Title: 1949 Content: == Events == * January 20 – Harry S. Truman proposes Point Four program to help world's less developed areas. * 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. * April 4 – Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). * April 18 - Ireland Act 1949 comes into effect and ceased being in the British Commonwealth. * May 11 – Siam changes its name to Thailand. * September 21 – The German Federal Republic (West Germany) established. * October 1 – The founding of the People's Republic of China is announced by Mao Zedong. * October 7 – The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is established. * December 27 – Indonesia's independence is recognised by the Netherlands. == Births == * January 12 – Murakami Haruki, Japanese writer * January 12 – Ottmar Hitzfeld, German football manager * February 5 – Kurt Beck, German politician * February 22 – Niki Lauda, Austrian racecar driver * February 24 – John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982) * March 28 - Kevin Lloyd, British actor (d. 1998) * April 7 - Wells Kelly, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans) (d. 1984) * April 11 – Bernd Eichinger, German movie producer * April 19 – Joachim Sauer, husband of German chancellor Angela Merkel * April 20 – Jessica Lange, American actress * May 9 – Billy Joel, American singer * May 13 – Zoe Wanamaker, actress * May 23 – Alan Garcia, President of Peru (d. 2019) * May 26 – Jeremy Corbyn, English politician * June 6 – Robert Englund, American actor * June 18 – Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Polish politician * June 18 – Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland (d. 2010) * June 20 – Lionel Richie, American singer and musician * June 22 – Meryl Streep, American actress * July 4 – Horst Seehofer, German politician * July 17 - Geezer Butler, English bass guitarist (Black Sabbath) * July 22 - Alan Menken, American pianist and theatre composer * July 26 – Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai politician * July 26 – Roger Taylor, British musician (Queen) * August 1 – Kurmanbek Bakiyev, former President of Kyrgyzstan * August 15 – Ivan Boldirev, Russian ice hockey player * August 20 - Phil Lynott, Irish bass guitarist (Thin Lizzy) (d. 1986) * August 25 - Gene Simmons, American singer-songwriter and musician (Kiss) * August 31 – Richard Gere, American actor * September 9 – Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia * September 13 - Dennis Pendrith, Canadian bass player * September 19 – Twiggy, British model * September 23 – Bruce Springsteen, American singer and musician * October 3 - Lindsey Buckingham, American guitarist (Fleetwood Mac) * October 4 - Armand Assante, American actor * October 8 – Sigourney Weaver, American actress * October 9 - Bob Leinbach, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans) * October 13 - Rick Vito, American guitarist (Fleetwood Mac) * October 21 – Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli politician * October 25 - Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., American voice actor * November 14 - James "J.Y." Young, American guitarist (Styx) * December 1 – Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord (d. 1993) * December 12 – Marc Ravalomanana, former President of Madagascar * December 21 – Thomas Sankara, President of Burkina Faso (d. 1987) * December 22 – Maurice Gibb, singer (Bee Gees) (d. 2003) * December 22 – Robin Gibb, singer (Bee Gees) (d. 2012) * December 25 – Sissy Spacek, American actress * December 26 – Jose Ramos Horta, President of East Timor == Deaths == * January 6 – Victor Fleming, American director (b. 1883) * January 11 – Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (b. 1889) * January 14 – Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (b. 1882) * January 28 – Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (b. 1908) * February 12 – Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906) * March 30 – Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1884) * April 19 – Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (b. 1877) * 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) * May 22 – Klaus Mann, German writer (suicide) (b. 1906) * June 10 – Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882) * June 14 – Russell Doubleday, American writer and publisher (b. 1872) * July 9 – Fritz Bennicke Hart, English-born composer (b. 1874) * July 12 – Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland (b. 1860) * July 18 – Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer (b. 1870) * August 18 – Paul Mares, American musician (b. 1900) * August 30 – Arthur Fielder, English cricketer (b. 1877) * September 8 – Richard Strauss, German composer (b. 1864) * September 13 – August Krogh, Danish zoophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874) * September 19 – Will Cuppy, American humorist (b. 1884) * September 19 – Nikolaos Skalkottas, Greek composer (b. 1901) * October 27 – Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (plane crash) (b. 1916) * October 27 – Ginette Neveu, French violinist (plane crash) (b. 1919) * December 6 – Leadbelly, American musician (b. 1885) * December 11 – Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, Indian philosopher (b. 1875) * December 16 – Sidney Olcott, Canadian movie director (b. 1873) * December 28 – Hervey Allen, American writer (b. 1889) * December 28 – Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (b. 1910) == Awards == * * == Movies released == * Adam's Rib * Kind Hearts and Coronets * Samson and Delilah * The Third Man == New Books == * The Aleph – Jorge Luis Borges * Alien Land – Willard W. Savoy * The Angry Wife – Pearl S. Buck * Beneath The Sky – Alfred Q. Jarrette * Beyond Earth's Gates – C. L. Moore * Bright Leaf – Foster Fitzsimmons * Cannibal – John Hawkes * Crooked House – Agatha Christie * The Dream Merchants – Harold Robbins * The Egyptian – Mika Waltari * Father of the Bride – Edward Streeter * The Golden Sequence – Martha E. Von Almedingen * The Heat of the Day – Elixabeth Bowen * King of the Wind – Marguerite Henry * Let Love Come Last – Taylor Caldwell * Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford * Male and Female – Margaret Mead * The Man with the Golden Arm – Nelson Algren * Men of Maize – Miguel Angel Asturias * The Miracles of the Red Altar Cloth – Hermann L. Hunter * Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell * Pride's Castle – Frank Yerby * A Rage To Live – John O'Hara * The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir * To Hell and Back – Audie Murphy * Shane – Jack Schaefer * The Sheltering Sky – Paul Bowles * A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute * The Trial – Franz Kafka * Trouble with Harry – Jack Story