1948

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1910s 1920s 1930s – 1940s – 1950s 1960s 1970s
Years:	1945 1946 1947 – 1948 – 1949 1950 1951

1948 is a year in the 20th century. It was a leap year.

Events

January 1 – Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways. Arab militants lay siege to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. First day of the Italian republican constitution.
January 4 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
January 5 – Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
January 17 – Truce between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops in Java
January 26 – Teigin poison case – Man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 out of 15 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced for the crime.
January 30 – Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is murdered by a Hindu extremist.
January 30 – 1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
February 1 – Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts.
February 4 – Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth. King George VI becomes King of Ceylon.
February 18 – Éamon de Valera, head of government since 1932, loses power to an opposition coalition. John A. Costello is appointed Taoiseach of Éire (formerly called the Irish Free State) by President O'Kelly.
February 24 – The Communist Party seizes control of Czechoslovakia.
Works begins on the Crazy Horse Memorial.
May 13 – First Kashmir War between India and Pakistan
April-May – Israel's independence day.

January 21 – Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer
January 30 – Mohandas Gandhi, Leader of Indian Non-Violent Independence movement (assassinated)
January 30 – Orville Wright of the Wright brothers, co-inventor of the airplane
February 2 – Bevil Rudd, South African athlete
February 11 – Sergey Eisenstein, movie director
March 6 – Ross Lockridge, Jr., novelist
March 10 – Zelda Fitzgerald (Mrs. F. Scott Fitzgerald)
March 10 – Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia
March 31 – Egon Erwin Kisch, journalist and writer
April 9 – Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (b. 1903)
April 17 – Suzuki Kantaro, Japanese admiral and prime minister
May 15 – Father Edward J. Flanagan, priest, founder of Boys Town
May 28 – Unity Mitford, British friend of Hitler
June 25 – William C. Lee, Maj, General United States Army (b. 1895)
July 23 – David Wark Griffith, movie director
August 12 – Harry Brearley, inventor of stainless steel
August 16 – Babe Ruth, Baseball Hall of Famer
September 11 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah, first Governor-General and founder of Pakistan.
October 24 – Franz Lehár, composer
November 28 – D.D. Sheehan first independent Labour MP. in Ireland
December 23 – Kenji Doihara, Koki Hirota, Seishiro Itagaki, Heitarō Kimura, Iwane Matsui, Akira Mutō, and Hideki Tōjō, Japanese war leaders (hanged)
December 31 – Sir Malcolm Campbell, land and water racer (b. 1885)