from World War II (June).
• India and Pakistan gain independence from Britain (Aug. 15).
• The Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered at Qumran.

U.S. Events

• Hollywood "Black List" created by HUAC.
• Truman Doctrine proposes "containment" of communist expansion (March 12).
• Taft-Hartley Act passed. Background: Labor Unions.
• Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Economics

Sports

World Series

NBA Championship

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• The Yankees beat the Dodgers in seven games in the first televised World Series.
• Meet the Press debuts on NBC. The first news show will become television's longest-running program.
• Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire opens at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre, with Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski and Jessica Tandy as Blanche DuBois. The play wins the 1948 Pulitzer Prize.

Movies

• Gentleman's Agreement, Miracle on 34th Street, Great Expectations, The Bishop's Wife

Music

• Doris Day, "Confess"
• Al Jolson, Al Jolson Album
• "Woody Woodpecker"
• "A Fellow Needs A Girl"
• Frankie Lane, "That's My Desire"
• Glenn Miller, "Glenn Miller Masterpieces—Vol. 2"

Books

• Saul Bellow, The Victim
• Gerald Warner Brace, The Garretson Chronicle
• Martin Flavin, The Enchanted
• Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
• Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
• Thomas Mann, Dr. Faustus
• Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism

Science

• The carbon-14 method of radiocarbon dating is developed by Willard F. Libby (US).
• The microwave oven is invented by Percy Spencer (US).
• John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William B. Shockley (US) develop the transistor. Background: Computers and Internet
• Captain Chuck Yeager, USAF, breaks the sound barrier in the the X-1 rocket-powered research plane at Muroc Air Force Base, California (Oct. 14). Background: Famous Firsts in Aviation
• Thor Heyerdahl crosses the Pacific in the Kon-Tiki.

Death

• Henry Ford
• Max Planck

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