January
10th	The United Nations takes control of the free city of Trieste
15th	Elizabeth Short (the "Black Dahlia") is found murdered
16th	Vincent Auriol is inaugurated as president of France
19th	392 drown in a shipwreck near Athens, Greece
30th	Heavy blizzard conditions until early February in Canada bury whole towns from Winnipeg to Calgary

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February
5th	Boleslaw Bierut becomes president of Poland
8th	A dance hall fire in Berlin kills over 80
10th	Paris peace treaties are signed between the World War II Allies and Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Finland: Italy cedes most of Istria to Yugoslavia
12th	A meteor creates a crater in Sikhote-Alin, Soviet Union
17th	The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into the Soviet Union
21st	In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America
25th	The State of Prussia ceases to exist
28th	USA gives France a military base in Casablanca

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March
1st	The International Monetary Fund begins to operate
14th	The River Thames bursts its banks
15th	Hindus and Muslims clash in Punjab
19th	The 19th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles, California
21st	Homer Collyer of the Collyer brothers is found dead in their house in Harlem, New York City. His brother is found April 8
25th	A coal mine explosion in Centralia, Illinois kills 111
28th	A WW2 Japanese booby trap explodes in Corregidor, killing 28
29th	Rebellion against French rule erupts in Madagascar

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April
1st	King George II of Greece is succeeded by his brother King Paul I
9th	A multiple outbreak of tornadoes occur from Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas killing 181 and injuring 970. Not known how many touched down
16th	An Ammonium nitrate cargo of SS Grandcamp explodes in Texas City, Texas leaving 552 dead, 3,000 injured, 200 lost, and 20 city blocks destroyed
18th	The British Royal Navy detonates 6,800 tonnes of explosives in a concerted attempt to destroy the small island of Heligoland, Germany, creating the biggest non-nuclear explosion in history

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May
1st	The Salvatore Giuliano Gang opens fire on a labour parade near Portella Della Ginestra, Sicily, killing 11 and wounding 30
3rd	The new post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect
12th	The Cartoon Rabbit Transit Directed by Friz Freleng where Bugs goes to jail is made
22nd	In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, President Harry S. Truman signs an act implementing the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece

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June
5th	Secretary of State George Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan for U.S. aid to Europe
10th	Saab produces its first automobile
15th	Portuguese government orders 11 military officers and 19 university professors accused of revolutionary activity to resign
18th	Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara hanged in Guam for war crimes related to the Battle of Wake Island on October 7, 1943
20th	American Gangster Bugsy Siegel is found shot in the Beverly Hills mansion of Virginia Hill
24th	Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington

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July
7th	A downed UFO is allegedly found in the Roswell UFO incident, written about by Stanton T. Friedman
10th	Princess Elizabeth announces her engagement to Philip Mountbatten
11th	The Ship Exodus departs France to Palestine with 4,500 Jewish Holocaust survivor refugees
17th	Indian passenger ship Ramdas capsised by cyclone at Mumbai, India, killing 625
18th	Following wide media and UNSCOP coverage, Exodus (ship) is captured by British troops and refused entry to Palestine in the port of Haifa
19th	Burmese nationalist Aung San is murdered
29th	After being shut off on November 9, 1946 for a refurbishment, ENIAC, one of the world's first digital computers, is turned on after a memory upgrade. It will remain in continuous operation until October 2, 1955

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August
4th	Betty Moore from Horsham, Sussex, sails in her first Cowes Week. 59 years later she is awarded the Skandia Cowes Week Ladies Day Trophy after campaigning her Solent Sunbeam, WHY, in all 60 consecutive regattas
7th	Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101 day, 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America
14th	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 to India on the 15th. Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the first Governor General of Pakistan
23rd	Prime Minister of Greece Dimitrios Maximos resigns
24th	The first Edinburgh International Festival begins, with a post-war mission to "provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit"
27th	When the French government lowers the bread ration to 200 grams, it causes riots in Verdun and Le Mans
30th	Fire at a cinema in Rueil, a suburb of Paris, France kills 87
31st	Communists take power in Hungary

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September
13th	Indian Prime Minister Nehru suggests the transfer of 4 million Hindus and Muslims between India and Pakistan
17th	A hurricane in southeast Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama leaves 51 dead
18th	The United States Army Air Forces, along with some components of the United States Navy's air arm, becomes the United States Air Force
18th	The National Security Act creates the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA

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October
14th	American test pilot Captain Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight
20th	The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 begins
30th	The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which is the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is founded

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November
2nd	In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built (flight lasted only eight minutes)
2nd	Earthquake in Chilean Andes kills 233
10th	The arrest of four steel workers in Marseille begins a communist riot that spreads to Paris
16th	The British begin to withdraw their troops from Palestine
18th	Ballantyne's Department Store fire in Christchurch, New Zealand, kills 41 in New Zealand's worst ever fire
20th	The Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI marries the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, London
21st	The United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment begins in Havana, Cuba. The conference ends in 1948, when members finish the Havana Charter
25th	New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom
27th	In Paris, police occupy the editorial offices of communist newspapers
29th	The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews, resulting in the creation of the State of Israel

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December
3rd	Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway
4th	French interior minister Jules S. Moch secures emergency measures against riots after six days of violent arguments in the national assembly
9th	French labour unions call off the general strike and begin negotiations with the French government
22nd	The Italian Constituent Assembly votes to accept the new constitution