Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1946

January

• January 7 - The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with 1937 borders, and divide the country into 4 occupation zones.

January 10: First meeting of UN.

January 10: Project Diana

• January 10 - The first meeting of the United Nations is held in London.
• January 10 - Project Diana bounces radar waves off the Moon, measuring the exact distance between the earth and the moon, and proving that communication is possible between Earth and outer space, effectively opening the space age.
• January 11 - Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania, with himself as prime minister.
• January 11 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob's ashes go back to Colombia.
• January 16 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as a head of a French provisional government.
• January 17 - The UN Security Council holds its first session.
• January 17 - Senator Dennis Chavez (D-NM) calls for a vote on an FEPC bill which calls for an end to discrimination in the workplace. A filibuster prevents it from passing.
• January 20 - Charles De Gaulle resigns as president of France.
• January 22 - Iran: Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at the Chuwarchira Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. He is the new president, Hadschi Baba Scheich is the prime minister.

Jan. 28: Bluenose founders.

• January 25 - The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.
• January 28 - The Canadian schooner Bluenose founders on a Haitian reef.
• January 29 - The Central Intelligence Group is established (the CIA in 1947).
• January 31 - Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes 6 constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

February

• February 1 - Trygve Lie of Norway is selected to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
• February 1 - The Kingdom of Hungary becomes a republic.
• February 14 - The Bank of England is nationalized.
• February 14 - ENIAC (for "Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer"), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.
• February 15 - Canada indicts 22 communist agents.
• February 20 - An explosion kills more than 400 coal miners in West Germany.
• February 24 - Juan Peron is elected president of Argentina.
• February 28 - In Philadelphia, General Electric strikers and police clash.

March

• March 2 - British troops withdraw from Iran according to treaty; the Soviets do not.
• March 2 - Ho Chi Minh is elected President of North Vietnam.
• March 4 - C.G.E. Mannerheim resigns as president of Finland.
• March 5 - In his speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill talks about the Iron Curtain.
• March 6 - Vietnam War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
• March 6 - A communist-dominated government under Petru Groza assumes power in Romania.
• March 7 - The 18th Academy Awards ceremony is held.
• March 9 - Juho Kusti Paasikivi becomes president of Finland.
• March 10 - British troops begin withdrawing from Lebanon.
• March 15 - Clement Attlee promises independence to India as soon as they can agree on a constitution.
• March 19 - The Soviet Union and Switzerland resume diplomatic relations.
• March 19 - French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France.
• March 22 - The United Kingdom grants Transjordan, as it is then known, its independence; 3 years later the country changes its name to Jordan.^[1]
• March 29 - The Gold Coast has an African majority in its parliament.

April

• April 1 - A 14-meter high tsunami strikes Hilo and Laup-hoehoe on the Big Island of Hawaii; 173 are killed, thousands injured.
• April 1 - The Malayan Union is formed.
• April 1 - Singapore becomes a Crown colony.
• April 3 - Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila, the Philippines for leading the Bataan Death March.
• April 10 - In Japan, women vote for the first time, during elections for the House of Representatives of the 90th Imperial Diet.
• April 17 - Syria's independence from France is officially recognised.
• April 18 - The United States recognizes Josip Broz Tito's government in Yugoslavia.
• April 18 - The League of Nations, in its last meeting, transfers its mission to the United Nations and disbands itself.
• April 23 - The Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League (Which is now the CBA) is founded.
• April 29 - Trial against war criminals begin in Tokyo; the accused include Hideki Tojo, Shigenori Togo and Hiroshi Oshima.

May

• May 1 - At least 800 Indigenous Australian pastoral workers walk off the job in Northwest Western Australia, starting one of the longest industrial strikes in Australia.
• May 2 - Six inmates unsuccessfully try to escape from Alcatraz Prison.
• May 7 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with about 20 employees.
• May 9 - King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates, and is succeeded by his son Humbert II.
• May 10 - Nehru is elected leader of the Congress Party in India.
• May 10 - The first V-2 rocket is successfully launched at the White Sands Missile Range.
• May 20 - The British House of Commons decides to nationalize mines.
• May 21 - At the Los Alamos Laboratory, Dr. Louis Slotin saves his coworkers but receives a fatal dose of ionizing radiation (the incident is initially classified).
• May 22 - The Kingdom of Transjordan is founded.
• May 25 - The parliament of Transjordan makes emir Abdullah their king.
• May 26 - Czechoslovak parliamentary election, with Communist victory (38%), last before communist take power
• May 31 - A Greek referendum supports the return of the monarchy.

June

• June 1 - Ion Antonescu, prime minister and "Conducator" (Leader) of Romania during World War II is executed; he was found guilty of betraying the Romanian people for benefits of Germany and sentenced to death by the Bucharest People's Tribunal.
• June 2 - In a referendum, Italians decide to turn Italy from a monarchy into a republic. Women vote for the first time.
• June 6 - The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City.
• June 8 - In Indonesia, Sukarno incites his supporters to fight Dutch colonial occupation.
• June 9 - In Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) accedes the throne after the mysterious death of his brother, King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII).
• June 10 - Italy is declared a republic.
• June 13 - Humbert II of Italy leaves the country and goes into exile in Portugal; Alcide de Gasperi becomes head of state.
• June 17 - A tornado on the Detroit River kills 17.
• June 17 - Laurence Olivier's Henry V opens in the United States nearly 2 years after its release in England. It is the first Shakespeare film in color, and critics hail it as the finest film of a Shakespeare play ever made.
• June 23 - The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake strikes Vancouver Island.

July

• July 4 - Ankara University is founded in Turkey.
• July 4 - After over 381 years of Western dominance, the Philippines achieves full independence.
• July 5 - Bikinis go on sale in Paris.
• July 7 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American saint to be canonized.
• July 21 - An Irgun bomb explodes in Jerusalem because of secretive talks between Jews and Britain to consolidate the state of Israel.
• July 22 - King David Hotel bombing: The Irgun bombs the King David Hotel (headquarters of the British civil and military administration) in Jerusalem, killing 90.
• July 25 - Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus USS Saratoga is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, when the United States detonates the Baker device during Operation Crossroads.
• July 25 - At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
• July 25 - In the last mass lynching in the United States, a mob of white men kill two African-American couples near Moore's Ford Bridge in Georgia.

August

• August 1 - The Hungarian Forint is introduced in Hungary by the government, ending the world's biggest hyperinflation in the country.
• August 4 - The 1946 Dominican Republic earthquake (magnitude 8.0) hits the northern Dominican Republic, killing 100, and leaving 20,000 homeless.
• August 18 - The Vergarolla explosion in Croatia kills 70.
• August 19 - Violence between Muslims and Hindus in Calcutta leaves 3,000 dead.
• August 25 - Ben Hogan wins the PGA Championship.

September

• September 4 - Street violence between Muslims and Hindus erupts in Bombay.
• September 8 - Bulgaria is declared a People's Republic after a referendum; King Simeon II leaves.
• September 24 - Cathay Pacific Airways is founded by Roy C Farrell and H de Kantzow.
• September 28 - George II of Greece returns to Athens.

October

• October 1 - Mensa is founded in the United Kingdom.
• October 2 - Communists take over in Bulgaria.
• October 13 - France adopts the constitution of the Fourth Republic.
• October 15 - Nuremberg Trials: Hermann Göring, founder of the Gestapo and recently convicted Nazi war criminal, poisons himself hours before his scheduled execution.
• October 23 - The United Nations' first meeting in Long Island is held.

November

• November 1 - The New York Knicks play against the Toronto Huskies at the Maple Leaf Gardens, in the first Basketball Association of America game. The Knicks win 68-66.
• November 6 - Senate and House elections in the United States both give majorities to the Republicans.
• November 8 - Vietnamese riot in Haiphong and clash with French troops. The French cruiser Suffren opens fire, killing 6,000 Vietnamese.
• November 10 - At least 1,400 people are killed in an earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter Scale, in the Ancash Region and Quiches District in Peru.
• November 10 - The Slimbridge Wetland Reserve opens in England.
• November 12 - A truce is declared between Indonesian nationalist troops and the Dutch army in Indonesia.
• November 12 - in Chicago, a branch of the Exchange National Bank (now part of the LaSalle Bank) opens the first 10 drive-up teller windows.
• November 15 - The Netherlands recognizes the Republic of Indonesia.
• November 17 - Eight British servicemen are killed in Jerusalem by Jewish nationalists.
• November 19 - Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.
• November 19 - Romanian general election, 1946: The Romanian Communist Party wins 79.86% of the vote through widespread intimidation tactics and electoral fraud.
• November 22 - Tony Benn is elected as Treasurer of the Oxford Union.
• November 23 - The Workers Party of South Korea is founded.
• November 27 - Cold War: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."

December

• December 1 - Miguel Alemán Valdés takes office as President of Mexico.
• December 2 The International Whaling Commission was signed in Washington to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry".
• December 7 - A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, United States kills 119.
• December 11 - UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund) is founded.
• December 12 - The United Nations severs relations with Franco's Spain and recommends that member countries sever diplomatic relations.
• December 12 - Léon Blum founds a government of socialist parties in France.
• December 12 - A communist government takes power in Tabriz, Iranian Azerbaijan Province.
• December 19 - Martial law is declared in Vietnam.
• December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, featuring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travers, and Thomas Mitchell, is released in New York.
• December 20 - At least 1,362 people are killed in an earthquake and associated tsunami in Japan.
• December 22 - The Havana Conference begins between U.S. organized crime bosses in Havana, Cuba.
• December 24 - France's Fourth Republic is founded.
• December 26 - The Flamingo Hotel opens in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• December 26 - David Lean's Great Expectations, based on the Charles Dickens novel, and featuring John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Martita Hunt, Alec Guinness, Francis L. Sullivan, Jean Simmons, and Finlay Currie, is released to great acclaim in England.
• December 31 - President Harry Truman delivers Proclamation 2714, which officially ends hostilities in World War II.

Undated

• The 20mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun contract is released.
• The Devil's Island penal colony closes permanently.
• Female suffrage is enacted in Belgium, Romania, Yugoslavia, Argentina and the Canadian province of Quebec.
• The first female police officers are hired in Korea and Japan.
• The Chinese Civil War intensifies between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China.
• The first Tupperware is sold in department and hardware stores.
• Grantley Adams becomes the premier of Barbados.
• The Alcatraz Island prison riot occurs.
• The British government takes emergency powers to deal with the balance-of-payments crisis.
• Eva Perón tours Spain, Italy and France on behalf of Argentina, a circuit called the Rainbow Tour.
• The Breathalyzer machine for estimating blood alcohol concentration is invented.
• George Orwell writes Politics and the English Language
• The NFL team San Francisco 49ers is formed.
• Deaths and Entrances by Dylan Thomas is published. It includes one of Thomas' most famous poems, Fern Hill.
• The Casio Company is founded by engineer Tadao Kashio.

Ongoing

• Marshall Plan

Fictional

• 5 November - In Bioshock, the underwater Objectivist gulch city of Rapture is officially opened.
• Undated - In The X-Files, the first X-file is opened by J. Edgar Hoover.

Births

January-February

• January 3 - John Paul Jones, English rock bassist (Led Zeppelin)
• January 3 - Cissy King, American dancer and singer (The Lawrence Welk Show)
• January 5 - Diane Keaton, American actress (Annie Hall)
• January 6 - Syd Barrett, English rock guitarist and singer (Pink Floyd) (d. 2006)
• January 8 - Stanton Peele, American psychologist
• January 8 - Robby Krieger, American rock musician (The Doors)
• January 11 - Naomi Judd, American country singer
• January 11 - John Piper, American theologian
• January 12 - George Duke, African-American musician
• January 14 - Harold Shipman, British serial killer (d.2004)
• January 16 - Kabir Bedi, Indian actor
• January 16 - Katia Ricciarelli, Italian singer
• January 18 - Joseph Deiss, Swiss Federal Councillor
• January 19 - Julian Barnes, English writer
• January 19 - Dolly Parton, American country singer and actress (9 to 5)
• January 20 - David Lynch, American film director
• January 21 - Johnny Oates, American baseball player and manager (d. 2004)
• January 22 - Serge Savard, Canadian hockey player and executive
• January 24 - Michael Ontkean, Canadian actor (The Rookies)
• January 26 - Gene Siskel, American film critic (d. 1999)
• January 27 - Nedra Talley, American singer (Ronettes)
• January 31 - Terry Kath, American rock musician (Chicago) (d. 1978)
• February 2 - Blake Clark, American actor and comedian
• February 6 - Jim Turner, American politician
• February 9 - Séan Neeson, Northern Irish politician
• February 13 - Colin Matthews, British composer
• February 14 - Bernard Dowiyogo, President of Nauru (d. 2003)
• February 14 - Gregory Hines, African American dancer and actor (Lost At Home) (d. 2003)
• February 19 - Karen Silkwood, American activist (d. 1974)
• February 20 - Brenda Blethyn, English actress
• February 21 - Tyne Daly, American actress (Cagney and Lacey)
• February 21 - Alan Rickman, English actor
• February 25 - Franz Xaver Kroetz, German dramatist
• February 26 - Ahmed H. Zewail, Egyptian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• February 28 - Robin Cook, British politician (d. 2005)

March-April

• March 4 - Michael Ashcroft, English entrepreneur
• March 4 - Haile Gerima, Ethiopian filmmaker
• March 4 - Harvey Goldsmith, British impresario
• March 5 - Lova Moor, French singer and dancer
• March 6 - David Gilmour, English rock musician (Pink Floyd)
• March 7 - Peter Wolf, American rock musician (The J. Geils Band)
• March 10 - Mike Hollands, Australian animator
• March 12 - Liza Minnelli, American singer and actress
• March 15 - Bobby Bonds, American baseball player and manager (d. 2003)
• March 17 - Georges J. F. Kohler, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1995)
• March 21 - Timothy Dalton, Welsh actor
• March 25 - Cliff Balsam, English footballer
• March 27 - Olaf Malolepski, German musician (Die Flippers)
• March 30 - Carolyn Simpson, judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales
• March 31 - Gonzalo Márquez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 1984)
• April 4 - Dave Hill, English guitarist (Slade)
• April 7 - Colette Besson, French runner
• April 7 - John Loder, British musician (Crass Records)
• April 7 - Léon Krier, Luxembourgian architect
• April 12 - Ed O'Neill, American actor (Married....With Children)
• April 16 - Margot Adler, American journalist
• April 19 - Tim Curry, British actor, vocalist, and composer (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)
• April 20 - Julien Poulin, Canadian actor
• April 25 - John Fox, British statistician
• April 25 - Talia Shire, American actress (Rocky)
• April 25 - Strobe Talbott, American journalist
• April 30 - King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden

May-June

• May 2 - Lesley Gore, American rock singer (It's My Party)
• May 4 - John Watson, Northern Irish racecar driver
• May 7 - Thelma Houston, African-American singer (Don't Leave Me This Way)
• May 9 - Candice Bergen, American actress
• May 9 - Drafi Deutscher, German Schlager singer (d. 2006)
• May 10 - Donovan Leitch, Scottish rock musician (Sunshine Superman)
• May 10 - Dave Mason, English rock musician (Traffic)
• May 11 - Robert Jarvik, American physicist and artifical heart inventor
• May 12 - Richard Bruce Silverman, John Evans Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University
• May 16 - Robert Fripp, British musician
• May 17 - Udo Lindenberg, German musician
• May 18 - Reggie Jackson, African-American baseball player
• May 19 - André the Giant, French professional wrestler (d. 1993)
• May 19 - Claude Lelièvre, Belgian Commissioner for Children Rights
• May 20 - Cher, American actress and rock singer (Sonny and Cher)
• May 22 - George Best, Northern Irish footballer (d. 2005)
• May 23 - Frederik de Groot, Dutch actor
• May 26 - Mick Ronson, English guitarist (d. 1993)
• May 28 - K. Satchidanandan, Malayalam poet
• May 29 - Fernando Buesa, Basque politician (d. 2000)
• May 30 - Candy Lightner, American founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving
• June 2 - Peter Sutcliffe, English serial killer
• June 8 - Pearlette Louisy, Governor-General of St. Lucia
• June 12 - Harry Glasper, English football historian
• June 14 - Donald Trump, American real estate magnate
• June 15 - Demis Roussos, Greek singer
• June 15 - Noddy Holder, English rock singer (Slade)
• June 15 - Roy Holder, English actor
• June 15 - Janet Lennon, American singer (The Lennon Sisters)
• June 17 - Marcy Kaptur, U.S. Representative for the Ninth Congressional District of Ohio
• June 18 - Russell Ash, British author
• June 20 - Xanana Gusmão, first President of East Timor
• June 22 - Kay Redfield Jamison, American psychiatrist
• June 23 - Kathy Wilkes, English philosopher
• June 23 - Ted Shackelford, American actor
• June 24 - Ellison Onizuka, American astronaut (d. 1986)
• June 24 - Robert Reich, 22nd United States Secretary of Labor
• June 28 - Gilda Radner, American comedienne and actress (Saturday Night Live) (d. 1989)
• June 29 - Egon von Furstenberg, Swiss fashion designer (d. 2004)

July-August

• July 2 - Richard Axel, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• July 4 - Ed O'Ross, American actor
• July 4 - Michael Milken, American financier
• July 6 - George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States
• July 6 - Sylvester Stallone, American actor (Rambo)
• July 9 - Natasha Pyne, English actress
• July 9 - Bon Scott, Australian rock singer (AC/DC) (d. 1980)
• July 13 - Cheech Marin, American actor and comedian (Cheech and Chong)
• July 14 - John Wood, Australian actor
• July 15 - Linda Ronstadt, American singer and songwriter (You're No Good)
• July 16 - Dave Goelz, American puppeteer
• July 16 - Ron Yary, American football player
• July 17 - Alun Armstrong, English actor
• July 22 - Danny Glover, African-American actor (Lethal Weapon)
• July 22 - Mireille Mathieu, French singer
• July 23 - Sally Flynn, American singer (The Lawrence Welk Show)
• July 25 - Rita Marley, Jamaican singer
• July 30 - Neil Bonnett, American race car driver (d. 1994)
• August 1 - Mike Emrick, American sportscaster
• August 1 - Sandi Griffiths, American singer
• August 3 - Jack Straw, British politician
• August 5 - Ron Silliman, American poet
• August 9 - Jim Kiick, American football player
• August 19 -