Events of 1949

January

• January 1 UN sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistan War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues to this day.

• January 2 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

• January 4

• *RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage.

• * through February 22 – Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada – winds of up to 72 mph – tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish.

• January 5 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.

• January 11

• *Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.

• *KDKA-TV becomes the first local, on-air television station.

January 17: Beetle in U.S.

• January 17 – The first Volkswagen Beetle to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York by Dutch businessman Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models will be sold in America that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff that the car has no future in the U.S. (The VW Beetle goes on to become the greatest automobile phenomenon in American history.)

• January 19 – The Poe Toaster first appears at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe.

• January 20 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman begins his full term.

• January 25

• *Forces from the Communist Party of China enter Beijing.

• *The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.

• *In the first Israeli election, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.

• January 26 – Australian citizenship comes into being.

February

• February 1 – Rationing of clothes ends in Britain.

• February 10 – Death of a Salesman opens in the Morosco Theatre and runs for 742 performances.

• February 13 – António Óscar Carmona is re-elected president of Portugal for lack of an opposing candidate.

• February 19 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.

• February 22 – Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow, gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.

March

• March 1

• *World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires.

• *Indonesia seizes Yogyakarta from the Dutch.

• March 2 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight (it was refueled in flight 4 times).

• March 17 – The Shamrock Hotel in Houston, Texas, owned by oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy, has its grand opening.

• March 20 – The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Oakland, California, as the first long distance train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment.

• March 25 – An extensive deportation campaign is conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Soviet authorities deport more than 92,000 people from the Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union.

• March 26 – The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert (i.e. no scenery or costumes), is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. The second half is telecast a week later. This is the only complete opera that Toscanini ever conducts on television.

• March 28 – United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.

• March 29 – The 21st Academy Awards ceremony is held.

• March 31 – The former British colony of Newfoundland and Labrador joins Canada as its 10th province.

April

• April 1

• *Éire leaves the British Commonwealth and becomes the Republic of Ireland.

• *The Tokyo Stock Exchange is founded.

• April 4 – The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., creating the NATO defense alliance.

• April 7 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, opens on Broadway and goes on to become R&H's second longest-running musical. It becomes an instant classic of the musical theatre. The score's biggest hit is the song Some Enchanted Evening.

• April 14 – The day the N'Ko alphabet is held to have been completed by Solomana Kante.

• April 18 – Éire formally becomes the Republic of Ireland.

• April 20 – The Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst (U16) goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of Mao's communist forces. Under heavy fire it runs aground off Rose Island. After an aborted rescue attempt on April 26 it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks.

• April 23 – Chinese communist troops take Nanking.

• April 28

• *India issues the London Declaration, enabling it (and, thereafter, any other nation) to remain in the British Commonwealth despite becoming a republic, creating the position of 'Head of the Commonwealth', and renaming the organisation as the 'Commonwealth of Nations'.

• *Former Philippine First Lady Aurora Quezon, 61, is assassinated while en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and 10 others are also killed.

• April 29 – The News Review reveals that neither Selhurst College nor its headmaster H. Rochester Sneath exist.

May

• May 1 – Nereid, a moon of Neptune, is discovered by Gerard P. Kuiper.

• May 5 – The Council of Europe is founded by the signing of the Treaty of London.

• May 9 – Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco, upon the death of his maternal grandfather Louis II.

• May 11

• *Israel is admitted to the U.N. as its 59th member.

• *Siam officially changes its French name to "Thaïlande" (English name to "Thailand"), having officially changed its Thai name to "Prated Thai" since 1939.

• May 12 – Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its Blockade of Berlin.

• May 20

• *The AFSA (predecessor of the NSA) is established.

• *The Kuomintang regime declares Taiwan under martial law.

• May 22 – After two months in Bethesda Naval Hospital, James Forrestal commits suicide, under circumstances that seem suspicious to many.

• May 23 – The Federal Republic of Germany is established.

• EDSAC, the first stored-program computer, begins operation at Cambridge University.

June

• June 2 – Transjordan becomes the Kingdom of Jordan.

• June 6 – With the passage of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act by the Indian government, Mahabodhi Temple is restored to partial Buddhist control.

• June 8

• *Red Scare: Such celebrities as Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.

• *George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.

• June 19 – Glenn Dunnaway wins the inaugural NASCAR race at Charlotte Speedway, a 3/4 mile oval in Charlotte, North Carolina, but is disqualified due to illegal springs. Jim Roper is declared the official winner.

• June 24 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC.

• June 29

• *The last U.S. troops withdraw from South Korea.

• *Dock workers strike in the UK.

• *Apartheid: The South African Citizenship Act suspends the granting of citizenship to British Commonwealth immigrants after 5 years and imposes a ban on mixed marriages.

July

• July 11 – Pamir is the last commercial sailing ship to sail round Cape Horn.

• July 20 – Israel and Syria sign a truce to end their 19-month war.

• July 27 – The de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner, makes its first flight.

• July 30 – Birth of legal aid in England and Wales.

• July 31 – Captain Kerans of the HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall, under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army on both sides of the Yangtze River, and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day.

August

• August 5 – A 6.75 Richter scale earthquake in Ecuador kills 6,000 and destroys 50 towns.

• August 8 – Bhutan becomes independent

• August 12 – The Fourth Geneva Convention is agreed to.

• August 14 – The Salvatore Giuliano Gang explodes mines under a police barracks outside Palermo, Sicily.

• A military coup in Syria ousts the president.

• August 21 – Deportivo Saprissa enters Costa Rica – soccer's first division.

• August 22 – The Queen Charlotte earthquake is Canada's largest earthquake since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake.

• August 28 – The last 6 surviving veterans of the American Civil War meet in Indianapolis.

• August 29

• *The Council of Europe meets for the first time.

• *The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, code named "Joe 1." Its design imitates the American plutonium bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.

• August 31 – The retreat of the Greek Democratic Army in Albania after its defeat at mount Grammos marks the end of the Greek Civil War.

September

• September 5 – Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.

• September 6 – Allied military authorities relinquish control of former Nazi Germany assets back to Germany.

• September 7 – The Federal Republic of Germany is officially founded. Konrad Adenauer is the first federal chancellor.

• September 9

• *Albert Guay affair: A dynamite bomb destroys Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-3 in Quebec.

• *Notorious World War II veteran Edwin Alonzo Boyd commits his first career bank robbery in Toronto.

• September 13 – The Soviet Union vetoes United Nations membership for Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan and Portugal.

• September 17 – The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives.

• September 19 – The United Kingdom government devalues the pound sterling from $4.03 to $2.80, leading to many other currencies being devalued.

• September 24 – Laszlo Rajk, ex-foreign minister of Hungary, is sentenced to death.

• September 29

• *The First Plenary Session of the National People's Congress approves a design for the Flag of the People's Republic of China.

• *Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" during World War II.

October

October 1: People's Republic of China founded.

• October 1 – The People's Republic of China is officially proclaimed.

• October 7 – The Democratic Republic of Germany DDR is established officially

• October 13 – Severe flooding hits Guatemala.

• October 16 – Civil war ends in Greece with a communist surrender.

• October 17 – Chinese communist troops take Canton, China

• October 27

• *Chinese communist troops fail to take Kinmen in the Battle of Kuningtou; their advance towards Taiwan is halted.

• *An airliner flying from Paris to New York crashes in the Azores island of São Miguel. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu and boxer Marcel Cerdan.

November

December 15: Typhoon at Korea.

Dec. 16: Sukarno, first President of Indonesia.

• November 15 – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for assassinating Mohandas Gandhi.

• November 24 – The ski resort in Squaw Valley, California officially opens.

• November 26 – The Indian Constituent Assembly adopts India's constitution .

• November 27 – Indonesia is recognized.

• November 28 – Winston Churchill makes a landmark speech in support of the idea of a European Union at Kingsway Hall, London.

December

• December 8 – The government of the Republic of China finishes its evacuation to Taiwan.

• December 10 – Robert Menzies elected prime minister of Australia.

• December 14 – Traicho Kostov, ex-vice prime minister of Bulgaria, is sentenced to death.

• December 15 – A typhoon strikes a fishing fleet off Korea, killing several thousand.

• December 16 – Sukarno is elected president of the Republic of Indonesia.

• December 17 – Burma recognizes the People's Republic of China.

• December 27 – Queen Juliana of the Netherlands grants Indonesia sovereignty.

• December 30 – India recognizes the People's Republic of China.

Undated

• The Malta Labour Party is founded.

• The Vatican announces that bones uncovered in its subterranean catacombs could be the apostle Peter; 19 years later, Pope Paul VI announces confirmation that the bones belong to this first saint.

• The first 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun prototypes are completed.

• Samuel Putnam publishes his new translation of Don Quixote, the first in what we would consider modern English. It is instantly acclaimed and, in 2008, is still in print.

• 1949 was the first year in which no African-American was lynched in the USA.

• Joseph Stalin launches a savage verbal attack on Soviet Jews, accusing them of being pro-Western and antisocialist.

Ongoing

• Marshall Plan

• First Indochina War

Births

January–February

• January 2 – Christopher Durang, American playwright

• January 3 – Sylvia Likens, American murder victim (d. 1965)

• January 7 – Chavo Guerrero Sr., former professional wrestler

• January 8 – Wolfgang Puck, Austrian chef

• January 10

• *George Foreman, American boxer

• *Linda Lovelace, American actress (d. 2002)

• January 11 – Kalev Ots, Estonian statesman

• January 12

• *Haruki Murakami, Japanese author

• *Wayne Wang, Hong Kong-born film director

• January 13 – Brandon Tartikoff, American television executive (d. 1997)

• January 14 – Lawrence Kasdan, American director and screenwriter

• January 17 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian and actor (d. 1984)

• January 18 – Philippe Starck, French designer

• January 19

• *Robert Palmer, English singer (d. 2003)

• *Dennis Taylor, Irish snooker player

• January 20 – Göran Persson, former Prime Minister of Sweden

• January 22 – Steve Perry, American rock singer (Journey)

• January 24 – John Belushi, American actor and comedian (d. 1982)

• January 28 – Gregg Popovich, American basketball coach

• January 30 – Peter Agre, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

• January 31

• *Johan Derksen, Dutch footballer and sports journalist

• *Ken Wilber, American philosopher

• February 2

• *Brent Spiner, American actor

• *Duncan Bannatyne, Scottish entrepreneur

• February 3 – Hennie Kuiper, Dutch cyclist

• February 6 – Jim Sheridan, Irish film director

• February 7

• *Joe English, American drummer

• *Alan Lancaster, English bassist

• February 8 – Brooke Adams, American actress

• February 9 – Judith Light, American actress

• February 10

• *Michael Weiss, jazz pianist and composer

• *Maxime Le Forestier, French singer

• February 15 – Ken Anderson, American NFL player

• February 16 – Lyn Paul, English singer

• February 17 – Dennis Green, American football coach

• February 18 – Gary Ridgway, American serial killer

• February 19 – Dan Bunten, American computer game designer (d. 1998)

• February 21 – Ronnie Hellström, Swedish footballer

• February 22 – Niki Lauda, Austrian race car driver

• February 25 – Ric Flair, American professional wrestler

March–April

• March 2

• *Gates McFadden, American actress

• *JPR Williams, Welsh rugby player

• March 3 – Jesse Jefferson, American baseball player

• March 6

• *Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan

• *Martin Buchan, Scottish footballer

• March 7 – Ghulam Nabi Azad, Indian politician

• March 9 – Tapani Kansa, Finnish singer

• March 10 – Larry Wall, American computer programmer

• March 12 – Natalia Kuchinskaya, Soviet gymnast

• March 13 – Julia Migenes, American soprano

• March 16

• *Erik Estrada, Puerto Rican actor

• *Victor Garber, Canadian actor (Godspell)

• March 17

• *Patrick Duffy, American actor

• *Pat Rice, Irish footballer and football manager

• March 18 – Alex Higgins, Irish snooker player

• March 21 – Eddie Money, American rock singer

• March 22 – Fanny Ardant, French actress

• March 23 – Ric Ocasek, American rock musician (The Cars)

• March 24 – Nick Lowe, English musician

• March 26

• *Patrick Süskind, German writer

• *Vicki Lawrence, American comedienne and game show hostess

• March 29 – Michael Brecker, American jazz musician (d. 2007)

• March 30

• *Marcia Ball, American blues musician

• *Lene Lovich, American singer

• *Naomi Sims, American model and businesswoman

• *Elijah Harper, Canadian Aboriginal activist

• April 1

• *Gérard Mestrallet, French businessman

• *Sammy Nelson, Irish footballer

• *Gil Scott-Heron, American musician and composer

• April 3 – Richard Thompson, English musician and songwriter

• April 6 – Horst Ludwig Störmer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

• April 7 – John Oates, American rock singer and guitarist (Hall & Oates)

• April 10 – Daniel Mangeas, French bicycle commentator

• April 14 – John Shea, American actor

• April 15

• *Alla Pugacheva, Russian musical performer

• *Aleksandra Ziolkowska-Boehm, Polish born writer

• April 16 – Sandy Hawley, Canadian jockey

• April 18 – Geoff Bodine, American race car driver

• April 20 – Jessica Lange, American actress

• April 21 – Patti Lupone, American actress

• April 24 – Veronique Sanson, French singer and songwriter

• April 28 – Bruno Kirby, American actor (d. 2006)

May–June

• May 2 – Alan Titchmarsh, English gardener

• May 3 – Leopoldo Luque, Argentine soccer player

• May 4 – John Force, American race car driver

• May 9 – Billy Joel, American singer-songwriter and pianist

• May 13 – Zoë Wanamaker, English-American actress

• May 18

• *Rick Wakeman, English rock musician and songwriter (Yes)

• *Bill Wallace, Canadian rock musician (The Guess Who)

• May 19

• *Enrique Aguirre, Spanish gynecologist who discovered cervical cancer

• *Archie Manning, American football player

• May 20 – Dave Thomas, Canadian actor and comedian (SCTV)

• May 24 – Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician

• May 25 – Prahladananda Swami, ISKCON religious leader

• May 26

• *Philip Michael Thomas, American actor (

• *Hank Williams Jr., American country singer

• May 29 – Francis Rossi, English rock guitarist/singer (Status Quo)

• May 31 – Tom Berenger, American actor (Platoon)

• June 2 – Heather Couper, British astronomer

• June 4 – Mark B. Cohen, Pennsylvania legislative leader

• June 8 – Emanuel Ax, Polish-born pianist

• June 13 – Ann Druyan, American popular science writer

• June 14 – Harry Turtledove, American historian and novelist

• June 15 – Jim Varney, American actor (Ernest Goes To Camp) (d. 2000)

• June 17 – Andrei Fursenko, Russian politician, scientist and businessman

• June 18

• *Lech Kaczyński, President of Poland

• *Jarosław Kaczyński, Polish Prime Minister

• *Prince Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican musician (d. 1999)

• June 21 – Jane Urquhart, Canadian author

• June 22

• *Alan Osmond, American pop singer

• *Meryl Streep, American actress (Kramer vs. Kramer)

• June 25 – Kene Holliday, American actor

• June 27 – Vera Wang, American fashion designer

July–August

• July 2 – David Eaton, American composer/conductor/producer

• July 3

• *Jan Smithers, American actress

• *Johnnie Wilder, Jr., American vocalist (d. 2006)

• July 7 – Shelley Duvall, American actress (Popeye)

• July 11

• *Ingrid Newkirk, animal rights activist

• *Émerson Leão, Brazilian footballer

• July 15

• *Carl Bildt, Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, former Prime Minister of Sweden

• *Trevor Horn, British singer and producer

• July 16 – Dennis Young, American skier

• July 17 – Charlie Steiner, American sportscaster

• July 22 – Alan Menken, American composer

• July 26 – Roger Taylor, English rock musician (Queen)

• August 4 – John Riggins, American football player

• August 6 – Alan Campbell, Northern Irish clergyman

• August 7 – Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze

• August 12

• *Mark Knopfler, British rock guitarist (Dire Straits)

• *Fernando Collor de Mello, President of Brazil

• August 15 – Beverly Lynn Burns, American pilot, first woman in the world to captain the Boeing 747

• August 20 – Philip Lynott, Irish rock musician (d. 1986)

• August 21 – Loretta Devine, American actress

• August 23

• *Shelley Long, American actress

• *Rick Springfield, Australian rock singer and actor

• August 25

• *Martin Amis, English novelist

• *Gene Simmons, American rock musician (Kiss)

• August 28 – Svetislav Pešić, Serbian basketball player and coach

• August 31

• *Richard Gere, American actor

• *H. David Politzer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

September–October

• September 1 – P.A. Sangma, Indian politician

• September 3 – Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria (d. 2004)

• September 7

• *Lee McGeorge Durrell, American author, television presenter, and zookeeper

• *Gloria Gaynor, American singer

• September 9

• *Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, current President of Indonesia

• *Joe Theismann, American football player

• September 10 – Bill O'Reilly, American conservative radio and television commentator

• September 13 – John Henry, American foreign exchange advisor, Boston Red Sox owner

• September 14 – Eikichi Yazawa, Japanese singer

• September 15 – Joe Barton, American politician

• September 17 – Cassandra Peterson, American actress ("Elvira")

• September 18

• *Mo Mowlam, British politician (d. 2005)

• *Peter Shilton, English goalkeeper

• September 19 – Twiggy Lawson, English model

• September 23 – Bruce Springsteen, American singer and songwriter

• September 26 – Jane Smiley, American novelist

• September 27 – Mike Schmidt, American baseball player

• October 1 – Isaac Bonewits, American author and occultist

• October 2

• *Richard Hell, American musician and writer

• *Annie Leibovitz, American photographer

• October 4 – Armand Assante, American actor

• October 7 – Ronnie Mund, American television personality

• October 8 – Sigourney Weaver, American actress (Alien)

• October 12

• *Carlos the Jackal, Venezuelan-born mercenary

• *Stan Hansen, American professional wrestler

• October 14

• *Katy Manning, Dr Who actress

• *Katha Pollitt, American writer

• October 17 – Bill Hudson, American musician

• October 20 – Valeri Borzov, Ukrainian athlete

• October 21 – Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel

• October 22 – Arsene Wenger, French football (soccer) manager

• October 26 – Antonio Carpio, Filipino Supreme Court jurist

November–December

• November 2 – Simon Augustini, Albanian politician

• November 3 – Larry Holmes, American World Heavyweight Boxing Champion

• November 5

• *Armin Shimerman, American actor

• *Jimmie Spheeris, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984)

• November 6 – Nigel Havers, British actor

• November 7

• *Aiswarya, Queen of Nepal (d. 2001)

• *Judi Bari, American environmental activist (d. 1997)

• November 8 – Bonnie Raitt, American country singer and guitarist

• November 19 – Ahmad Rashad, American sports host and commentator

• November 15 – David Rubinstein, American pianist and composer

• November 19 – Ahmad Rashad, American sportscaster and television personality

• November 24 – Nick Ainger, British politician

• November 25 – Kerry James O'Keeffe, Australian cricketer and commentator

• November 26

• *Juanin Clay, American actress (d. 1995)

• *Shlomo Artzi, Israeli singer

• November 28

• *Alexander Godunov, Russian-born dancer and actor (d. 1995)

• *Paul Shaffer, Canadian-American musician (Late Night With David Letterman)

• November 29

• *Jerry Lawler, American professional wrestler and commentator

• *Stan Rogers, Canadian musician (d. 1983)

• *Garry Shandling, American comedian

• December 1 – Kurt Schmoke, American Dean, Howard Law School, Mayor of Baltimore

• December 3 – John Akii-Bua, Ugandan hurdler (d. 1997)

• December 4

• *Jeff Bridges, American actor

• *Pamela Stephenson, New Zealand-born comedienne, actress, and singer

• December 7

• *Tom Waits, American singer, composer, and actor

• *Cathy Wayne, Australian pop entertainer (d. 1969)

• December 8 – Mary Gordon, American writer

• December 11 – Teri Garr, American actress (The Sonny and Cher Show)

• December 12 – Rajinikanth, Indian actor

• December 13

• *Robert Lindsay, English actor

• *Randy Owen, American country lead vocalist, rhythm guitar player (Alabama)

• *Tom Verlaine, American rock singer/guitarist (Television)

• December 14 – Bill Buckner, American baseball player

• December 15 – Don Johnson, American actor

• December 16 – Billy Gibbons, American guitarist (ZZ Top)

• December 17 – Paul Rodgers, British rock singer

• December 19 – Sebastian, Danish musician

• December 22

• *Maurice Gibb, British rock musician (The Bee Gees) (d. 2003), and his twin brother:

• *Robin Gibb, British rock musician (The Bee Gees)

• December 24 – Randy Neugebauer, American politician

• December 25

• *Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira, Brazilian singer

• *Sissy Spacek, American actress (Carrie)

• December 25 – Joe Louis Walker, American musician

• December 26 – José Ramos-Horta, President of East Timor, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

• unknown date

• *Suthep Po-ngam, Thai comedian, actor, film director and screenwriter

• *Mu Tiezhu, Chinese basketball player and coach (d. 2008)

Deaths

January–June

• January 6 – Victor Fleming, American director (b. 1883)

• January 11 – Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (b. 1889)

• January 14

• *Harry Stack Sullivan, American psychiatrist (b. 1892)

• *Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (b. 1882)

• January 28 – Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (b. 1908)

• February 1 – Herbert Stothart, American composer (b. 1885)

• February 12 – Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906)

• February 17 – Ellery Harding Clark, American athlete (b. 1874)

• February 21 – Tan Malaka, Indonesian nationalist activist and communist leader (b. 1894)

• March 7 – Bradbury Robinson, American who threw the first forward pass in American football history in 1906 (b. 1884)

• March 11 – Henri Giraud, French general (b. 1879)

• March 17 – Felix Bressart, German-American actor (b. 1892)

• March 25 – Jack Kapp, president of the U.S. branch of Decca Records (b. 1901)

• March 28 – Grigoraş Dinicu, Romanian composer (b. 1889)

• March 30

• *Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1884)

• *Prince Harald of Denmark (b. 1876)

• April 6 – Seymour Hicks, British actor (b. 1871)

• April 15 – Wallace Beery, American actor (b. 1885)

• April 18 – Will Hay, English comedian and actor (b. 1888)

• April 19 – Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (b. 1877)

• April 22 – Charles B. Middleton, American actor (b. 1874)

• April 28 – Aurora Quezon, First Lady of the Philippines (shot) (b. 1888)

• May 6 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)

• May 9 – Louis II, Prince of Monaco (b. 1870)

• May 22

• *James Forrestal, U.S. Secretary of Navy and Defense (suicide) (b. 1892)

• *Klaus Mann, German writer (suicide) (b. 1906)

• May 23 – Jan Frans De Boever, Belgian painter (b. 1872)

• May 27 – Robert Ripley, American creator of Ripley's Believe It or Not! (b. 1890)

• June 10 – Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)

• June 14 – Russell Doubleday, American author and publisher (b. 1872)

• June 19 – Syed Zafarul Hasan, Indian/Pakistani Muslim philosopher (b. 1885)

• June 25 – Buck Freeman, American baseball player (b. 1871)

July–December

• July 9 – Fritz Hart, English-born composer (b. 1874)

• July 12 – Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland (b. 1860)

• July 18 – Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer (b. 1870)

• July 26 – Linda Arvidson, American actress (b. 1884)

• August 9

• *Gustavus M. Blech, German-American physician and surgeon (b. 1870)

• *Harry Davenport, American actor (b. 1866)

• *George Edward MacKenzie Skues, British inventor of nymph fly fishing (b. 1858)

• August 16 – Margaret Mitchell, American writer (Gone With The Wind) (b. 1900)

• August 17 – Gregorio Perfecto, Filipino jurist & politician (b. 1891)

• August 18 – Paul Mares, American musician (b. 1900)

• August 23 – Domingo Díaz Arosemena, President of Panama (b. 1875)

• August 30 – Arthur Fielder, English cricketer (b. 1877)

• September 7 – José Clemente Orozco, Mexican painter (b. 1883)

• September 8 – Richard Strauss, German composer (Also Sprach Zarathustra) (b. 1864)

• September 10 – Wiley Rutledge, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1894)

• September 13 – August Krogh, Danish zoophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874)

• September 14 – Gottfried Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen, German Resistance figure (b. 1901)

• September 18 – Frank Morgan, American actor, The Wizard of Oz (b. 1890)

• September 19

• *Will Cuppy, American humorist (b. 1884)

• *George Shiels, Irish writer (b. 1886)

• *Nikolaos Skalkottas, Greek composer (b. 1901)

• September 20 – Richard Dix, American actor (b. 1893)

• September 22 – Sam Wood, American director (b. 1883)

• October 1 – Buddy Clark, American singer (b. 1911)

• October 14 – Fritz Leiber, Sr., American actor (b. 1882)

• October 15 – Elmer Clifton, American actor (b. 1890)

• October 27

• *Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (plane crash) (b. 1916)

• *Ginette Neveu, French violinist (plane crash) (b. 1919)

• October 31 – Edward Stettinius, Jr., U.S. Secretary of State (b. 1900)

• November – Maria Josepha Sophia de Iturbide, head of the Imperial House of Mexico (b. 1872)

• November 2

• *Jerome F. Donovan, American politician (b. 1872)

• *William Desmond, Irish actor (b. 1878)

• November 3 – Solomon R. Guggenheim, American philanthropist (b. 1861)

• November 5 – Abdolhossein Hazhir, Prime Minister of Iran (b. 1899)

• November 15 (executed):

• *Nathuram Godse, assassin of Mohandas Gandhi(b. 1910)

• *Narayan Apte, Hindu activist, Godse's accomplice (b. 1911)

• November 25 – Bill Robinson, American dancer (b. 1878)

• November 30 – Irene Vanbrugh, English actress (b. 1872)

• December 3 – Maria Ouspenskaya, Russian actress (b. 1876)

• December 6 – Leadbelly, American blues musician (b. 1888)

• December 11 – Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, Indian philosopher (b. 1875)

• December 16 – Sidney Olcott, Canadian film director (b. 1873)

• December 28 – Hervey Allen, American author (b. 1889)

• December 28 – Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (b. 1910)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Yukawa Hideki

• Chemistry – William Francis Giauque

• Medicine – Walter Rudolf Hess, Antonio Caetano De Abreu Freire Egas Moniz

• Literature – William Faulkner

• Peace – John Boyd Orr