January 1946

January 1, 1946 (Tuesday)

• Humanity Declaration: Japan's Emperor Hirohito surprised his subjects with the news that he was not descended from the Shinto Sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami, and that "The Emperor is not a living god". He added that his people had to "proceed unflinchingly toward the elimination of misguided practices of the past", including "the false conception that the Emperor is divine and that the Japanese people are superior to other races and fated to rule the world". The admission was published in newspapers throughout Japan.

  January 2, 1946 (Wednesday)

• In León, Mexico, federal troops, called in by the Governor of the State of Guanajuato, fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing at least 40 people.
• The U.S. Army partially lifted a ban against marriage between American soldiers and enemy nationals, allowing servicemen to marry Austrian citizens. The ban against marriage of Germans was not lifted until December 11.

  January 3, 1946 (Thursday)

• George Woolf, a jockey who had ridden both Seabiscuit and Bold Venture to victory, was thrown from his horse during a race at Santa Anita Park. He died the next day at the age of 35. Woolf, nicknamed "The Ice Man", was in the first group of people admitted to the U.S. Jockey Hall of Fame when it opened in 1955.
• At a congressional hearing, Admiral Harold R. Stark testified that more than two months before the United States entered the Second World War, President Roosevelt had ordered American warships to destroy "German and Italian naval, land, and air forces encountered" if requested by British officers.
• Poland nationalized its main industries, with passage of a law "on taking public ownership of the basic branches of the national economy".
• Born:
• *John Paul Jones, English rock bassist, in Sidcup, Kent
• *Cissy King, American singer on The Lawrence Welk Show, in Trinidad, Colorado
• Died: William Joyce, 39, nicknamed "Lord Haw Haw" by his British listeners, a U.S.-born citizen of the United Kingdom who had defected to Germany to broadcast Nazi propaganda to Britain during World War II, was hanged at Britain's Wandsworth Prison at for treason. A foreign correspondent noted that "Joyce's regular wartime broadcasts over the German radio made him one of the most hated and most ridiculed of men."

  January 4, 1946 (Friday)

• The United States Department of War announced a slowdown in demobilization of U.S. Army soldiers in the Pacific theater, cutting army discharges by 60 percent, from 800,000 down to 300,000 per month. In the week that followed, American soldiers around the world protested, in the Philippines, France, Guam, Germany, India and the United States. The War Department reversed the decision as a result of pressure from the "'Bring Em Home' Movement".
• General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers during the occupation of Japan, began a purge of the Japanese government, with the goal of removing "undesirable personnel" from office. Over two and a half years, there were 210,287 people removed or barred from public office.
• The Reichskleinodien, treasures of the Holy Roman Empire which had been taken from Austria after the Anschluss, were returned to Vienna by General Mark Clark. Members of the U.S. Army had located the collection of 30 pieces, some more than 1,000 years old, including a Bible that had been found in the tomb of Charlemagne, and the "Holy Lance".
• A series of tornadoes swept through east Texas, killing 28 people and injuring 310 in Anderson, Angelina and Nacogdoches counties.

  January 5, 1946 (Saturday)

• Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi German architect of the Final Solution, escaped from the American detention camp in Oberdachstetten, where he had eluded detection under the alias of "SS Lt. Otto Eckmann". Eichmann then assumed the name of Otto Neninger and remained in hiding. In 1950, he made his way to Austria, then Italy, and as "Ricardo Klement", started a new life in Argentina. He avoided capture until May 2, 1960, when agents of Israel's Mossad kidnapped him, and was hanged in 1962.
• A revival of Kern and Hammerstein's 1927 musical Show Boat opened on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre, and ran for 417 performances.
• Born: Diane Keaton, American actress, as Diane Hall in Los Angeles

  January 6, 1946 (Sunday)

• The first democratic elections were held in Vietnam, and the Viet Minh Party, led by Ho Chi Minh, won 230 of the 300 seats in the National Assembly.
• Born: Syd Barrett, English rock musician, in Cambridge
• Died: Slim Summerville, 53, American film comedian

  January 7, 1946 (Monday)

• The Allies restored Austria as a sovereign republic, with the borders it had before its 1938 annexation by Germany, but continued to administer the nation in four occupation zones. The largest cities in each zone were Innsbruck, Salzburg, Graz, and the area around Vienna. Vienna itself was occupied by all four powers.
• Suzanne Degnan, 6, was murdered by serial killer William Heirens, "The Lipstick Killer". Arrested later in 1946, Heirens was sentenced to life imprisonment and remained incarcerated until his death in 2012.
• France resumed its protectorate relationship over Cambodia, following an agreement signed by King Norodom Sihanouk. Under the pact, France would manage all of Cambodia's foreign affairs and grant autonomy to the Cambodian people.
• Born:
• *Michele Elliott, U.S.-born British author, psychologist and founder of child protection charity Kidscape; in St. Petersburg, Florida
• *Jann Wenner, co-founder and publisher of Rolling Stone magazine, in New York City

  January 8, 1946 (Tuesday)

• Germany's Hereditary Health Court system was formally abolished by the Allied powers. From 1934 through 1945, the courts ordered surgery for the sterilization of 400,000 persons with hereditary defects such as mental retardation, schizophrenia, and epilepsy. The system provided for an appellate court, but the orders were upheld 97% of the time.
• The last Japanese prisoners of war in the United States departed, on board a ship from Angel Island, for repatriation.
• Born:
• *Robby Krieger, American rock musician and songwriter, in Los Angeles
• *Stanton Peele, American psychologist and author
• Died: Dion Fortune, 51, Welsh occultist and author

  January 9, 1946 (Wednesday)

• László Bárdossy, who had served as Prime Minister of Hungary in 1941 and 1942, and later collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of Hungary, was executed by hanging in Budapest.
• Harold Cole, a British sergeant called by some "the worst traitor of World War II", was killed in a shootout with police in Paris. Sergeant Cole had landed in France as part of the British Expeditionary Force, then deserted in 1941, betraying more than 150 people to the German Gestapo, fifty of whom were executed.
• Died: Countee Cullen, 42, American poet

  January 10, 1946 (Thursday)

• The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly convened, with delegates from 51 nations meeting in London. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee opened the session. In secret voting for the first President of the UNGA, Paul-Henri Spaak of Belgium won the post, 28–23, over Trygve Lie of Norway. Lie would be selected for a more powerful post as first Secretary-General of the United Nations.
• Conducted from a laboratory in Belmar, New Jersey, by the Evans Signal Laboratory, Project Diana bounced radar waves off the Moon for the first time, measuring its exact distance from the Earth, and proving that communication is possible between Earth and outer space.
• Died:
• * Matti Turkia, 74, Finnish politician and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, 1906-1918
• * Harry Von Tilzer, 73, American songwriter known for writing the melody for "A Bird in a Gilded Cage"

  January 11, 1946 (Friday)

• The People's Republic of Albania was proclaimed at noon, with Communist leader Enver Hoxha as the nation's prime minister. Two months later, a new constitution proclaimed Hoxha's Communist Party of Albania to be the sole political party, and Marxism–Leninism as the ideology, of the People's Socialist Republic of Albania.
• Élie Lescot was overthrown as President of Haiti in a coup led by Colonel Paul Magloire, who then installed Franck Lavaud as the new president.
• Bert Bell was elected as the new Commissioner of the National Football League at the NFL owners' meeting in New York.
• Born:
• *Naomi Judd, American country singer, as Diana Ellen Judd in Ashland, Kentucky
• *John Piper, American theologian and author Love Your Enemies, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

  January 12, 1946 (Saturday)

• Malcolm Little, 20, was arrested in Boston for breaking and entering. During his six years in prison, he joined the Nation of Islam, discarded his "slave name" and became Malcolm X.
• Anwar Sadat, 27, was arrested in Cairo on charges of conspiracy in the assassination of Amin Uthman. After years imprisonment, he was acquitted, and, in 1970, became President of Egypt.

  January 13, 1946 (Sunday)

• A ceasefire took effect at midnight, Chongqing time, between the two sides in the Chinese Civil War. General George C. Marshall of the United States mediated the terms of the truce between General Chang Ch'un of the Nationalists, and Zhou Enlai of the Communists.
• The Anchorage Daily News published its first issue. It is now the most widely read paper in Alaska.
• The "2-way wrist radio" was introduced in the comic strip Dick Tracy. Artist Chester Gould sparked the public's imagination of a future where everyone would have their own personal communication device.
• Died Wilhelm Souchon, 81, German admiral in World War I.