1949

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 - Joaquin 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 - Vitezslav Novak, 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