World Happenings: 1948
Jan. 4-Burma gains independence from Britain.Jan. 30-Mohandas Gandhi is shot and killed by a Hindu extremist.
Feb. 29-Communist Party leaders in Czechoslovakia move to seize complete control of the country after toppling the government a few days earlier.
April 24-The U.S. and Britain begin airlifting food and supplies to Berlin to thwart a Soviet blockade aimed at driving the allies out of the former German capital.
May 1-The Soviet-supported government in North Korea adopts a constitution claiming sovereignty over the whole country.
May 31-Two weeks after the state of Israel is proclaimed, armies from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq invade.
World Happenings: 1949
Jan. 10-One day after Columbia Records reveals details of its 45 rpm record, RCA-Victor demonstrates its new system, involving records, record changers and turntables.Feb. 1-President Truman says he favors a planned economy to prevent an economic crash.
April 16-American and British planes are now landing a plane every 61.8 seconds in Berlin after nearly 10 months of Soviet blockades.
May 12-Cheers break out in Berlin after Soviets agree to end their blockade and opposition to creating an independent West Germany.
Sept. 19-480,000 UMW members strike.
Oct. 1-Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung proclaims the new People's Republic.
Oct. 1-500,000 steelworkers strike.
Oct. 29-Truman raises the minimum wage from 40 to 74 cents per hour.
Dec. 10-150,000 French troops mass at Vietnam's border to prevent a Chinese invasion.
Cultural events-Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (Pulitzer Prize), Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Rossen's "All the King's Men" (Academy Award)
World Happenings: 1950
Jan. 31-Truman asks for a hydrogen bomb, which would be 100 to 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb.March 5-A survey of 11- to 15-year-olds reveals that they spend as much time watching television as they spend in school. Milton Berle hosts the most popular show.
June 17-The first human kidney transplant is performed in Chicago.
June 25-North Korean forces invade South Korea.
July 31-Truman authorizes a broad military buildup for war in Korea. The North Koreans have swept through most of South Korea; U.N. and American troops have retreated to a heavily defended coastal strip in the south.
Aug. 8-American Florence Chadwick breaks a 24-year-old record, swimming the 22-mile-wide English Channel in 13 hours, 23 minutes.
Dec. 1-Drive-in theatres total 2,200, double the previous year.
Dec. 4-The University of Tennessee defies the courts, rejecting admission of five black students.
World Happenings: 1951
Feb. 2-Radiation detectors in the eastern U.S. measure an increase in radiation from recent atomic bomb tests in Nevada.June 13-U.N. troops seize Pyongyang in N. Korea.
Aug. 29-A hero's burial in Arlington National Cemetery is arranged by Truman for a Winnebago Indian who gave his life on a Korean battlefield but was denied burial in a Sioux City, IA, cemetery because of his race.
Oct. 22-The Air Force drops the first air-to-ground tactical nuclear weapon in a test in Nevada.
Dec. 24-Libya, a former Italian colony, gains independence.
World Happenings: 1952
April 8-Truman seizes control of steel mills to avert a strike.May 3-Eddie Arcaro takes an unprecedented fifth Kentucky Derby on Hill Gail.
July 14-GM perfects an air conditioning unit that will be available on 1953 model cars.
Sept. 24-Richard Nixon defends the existence of a questionable political fund in his famous "Checkers" speech.
Nov. 16-The Atomic Energy Commission says a hydrogen bomb is ready for use.
Nov. 5-Eisenhower is elected president in a landslide over Adlai Stevenson.
World Happenings: 1953
Feb. 15-Tenley Albright, a 17-year-old from Boston, wins the world figure-skating championship following a six-year comeback from polio.March 26-A vaccine against polio developed by Dr. Jonas Salk is successfully tested in 90 adults and children.
April 28-French forces in Laos lose another outpost in the northern part of the country to Communist forces from Vietnam.
June 2-Edward Hillary of New Zealand and his Nepalese guide become the first people to scale Mt. Everest, the world's tallest at more than 29,000 feet above sea level.
June 19-Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are executed for espionage.
July 28-An armistice takes effect in Korea.
Aug. 14-The Soviets say they have developed their own hydrogen bomb.
Nov. 24-McCarthy accuses the Truman administration of aiding Communists, saying the administration had "crawled" with them.