1948

Events
January 1 - Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways. Arab militants lay siege to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. First day of the Italian republican constitution.
January 4 - Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
January 5 - Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
January 17 - Truce between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops in Java
January 26 - Teigin poison case - Man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 out of 15 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced for the crime.
January 30 - Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is murdered by a Hindu extremist.
January 30 - 1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
February 1 - Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.
February 4 - Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth. King George VI becomes King of Ceylon.
February 18 - Eamon de Valera, head of government since 1932, loses power to an opposition coalition. John A. Costello is appointed Taoiseach of Eire (formerly called the Irish Free State) by President O'Kelly.
February 24 - The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia.
Works begins on the Crazy Horse Memorial.
May 13 - First Kashmir War between India and Pakistan
April-May - Israel's independence day.
Births
January 9 - Asztalos Lajos, Hungarian politician and priest
January 14 - Carl Weathers, actor
January 14 - T-Bone Burnett, producer, musician
January 16 - John Carpenter, director
January 24 - Elliot Abrams, deputy national security adviser
February 5 - Barbara Hershey, actress
February 19 - Tony Iommi, English guitarist (Black Sabbath)
February 20 - Jennifer O'Neill, actress
March 6 - Stephen Schwartz, American lyricist
March 12 - James Taylor, American folk guitarist
March 22 - Andrew Lloyd Webber
March 26 - Fodor Cseh, Hungarian politician and Shepherds
March 26 - Steven Tyler, American singer (Aerosmith)
May 5 - Bill Ward, English drummer (Black Sabbath)
May 12 - Ivan Kral, Czech-American musician
May 13 - Leon Coetzee, loverboy and attorney
May 26 - Stevie Nicks, American singer (Fleetwood Mac)
May 31 - John Bonham, English drummer (Led Zeppelin) (d. 1980)
June 22 - Todd Rundgren, singer, songwriter, producer
July 4 - Jeremy Spencer, English guitarist (Fleetwood Mac)
July 8 - Raffi, Canadian children's musician
July 21 - Cat Stevens, English folk musician
July 23 - John Hall, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans)
July 30 - Jean Reno, actor
August 5 - David Hungate, American bass guitarist (Toto)
August 6 - Alan Howarth, American sound designer
August 20 - Robert Plant, English singer (Led Zeppelin)
August 30 - Victor Skumin, professor, philosopher, writer.
September 20 - Chuck Panozzo, American bass guitarist (Styx)
September 20 - John Panozzo, American drummer (Styx) (d. 1996)
September 26 - Olivia Newton-John, Australian entertainer (d. 2022)
September 29 - Theo Jorgensmann, German jazz clarinet player
October 9 - Jackson Browne, songwriter
October 17 - Margot Kidder, Canadian actress
October 25 - Diana Burrell, English composer
November 6 - Glenn Frey, American singer-songwriter and musician (Eagles) (d. 2016)
November 14 - King Charles III, British monarch
November 28 - Agnieszka Holland, Polish director and script writer
December 3 - Ozzy Osbourne, singer/songwriter (Black Sabbath)
December 10 - Abu Abbas, terrorist
December 22 - Rick Nielsen, American guitarist (Cheap Trick)
December 27 - Gerard Depardieu, French actor
Deaths
January 21 - Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer
January 30 - Mohandas Gandhi, Leader of Indian Non-Violent Independence movement (assassinated)
January 30 - Orville Wright of the Wright brothers, co-inventor of the airplane
February 2 - Bevil Rudd, South African athlete
February 11 - Sergey Eisenstein, movie director
March 6 - Ross Lockridge, Jr., novelist
March 10 - Zelda Fitzgerald (Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald)
March 10 - Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia
March 31 - Egon Erwin Kisch, journalist and writer
April 9 - Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, Colombian politician (b. 1903)
April 17 - Suzuki Kantaro, Japanese admiral and prime minister
May 15 - Father Edward J. Flanagan, priest, founder of Boys Town
May 28 - Unity Mitford, British friend of Hitler
June 25 - William C. Lee, Maj, General United States Army (b. 1895)
July 23 - David Wark Griffith, movie director
August 12 - Harry Brearley, inventor of stainless steel
August 16 - Babe Ruth, Baseball Hall of Famer
September 11 - Muhammad Ali Jinnah, first Governor-General and founder of Pakistan.
October 24 - Franz Lehar, composer
November 28 - D.D. Sheehan first independent Labour MP. in Ireland
December 23 - Kenji Doihara, Koki Hirota, Seishiro Itagaki, Heitaro Kimura, Iwane Matsui, Akira Muto, and Hideki Tojo, Japanese war leaders (hanged)
December 31 - Sir Malcolm Campbell, land and water racer (b. 1885)
Movies Released
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Scott of the Antarctic
New Books
Ape and Essence - Aldous Huxley
Catalina - W. Somerset Maugham
Concluding - Henry Green
Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
The Foundling - Georgette Heyer
The Golden Warrior - Hope Muntz
Guard of Honor - James Gould Cozzens
The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene
The Hearth and the Eagle - Anya Seton
The House of Sleep - Anna Kavan
Ides of March - Thornton Wilder
John Aubrey and His Friends - Anthony Powell
Joseph and His Brothers - Thomas Mann
Last Of The Conquerors - William Gardner Smith
The Living Is Easy - Dorothy West
The Mask of Circe - C. L. Moore
Melissa (novel) - Taylor Caldwell
My Glorious Brothers - Howard Fast
The Naked and the Dead - Norman Mailer
Parris Mitchell of King's Row - Henry Bellamann
Raintree County - Ross Lockridge, Jr.