June 1946

June 1, 1946 (Saturday)

• Penicillin first went on sale to the general public in the United Kingdom. The antibiotic had been made available at pharmacies in the United States beginning March 15, 1945.
• Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University's "Marching 100" was founded by the late William P. Foster
• By a 61–20 vote, the U.S. Senate granted President Truman emergency powers to end strikes. The bill had passed the House the previous week.
• In violation of the Ho–Sainteny agreement of March 6, French High Commissioner d'Argenlieu recognized an "Autonomous Republic of Cochin-China" in French Indochina, predecessor state of South Vietnam. Located in the southern part of what is now Vietnam, with a capital at Saigon, the Republic's first head of government was Nguyen Van Thinh, overseen by French administrator Jean Henri Cedile. The announcement followed the creation, in March, of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam in Hanoi.
• Died:
• *Ion Antonescu, prime minister and "Conducator" of Romania during World War II was executed after being found guilty of betraying the Romanian people to German occupiers.
• *Leo Slezak, 72, German opera tenor

  June 2, 1946 (Sunday)

• By a vote of 12,718,641 to 10,718,502 in the Italian institutional referendum, the monarchy in Italy was abolished, ending the brief reign of King Umberto II, who would go into exile. The simultaneous general election, the first since the end of World War II and the Fascist Party dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, and also the first in which women were allowed to vote, determined representation for the Constituent Assembly. The Christian Democracy party, led by Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi, won 207 out of 556 seats and formed a coalition government with the Socialists and Communist parties. The Christian Democracy party would lead the Italian government continuously until 1981.
• In the French Parliamentary election, the French Communist Party lost its plurality, and the Popular Republican Movement gained 16 seats. The Socialist Party dropped from 146 to 128. With 586 seats in Parliament, no party had a majority.
• Born: Peter Sutcliffe, English serial killer known as the "Yorkshire Ripper"; in Bingley, West Yorkshire
• Died: Carrie Ingalls, 75, American newspaper typesetter known from bestselling Little House on the Prairie books written by her older sister, Laura Ingalls Wilder and the subsequent television series.

  June 3, 1946 (Monday)

• By a 6–1 vote, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Morgan v. Virginia that a Virginia law, requiring segregation of white and African-American bus passengers, was illegal for interstate travel. The suit had been brought by Irene Morgan, who had refused to sit in the negro section of a bus traveling from Gloucester County, Virginia, to Baltimore, Maryland.
• Died:
• *Mikhail I. Kalinin, 70, former head of state of the U.S.S.R.
• *Ch'en Kung-po, 54, founding member of Chinese Communist Party and collaborator, was executed.

  June 4, 1946 (Tuesday)

• The United States Army recovered a treasure trove of jewelry and manuscripts that had been stolen by a group of American officers from the Friedrichshof Castle in Kronberg, Germany. Women's Army Corps Captain Kathleen Nash Durant had hidden part of the loot at her sister's home in Hudson, Wisconsin, and her husband, Colonel Jack W. Durant, had hidden hundreds of diamonds and other gems in a locker at the Illinois Central railway station in Chicago.
• The National School Lunch Act was signed into law by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, permanently establishing federal financial support for free or low-cost meals for schoolchildren.
• The largest solar prominence observed up to that time occurred. The prominence, extending above the surface of the Sun, was seen from the observatory at Climax, Colorado, by astronomer Walter Orr Roberts. The prominence had been measured at only an hour earlier. At its height, the prominence was nearly as long as the Sun's diameter; in a few more hours, it disappeared completely.
• Juan Perón was inaugurated as the twenty-ninth President of Argentina for a six-year elective term.

  June 5, 1946 (Wednesday)

• A fire at the La Salle Hotel in Chicago killed 57 people. When the blaze broke out at 12:20 am, there were 1,059 guests and 108 employees in the 20-story building. Firefighters were not called until 15 minutes after the flames were spotted, and by 12:35, the blaze had spread from the hotel's Silver Grill Cocktail Lounge throughout the lower floors. Most of the dead were guests on 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th floors of the twenty-story building. At least ten people jumped to their deaths.
• Died: George A. Hormel, 85, American multi-millionaire and founder of Hormel Foods

  June 6, 1946 (Thursday)

• The Basketball Association of America was formed in New York City. The forerunner of the NBA, the BAA awarded 13 big-city franchises, of which three — the Boston Celtics, the New York Knicks and the Golden State Warriors — still exist. Other teams were in Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Providence, St. Louis, Toronto and Washington, while franchises in Buffalo and Indianapolis failed to play.
• American Research and Development Corporation, the first venture capital firm, was incorporated in Massachusetts by Georges Doriot, Ralph Flanders, Karl Compton and Merrill Griswold.
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Fred M. Vinson was nominated by President Truman to be the new Chief Justice of the United States.
• Died: Gerhart Hauptmann, 83, German dramatist, winner of the 1912 Nobel Prize in Literature

  June 7, 1946 (Friday)

• The BBC Television network went back on the air for the first time since it had abruptly halted broadcasting, in the middle of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, at noon on September 1, 1939, when World War II had begun. The first program shown when broadcasting resumed was the very same cartoon that had been halted almost seven years earlier.
• After setting a Friday evening deadline for walking out on strike two days earlier, the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team voted to go ahead with their scheduled game against the New York Giants. On June 5, the players voted unanimously to walk off the job unless they were allowed to join the American Baseball Guild, a labor union. An unidentified player reported that the vote had been 20 to 17 against a walkout. The team went on to beat the Giants 10–5.

  June 8, 1946 (Saturday)

• Thirteen months after V-E Day, the United Kingdom celebrated its victory in World War II with a program that featured "all the pomp and circumstance it had given up during the war" and that was witnessed by "nearly one fourth of England's people" Tens of thousands of uniformed marchers represented the Allied nations in a nine-mile-long procession, while the Royal Air Force flew overhead.
• Born: Pearlette Louisy, Governor-General of Saint Lucia from 1997 to 2017; in Laborie

  June 9, 1946 (Sunday)

• Ananda Mahidol, the 20-year-old King of Thailand, was found in his bedroom dead, from a single gunshot to his forehead, and with his Colt.45 pistol next to him. He was succeeded by his teenaged brother, Bhumibol Adulyadej, who became King Rama IX and ruled until his death in October 2016. Although the death was initially ruled an accidental shooting, and speculated by author Rayne Kruger in The Devil's Discus to have been a suicide, royal secretary Chaleo Pathumros and two others were executed in 1955 after being convicted of King Ananda's murder.
• A fire at the Canfield Hotel in Dubuque, Iowa, killed 16 people.

  June 10, 1946 (Monday)

• Jack Johnson, 68, the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1908 to 1915, and the first African-American to win that title, was killed in an automobile accident. In 1910, Johnson had defended his title in what was called then "The Fight of the Century", matching him against "The Great White Hope", former champion James J. Jeffries. Johnson had been driving from Texas to New York when his car crashed into a light pole near Franklinton, North Carolina.

  June 11, 1946 (Tuesday)

• The Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the rulemaking and judicial functions of all United States government agencies, was signed into law. The law has been described as "the most important statute affecting the administration of justice in the federal field since the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789".

  June 12, 1946 (Wednesday)

• After the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry had unanimously recommended that up to 100,000 European Jews be allowed to immigrate to Palestine, British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin declared that the United Kingdom would reject the plan. Speaking at the annual conference of Britain's Labour Party, Bevin commented that the motive for American support for a Jewish state was "because they did not want too many of them in New York." Following the rejection of the proposal, Zionist leaders began a campaign of violence against the British government in the future state of Israel.
• Died: John H. Bankhead II, 73, U.S. Senator from Alabama since 1931

  June 13, 1946 (Thursday)

• After a reign of 31 days, King Umberto II of Italy elected not to further contest the results of the June 2 referendum that abolished the monarchy, and flew into exile. Earlier in the day, Parliament had granted Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi power to serve as the acting head of state until the election results could be certified.
• Died:
• *Edward Bowes, 72, American creator and host of radio program Major Bowes Amateur Hour
• *Charles Butterworth, 49, American film actor, in an automobile accident
• *Jules Guérin, 79, American mural painter.

  June 14, 1946 (Friday)

• As the United States representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, financier Bernard Baruch spoke at the UNAEC's temporary headquarters at New York's Hunter College, and presented the Baruch Plan, the American proposal for United Nations' control of all nuclear weapons. At the time, the United States was the only nation to have produced an atomic bomb. Baruch opened his remarks by saying, "We are here to make a choice between the quick and the dead.". Under the plan, the U.N.'s member nations would have agreed to not develop nuclear weapons and to allow inspections by the UNAEC to verify compliance, with punishments for violation of the agreement. No member of the U.N. Security Council would have been allowed to veto a resolution for enforcement. In return, the UNAEC would have assisted member nations in developing nuclear energy for peaceful uses. A week later, the Soviet Union made a counterproposal that would have delayed discussion of enforcement procedures until after weapons were destroyed. No agreement was ever reached, and the world's nations developed their own nuclear arsenals. One historian later offered the opinion that "the Baruch Plan was the nearest approach to a world government proposal ever offered by the United States",
• A total lunar eclipse, completely visible over South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, was seen rising over South America, Europe and Africa and setting over Asia and Australia took place.
• Born: Donald Trump, President of the United States 2017 to 2021 and 2025–Present, U.S. businessman and television personality; in New York City
• Died:
• *John Logie Baird, 57, Scottish inventor of television technology
• *Jorge Ubico, 67, Guatemalan dictator