1949 in the United States

Events from the year 1949 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government">Federal government of the United States">Federal government

President: Harry S. Truman
[Vice President of the United States|President of the United States|Vice President]:
Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson
Speaker of the House of Representatives:
Senate Majority Leader:
Congress: 80th, 81st

Events

January–March

January 2 - Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
January 4 – RMS Caronia (1947) of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York City on her maiden voyage.
January 4–February 22 - Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada - winds of up to 72 mph - tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish.
January 5 - President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
January 11 – Los Angeles, California, receives its first recorded snowfall.
January 17 - The first Volkswagen Beetle to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York City by Dutch businessman Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models will be sold in America that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff that the car has no future in the U.S.
January 19 - The Poe Toaster first appears at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe.
January 20 - President Harry S. Truman begins his full term. Alben W. Barkley is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
January 25 - The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
February 10 - Arthur Miller's tragedy Death of a Salesman opens at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway in New York City with Lee J. Cobb in the title role of Willy Loman and runs for 742 performances.
February 19 - Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.
February 22 - Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow, gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.
March 2 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight.
March 20 - The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Oakland, California, as the first long-distance train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment.
March 24 - The 21st Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Robert Montgomery, is held at the Academy Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Laurence Olivier's Hamlet wins the most awards with four, including Best Picture, while John Huston wins Best Director for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Jean Negulesco's Johnny Belinda receives the most nominations with 12.
March 26 - The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert, is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. The second half is telecast a week later. This is the only complete opera that Toscanini ever conducts on television.
March 28 - United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.

April–June

April 4 - The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., creating the NATO defense alliance.
April 7 - Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, opens on Broadway and goes on to become R&H's second longest-running musical. It becomes an instant classic of the musical theatre. The score's biggest hit is the song Some Enchanted Evening.
April 13 – The 6.7 Olympia earthquake affected the Puget Sound region of western Washington with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII, causing eight deaths and $25 million in damage.
April 23 - Development of the USS United States (CVA-58) "supercarrier" is cancelled; high-ranking Navy officials resign in protest in what has been called the Revolt of the Admirals.
May 1 Albert Einstein publishes Why Socialism? in the first edition of the Monthly Review.
May ? - A working group has been set up by United States Department of State, to codify the White Paper. This team consists of more than 80 staff members, led by Secretary of State Dean Acheson, former Columbia University Professor of Public International Law Philip C. Jessup.
June 8 - Red Scare: Celebrities including Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.
June 14 - Albert II, a rhesus monkey, becomes the first primate to enter space, on Hermes project V-2 rocket Blossom IVB, but is killed on impact at return.
June 19 - Glenn Dunaway wins the inaugural NASCAR race at Charlotte Speedway, a 3/4 mile oval in Charlotte, North Carolina, but is disqualified due to illegal springs. Jim Roper is declared the official winner.
June 24 - The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC.
June 29 - The last U.S. troops withdraw from South Korea.

July–September

August 5 - United States Department of State published The China White Paper as Department of State Publication 3573, entitled "United States Relations With China, With Special Reference to the Period 1944–1949."
August 10 - The National Military Establishment is renamed the Department of Defense.
August 16 - Office of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff created.
August 28 - The last 6 surviving veterans of the American Civil War meet in Indianapolis.
September 5 - Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.
September 15 - The Housing Act of 1949 is enacted.
September 29 - Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" during World War II.

October–December

October 5 – Walt Disney Productions' eleventh feature film, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, is released. It is Disney's final package film to be released during the 1940s and the last the studio would produce until 1977's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
October 9 – The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4 games to 1, to win their 12th World Series Title.
October 27 – An airliner flying from Paris to New York City crashes in the Azores island of São Miguel. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu and boxer Marcel Cerdan.
November - Englewood race riot in Chicago.
November 24 - The ski resort in Squaw Valley, California officially opens.

Undated

General Services Administration established per Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949
The first 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun prototypes are completed.
1949 is the first year in which no African-American is lynched in the USA.

Ongoing

Births

January 2
* Christopher Durang, playwright
* Iris Marion Young, political scientist
January 6 - Carolyn D. Wright, poet
January 7 - Chavo Guerrero Sr., professional wrestler
January 8
* John Podesta, lawyer and politician, 20th White House Chief of Staff
* Anne Schedeen, actress
January 10
* George Foreman, heavyweight boxer
* James Lapine, director and librettist
* Linda Lovelace, pornographic film actress
January 11 - Chris Ford, basketball player and coach
January 13 - Brandon Tartikoff, television executive
January 22 - Steve Perry, musician
January 24 - John Belushi, actor and comedian
January 28 - Gregg Popovich, basketball coach
January 30 - Ken Wilber, philosopher
February 2 - Brent Spiner, actor, comedian and singer
February 3 - Arthur Kane, bass guitarist
February 4 - Michael Beck, actor
February 8 - Brooke Adams, actress
February 11 - George Winston, pianist
February 12 - Lenny Randle, baseball player
February 15 - Ken Anderson, American football quarterback and coach
February 17 - Dennis Green, American football player and coach
February 18
* Pat Fraley, voice actor, voice-over teacher
* Gary Ridgway, serial killer
February 19 - Danielle Bunten Berry, born Dan Bunten, software developer
February 21 - Jerry Harrison, songwriter
February 25
* Ric Flair, wrestler
* Sherman Packard, speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives
February 27 - John Wockenfuss, baseball player
February 28
* Ilene Graff, actress and singer
* A. J. Smith, American football executive
March 2 - Gates McFadden, actress and choreographer
March 3
* Roberta Alexander, operatic soprano
* Gloria Hendry, African American actress
* Jesse Jefferson, baseball player
* Sandy Martin, actress
March 4 - Helen Frost, writer
March 10 - Barbara Corcoran, businesswoman, investor and television personality
March 12
* Rob Cohen, film director
* Mary Catherine Lamb, textile artist
March 13 - Julia Migenes, soprano
March 16
* Erik Estrada, television actor and police officer
* Elliott Murphy, singer-songwriter
March 17 - Patrick Duffy, television actor
March 20 - Marcia Ball, blues musician
March 21 - Eddie Money, rock guitarist and singer
March 25 - Sue Klebold, author and activist
March 26 - Ernest Lee Thomas, actor
March 28 - Michael W. Young, geneticist and chronobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017
March 29 - Michael Brecker, jazz saxophonist
April 1 - Gil Scott-Heron, African American poet, jazz/soul musician and author
April 2 - Paul Gambaccini, broadcaster and author
April 5 - Judith Resnik, astronaut
April 7 - Mitch Daniels, academic administrator, businessman, author and politician, 49th governor of Indiana
April 8 - William O'Neal, FBI informant
April 9 - Stephen Hickman, illustrator
April 11 - Dorothy Allison, novelist and campaigner
April 18 - Geoff Bodine, race car driver
April 20 - Jessica Lange, actress
April 22 - Spencer Haywood, basketball player
April 23 - Joyce DeWitt, actress
April 26 - Jerry Blackwell, professional wrestler
May 1
* Gavin Christopher, singer
* Sarah Clayborne, pie chef, restaurateur and community activist
May 3 - Ron Wyden, U.S. Senator from Oregon from 1996
May 4
* John Force, race car driver
* Gary Gaines, American football coach
May 6 - Larry Rivers, basketball player and coach
May 7 - Deborah Butterfield, sculptor
May 9 - Billy Joel, singer-songwriter and pianist
May 13 - Zoë Wanamaker, actress
May 15 - George Adams, basketball player
May 16 - Rick Reuschel, baseball player
May 17 - Earl Hebner, pro wrestling referee
May 18 - Joseph R. Cistone, Catholic prelate
May 19
* Dusty Hill, rock bassist
* Archie Manning, American football player, father of Peyton and Eli Manning
May 22 -
* Chris Butler, musician, songwriter
* Jesse Lee Peterson, radio show host and religious minister
May 26
* Ward Cunningham, computer programmer
* Pam Grier, African American actress
* Arlene Klasky, animator
* Philip Michael Thomas, African American actor
* Hank Williams Jr., country singer
May 28 - Shelley Hamlin, golfer
May 29 - Robert Axelrod, voice actor
June 2 - Alan Brinkley, historian
June 3 - John Rothman, actor
June 4 - Mark B. Cohen, Pennsylvania legislative leader
June 7 - Larry Hama, comic book writer, artist, actor and musician
June 10
* Kevin Corcoran, child actor, television director and film producer
* Frankie Faison, actor
June 14 - Harry Turtledove, novelist
June 20 - Lionel Richie, African American singer-songwriter
June 22
* Larry Junstrom, rock bassist
* Alan Osmond, pop singer
* Meryl Streep, actress
* Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 2013
June 23
* Dan Barker, atheist activist
* Dave Goltz, baseball player
* Gail Harris, United States Navy officer
* Phyllis George, businesswoman, actress and sportscaster
* Kene Holliday, actor
* Brenda Sykes, actress
June 27
* Brent Berk, competition swimmer, Olympic athlete
* Stephen Rucker, composer
* Vera Wang, fashion designer
June 28
* Don Baylor, Major League Baseball player, coach and manager
* Clarence Davis, American football running back
* Tom Owens, basketball player
June 29
* Dan Dierdorf, American football offensive lineman, later sportscaster
* Joe Moore, American football running back
July 1 - Denis Johnson, writer
July 2 - Joe English, drummer and songwriter
July 3
* Jan Smithers, actress
* Johnnie Wilder Jr., vocalist
July 5
* Ed O'Ross, actor
* Susan P. Graber, attorney
July 6 - Phyllis Hyman, singer and actress
July 7
* Shelley Duvall, actress
* Monte Cater, American football coach
July 9 - Jesse Duplantis, televangelist
July 12 - Donda West, educator and civil rights activist
July 15 - Richard Russo, novelist
July 16 - Alan Fitzgerald, guitarist and keyboardist
July 17 - Charley Steiner, sportscaster
July 19 - Calvin O. Butts, academic administrator and pastor
July 24 - Michael Richards, actor and comedian
July 28 - Vida Blue, baseball player
July 29 - Marilyn Quayle, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Dan Quayle
July 31
* Mike Jackson, basketball player
* Susan Bennett, voice-over artist
August 1 - Jim Carroll, author, poet and punk musician
August 3 - Peter Gutmann, journalist
August 4 - John Riggins, American football player
August 6
* Richard Prince, painter and photographer
* Clarence Richard Silva, bishop
August 8
* Terry Burnham, actress
* Keith Carradine, actor
August 9 - Ted Simmons, baseball player
August 11
* Eric Carmen, pop rock singer-songwriter
* Tim Hutchinson, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1997 to 2003
* Sandra Lee Scheuer, Kent State University shooting victim
August 12 - Mark Essex, mass murderer
August 13 - Pete Visclosky, politician
August 14 - Bob Backlund, pro wrestler
August 15
* Beverly Burns, pilot
* Mark B. Rosenberg, political scientist and academic
* Phyllis Smith, actress
August 16 - Barbara Goodson, voice actress
August 17 - Norm Coleman, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009
August 22
*Doug Bair, baseball player and coach
* Diana Nyad, swimmer and author
August 23 - Leslie Van Houten, Manson Family member
August 24
* Stephen Paulus, composer and educator
* Charles Rocket, actor
August 29 - Stan Hansen, professional wrestler
August 31
* Richard Gere, film actor
* H. David Politzer, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004
September 1 - Leslie Feinberg, transgender activist
September 7 – Lee McGeorge Durrell, zoologist
September 8
* Daniel Pipes, historian, writer and commentator
* Joe Theismann, American football player
September 10 - Bill O'Reilly, conservative political commentator
September 13 - John W. Henry, foreign exchange advisor and Boston Red Sox owner
September 14
* Ed King, rock musician
* Steve Gaines, rock guitarist
September 15 - Joe Barton, politician
September 16 - Ed Begley Jr. actor and environmentalist
September 19
* Ernie Sabella, actor
* Barry Scheck, attorney and author
September 21 - Artis Gilmore, basketball player
September 23 - Bruce Springsteen, singer-songwriter
September 26 - Jane Smiley, novelist
September 27 - Mike Schmidt, baseball player and coach
September 29 - Burton Richardson, game show announcer
October 1 - Isaac Bonewits, author and occultist
October 2
* Paul D'Amato, actor
* Richard Hell, musician
* Annie Leibovitz, photographer
October 3
* Haunani-Kay Trask, activist, educator and poet
* David Kaczynski, teacher and charity worker who was role in the arrest of Ted Kaczynski
October 5
* Bill James, historian and author
* B. W. Stevenson, singer-songwriter and guitarist
October 8
* Jerry Bittle, cartoonist
* Ashawna Hailey, computer scientist and philanthropist
* Mark Hopkinson, mass murderer and proxy killer
* Sigourney Weaver, film actress
October 13 - Rick Vito, musician
October 14 - Katha Pollitt, writer
October 15 - Tanya Roberts, actress
October 17 - Bill Hudson, singer and actor
October 21 - LaTanya Richardson, African American actress
October 22 - Stiv Bators, singer
October 24
* Chester Marcol, American football player
* John Markoff, journalist and author
* Stan White, American football linebacker and sportscaster
October 25 - Ross Bagdasarian Jr., film producer, record producer, singer and voice artist
October 27 - Cheryl Keeton, murder victim
October 28 - Caitlyn Jenner, decathlete and TV personality
October 29 - Paul Orndorff, professional wrestler
October 30
* Terri Dial, banker
* Dave Lebling, interactive game designer
November 1
* Jeannie Berlin, film actress
* Belita Moreno, film actress
November 2
* Susan Carlson, politician
* Lois McMaster Bujold, author of speculative fiction
* Marc Elrich, politician
November 3
* Mike Evans, African American actor
November 5 - Jimmie Spheeris, singer-songwriter
November 6
* Elwood Edwards, voice actor
* Joseph C. Wilson, United States diplomat
November 7 - Judi Bari, environmental activist
November 8 - Bonnie Raitt, blues singer and guitarist
November 9 - Julie Beckett, teacher and disability rights activist
November 10
* Brad Ashford, politician
* Ann Reinking, actress, dancer and choreographer
November 12 - Jack Reed, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 1997
November 14 - James Young, hard rock singer-songwriter and guitarist
November 19 - Ahmad Rashad, sportscaster, television personality
November 20 - Jeff Dowd, film producer and political activist
November 22 - David Pietrusza, author, historian
November 23 - Tom Joyner, radio host
November 24 - Linda Tripp, key figure in the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal
November 25 - Mike Joy, NASCAR commentator
November 26 - Juanin Clay, actress
November 29
* Jerry Lawler, wrestler
* Garry Shandling, comedian
December 1 - Kurt Schmoke, African American lawyer and politician
December 4 - Jeff Bridges, film actor
December 5
* Bruce E. Melnick, astronaut
* Lanny Wadkins, golfer
December 6 - Doug Marlette, editorial cartoonist
December 9
* Tom Kite, golfer
* Eileen Myles, poet and writer
December 10 - Dick Cohen, politician, Minnesota Senate
December 13
* Randy Owen, country lead vocalist, rhythm guitar player
* Tom Verlaine, rock singer, guitarist
December 14 - Bill Buckner, baseball player
December 15 - Don Johnson, television actor
December 16 - Billy Gibbons, rock guitarist
December 20
* Cecil Cooper, baseball player and manager
* Oscar Gamble, baseball player
* Pauline Robinson Bush, daughter of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush
* Claudia Jennings, model
December 22 - Ray Guy, American football player
December 23 - Brian J. O'Neill, politician
December 24 - Randy Neugebauer, politician
December 25
* Sissy Spacek, film actress
* Joe Louis Walker, African American electric blues musician
December 28 - Sam Katz, politician, Philadelphia
December 30 - Jerry Coyne, biologist

Deaths

January 6 - Victor Fleming, film director
January 11 - Nelson Doubleday, publisher
January 14 - Harry Stack Sullivan, psychiatrist
February 1 - Herbert Stothart, composer
March 7
* Sol Bloom, politician and impresario
* Bradbury Robinson, footballer who threw the first forward pass in American football history in 1906
March 17 - Felix Bressart, German American actor
March 20 - Irving Fazola, jazz clarinetist
March 25 - Jack Kapp, president of the U.S. branch of Decca Records
April 6 - Joseph J. Sullivan, gambler
April 15 - Wallace Beery, film actor
April 22 - Charles Middleton, actor
May 10 - Emilio de Gogorza, baritone
May 13 - Sawnie R. Aldredge, attorney and judge
May 22 - James Forrestal, U.S. Secretary of Navy and Defense
May 27 - Robert Ripley, creator of Ripley's Believe It or Not!
June 14 - Russell Doubleday, author and publisher
June 25 - Buck Freeman, baseball player
July 7 - Bunk Johnson, African American jazz trumpeter
July 18 - Alice Corbin Henderson, poet
July 24 - Virginia M. Alexander, African American physician and community activist
July 26 - Linda Arvidson, silent film actress
July 27 - Ellery Harding Clark, field athlete
August 9
* Gustavus M. Blech, German American physician and surgeon
* Harry Davenport, actor
August 16 - Margaret Mitchell, novelist
August 18 - Paul Mares, dixieland jazz cornet player
September 10 - Wiley Rutledge, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
September 12 - Harry Burleigh, African American baritone and classical composer
September 18 - Frank Morgan, character actor
September 19 - Will Cuppy, humorist
September 20 - Richard Dix, film actor
September 22 - Sam Wood, film director
September 27 - David Adler, architect
October 1 - Buddy Clark, singer
October 14 - Fritz Leiber (Sr.), actor
October 15 - Elmer Clifton, film actor and director
October 23 - Almanzo Wilder, writer, husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder
October 26 - Emil Liston, sports coach and administrator
October 31 - Edward Stettinius Jr., U.S. Secretary of State
November 2 - Jerome F. Donovan, politician
November 3 - Solomon R. Guggenheim, philanthropist
November 25 - Bill Robinson, African American dancer
December 6
* Lead Belly, African American blues musician
* Mary Margaret O'Reilly, assistant director of the United States Mint
December 7 - Rex Beach, adventure novelist and Olympic water polo player
December 25 - Leon Schlesinger, film producer
December 28
* Hervey Allen, novelist
* Martha Atwell, radio director
* Ivie Anderson, African American jazz singer