Dashed left edge = started before January 1946 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond January 1946
Events in January 1946 12
1903 – 1946Countee Cullen (1903-1946)Died 9 January 1946, aged 42Cullen 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 – 1946William Joyce (1906-1946)Died 3 January 1946, aged 39Joyce 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.
1946Australian Open 1946 — return from warMen: John Bromwich · Women: Nancye Wynne BoltonFirst Australian Open after World War II.
1946 – 1964Childhood in Postwar GermanyGrew up in a Germany that refused to discuss the war or the Holocaust. Reading Anne Frank's diary as a young girl profoundly affected her, though her mother disapproved. 'I grew up with the evidence of destruction everywhere,' she later wrote, 'and with silence.'
1946 – 1949National Research Council of CanadaJoined the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. While repeatedly breaking glass vacuum apparatus due to what he called 'impetuous haste', he began teaching himself theoretical chemistry, realising his future lay in applying mathematics to chemical phenomena.
1946 – 2006Syd Barrett (1946-2006)Died 7 July 2006, aged 60Syd 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.
1946First United Nations General Assembly ConvenesFifty-one member states meet in LondonThe 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 – 2026Dolly PartonQueen of CountryAmerican 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.
1946Dolly Parton born in Pittman Center, TennesseeBorn Dolly Rebecca Parton in a one-room cabin in Pittman Center, Sevier County, Tennessee, the fourth of Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton's twelve children. The family was so poor that the doctor who delivered her was paid with a sack of oatmeal.
1946David Lynch born in Missoula, MontanaDavid Keith Lynch was born on 20 January 1946 in Missoula, Montana, the eldest of three children of Donald Walton Lynch, a research scientist for the US Department of Agriculture, and Edwina 'Sunny' Lynch. The family moved frequently -- to Sandpoint, Idaho, then Spokane, Washington, then Boise, Idaho, then Durham, North Carolina, then Alexandria, Virginia -- giving Lynch a childhood steeped in small-town, mid-century America that would pervade his work for the rest of his life.
1946 – 2010Malcolm McLaren (1946-2010)Died 8 April 2010, aged 64McLaren 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 – 1999Gene Siskel (1946-1999)Died 20 February 1999, aged 53Gene 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.