1946

Events in 1946 80

• 1864 – 1946 William S. Hart (1864-1946) American actor and director, the first great cowboy star of silent film.
• 1866 – 1946 H. G. Wells English science fiction writer Wells pioneered science fiction with works like The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds.
• 1868 – 1946 George Arliss (1868-1946) English actor, the first British winner of the Oscar for Best Actor, for Disraeli.
• 1869 – 1946 Karl Haushofer (1869-1946) Died 10 March 1946, aged 76 Haushofer was a German geographer whose theories of "living space" influenced Nazi expansionist ideology, though he was never a party member himself. He died by suicide together with his wife at their home in Bavaria after being investigated for war crimes.
• 1872 – 1946 Paul Langevin (1872-1946) Died 19 December 1946, aged 74 Langevin was a French physicist known for his work on magnetism and for the Langevin equation used in statistical physics, as well as for developing sonar technology during the First World War. He died in Paris.
• 1874 – 1946 Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) Died 27 July 1946, aged 72 Stein was an American writer and art collector whose Paris salon brought together Picasso, Hemingway, and other leading modernists. Her experimental prose and patronage helped define modernist literature and art in the early twentieth century. She died in France following surgery for stomach cancer.
• 1880 – 1946 Damon Runyon (1880-1946) Died 10 December 1946, aged 66 Runyon was an American journalist and short-story writer whose colorful tales of Broadway gamblers and gangsters later inspired the musical "Guys and Dolls". He died of throat cancer in New York City.
• 1880 – 1946 W. C. Fields (1880-1946) Died 25 December 1946, aged 66 Fields was an American comedian and actor known for his misanthropic persona and distinctive drawl in films such as "The Bank Dick" and "My Little Chickadee". He died in Pasadena, California, after years of heavy drinking had damaged his health.
• 1883 – 1946 John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) Died 21 April 1946, aged 62 Keynes was the British economist whose theories on government intervention and fiscal policy reshaped twentieth-century economics. He played a central role in designing the postwar Bretton Woods financial system and represented Britain at its founding conference in 1944. He died of a heart attack at his home in Sussex.
• 1888 – 1946 John Logie Baird (1888-1946) Died 14 June 1946, aged 57 Baird was a Scottish engineer who demonstrated the first working television system in 1926 and pioneered mechanical television broadcasting in Britain. He died in Bexhill-on-Sea, England, after suffering a stroke.
• 1893 – 1946 Hermann Goering (1893-1946) Died 15 October 1946, aged 53 Goering was Adolf Hitler's designated successor and commander of the Luftwaffe, convicted at Nuremberg of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He took a smuggled cyanide capsule in his cell hours before his scheduled execution.
• 1903 – 1946 Countee Cullen (1903-1946) Died 9 January 1946, aged 42 Cullen was an American poet and a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, celebrated for verse that blended classical form with themes of Black identity and pride. He died in New York City of complications from high blood pressure.
• 1906 – 1946 William Joyce (1906-1946) Died 3 January 1946, aged 39 Joyce was a British fascist better known as "Lord Haw-Haw", the sardonic voice of Nazi propaganda broadcasts to Britain during the Second World War. He was convicted of high treason and hanged at Wandsworth Prison in London.
• 1946 – 2026 Dave Mason (1946-2026) Died 19 April 2026, aged 79 British singer-songwriter who co-founded Traffic, the band that brought long, jazz-like improvisation into rock.
• 1946 – 2025 David Lynch -- filmmaker, painter, surrealist David Keith Lynch (20 January 1946 - 15 January 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor whose surrealist vision of America made him one of the most influential directors in the history of cinema. In a career spanning more than fifty years he directed only ten feature films, but among them were works -- Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive -- widely regarded as masterpieces. He co-created Twin Peaks with Mark Frost, transforming American television. His distinctive style gave rise to the adjective 'Lynchian', denoting a quality of uncanny menace beneath surfaces of normality. He received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, the Palme d''Or at Cannes, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. A lifelong smoker, he died of cardiac arrest caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, five days before his 79th birthday.
• 1946 – 2025 Diane Keaton (1946-2025) Died 11 October 2025, aged 79 American actress and director who won an Academy Award for Annie Hall and moved from quirky comedy to some of the most respected dramatic work of her generation.
• 1946 – 1971 Duane Allman (1946-1971) Died 29 October 1971, aged 24 Duane Allman was a guitarist and founder of the Allman Brothers Band, celebrated for his slide guitar work and session contributions to recordings including Derek and the Dominos' Layla. He died in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia, shortly after the band's breakthrough live album. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential rock guitarists of his era.
• 1946 ENIAC unveiled ENIAC unveiled ENIAC was unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania on 15 February 1946, a 27-tonne machine of some 18,000 vacuum tubes built to compute artillery firing tables. It was programmed by physically rewiring it, work done largely by six women mathematicians whose contribution went unacknowledged for decades. It was the first general-purpose electronic computer.
• 1946 – 1973 Gram Parsons (1946-1973) Died 19 September 1973, aged 26 American musician Gram Parsons, a pioneer of country rock through his work with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and as a solo artist, died of a drug overdose in Joshua Tree, California. His influence shaped the sound of country rock for decades after his death.
• 1946 – 2023 Jimmy Buffett (1946-2023) Died 1 September 2023, aged 76 American singer-songwriter whose Margaritaville became both a song and a business empire.
• 1946 – 2025 Marianne Faithfull (1946-2025) Died 30 January 2025, aged 78 British singer and actress, a defining figure of 1960s London who overcame addiction to make some of the most candid records of her generation.
• 1946 Name chosen from a hat Staff at Madison Square Garden draw names from a hat; "Knickerbockers" — after Father Knickerbocker, symbol of old New York — is the overwhelming choice.
• 1946 – 2026 Nedra Talley (1946-2026) Died 26 April 2026, aged 80 American singer with the Ronettes, whose Be My Baby remains one of the defining records of the girl-group era.
• 1946 – 1982 Paasikivi-Kekkonen Line Cold War Neutrality A foreign policy doctrine of neutrality and maintaining good relations with the Soviet Union to preserve independence.
• 1946 – present Sony Sony Corporation — founded in 1946 in a bombed-out department store in Tokyo by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita — transformed from a small radio repair shop into one of the most admired consumer electronics companies in the world. Sony pioneered the transistor radio, the Trinitron television, the Walkman, the CD, the PlayStation and the Blu-ray disc. At its peak in the 1980s it was the most innovative consumer electronics company on earth. Its decline in the 2000s — blindsided by the iPod, the smartphone and the rise of Korean manufacturers — is one of the great corporate cautionary tales. Its reinvention through gaming, music, film and imaging sensors is one of the great comebacks.
• 1946 Soviet Famine of 1946-47 Begins Drought and postwar grain shortages trigger mass starvation A severe drought across Ukraine, Moldova, and parts of Russia combined with high state grain procurement quotas to produce a famine that killed an estimated one to two million people. The crisis was worsened by Soviet exports of grain abroad even as rural populations starved.
• 1946 The Bonampak murals are found Chiapas, Mexico Guided by Lacandón Maya, outsiders entered three painted rooms showing a battle and the torture of prisoners. The image of the peaceful Maya did not survive the photographs.
• 1946 Australian Open 1946 — return from war Men: John Bromwich · Women: Nancye Wynne Bolton First Australian Open after World War II.
• 1946 – 2006 Syd Barrett (1946-2006) Died 7 July 2006, aged 60 Syd Barrett, founding member and original guitarist of Pink Floyd, died of complications from diabetes at his home in Cambridge, England. He left the band in 1968 after struggles with mental health, becoming a reclusive figure. His early songwriting shaped the band's psychedelic sound.
• 1946 First United Nations General Assembly Convenes Fifty-one member states meet in London The United Nations General Assembly held its inaugural session at Central Hall Westminster in London. Delegates from the fifty-one founding member states elected Trygve Lie of Norway as the first Secretary-General and chose New York City as the future permanent headquarters.
• 1946 – 2026 Dolly Parton Queen of Country American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist widely known as the Queen of Country. Born the fourth of twelve children in a one-room cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, she rose from poverty to become one of the most beloved figures in American life. Over a career spanning six decades, she wrote over 3,000 songs, sold more than 100 million records, won eleven Grammy Awards and was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Beyond music, she created the Dollywood theme park, founded the Imagination Library — which has provided nearly 308 million free books to children worldwide — and helped fund the development of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
• 1946 – 2010 Malcolm McLaren (1946-2010) Died 8 April 2010, aged 64 McLaren was an English impresario and musician who managed the Sex Pistols and helped shape the aesthetics of the British punk movement as a boutique owner and provocateur. He later pursued a varied career in music and art. He died of mesothelioma, a cancer linked to asbestos exposure.
• 1946 – 1999 Gene Siskel (1946-1999) Died 20 February 1999, aged 53 Gene Siskel was a Chicago film critic who co-hosted the influential television review show Siskel & Ebert with Roger Ebert. Their thumbs up/down format became a standard reference in film criticism. He died following complications from surgery for a brain tumor.
• 1946 – 2003 Gregory Hines (1946-2003) Died 9 August 2003, aged 57 Gregory Hines was a tap dancer and actor credited with helping revive tap as a popular art form. He starred on Broadway and in films including 'The Cotton Club' and 'White Nights', and won a Tony Award for 'Jelly's Last Jam'.
• 1946 – present Shahrnush Parsipur Iranian Novelist Iranian novelist, short-story writer and translator whose magical realist fiction about women's lives under patriarchal oppression made her one of the most important and persecuted writers in modern Persian literature. Imprisoned four times under both the Shah and the Islamic Republic for her writing and political dissent, she lived the last 32 years of her life in exile in California. Her most celebrated work, Women Without Men (1990), was banned in Iran, adapted into a Venice Film Festival award-winning film, and longlisted for the International Booker Prize in the year of her death.
• 1946 – 2016 Alan Rickman (1946-2016) Died 14 January 2016, aged 69 Rickman was an English actor known for roles including Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films and Hans Gruber in Die Hard. He built a distinguished career on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company before his film breakthrough. He died of pancreatic cancer.
• 1946 Juan Peron Elected President of Argentina Populist leader wins Argentina's first postwar election Juan Domingo Peron won Argentina's presidential election with the backing of labor unions and the working class. His presidency would reshape Argentine politics for decades through the movement that came to bear his name, Peronism.
• 1946 Bank of England Nationalised British government takes central bank into public ownership The Attlee government brought the Bank of England under state ownership through the Bank of England Act, ending nearly two and a half centuries as a privately owned institution. The move was part of a broader postwar nationalisation program that also brought coal and civil aviation under public control.
• 1946 Churchill Delivers the Iron Curtain Speech Churchill warns of Soviet expansion across Europe Speaking at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill declared that an "iron curtain" had descended across the continent, separating Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe from the West. Though Churchill was no longer prime minister, the speech crystallized Western fears of Soviet expansion and is widely regarded as marking the rhetorical opening of the Cold War.
• 1946 Transjordan Gains Full Independence Kingdom recognized by Britain's government The United Kingdom recognized the full independence of Transjordan, ending its status as a League of Nations mandate. Abdullah I, who had ruled as emir, became king of the newly sovereign state, which was later renamed Jordan.
• 1946 – present Al Green Soul singer, pastor American soul singer of the Memphis Hi Records sound — Let's Stay Together, Tired of Being Alone — who became a pastor.
• 1946 Syria Achieves Full Independence Last French troops withdraw from Damascus France completed the withdrawal of its remaining troops from Syria, ending the French Mandate that had governed the country since the end of the First World War. The date is celebrated annually in Syria as Evacuation Day.
• 1946 International Court of Justice Holds First Session World Court convenes at The Hague The International Court of Justice, successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice, held its inaugural session at the Peace Palace in The Hague. It became the principal judicial organ of the United Nations for settling disputes between states.
• 1946 – 2026 Tim Curry English Actor & Singer English actor, singer and voice actor whose powerful baritone voice, expressive eyes and fearless performances made him one of the most distinctive screen presences of his generation. He originated the role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show on stage in 1973 and reprised it in the 1975 film, which became one of the most enduring cult phenomena in cinema history. Over a career spanning five decades, he received three Tony Award nominations, a Daytime Emmy Award, and created an extraordinary gallery of eccentrics and villains including Pennywise the Clown, Darkness, Wadsworth the butler, Long John Silver and Nigel Thornberry.
• 1946 – present Carl XVI Gustaf The Current Monarch Ascended in 1973. He is the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history.
• 1946 1946 World Snooker Championship Post-War Return The final match of Joe Davis before his retirement from the WC. Winner: Joe Davis; Runner-up: Horace Lindrum. Score: 78–67.
• 1946 – 2026 Birute Galdikas (1946-2026) Died 24 March 2026, aged 79 Primatologist and conservationist whose study of Bornean orangutans is the longest continuous investigation of any wild mammal by a single researcher.
• 1946 – 2005 George Best The Fifth Beatle Manchester United legend and 1968 Ballon d'Or winner; known for his immense dribbling skill.
• 1946 – present Ursula Hegi German-American Novelist German-born American novelist whose work explored silence, guilt and identity in Nazi-era and postwar Germany. Born in Dusseldorf just over a year after the war ended, she grew up surrounded by the physical evidence of destruction but in a society that refused to speak about what had happened. She immigrated to the United States at 18 and drew on her conflicted heritage to write novels including the bestselling Stones from the River, centred on Trudi Montag, a dwarf navigating life in a small German town during the rise of the Third Reich.
• 1946 French Open 1946 — return from war Men: Marcel Bernard · Women: Margaret Osborne First French Open after World War II.
• 1946 Italian Republic Referendum End of Monarchy Italians voted to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. June 2 is now celebrated as Festa della Repubblica.
• 1946 Italian monarchy abolished Italy becomes a republic A national referendum abolished the Italian monarchy after World War II.
• 1946 Franchise founded Ned Irish founds the Knickerbockers as a charter member of the new Basketball Association of America at the Commodore Hotel meeting in New York.
• 1946 – present New York Knicks NBA franchise, 1946–present The New York Knickerbockers — one of the NBA's original franchises, founded in 1946. Three NBA championships (1970, 1973, 2026), decades of heartbreak in between, and a 53-year wait finally ended by Jalen Brunson and a new championship core.
• 1946 – present Donald Trump 45th & 47th President — twice impeached Donald Trump (born Jun 14, 1946) was the 45th President 2017-2021 and 47th President from 2025. He was impeached twice, the first president to be impeached twice. He returned to win the 2024 election.
• 1946 Chinese Civil War Resumes at Full Scale Truce between Nationalists and Communists collapses After a fragile postwar truce brokered by the United States broke down, the Kuomintang government and the Chinese Communist Party resumed full-scale civil war across China. The renewed conflict would continue until the Communist victory in 1949 and the founding of the People's Republic of China.
• 1946 – 1989 Gilda Radner (1946-1989) Died 20 May 1989, aged 42 Gilda Radner was an American comedian and one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live. She created memorable characters including Roseanne Roseannadanna and Emily Litella. She died of ovarian cancer, and her illness later inspired the founding of Gilda's Club support centers.
• 1946 Wimbledon 1946 — return from war Men: Yvon Petra · Women: Pauline Betz First Wimbledon after World War II. Yvon Petra, a Frenchman who survived the war, won the men's title.
• 1946 Operation Crossroads Nuclear Tests United States detonates atomic bombs at Bikini Atoll The US military conducted two atomic bomb tests, code-named Able and Baker, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands to study the effects of nuclear weapons on naval vessels. The islanders had been relocated beforehand, beginning a decades-long legacy of contamination. Footage of the mushroom clouds became some of the most widely circulated images of the atomic age.
• 1946 Philippines Gains Independence from the United States Manila becomes capital of a sovereign republic The United States formally relinquished sovereignty over the Philippines, granting full independence after nearly five decades of American colonial rule. Manuel Roxas became the first president of the new republic. The date was chosen to coincide with American Independence Day.
• 1946 Bikini Swimsuit Debuts in Paris Designer Louis Reard unveils a daringly small two-piece French designer Louis Reard introduced the bikini at a poolside fashion show in Paris, naming it after the Bikini Atoll nuclear test site to suggest its explosive effect. The garment was considered so scandalous that Reard had to hire a nude dancer to model it, and it took years to gain widespread acceptance.
• 1946 – present George W. Bush 43rd President — 9/11, War on Terror George W. Bush (born Jul 6, 1946) was the 43rd President 2001-2009. He led the US response to the September 11 attacks, launching wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and established the Department of Homeland Security.
• 1946 – 2025 Khaleda Zia (1946-2025) Died 30 December 2025, aged 80 Bangladeshi politician who served as prime minister in 1991-96 and 2001-06, the first woman to hold the office in Bangladesh.
• 1946 – present Bill Clinton 42nd President — impeached, longest peacetime expansion Bill Clinton (born Aug 19, 1946) was the 42nd President 1993-2001. He presided over the longest peacetime economic expansion in US history, but was impeached in 1998 over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. He was acquitted by the Senate.
• 1946 – 1978 Keith Moon (1946-1978) Died 7 September 1978, aged 32 Moon was the drummer of the English rock band The Who, known for his explosive and unorthodox playing style. He died in London of an overdose of medication prescribed to treat alcoholism.
• 1946 Bill Monroe records Blue Moon of Kentucky Columbia Records His signature song.
• 1946 – 1991 Freddie Mercury (1946-1991) Died 24 November 1991, aged 45 Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the rock band Queen, died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS, a day after publicly confirming his diagnosis. His flamboyant stage presence and vocal range made him one of rock's most celebrated performers. His death drew global attention to the AIDS epidemic and led to a benefit concert at Wembley Stadium the following year.
• 1946 First Cannes Film Festival Held French resort hosts inaugural international film festival The first Cannes Film Festival opened on the French Riviera after being postponed from its planned 1939 debut by the outbreak of war. Films from nineteen countries were screened, and the event quickly grew into one of the most prestigious festivals in world cinema.
• 1946 Nuremberg Trials Conclude International Military Tribunal delivers verdicts and executions The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg convicted senior Nazi leaders of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace. Ten defendants, including Joachim von Ribbentrop and Wilhelm Keitel, were hanged on 16 October after Hermann Goering took his own life the night before his scheduled execution. The trials established precedents in international law that are still cited today.
• 1946 – 2026 J. Craig Venter (1946-2026) Died 29 April 2026, aged 79 American geneticist who pioneered new sequencing techniques and led Celera Genomics in the race to map the human genome.
• 1946 First-ever BAA game, a win The Knicks defeat the Toronto Huskies on the road, playing in the first game in BAA (later NBA) history.
• 1946 – present Alan Jones The First Williams Champion 1980 World Champion who put the Williams team on the map as a dominant force.
• 1946 – 1989 Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) Died 9 March 1989, aged 42 Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer known for his stark black-and-white portraits, flowers, and explicit imagery. A posthumous exhibition of his work triggered a major US debate over public arts funding and censorship. He died of complications from AIDS.
• 1946 – 1989 Ted Bundy (1946-1989) Died 24 January 1989, aged 42 Ted Bundy was an American serial killer convicted of murdering dozens of women across multiple states in the 1970s. He was executed by electric chair in Florida after a case that drew intense national media coverage. His crimes and trials significantly influenced American criminal profiling.
• 1946 – 1997 Gianni Versace (1946-1997) Died 15 July 1997, aged 50 Gianni Versace was an Italian fashion designer who built one of the world's leading luxury fashion houses. He was shot and killed outside his Miami Beach mansion by spree killer Andrew Cunanan, who died by suicide days later. His sister Donatella took over creative direction of the company.
• 1946 – present Joop Zoetemelk The Eternal Second Finished the Tour 16 times, mostly in the top 10. Winner: 1980 Tour de France.
• 1946 – present Emerson Fittipaldi Emmo Two-time World Champion and the youngest champion in history at the time of his 1972 victory.
• 1946 – present Stan Smith The Name on the Shoe Former World No. 1 and multi-major winner; now known globally for his iconic Adidas sneaker.
• 1946 First Indochina War Begins Fighting erupts between France and the Viet Minh Following the shelling of Haiphong by the French navy and a Viet Minh uprising in Hanoi, war broke out between France and Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh forces. The conflict would last eight years and end French colonial rule in Vietnam.
• 1946 – 1998 Carl Wilson (1946-1998) Died 6 February 1998, aged 51 Carl Wilson, guitarist, singer, and the youngest founding member of the Beach Boys, died of lung cancer on 6 February 1998. His falsetto and guitar work anchored the band's sound across decades, including the landmark album Pet Sounds.