1946

Events from the year **1946 in the United States**.

* Chief Justice: Harlan F. Stone (NY) (until April 22), Fred M. Vinson (KY) (starting June 24)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
* Senate Majority Leader: Alben W. Barkley (D-KY)
* Congress: 79th

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Chauncey Sparks (Democratic)
* Governor of Arizona: Sidney Preston Osborn (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: Benjamin Travis Laney (Democratic)
* Governor of California: Earl Warren (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: John Charles Vivian (Republican)
* Governor of Connecticut: Raymond E. Baldwin (Republican) (until December 27), Charles Wilbert Snow (Democratic) (starting December 27)
* Governor of Delaware: Walter W. Bacon (Republican)
* Governor of Florida: Millard F. Caldwell (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Ellis Arnall (Democratic)
* Governor of Idaho: Arnold Williams (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: Dwight H. Green (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: Ralph F. Gates (Republican)
* Governor of Iowa: Robert D. Blue (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: Andrew F. Schoeppel (Republican)
* Governor of Kentucky: Simeon S. Willis (Republican)
* Governor of Louisiana: Jimmie H. Davis (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: Horace A. Hildreth (Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: Herbert R. O'Conor (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Maurice J. Tobin (Democratic)
* Governor of Michigan: Harry Kelly (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: Edward John Thye (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: Thomas L. Bailey (Democratic) (until November 2), Fielding L. Wright (Democratic) (starting November 2)
* Governor of Missouri: Phil M. Donnelly (Democratic)
* Governor of Montana: Sam C. Ford (Republican)
* Governor of Nebraska: Dwight Griswold (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: Vail M. Pittman (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Charles M. Dale (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: Walter Evans Edge (Republican)
* Governor of New Mexico: John J. Dempsey (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Thomas E. Dewey (Republican)
* Governor of North Carolina: R. Gregg Cherry (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: Fred G. Aandahl (Republican)
* Governor of Ohio: Frank J. Lausche (Democratic)
* Governor of Oklahoma: Robert S. Kerr (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: Earl Snell (Republican)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Edward Martin (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: John Orlando Pastore (Democratic)
* Governor of South Carolina: Ransome Judson Williams (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Merrill Q. Sharpe (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: Jim Nance McCord (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Coke R. Stevenson (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah: Herbert B. Maw (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Mortimer R. Proctor (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: Colgate Darden (Democratic) (until January 16), William M. Tuck (Democratic) (starting January 16)
* Governor of Washington: Monrad C. Wallgren (Democratic)
* Governor of West Virginia: Clarence W. Meadows (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Walter S. Goodland (Republican)
* Governor of Wyoming: Lester C. Hunt (Democratic)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Leven H. Ellis (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: James Lavesque Shaver (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Frederick F. Houser (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: William Eugene Higby (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Charles Wilbert Snow (Democratic) (until December 27), vacant (starting December 27)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Elbert N. Carvel (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: vacant (until March 20), A. R. McCabe (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Hugh W. Cross (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Richard T. James (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Kenneth A. Evans (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Jess C. Denious Sr. (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Kenneth H. Tuggle (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: J. Emile Verret (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Vernon J. Brown (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: C. Elmer Anderson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Fielding L. Wright (Republican) (until November 2), vacant (starting November 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Walter Naylor Davis (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Ernest T. Eaton (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Roy W. Johnson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: James B. Jones (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Joseph R. Hanley (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Lynton Y. Ballentine (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Clarence P. Dahl (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: George D. Nye (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: James E. Berry (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: John C. Bell Jr. (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Sioux K. Grigsby (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Larry Morgan (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: John Lee Smith (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Lee E. Emerson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: William M. Tuck (Democratic) (until January 16), Lewis Preston Collins II (Democratic) (starting January 16)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: Victor A. Meyers (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Oscar Rennebohm (Republican)

## Events

### January - March

* January 6 – A revised revival of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's *Show Boat* opens on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre.
* January 17 – U.S. Senator Dennis Chávez (D-NM) calls for a vote on a Fair Employment Practice Committee bill which calls for an end to discrimination in the workplace. A filibuster prevents it from passing.
* January 25 – The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.
* January 29 – The Central Intelligence Group is established (the CIA in 1947).
* February 12 – Isaac Woodard, an African American army veteran, is beaten and blinded by police chief Lynwood Shull in Batesburg, South Carolina, an event which is brought to national attention on Orson Welles's radio show.
* February 14 – ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.
* February 18 – President Truman signs the Rescission Act of 1946 annulling benefits payable to Filipino troops who fought for the U.S. during World War II.
* February 28 – In Philadelphia, General Electric strikers and police clash.
* March 5 – In his speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill talks about the *Iron Curtain*.
* March 6 – Vietnam War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
* March 7 – The 18th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by James Stewart and Bob Hope, is held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, the first ceremony after World War II. Billy Wilder's *The Lost Weekend* wins the most awards with four, including Best Motion Picture and Best Director for Wilder. Leo McCarey's *The Bells of St. Mary's* receives the most nominations with eight.
* March 18 – The All-America Football Conference team San Francisco 49ers is formed.
* March 21 – The Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League, newly relocated from Cleveland, sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in the league since 1933.
* March 24 – BBC Home Service radio in the United Kingdom broadcasts Alistair Cooke's first *American Letter*. As *Letter from America*, this program will continue until a few weeks before Cooke's death in 2004.

### April - June

* April 1 – The 8.6 Mw Aleutian Islands earthquake affects Alaska with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (*Strong*), causing a destructive basin wide tsunami, leaving 165–173 dead.
* April 18 – The United States recognizes Josip Broz Tito's government in Yugoslavia.
* April 20 – Walt Disney's eighth feature film, *Make Mine Music*, is released. It is Disney's third of six package films to be released through the 1940s.
* April 22 – *Girouard v. United States*, a citizenship case decided in the Supreme Court, overturns the decision in *United States v. Schwimmer* (1929).
* April 23
	+ The Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League (later the Continental Basketball Association (CBA)) is founded.
	+ Howard Hughes's Western movie *The Outlaw* (1943), starring Jane Russell, goes on general release.
* May 2 – Six inmates unsuccessfully try to escape from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay; a riot occurs, the "Battle of Alcatraz".
* May 10 – The first V-2 rocket to be successfully launched in the U.S. is fired from White Sands Missile Range.
* May 21 – Manhattan Project physicist Dr. Louis Slotin accidentally triggers a fission reaction at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and, although saving his coworkers, gives himself a lethal dose of hard radiation, making him the second victim of a criticality accident in history (the incident is initially treated as classified information).
* May 23 – Dwarf Grill, predecessor of Chick-fil-A, a fast food chicken restaurant, is founded in Georgia.
* June 6 – The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City, later renamed the National Basketball Association.
* June 17
	+ The 1946 Windsor-Tecumseh, Ontario tornado on the Detroit River kills 17.
	+ Laurence Olivier's *Henry V* opens in the United States nearly 2 years after its release in the UK. It is the first Shakespeare film in color, and critics hail it as the finest film of a Shakespeare play ever made.

### July - September

* July 4 – The Philippines is granted independence by the United States.
* July 7
	+ Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.
	+ Howard Hughes nearly dies when a test flight of the Hughes XF-11 crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood due to a propeller malfunction.
* July 14 – Benjamin Spock's influential *The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care* is published.
* July 25
	+ Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus USS *Saratoga* is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, when the United States detonates the Baker device during Operation Crossroads.
	+ At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
	+ 1946 Georgia lynching: In the last mass lynching in the United States, a mob of white men shoot and kill two African-American couples near Moore's Ford Bridge in Georgia.
* August 1
	+ President Truman signs the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, which establishes the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
	+ The Fulbright Program, a system of U.S. international educational exchange scholarships, is established.
* August 25 – American golfer Ben Hogan wins the PGA Championship.
* September 15 – DuMont Television Network begins broadcasting regularly.
* September 22 – Yogi Berra makes his Major League Baseball debut, entering a game for the New York Yankees against the Philadelphia A's and hitting a home run in his first time at bat.
* September 24 – White House counsel Clark Clifford presents President Truman with a top secret report authored by George Elsey on *American Relations with the Soviet Union* which forms the basis of the U.S. policy of containment.

### October - December

* October 15 – The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Boston Red Sox, 4 games to 3, to win their 6th World Series Title in baseball.
* October 16 – The United Nations' first meeting in Long Island is held.
* November 1 – The New York Knicks play against the Toronto Huskies at the Maple Leaf Gardens, in the first Basketball Association of America game. The Knicks win 68–66.
* November 6 – Senate and House elections in the United States both give majorities to the Republicans.
* November 12 – In Chicago, a branch of the *Exchange National Bank* (later part of the LaSalle Bank) opens the first 10 drive-up teller windows.
* November 27 – Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."
* December 2 – The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling is signed in Washington, D.C. to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry" through establishment of the International Whaling Commission.
* December 5 – President Truman establishes the President's Committee on Civil Rights to investigate the status of civil rights in the United States and propose measures to strengthen and protect the civil rights of American citizens.
* December 7 – A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119.
* December 14
	+ Proposed United States purchase of Greenland from Denmark: An offer is made through diplomatic channels.
	+ Aspen Skiing Company opens Aspen Mountain (ski area) in Colorado with Ski Lift No. 1, at 6,800 ft (2.1 km) the world's longest chairlift at this time.
* December 20 – Frank Capra's *It's a Wonderful Life*, featuring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, and Thomas Mitchell, is released in New York.
* December 22 – The Havana Conference begins between U.S. organized crime bosses in Havana, Cuba.
* December 26 – The Flamingo Hotel opens on the Las Vegas Strip.
* December 31 – President Harry S. Truman delivers Proclamation 2714, which officially ends hostilities in World War II.

## Memoriam

### January

* January 3 – William Joyce, Nazi propaganda broadcaster (executed) (aged 39; London, England, UK)
* January 5 – Kitty Cheatham, singer (aged 82; Greenwich, CT, USA)
* January 6 – Slim Summerville, actor (aged 53; Laguna Beach, CA, USA)
* January 9 – Countee Cullen, African American poet (aged 42; Harlem, NY, USA)
* January 10 – Harry Von Tilzer, songwriter (aged 73; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 29
	+ Harry Hopkins, politician (aged 55; New York City, NY, USA)
	+ Adriaan van Maanen, astronomer (aged 61; Pasadena, CA, USA)

### February

* February 2 – Rondo Hatton, film character actor (aged 51; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* February 15
	+ Putney Dandridge, African American jazz musician (aged 44; Wall Township, NJ, USA)
	+ Cornelius Johnson, athlete (aged 32; CA, USA)
* February 17 – Dorothy Gibson, silent film actress and model (aged 56; Paris, France)
* February 21 – Theodore Stark Wilkinson, admiral (aged 57; Norfolk, VA, USA)
* February 26 – Jackie, MGM lion (aged 31; CA, USA)

### March

* March 2 – George E. Stewart, Medal of Honor recipient (aged 73; Portland, TX, USA)
* March 3 – Pauline Whittier, golfer (aged 78; Bronx, NY, USA)
* March 23 – Gilbert N. Lewis, chemist (aged 70; Berkeley, CA, USA)

### April

* April 1
	+ Noah Beery, actor (aged 64; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
	+ Edward Sheldon, playwright (aged 60; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 2 – Kate Bruce, silent film actress (aged 86; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 5 – Vincent Youmans, Broadway composer (aged 47; Denver, CO, USA)
* April 8 – A. Victor Donahey, 50th Governor of Ohio (aged 72; Columbus, OH, USA)
* April 14 – Otto Dowling, Captain (USN) and 25th Governor of American Samoa (aged 65; Trumbull, CT, USA)
* April 20 – Mae Busch, film actress (aged 54; San Fernando Valley, CA, USA)
* April 22 – Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States (aged 73; Washington, DC, USA)

### May

* May 1 – Bill Johnston, tennis player (aged 51; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* May 2 – Simon Flexner, pathologist and bacteriologist (aged 83; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 19 – Booth Tarkington, novelist (aged 76; Indianapolis, IN, USA)
* May 25 – Patty Hill, nursery teacher and co-composer of "Happy Birthday to You" (aged 78; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 28
	+ Carter Glass, 47th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (aged 88; Washington, DC, USA)
	+ John H. Taylor, Mormon (aged 70; Salt Lake City, UT, USA)

### June

* June 2 – Carrie Ingalls, younger sister of author Laura Ingalls Wilder (aged 75; Keystone, SD, USA)
* June 10 – Jack Johnson, African American heavyweight boxer (aged 68; Franklinton, NC, USA)
* June 13 – Edward Bowes, radio personality (aged 71; Rumson, NJ, USA)
* June 14 – Charles Butterworth, comic actor (aged 49; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 19 – Charles Hunter Corregan, printer and politician (aged 85; Syracuse, NY, USA)
* June 23 – William S. Hart, stage actor and silent film cowboy star (aged 81; Newhall, CA, USA)
* June 27 – Wanda Gág, artist, author, translator and illustrator (aged 53; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 28 – Antoinette Perry, actress and director (aged 58; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 30 – Howard Hyde Russell, founder of the Anti-Saloon League (aged 90; New York City, NY, USA)

### July

* July 2 – Mary Alden, stage and screen actress (aged 63; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 8 – Orrick Glenday Johns, poet and playwright (aged 59; Danbury, CT, USA)
* July 12 – Ray Stannard Baker, journalist and author (aged 76; Amherst, MA, USA)
* July 13 – Alfred Stieglitz, photographer (aged 82; New York City, NY, USA)
* July 14 – Riley Puckett, country musician (aged 52; East Point, GA, USA)
* July 20 – Tricky Sam Nanton, trombonist (aged 42; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* July 27 – Gertrude Stein, writer (aged 72; Neuilly-sur-Seine, France)

### August

* August 6 – Tony Lazzeri, baseball player (New York Yankees) (aged 42; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* August 26 – Jeanie MacPherson, film actress and screenwriter (aged 60; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* August 28 – Florence Turner, film actress (aged 61; Woodland Hills, CA, USA)
* August 29 – John Steuart Curry, painter (aged 48; Madison, WI, USA)

### September

* September 16 – Mamie Smith, African American vaudeville performer and blues singer (aged 55; Staten Island, NY, USA)
* September 17 – Frank Burke, baseball player (aged 66; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 21
	+ Lydia J. Newcomb Comings, educator (aged 96; Fairhope, AL, USA)
	+ Miles Poindexter, U.S. Senator from Washington from 1911 to 1923 (aged 78; Rockbridge County, VA, USA)
* September 23 – Rosa Lee Tucker, librarian (aged 80; Vancouver, BC, Canada)
* September 26 – William Strunk Jr., professor of English (aged 77; Poughkeepsie, NY, USA)

### October

* October 4
	+ Barney Oldfield, race car driver and automobile pioneer (aged 68; Culver City, CA, USA)
	+ Gifford Pinchot, 28th Governor of Pennsylvania (aged 81; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 9 – Enrica Clay Dillon, opera singer (aged 61; Harrison, ME, USA)
* October 12 – Joseph Stilwell, general (aged 63; San Francisco, CA, USA)

### November

* November 5 – Joseph Stella, Futurist painter (aged 69; New York City, NY, USA)
* November 7 – Henry Lehrman, film director (aged 65; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* November 23 – Arthur Dove, abstract painter (aged 66; Huntington, NY, USA)
* November 25 – George Gandy, entrepreneur (aged 95; St. Petersburg, FL, USA)

### December

* December 7 – Laurette Taylor, stage and silent film actress (aged 63; New York City, NY, USA)
* December 10
	+ Walter Johnson, baseball player (Washington Senators) (aged 59; Washington, DC, USA)
	+ Damon Runyon, short-story writer (aged 66; New York City, NY, USA)
* December 13 – Curtis Hidden Page, New Hampshire politician (aged 76; Laconia, NH, USA)
* December 14 – Tom Dowse, baseball player (aged 80; Riverside, CA, USA)
* December 16 – Zachary Taylor Davis, Chicago architect (aged 77; Chicago, IL, USA)
* December 23 – John A. Sampson, gynecologist (aged 73; Albany, NY, USA)
* December 25 – W. C. Fields, comic actor (aged 66; Pasadena, CA, USA)
* December 28
	+ Carrie Jacobs-Bond, singer-songwriter (aged 84; Hollywood, CA, USA)
	+ Elie Nadelman, sculptor (aged 64; Riverdale, NY, USA)