January 1946

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1946
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File:2005 Dime Obv Unc P.png
January 30, 1946: Roosevelt dime introduced on FDR's 64th birthday...
...replacing the Mercury dime
January 9, 1946: Hungary hangs former Premier Bardossy for treason

The following events occurred in January 1946:

January 1, 1946 (Tuesday)

  • Japan's Emperor Hirohito surprised his subjects with the news that he was not descended from the Shinto Sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami, and that "The Emperor is not a living god". He added that his people had to "proceed unflinchingly toward elimination of misguide practices of the past", including "the false conception that the Emperor is divine and that the Japanese people are superior to other races and fated to rule the world". The admission was published in newspapers throughout Japan.[1]

January 2, 1946 (Wednesday)

  • In León, Mexico, federal troops, called in by the Governor of the State of Guanajuato, fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing at least 40 people.[2]
  • The U.S. Army partially lifted a ban against marriage between American soldiers and enemy nationals, allowing servicemen to marry Austrian citizens. The ban against marriage of Germans was not lifted until December 11.[3]

January 3, 1946 (Thursday)

George Woolf
Lord Haw Haw
  • George Woolf, a jockey who had ridden both Seabiscuit and Bold Venture to victory, was thrown from his horse during a race at Santa Anita Park. He died the next day at the age of 35. Woolf, nicknamed "The Ice Man", was in the first group of people admitted to the U.S. Jockey Hall of Fame when it opened in 1955.[4]
  • At a congressional hearing, Admiral Harold R. Stark testified that more than two months before the United States entered the Second World War, President Roosevelt had ordered American warships to destroy "German and Italian naval, land, and air forces encountered" if requested by British officers.[5]
  • Poland nationalized its main industries, with passage of a law "on taking public ownership of the basic branches of the national economy".[6]
  • Born: John Paul Jones (real name John Baldwin), English rock bassist (Led Zeppelin), in Sidcup, Kent; and Cissy King, American singer on The Lawrence Welk Show, in Trinidad, Colorado
  • Died: William Joyce, "Lord Haw Haw" was hanged at Britain's Wandsworth Prison at 9:00 a.m. for treason

January 4, 1946 (Friday)

  • The United States Department of War announced a slowdown in demobilization of U.S. Army soldiers in the Pacific theater, cutting army discharges by 60 percent, from 800,000 down to 300,000 per month. In the week that followed, American soldiers around the world protested, in the Philippines, France, Guam, Germany, India and the United States. The War Department reversed the decision as a result of pressure from the "'Bring Em Home' Movement".[7]
  • General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) during the occupation of Japan, began a purge of the Japanese government, with the goal of removing "undesirable personnel" from office. Over two and a half years, there were 210,287 people removed or barred from public office.[8]
  • The Reichskleinodien, treasures of the Holy Roman Empire which had been taken from Austria after the Anschluss, were returned to Vienna by General Mark Clark. Members of the U.S. Army had located the collection of 30 pieces, some more than 1,000 years old, including a Bible that had been found in the tomb of Charlemagne, and the "Holy Lance".[9]
  • A series of tornadoes swept through east Texas, killing 28 people and injuring 310 in Anderson, Angelina and Nacogdochs counties.[10]

January 5, 1946 (Saturday)

  • Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi German architect of the Final Solution, escaped from the American detention camp in Oberdachstetten, where he had eluded detection under the alias of "SS Lt. Otto Eckmann". Eichmann then assumed the name of Otto Neninger and remained in hiding. In 1950, he made his way to Austria, then Italy, and as "Ricardo Klement", started a new life in Argentina. He avoided capture until May 2, 1960, when agents of Israel's Mossad kidnapped him, and was hanged in 1962.[11]
  • A revival of Kern and Hammerstein's 1927 musical Show Boat opened on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre, and ran for 417 performances.[12]
  • Born: Diane Keaton, American actress, as Diane Hall in Los Angeles

January 6, 1946 (Sunday)

January 7, 1946 (Monday)

  • The Allies restored Austria as a sovereign republic, with the borders it had before its 1937 annexation by Germany, but continued to administer the nation in four occupation zones. The largest cities in each zone were Innsbruck (French), Salzburg (American), Graz (British), and the area around Vienna (Soviet). Vienna itself was occupied by all four powers.[14]
  • Suzanne Degnan, 6, was murdered by serial killer William Heirens, "The Lipstick Killer" .[15] Arrested later in 1946, Heirens was sentenced to life imprisonment and remained incarcerated as of December 2009.[16]
  • France resumed its protectorate relationship over Cambodia, following an agreement signed by King Norodom Sihanouk. Under the pact, France would manage all of Cambodia's foreign affairs and grant autonomy to the Cambodian people.[17]

January 8, 1946 (Tuesday)

  • Germany's Hereditary Health Court (Erbgesundheitsgericht) system was formally abolished by the Allied powers. From 1934 through 1945, the courts ordered surgery for the sterilization of 400,000 persons with hereditary defects such as mental retardation, schizophrenia, and epilepsy. The system provided for an appellate court (Erbgesundheitobergericht), but the orders were upheld 97% of the time.[18]
  • The last Japanese prisoners of war in the United States departed, on board a ship from Angel Island (California), for repatriation.[19]
  • Born: Robby Krieger, American rock musician and songwriter for (The Doors), in Los Angeles; and Stanton Peele, American psychologist and author (The Diseasing of America)
  • Died: Dion Fortune, 51, Welsh occultist and author

January 9, 1946 (Wednesday)

January 10, 1946 (Thursday)

January 11, 1946 (Friday)

Flag of Albania.svg

January 12, 1946 (Saturday)

January 13, 1946 (Sunday)

January 14, 1946 (Monday)

  • Eighteen nations signed the Agreement on Reparation from Germany, which took effect ten days later.[33]
  • The Soviet Union ratified a treaty signed between it and Poland on August 16, 1945, with most former Polish territory east of the Curzon Line becoming parts of the Ukrainian SSR (Lwów-> Lviv) and the Byelorussian SSR (Brzesc->Brest).[34]
  • Born: Harold Shipman, British serial killer, in Nottingham; (d. 2004)

January 15, 1946 (Tuesday)

  • Fourteen coal miners were killed in an explosion at Havaco, West Virginia, but another 253 escaped, despite the force of the blast.[35]
  • The SCAP force in Japan revealed the scope of Japan's operation of sending bombs to the United States on balloons. Between the summer of 1942 and March 1945, nine thousand bombs were launched, of which 225 landed in America.[36]

January 16, 1946 (Wednesday)

January 17, 1946 (Thursday)

  • The United Nations Security Council held its first session, called to order by Norman Makin, at 3:10 p.m. GMT, at Church House, Westminster.[39] Convening around the horseshoe-shaped table were representatives from the five permanent members (the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France and China), each of whom had veto power, and the first six non-permanent members, whose membership would change from year to year. The first rotating spots were occupied by Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, the Netherlands and Poland.[40]
  • The Federal Reserve Board voted, effective January 21, to end margin buying on the nation's stock exchanges, the practice of buying stock for less than the face value and paying the difference later. Margin buying, which was very effective when the price of stock rose, but left a debt owed to the stockbroker if the value of the stock dropped, had been one of the factors in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[41]

January 18, 1946 (Friday)

January 19, 1946 (Saturday)

January 20, 1946 (Sunday)

De Gaulle

January 21, 1946 (Monday)

  • At one minute after midnight, the United Steel Workers of America began a nationwide walkout, as 750,000 steelworkers ceased work at the nation's steel mills. It was the largest strike in American history, and began after U.S. Steel had rejected proposals made at a Thursday White House meeting.[48]

January 22, 1946 (Tuesday)

Director Souers

January 23, 1946 (Wednesday)

  • The crew of the cargo ship USS Brevard rescued 4,296 Japanese civilians from the ship Enoshima Maru as it sank near Shanghai. The act is listed by Guinness for "Most people rescued at sea (civilians)".[52]
  • Harry Dexter White was nominated by U.S. President Truman to be the American representative to the International Monetary Fund, despite a warning from the FBI that White had passed secret information to the Soviet Union. White was confirmed by the Senate on February 6 and would serve until 1947.[53]
  • Born: Boris Berezovsky, Russian billionaire, in Moscow.

January 24, 1946 (Thursday)

January 25, 1946 (Friday)

January 25, 1946: MacArthur spares Emperor Hirohito from war crimes trial
Kurchatov
  • The Soviet Union's quest for the atomic bomb began, as Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov was summoned to Moscow by Joseph Stalin for a 50-minute meeting that began at 8:15 pm Kurchatov was ordered to spare no expense in getting nuclear weapons. At the time, only the United States had "the bomb". By 1950, there were 400,000 people working on the project.[58]
  • The United Mine Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor, after John L. Lewis had removed the 500,000 member union in 1940.[59]
  • The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia began as hundreds of Sudetenland residents were loaded onto trains at Mariánské Lázně.[60]
  • Despite a public outcry, Sweden began the deportation of refugees from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia back to the Soviet Union. The first group consisted of 151 Latvian, 9 Lithuanian and 7 Estonian refugees, whom the Soviets had identified.[61]
  • The United Nations Security Council passed its first resolution, the creation of the Military Staff Committee.[62]
  • General Douglas MacArthur recommended in a telegram, to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Japan's Emperor Hirohito not be put on trial for war crimes, noting that "No specific and tangible evidence has been uncovered" and adding that "his indictment will unquestionably cause a tremendous convulsion among the Japanese people, the repercussions of which cannot be over-estimated." Hirohito continued to reign as Emperor of Japan until his death in 1989.[63]
  • Jinja Honcho, the Association of Shinto Shrines, was established in a convention of representatives from all 46 prefectures in Japan.[64]
  • Following the liberation of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), the Allied Forces returned control of the colony to the Netherlands.[65]

January 26, 1946 (Saturday)

January 27, 1946 (Sunday)

  • The first multiparty elections, in almost 15 years, to take place in Germany were conducted in the American occupied zone. The new Christian Democratic Union (CDU) won more local offices than any other, and the revived Social Democrat Party (SPD). Similar elections followed in the French, British and Soviet zones. In 1949, parliamentary elections for the Bundestag would be allowed.[71]
  • Australian radar and television expert W.E. Osborne told an American audience that within fifty years, passenger travel to the Moon would be possible. Including stops at orbiting refuel stations, the trip would take ninety hours.[72]

January 28, 1946 (Monday)

  • In Japan, the Civil Censorship Department was established by the American occupation authority, to cut prohibited material from Japanese films before release. Prohibited subjects included scenes favorably depicting revenge, racial or religious discrimination, violence, militarism, Japanese nationalism, feudalism, or the exploitation of women or children. Censorship continued until June 1947.[73]

January 29, 1946 (Tuesday)

January 30, 1946 (Wednesday)

January 31, 1946 (Thursday)

  • The Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia was established with the promulgation of a new constitution that established a federation of six constituent republics, and Slovenia) and replaced the Kingdom of Yugoslavia with a presidential government.[77]
  • Hungary was proclaimed a Republic under a new constitution that formally abolished the monarchy.[78]
  • The population of the island of Nauru more than doubled as the 591 surviving residents on the island were joined by 737 who were returned from the island of Truk.[79]
  • Eurico Gaspar Dutra, took office as Brazil's first popularly elected President in fifteen years.[80]
  • The Permanent Court of International Justice, created in 1920 as a part of the League of Nations, came to an end with the resignation of its judges. The new International Court of Justice was created on April 18.[81]
  • United Airlines Flight 14, flying at an altitude of 10,000 feet en route from Boise to Denver, crashed into the side of 11,161-foot-tall (3,402 m) Elk Mountain, Wyoming, killing all 21 persons on board.[82]
  • Born: Terry Kath, American rock musician for the band (Chicago); in Chicago; (d. 1978)

References

  1. "Hirohito Stuns Jap People With Rescript", Salt Lake Tribune, January 2, 1946, p1; "JAPAN: Diversion from Divinity", TIME Magazine, January 14, 1946
  2. María Emilia Paz, Strategy, Security, and Spies: Mexico and the U.S. as Allies in World War II (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997), p242
  3. Peter Schrijvers, The Crash of Ruin: American Combat Soldiers in Europe During World War II (NYU Pres, 2001) pp185–186
  4. Edward Zawadzki, The Ultimate Canadian Sports Trivia Book (Dundurn Press, 2001), p120; "Spill at Anita Kills Jockey Woolf", Oakland Tribune, January 4, 1946, p14
  5. "Probers Hear FDR Ordered Atlantic Sea War, Oct. '41", Salt Lake Tribune, January 4, 1946, p1
  6. T. M. Podolski, Socialist Banking and Monetary Control: The Experience of Poland (Cambridge University Press, 1973), p76
  7. David Cortright, Soldiers in revolt: GI resistance during the Vietnam War (Haymarket Books, 2005), pp150–151; "Army Slows Return of Men to U.S.", Salt Lake Tribune, January 5, 1946, p1
  8. Robert C. Orr, Winning the Peace: An American Strategy for Post-conflict Reconstruction (CSIS Press 2004), p173; "M'Arthur Maps Politics Purge", Salt Lake Tribune, January 4, 1946, p1
  9. "Nazi-Seized Royal Jewels Returned", Salt Lake Tribune, January 7, 1946, p1
  10. "Tornadoes Kill 25, Injure 100 in Texas", Salt Lake Tribune, January 5, 1946
  11. Thomas Adam, Germany and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History(ABC-CLIO 2005), p297
  12. Steven Suskin, Show Tunes: The Songs, Shows, and Careers of Broadway's Major Composers (Oxford University Press 2000), p29
  13. Stein Tønnesson, Vietnam 1946: How the War Began (University of California Press, 2010), p92
  14. "Big 4 Recognize Austria, But Allies Will Continue Rule", The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), January 8, 1946, p9
  15. "Kidnapped Girl Found Slain", Salt Lake Tribune, January 8, 1946, p1; Robert D. Keppel and William J. Birnes, Signature Killers (Simon and Schuster, 1997), p39
  16. "Weger denied parole", LaSalle (IL) News Tribune, December 17, 2009
  17. D.R. SarDesai, Southeast Asia: Past & Present (Westview Press, 2004), p201
  18. Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis (Harvard University Press, 1988), pp107, 109, 298
  19. James W. Hamilton and William J. Bolce, Gateway to Victory: The Wartime Story of the San Francisco Army Port of Embarkation (Stanford University Press, 1946) p149
  20. "De Bardossy is Hanged", New York Times, January 11, 1946, p9
  21. Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Betrayal and Treason: Violations of Trust and Loyalty (Westview Press, 2001), p130
  22. "Elusive Spy Killed", The Age (Sydney), January 10, 1946, p1
  23. "Belgian Diplomat Elected as First President of UNO", Salt Lake Tribune, January 11, 1946, p1
  24. "Army's Scientists Achieve Radar Contact With Moon", Salt Lake Tribune, January 25, 1946, p1" 1/25/46
  25. William B. Simons, The Constitutions of the Communist World (Sijthoff and Noordhoff, 1980), p2; "Albania Is Proclaimed A 'Popular Republic'", Charleston (WV) Gazette, January 12, 1946, p1
  26. Brenda Gayle Plummer, Haiti and the United States: The Psychological Moment (University of Georgia Press, 1992), p148; "Junta Takes Over Haiti", San Antonio Light, January 12, 1946, p1
  27. Robert S. Lyons, On Any Given Sunday: A Life of Bert Bell (Temple University Press, 2009), p112
  28. Dennis Wainstock, Malcolm X: African American Revolutionary (McFarland, 2009), pp18–19
  29. Kirk J. Beattie, Egypt During the Sadat Years (Palgrave 2000), p20
  30. Jacques Guillermaz, A History of the Chinese Communist Party, 1921–1949 (Volume 1, Taylor and Francis, 1972), p384; "China Orders Cease Fire In Civil War", Salt Lake Tribune, January 13, 1946, p1
  31. Elizabeth A. Brennan and Elizabeth C. Clarage, Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners (Oryx Press, 1999) p411
  32. Garyn G. Roberts, Dick Tracy and American Culture: Morality and Mythology, Text and Context (McFarland, 2003), p38
  33. Martin Lorenz-Meyer, Safehaven: The Allied Pursuit of Nazi Assets Abroad (University of Missouri Press, 2007), p221
  34. "USSR Unit Okehs Pact", Salt Lake Tribune, January 15, 1946, p1
  35. "253 Saved, 14 Die In Mine Blast", The Morning Herald (Uniontown, Pennsylvania), Wednesday, January 16, 1946, p1
  36. Japs Send 9000 Balloons, Only 225 Reach U. S., Salt Lake Tribune, January 16, 1946, p1
  37. "U.S. MEAT SUPPLY MAY BE GONE IN WEEK", Dunkirk (NY) Evening Observer", January 16, 1946, p1; "268,000 Meat Firm Workers Walk Out", Salt Lake Tribune, January 16, 1946, p1
  38. "Meat Strikers Prepare to Resume Work", Salt Lake Tribune, January 28, 1946, p1
  39. "UNO Sets UpSecurity Unit To Keep World Peace", Salt Lake Tribune, January 18, 1946, p1"
  40. David L. Bosco, Five to Rule Them All: The UN Security Council and the Making of the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2009), p41
  41. "U.S. Kills Off Marginal Stock Buying", Salt Lake Tribune, January 18, 1946, p1"
  42. "Airlines Plane Crashes, Burns", Spokane Daily Chronicle, January 18, 1946, p1
  43. Dan La Botz, Mask of Democracy: Labor Suppression in Mexico Today (South End Press, 1992), p65
  44. Stephen Ryan, The United Nations and International Politics (Macmillan, 2000), p34
  45. Winston E. Langley, Encyclopedia of Human Rights Issues Since 1945 (Greenwood Press 1999), p282
  46. "DeGaulle Aims Blast At Leftists, Resigns", Salt Lake Tribune, January 21, 1946, p1
  47. William I. Hitchcock, The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent: 1945–2002 (Doubleday, 2003), pp73–74
  48. "750,000 Men Leave Plants As Last Negotiations Fail", Salt Lake Tribune, January 21, 1946, p1
  49. David McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (I.B. Tauris, 2005), pp244–245
  50. William M. Leary, ed., The Central Intelligence Agency: History and Documents (University of Alabama Press, 1984), pp20–21
  51. Ralph E. Weber, ed., Spymasters: Ten CIA Officers in Their Own Words (SR Books, 1999), p.xxxviii
  52. Guinness World Records 2009 (Random House, 2009), p151
  53. Robert J. Donovan, Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman: 1945–1948 (University of Missouri Press, 1996), p174
  54. UN General Assembly Resolutions, United Nations website
  55. "First Report of the Atomic Energy Commission to the Security Council", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (January 1947), p16
  56. J.A.A. Stockwin, Governing Japan 3rd Ed., (Blackwell 1999), p167
  57. Eric Walter White, Stravinsky: A Critical Survey, 1882–1946 (Dover Publications, 1997), p168
  58. Gerard J. DeGroot, The Bomb: A Life (Harvard University Press, 2004), pp136–137; Zhores A. Medvedev and Roy A. Medvedev (Ellen Dahrendorf, translator), The Unknown Stalin (I. B. Tauris, 2006), pp126–127
  59. "Lewis Brings UMW Back to AFL Fold" Salt Lake Tribune, January 26, 1946, p1
  60. Matthew Frank, Expelling the Germans: British Opinion and Post-1945 Population Transfer in Context (Oxford University Press, 2007), p229
  61. Valdis O. Lumans, Latvia in World War II (Fordham University Press, 2006), p390
  62. Karel C. Wellens, ed., Resolutions and Statements of the United Nations Security Council (1946–1989): A Thematic Guide (M. Nijhoff, 1990), p620
  63. Kyoko Inoue, MacArthur's Japanese Constitution: A Linguistic and Cultural Study of Its Making (University of Chicago Press, 1991), pp163–164
  64. William P. Woodard, The Allied Occupation of Japan 1945–1952 and Japanese Religions (Brill, 1972), p153
  65. Papua: Geopolitics and the Quest for Nationhood (Transaction Publishers, 2008), pp25–26
  66. "Iran Chooses Premier in 51 to 50 Vote", Salt Lake Tribune, January 27, 1946, p8; Manuucher Farmānfarmaian and Roxane Farmanfarmaian, Blood and Oil: A Prince's Memoir of Iran, from the Shah to the Ayatollah (Random House, 2005), p179
  67. "U. S. Takes Over Meat Industry" Strikers of CIO Defy Truman, Refuse to Work", Salt Lake Tribune, January 26, 1946, p1; "CIO Asks Meat Strikers to Resume Work", Salt Lake Tribune, January 27, 1946, p1
  68. Arnold H. Leibowitz, Embattled Island: Palau's Struggle for Independence (Praeger 1996), p31
  69. Donald L. Miller, The Fiery Trial: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany (Simon and Schuster, 2006), p518
  70. Văn Đào Hoàng, Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang: A Contemporary History of a National Struggle: 1927–1954 (Rose Dog Books, 2008), pp405–406
  71. Lester H. Brune, Chronological History of U.S. Foreign Relations, Volume II: 1932–1988 (Routledge, 2003), pp615–616
  72. "LUNAR WEEKEND: Vacations on Moon Predicted by 1996", Salt Lake Tribune, January 28, 1946, p1
  73. Isolde Standish, A New History of Japanese Cinema: A Century of Narrative Film (Continuum, 2006), pp156–157
  74. Stanley Meisler, United Nations: The First Fifty Years (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995), p21
  75. United States Mint
  76. "Transcarpathia", in Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements, Volume 4 (Taylor and Francis, 2003), p2351
  77. Fred Singleton, A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples (Cambridge University Press, 1985), p209
  78. Martin Mevius, Agents of Moscow: The Hungarian Communist Party and the Origins of Socialist Patriotism, 1941–1953 (Clarendon Press, 2005), pp165–166
  79. Case Concerning Certain Phosphate Lands in ̀ Nauru (International Court of Justice, 2003), p66
  80. Ronald M. Schneider, Brazil: Culture and Politics in a New Industrial Powerhouse (Westview Press 1996), p68
  81. Alexander S. Muller, The International Court of Justice: Its Future Role After Fifty Years (Nijhoff, 1997), p. xxvi
  82. "Climbers Find Airliner Dead", Salt Lake Tribune, February 2, 1946, p1; accident report