Lieutenant Governor of California: Goodwin Knight (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Homer L. Pearson (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Walter Walford Johnson (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Frank L. Hagaman (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Lawrence Wetherby (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: William J. Dodd (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Arthur W. Coolidge (Republican) (until January 6), Charles F. Sullivan (Republican) (starting January 6)
Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Eugene C. Keyes (Republican) (until month and day unknown), John W. Connolly (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Sioux K. Grigsby (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Rex A. Terry (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: George Oliver Benton (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Lee E. Emerson (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Harold J. Arthur (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Lewis Preston Collins II (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Washington: Victor A. Meyers (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Oscar Rennebohm (Republican) (until January 3), George M. Smith (Republican) (starting January 3)
Events[]
January–March[]
January 20: Harry S. Truman, the President of the United States, begins his full term
Alben W. Barkley becomes the 35th U.S. Vice President
January 2 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
January 4 – RMS Caronia (1947) of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York City on her maiden voyage.
January 4–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 – President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
January 11 – Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.
January 17 – The first Volkswagen Beetle to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York City 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 – President Harry S. Truman begins his full term. Alben W. Barkley sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
January 25 – The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
February 10 – Arthur Miller's tragedy Death of a Salesman opens at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway in New York City with Lee J. Cobb in the title rôle of Willy Loman and runs for 742 performances.
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 2 – The B-50 SuperfortressLucky 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 24 – The 21st Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Robert Montgomery, is held at the Academy Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Laurence Olivier's Hamlet wins the most awards with four, including Best Picture, while John Huston wins Best Director for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Jean Negulesco's Johnny Belinda receives the most nominations with 12.
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 DefenseJames Forrestal resigns suddenly.
April–June[]
April 4: NATO
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 13 – The 6.7 MwOlympia earthquake affected the Puget Sound region of western Washington with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing eight deaths and $25 million in damage.
April 23 – Development of the USS United States (CVA-58) "supercarrier" is cancelled; high-ranking Navy officials resign in protest in what has been called the Revolt of the Admirals.
May ? – A working group has been set up by United States Department of State, to codify the White Paper. This team consists of more than 80 staff members, led by Secretary of StateDean Acheson, former Columbia University Professor of Public International Law Philip C. Jessup.[1][2]
June 8 – Red Scare: Celebrities including 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.
June 14 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, becomes the first primate to enter space, on Hermes projectV-2rocketBlossom IVB, but is killed on impact at return.
June 19 – Glenn Dunaway 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.
July–September[]
August 10: Department of Defense
August 5 – United States Department of State published The China White Paper as Department of State Publication 3573, entitled "United States Relations With China, With Special Reference to the Period 1944–1949."[3]
August 10 – The National Military Establishment (formerly the Department of War) is renamed the Department of Defense.
August 16 – Office of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff created.
August 28 – The last 6 surviving veterans of the American Civil War meet in Indianapolis.
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 15 – The Housing Act of 1949 is enacted.
September 29 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" during World War II.
October–December[]
Adm. Gerald F. Bogan meets Shah of Iran, December 3, 1949
October 5 – Walt Disney Productions' eleventh feature film, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, is released. It is Disney's final package film to be released during the 1940s and the last the studio would produce until 1977's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
October 9 - The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4 games to 1, to win their 12th World Series Title.
October 27 – An airliner flying from Paris to New York City crashes in the Azores island of São Miguel. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu and boxer Marcel Cerdan.
Ashawna Hailey, computer scientist and philanthropist (d. 2011)
Mark Hopkinson, mass murderer and proxy killer (d. 1992)
Sigourney Weaver (Susan Weaver), film actress
October 24
Chester Marcol, American football player
John Markoff, journalist and author
Stan White, American football player and sportscaster
October 25 – Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., film producer, record producer, singer and voice artist (son of Alvin and the Chipmunks creator Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.)
November 2 – Lois McMaster Bujold, author of speculative fiction
November 10 – Ann Reinking, actress, dancer and choreographer (d. 2020)
November 12 – Jack Reed, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 1997
November 14 – James Young, hard rock singer-songwriter and guitarist (Styx)
November 29
Jerry Lawler, wrestler
Garry Shandling, comedian (died 2016)
December 4 – Jeff Bridges, film actor
December 9 – Tom Kite, golfer
December 13
Randy Owen, country lead vocalist, rhythm guitar player
Tom Verlaine, rock singer/guitarist
December 14 – Bill Buckner, baseball player (died 2019)
December 15 – Don Johnson, television actor
December 16 – Billy Gibbons, rock guitarist (ZZ Top)
December 20 – Cecil Cooper, baseball player and manager
December 22 – Oscar Gamble, baseball player (died 2018)
December 25
Sissy Spacek, film actress
Joe Louis Walker, African American electric blues musician
December 28 – Barbara De Fina, film producer
Deaths[]
January 6 – Victor Fleming, film director (born 1889)
January 11 – Nelson Doubleday, publisher (born 1889)
January 14 – Harry Stack Sullivan, psychiatrist (born 1892)
February 1 – Herbert Stothart, composer (born 1885)