Top News Stories from 1949

World Events

• 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

• US recognizes the state of Israel.
• Truman proposes Point Four program to help world's less developed areas (Jan. 20).

Economics

Sports

World Series

NBA Championship

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

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

• 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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