1946-47 16 years old.
This is one of the very few history blogs I intend to publish. Please don't click off! There were so many memorable events during 1946 and I was just becoming aware of world events.You may be interested in some of these events even though they are old, old history.
May 1946 - President Truman seized control of the nation's railroads, delaying a threatened strike by engineers and trainmen. A strike at that time would have disrupted the industrial recovery from war production to peace production. Most presidents since Truman's presidency would never have done such a thing because of concern of losing the union votes.
Oct. 1946 - Ten Nazi war criminals condemned during the Nuremberg trials were hanged.
Sept. 1946 - 22 top Nazi leaders were found guilty of war crimes and most of these were put to death.
April, 1946 - The Japanese commander responsible for the 65-mile Bataan Death March, was executed outside Manila in the Philippines.
Mar. 1946 - Winston Churchill delivered his speech that was later known as the "Iron Curtain Speech."
Feb. 1946 - a press conference was held to introduce what is considered the first computer, The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) The computer took up an entire room, weighed 30 tons and used more than 18,000 vacuum tubes. It could count from 1 to 5000 in one second. It cost $450,000 and was designed by the U. S. Army during WW II to make artillery calculations.
May 1946 - The first commercial computer was transported from Sperry Univac Corp. to the Bureau of Census. It took two truck semi-trailers to carry the computer.
June 1946 - The US Supreme Court ruled that race separation on buses is unconstitutional. This decision stemmed from the 1944 incident when Irene Morgan was jailed for refusing to give up her bus seat.
July 1946 - The Bikini bathing suit made its debut during a fashion show in Paris. The designer named the suit after the atom bomb test on the Bikini Atoll. He said he wanted his design to have a similar explosive affect. According to New York Times columnist, William Safire, the swimsuit caused more debate, concern and condemnation than the atomic bomb.
July 1946, - The final Japanese internment camps located in Calif. and Utah were closed. This ended a terrible decision by President Roosevelt to remove US citizens with a Japanese ancestry from their homes in California and place them in internment camps away from the Pacific Coast. Most of these citizens had been born in the U.S.
1946 - Beginning in 1946 and continuing through 1970, some 62,000 steel drums of nuclear waste were dumped into both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In 1976 EPA scientists reported that they had discovered plutonium in the ocean sediment off the San Francisco coast and east of Ocean City, Maryland.
1946 - a chemist at Lorillard Tobacco Company reported to his superiors that the use of tobacco contributes to cancer development.
Dec. 1946 - Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful LIfe", premiered in NYC.
Costs in 1946-47
Average cost of a new house $6,600.
Average wages per year $2,850
Average cost of a new car $1,300
Cost of a gallon of gas 15 cents
Cost of a loaf of bread 13 cents
U.S. postage stamp 3 cents
However, by far the most important historical event of 1946 for me was, my first date with Joan DeJournette. That was a memory never tobe forgotten..
Grandpa's Humor
I recently wrote the following letter to the IRS: Dear IRS, I am writing to you to cancel my subscription, Please remove my name from your mailing list.
I haven't heard from them yet, but Joan recently complained that every time she used the phone she hears a lot of clicking sounds in the background.
Two more groaners:
Back in the 1800's the Tates Watch Company of Massachusetts wanted to produce other products and decided to market compasses for the pioneers traveling west. It turned out that although their watches were of finest quality, their compasses were so bad that people often ended up in Canada or Mexico rather than California. This, of course, is the origin of the expression; "He who has a Tates is lost!"
Evidence has been found that William Tell and his family were avid bowlers. However, all the league records were unfortunately destroyed in a fire. Thus we'll never know for whom the Tells bowled.
Happy groaning. I love yw'all
