1947 (
MCMXLVII) was a
common year starting on
Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1947
January
February
- February 3
- February 5 – Bolesław Bierut becomes the President of Poland.
- February 8 – A
dance hall fire in Berlin, Germany
, kills over 80 people.
- February 10 – In
Paris,
France
, peace treaties are signed between the World War II Allies and Italy
, Hungary
, Romania
, Bulgaria
, and Finland
. Italy cedes most of Istria
to the
Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia
.
- February 12 – A
meteor creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin
, in the Soviet Union
.
- February 17 –
Cold War: The Voice of America begins to transmit
radio broadcasts into Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
.
- February 20 – An
explosion at the O'Connor Electro-Plating Company in Los Angeles,
California
, leaves 17 dead, 100 buildings damaged, and a
22-foot deep crater in the ground .
- February 21 – In
New York
City
, Edwin Land demonstrates
the first "instant camera", his Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of
the Optical Society of
America.
- February 23 – The International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.
- February 25
- The state of Prussia officially ceases
to exist.
- The
worst-ever train crash in Japan
kills 184
people.
- February 28
March
April
- April 1
- April 9 – Multiple tornadoes strike
Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas killing 181 people and injuring
970.
- April 15 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first Negro to play Major League Baseball.
- April 16 – Texas City
Disaster
: An Ammonium
nitrate cargo of the SS Grandcamp explodes in Texas City,
Texas
, kiling 552, injuring 3,000, causing 200 lost, and
destroying 20 city blocks.
- April 18 – The
British Royal Navy detonates 6,800 tonnes of explosives in a
deliberate attempt to demolish the the fortified island of Heligoland
, Germany
, thus creating the largest man-made non-nuclear
explosion in history.
May
- May 1 – The Salvatore Giuliano Gang opens fire on a
labor parade near Portella Della Ginestra, Sicily, killing 11 people and wounding 30.
- May 2 – The movie Miracle on 34th Street, a
Christmastime classic, is first shown in theaters.
- May 3 – The new post-war Japanese constitution goes into
effect.
- May 12 – The animated cartoon film
Rabbit Transit,
directed by Friz Freleng, is
released.
- May 22 – Cold
War: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, President Harry S. Truman signs an Act of Congress that
implements the Truman Doctrine.
This Act
grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey
and
Greece
.
- May 22 – David
Lean's film Great
Expectations, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, opens in the United States.
Critics call it the finest film ever made from a Charles Dickens
novel.
- May 25 – An airlner of the Flugfelag
Íslands crashes into a mountainside, killing 25 people.
June
July
- July 7 – A supposedly
downed extraterrestrial
spacecraft is reportedly found in the Roswell UFO incident, near Roswell, New
Mexico
, which was written about by Stanton T. Friedman.
- July 10 – Princess Elizabeth
announces her engagement to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten.
- July 11 – The Exodus leaves France for Palestine, with 4,500 Jewish
Holocaust survivor refugees on board.
- July 17 – The Indian
passenger ship Ramdas is capsized by
a cyclone at Mumbai
, India
, with 625
people killed.
- July 18
- July 26 – Cold
War: U.S. President Harry S.
Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947
into law, creating the Central Intelligence Agency, the
Department of Defense
, the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, and the National Security
Council.
- July 29 – After being
shut down on November 9, 1946, for a refurbishment, the ENIAC
computer,
the world's first electronic digital computer, is turned back on again. It then
remains in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.
August


- August 5 – The
Netherlands
stops all political actions in Indonesia
.
- August 7
- August 14 – After
90 years of British colonial rule, Pakistan
gains independence from the British Empire. While the transition
is officially at midnight on this day, Pakistan celebrates its
independence on August 14, compared with India on the 15th.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah becomes the first
Governor General of Pakistan
.
- August 15
- After more than 150 years of British colonial rule of the
British India, the Congress leaders
adopt the imperial successor name of India, as it
succeeded from British rule by the transitional "Transfer of
Power", and India declares its independence. Pakistan is also split
from the British Empire. Rajendra
Prasad is the first President of
India. Jawaharlal Nehru takes
office as the first Prime
Minister of India.
- The
Khan of the Kalat , Baluchistan
decides to join Muslim Pakistan.
- The Nizam of Hyderabad State,
refuses to accede to the Indian government, and declares
independence.
- August 16 – In
Greece
, General Markos
Vafiadis takes over the government.
- August 23 – The Prime Minister of Greece, Dimitrios Maximos, resigns.
- August 27 – When
the French government lowers the daily bread ration to 200 grams, that causes riots in Verdun
and in
Le
Mans
.
- August 30 – A fire
at a movie theater in Rueil, a
suburb of Paris,
France
kills 87 people.
- August 31 – The
communists seize power in Hungary
.
September
October
November
- November 2
- In
California
, the designer and airplane pilot Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of
the Spruce
Goose
, the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built. (The flight lasts only
eight minutes, and the "Spruce Goose" is never flown again.)
- An
earthquake in the Chilean
Andes kills 233
people.
- November 6 – The program Meet the Press makes its television
debut on the NBC-TV network in the United
States.
- November 9 –
Junagadh
is invaded by the Indian army.
- November 10 – The
arrest of four steel workers in Marseille
begins a French
communist riot that also spreads to Paris
.
- November 16
- In
Brussels
, 15,000 people demonstrate against the relatively
short sentences of Belgian Nazi criminals.
- Great Britain begin withdrawing its arny troops from
Palestine.
- November 18 – The
Ballantyne's
Department Store fire
in Christchurch
, New
Zealand
, kills 41 people.
- November 20
- November 21 – The
United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment begins in
Havana
, Cuba
.
This conference ends in 1948, when its members finish the Havana Charter.
- November 24 – Red Scare: The U.S. House of Representatives votes
346–17 to approve citations of Contempt of Congress against the
so-called Hollywood 10, after the ten
men refuse to co-operate with the House Un-American
Activities Committee concerning allegations of communist influences in the movie business.
(The ten
men are blacklisted by the Hollywood
movie studios on the
following day).
- November 25 –
New
Zealand
ratifies the Statute of Westminster, and that
country thus becomes independent of legislative control by the
Parliament of the United
Kingdom
.
- November 27 – In
Paris,
France
, police occupy the editorial offices of the
communist newspapers.
- November 29 – The
United Nations General
Assembly votes to partition
Palestine between Arab and Jewish regions, which results in the creation of the
State of Israel
.
December
Undated
Births
January–February
- January 1
- January 2 – Jack
Hanna, American zoologist
- January 6 – Sandy Denny, British singer (d. 1978)
- January 7 – Shobha De, Indian writer
- January 8
- January 9 – Ronnie Landfield, American artist
- January 11 – Mart Smeets, Dutch sports journalist
- January 14 – Bill Werbeniuk, Canadian snooker player (d.
2003)
- January 16 – Laura Schlessinger, American psychologist
and radio talk show host
- January 18 – Takeshi Kitano, Japanese film director and
actor
- January 23
- January 24
- January 29 – Linda B. Buck,
American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine
- January 30 – Steve Marriott, British rock musician
(Small Faces, Humble Pie) (d. 1991)
- January 31 – Nolan Ryan, American baseball player
- February 1 – Jessica Savitch, American journalist (d.
1983)
- February 2 – Farrah Fawcett, American actress
(Charlie's Angels) (d. 2009)
- February 3
- February 4 – Dan Quayle, Vice President of the United
States 1989–1993
- February 5 – Darrell Waltrip, American race car driver
and broadcaster
- February 7 – Wayne Allwine, American voice actor
(Mickey Mouse) (d. 2009)
- February 10 – Louise Arbour, Canadian jurist
- February 10 – Nicholas Owen, English newsreader (ITN)
- February 11 – Yukio Hatoyama, Prime Minister of Japan
- February 12 – Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale,
Punjabi saint, Sikh theologian, military leader (d. 1984)
- February 13 – Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball
coach
- February 15 – John Coolidge Adams, American
composer
- February 18
- February 20
- February 21 – Victor Sokolov, Russian dissident journalist
and priest (d. 2006)
- February 24 – Edward James Olmos, American actor
(Stand and Deliver)
- February 25 – Doug Yule, American rock singer and musician
(The Velvet
Underground)
- February 26 – Sandie Shaw, British singer
- February 27 – Gidon Kremer, Latvian violinist
March–April
- March 2 – Harry Redknapp, Tottenham Hotspur
Manager
- March 4
- March 6
- March 7 – Walter Röhrl, German race car driver
- March 8 – Carole Bayer Sager, American
singer-songwriter
- March 10
- March 11 – David Ferguson , American music
producer and activist
- March 12
- March 13 – Beat
Richner, Swiss pediatrician and cellist
- March 14 – Pam
Ayres, British poet
- March 15 – Ry
Cooder, American guitarist
- March 16
- March 17 – Yury Chernavsky, Russian-born composer and
producer
- March 19 – Glenn
Close, American actress
- March 20 – John
Boswell, American historian (d. 1994)
- March 24
- March 25 – Elton
John, English rock singer, pianist, and songwriter
- March 27 – Walt Mossberg, American newspaper
columnist
- April 1 – Alain
Connes, French mathematician
- April 2
- April 4 – Eliseo Soriano, Philippine preacher
- April 5 – Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, incumbent
Philippine president and daughter of former president Diosdado Macapagal
- April 6 – John Ratzenberger, American actor
(Cheers)
- April 8 – Tom
DeLay, American politician
- April 12
- April 15
- April 16
- April 18
- April 19 – Murray Perahia, American pianist
- April 20 – Hector, Finnish rock musician
- April 21 – Iggy
Pop, American rock musician
- April 25 – Johan Cruijff, Dutch footballer and coach
- April 28 – Ken
St. Andre, American game designer and author
- April 29
- April 30 – Leslie Grantham, British actor
May–June
- May 4 – Theda
Skocpol, American sociologist
- May 6 – Martha
Nussbaum, American philosopher
- May 8 – H. Robert
Horvitz, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine
- May 11- Walter
Selke, German physicist
- May 12 – Michael Ignatieff, Canadian
public intellectual, philosopher and
historian
- May 13 – Stephen R. Donaldson, American novelist
- May 19 – Paul
Brady, Northern Irish singer/songwriter
- May 24 – Maude
Barlow, Canadian author, activist and National Chairperson of
The Council of
Canadians
- May 26 – Glenn Turner, New Zealand
cricket captain
- May 27
- May 29 – Stan
Zemanek, Australian radio broadcaster (d. 2007)
- June 1 – Ronnie
Wood, English rock musician (The
Faces, The Rolling
Stones)
- June 4 – Viktor
Klima, Chancellor of
Austria
- June 6
- June 7 – Thurman Munson, American baseball catcher (d.
1979)
- June 8 – Eric F. Wieschaus, American biologist, recipient
of the Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine
- June 14 – Barry
Melton, American rock musician (Country Joe and the Fish)
- June 15 – John
Hoagland, American war photographer (d. 1984)
- June 16 – -minu,
Swiss columnist and writer
- June 19
- June 21
- June 22
- June 25 – Jimmie Walker, American actor (Good Times)
- June 28 – Mark
Helprin, American writer
July–August
- July 1 – Jonathan Pryce, Welsh actor
- July 2 – Larry
David, American actor, writer, producer, and director
- July 3 – Dave
Barry, American writer
- July 7
- July 8 – Bobby
Sowell, American pianist and composer
- July 9
- July 10 – Arlo
Guthrie, American folk singer (The City of New
Orleans)
- July 17 – Camilla, Duchess of
Cornwall
- July 18 – Steven W. Mahoney, Canadian politician
- July 19 – Brian
May, English rock guitarist (Queen)
- July 20
- July 21 – Co
Adriaanse, Dutch football manager
- July 22
- July 23 – Spencer Christian, American television
weather reporter
- July 24 – Peter
Serkin, American pianist
- July 27 – Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese
businessman (d. 2008)
- July 30 – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-born
American actor, bodybuilder, and 38th Governor of California
- July 31 – Richard Griffiths, English actor
- August 3 – Colleen Corby, American fashion model
- August 7 – Franciscus Henri, Dutch-born Australian
children's entertainer, composer and artist
- August 8 – Terangi Adam, Nauruan politician
- August 9 – John Varley, American science-fiction
author
- August 10 – Ian Anderson, British rock musician
(Jethro Tull)
- August 12 – William Hartston, British chess player
- August 14 – Maddy Prior, English folk singer
- August 15 – Raakhee Gulzar, Indian actress
- August 16 – Marc Messier, Canadian actor
- August 19
- August 23 – Willy Russell, British playwright
- August 24 – Roger De Vlaeminck, Belgian cyclist
- August 26 – Emiliano Díez, Cuban actor
- August 27 – Barbara Bach, American actress (The Spy Who
Loved Me)
- August 28 – Liza
Wang, Hong Kong actress
- August 29 – Temple Grandin, American animal welfare and
autism expert
- August 30 – Allan Rock, Canadian politician and diplomat
- August 31
September–October
- September 1 – Al Green, American politician
- September 3 – Kjell Magne Bondevik, Prime Minister of Norway
- September 6 – Bruce Rioch, Scottish footballer and coach
- September 14 – Sam Neill, New Zealand actor (A Cry in the
Dark)
- September 16 – Russ Abbot,, British comedian and actor
- September 17 – Tessa Jowell, British politician
- September 19 – Steve Bartlett, U.S. Congressman and Mayor of
Dallas, Texas
- September 21 – Stephen King, American horror author
- September 22 – Norma McCorvey, American abortion plaintiff
(Roe v. Wade)
- September 25 – Ali Parvin, Iranian footballer and coach
- September 26 – Lynn Anderson, American country singer
- September 27
- September 30 – Marc Bolan, English rock musician (T.Rex) (d. 1977)
- October 1 – Aaron Ciechanover, Israeli biologist,
recipient of the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry
- October 2 – Ward Churchill, American author and
activist
- October 4 – Ann Widdecombe, British politician
- October 5 – Brian Johnson, English rock singer
(AC/DC)
- October 6 – Gail Farrell, American singer
- October 7 – Pip Williams, British record producer
- October 9 – France Gall, French singer
- October 10 – Martin Ruane, British wrestler best known as
Giant Haystacks and later, The Loch Ness Monster (d. 1998)
- October 13 – Sammy Hagar, American rock singer
- October 14 – Lukas Resetarits, Austrian singer and
actor
- October 16 – Bob
Weir, American rock guitarist (Grateful Dead)
- October 17
- October 18 – James H. Fallon, American neuroscientist
- October 19 – Giorgio Cavazzano, Italian comics artist
and illustrator
- October 22 – Ed
Welch, English television composer
- October 24 – Kevin Kline, American actor
- October 25 – Glenn Tipton, English rock guitarist
(Judas Priest)
- October 26
- October 29 – Richard Dreyfuss, American actor (Mr.
Holland's Opus)
- October 31 - Herman Van Rompuy, Belgian politician
November–December
- November 6 – Jim Rosenthal, ITV sport presenter
- November 7
- November 10 – Glen Buxton, American rock guitarist
(Alice Cooper) (d. 1997)
- November 14 – P. J. O'Rourke, American journalist and
satirist
- November 17 – Inky Mark, Canadian politician
- November 19
- November 20 – Joe Walsh, American rock singer, songwriter, and
guitarist (Eagles)
- November 21 – Chua Ek Kay, Singaporean painter (d. 2008)
- November 24 – Mike Gorman, American sports announcer (Boston Celtics)
- November 25 – John Larroquette, American actor (Night
Court)
- November 29 – Mirza Khazar, an eminent Azerbaijani author,
political analyst, legendary anchorman, translator of the Bible
into Azerbaijani language.
- November 30
- December 1 – Bob Fulton, English-born Australian rugby league
player
- December 2 – Isaac Bitton, French rock band drummer
(Les Variations)
- December 7 – Wendy Padbury, British actress
- December 8 – Thomas R. Cech,
American chemist, Nobel
Prize laureate
- December 8 – Gérard Blanc, French singer
- December 9 – Tom Daschle, U.S. Senator
- December 10 – Rainer Seifert, German field hockey
player
- December 12 – Will Alsop, English architect
- December 14 – Christopher Parkening, American
guitarist
- December 16 – Vincent Matthews, American athlete
- December 21
- December 22 – Mitsuo Tsukahara, Japanese gymnast
- December 26 – Carlton Fisk, American baseball player
- December 28 – Aurelio Rodríguez, Mexican Major League Baseball player (d.
2000)
- December 29 – Ted Danson, American actor (Cheers)
- December 30 – Jeff Lynne, British musician (Electric Light Orchestra)
- December 31
Unknown date
Deaths
January–June
- January 3 – Al
Herpin (The Man Who Never Slept), notable insomniac
(b. 1853)
- January 9 – Herman Bing, German actor (b. 1889)
- January 15 – Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia),
famous murder victim (b. 1924)
- January 20
- January 23 – Pierre Bonnard, French painter (b. 1867)
- January 25 – Al
Capone, American gangster (b. 1899)
- January 26
- January 27 –
Vasily Balabanov, administrator and
Provincial Governor of Imperial
Russia
(b.1873)
- February 6 – O. Max Gardner,
Governor of North Carolina
- February 12
- February 27 – Heinrich Häberlin, Swiss Federal
Councilor (b. 1868)
- March 5 – Alfredo Casella, Italian composer (b.
1883)
- March 11 – Victor Lustig, Austrian-born con artist (b.
1890)
- March 12 – Walter Samuel Goodland, Governor of
Wisconsin (b. 1862)
- March 18 – William C. Durant, American automobile pioneer (b.
1861)
- March 19 – Prudence Heward, Canadian painter (b.
1896)
- March 20 – Victor Goldschmidt, Swiss geochemist (b.
1888)
- March 21 – Homer Lusk Collyer, American
hermit brother (Collyer
brothers) (b. 1881)
- March 23 – Archduchess
Luise of Austria, Princess of Tuscany (b. 1870)
- March 25 – Chen Cheng-po, Taiwanese painter (b. 1895)
- March 28 – Karol Świerczewski, Polish military
leader (b. 1897)
- March 30 – Arthur Machen, Welsh-born author (b. 1863)
- April 1 – King George II of Greece (b. 1890)
- April 7 – Henry
Ford, American automobile manufacturer (b. 1863)
- April 8 – Langley Collyer, American
hermit brother (Collyer
brothers) (b. 1885)
- April 10 – John Ince, American actor (b. 1878)
- April 16 – Rudolf Höss, German commandant of Auschwitz
(b. 1900)
- April 20 – King Christian X of Denmark (b. 1870)
- April 24 – Willa Siebert Cather, American novelist
(b. 1873)
- May 8 – Harry Gordon Selfridge, American
department store magnate (b. 1858)
- May 13 – Sukanta Bhattacharya, Bengali poet (b.
1926)
- May 16 – Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist,
recipient of the Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine (b. 1861)
- May 17 – George William Forbes, Prime Minister of New Zealand
(b. 1869)
- May 18 – Lucile
Gleason, American actress (b. 1888)
- May 20 – Philipp Lenard, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
- May 24 – C. F. Ramuz, Swiss writer (b. 1878)
- May 28 – August Eigruber, Nazi war criminal
(executed) (b. 1907)
- May 29 – Martin Gottfried Weiss, Nazi war
criminal (executed) (b. 1905)
- May 30 – Georg Ludwig von Trapp, Austrian
sailor, patriarch of the Von Trapp Family of The Sound of Music fame (b. 1880)
- May 31 – Adrienne Ames, American actress (b. 1907)
- June 9 – J. Warren
Kerrigan, American actor (b. 1879)
- June 11 – Richard Hönigswald, Hungarian-born
American philosopher (b. 1875)
- June 17 – Maxwell Perkins, American literary editor
(b. 1884)
- June 18 – Shigematsu Sakaibara, Japanese rear
admiral and convicted war criminal (executed) (b. 1898)
- June 19 – Kōsō Abe, Japanese admiral (b. 1892)
- June 20 – Bugsy
Siegel, American gangster (b. 1906)
- June 22 – Jim
Tully, vagabond, pugilist, noted American writer (b. 1891)
- June 26 – Richard Bedford Bennett, 11th
Prime Minister of Canada
(b. 1870)
July–December
- July 12 – Jimmie Lunceford, American jazz musician
(b. 1902)
- July 15 – Walter Donaldson, American songwriter (b.
1893)
- July 17 – Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat and
humanitarian (presumed dead on this date) (b. 1912)
- July 19 – Aung
San, Burmese nationalist (assassinated) (b. 1915)
- July 27 – Ivan
Regen, Slovenian biologist (b. 1868)
- July 30 – Joseph
Cook, 6th Prime Minister
of Australia (b. 1860)
- August 8 – Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Russian
military leader (b. 1872)
- September 1 – Frederick Russell Burnham,
American Scout, father of the international Scouting movement (b.
1861)
- September 20 – Fiorello H. La Guardia, Mayor of New York (b.
1882)
- September 21 – Harry Carey, American actor (b. 1878)
- September 26 – Hugh Lofting, British writer (b. 1886)
- October 1 – Olive Borden, American actress (b. 1906)
- October 4 – Max
Planck, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
- October 6 – Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer (b. 1887)
- October 17 – John Halliday, American actor (b. 1880)
- October 24 – Dudley Digges, Irish actor (b.
1879)
- October 28 – Earl Snell, Governor of Oregon (plane crash) (b.
1895)
- October 29 – Frances Cleveland, wife of President
Grover Cleveland (b. 1864)
- November 25 – Léon-Paul Fargue, French writer (b.
1876)
- November 28
- November 30 – Ernst Lubitsch, German film director (b.
1892)
- December 1
- December 7
- December 14
- December 17 – J. N.
Brønsted, Danish chemist (b.
1879)
- December 25 – Gaspar G. Bacon, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
(b. 1886)
- December 27 – Johannes Winkler, German rocket pioneer (b.
1897)
- December 28 – Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
(b. 1869)
Nobel Prizes
Ship events
Notes
- "Year by Year 1947" – History Channel
International
External links
Table of Contents