Events from the year 1949 in the United States.
Incumbents Federal government President: Harry S. Truman (D-Missouri) Vice President: vacant (until January 20) Alben W. Barkley (D-Kentucky) (starting January 20) Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson (Kentucky) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph William Martin Jr. (R-Massachusetts) (until January 3) Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) (starting January 3) Senate Majority Leader: Wallace H. White Jr. (R-Maine) (until January 3) Scott W. Lucas (D-Illinois) (starting January 3) Congress: 80th (until January 3), 81st (starting January 3)
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors Lieutenant governors
Events
January–March
January 2 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. January 4 – RMS Caronia (1947) of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York City on her maiden voyage. January 4–February 22 – Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada – winds of up to 72 mph – tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish. January 5 – President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program. January 11 – Los Angeles, California, receives its first recorded snowfall. January 17 – The first Volkswagen Beetle to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York City by Dutch businessman Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models will be sold in America that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff that the car has no future in the U.S. (The VW Beetle goes on to become the greatest automobile phenomenon in American history.) January 19 – The Poe Toaster first appears at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. January 20 – President Harry S. Truman begins his full term. Alben W. Barkley is sworn in as Vice President of the United States. January 25 – The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club. February 10 – Arthur Miller's tragedy Death of a Salesman opens at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway in New York City with Lee J. Cobb in the title role of Willy Loman and runs for 742 performances. February 19 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University. February 22 – Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow, gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention. March 2 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight (it was refueled in flight 4 times). March 20 – The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Oakland, California, as the first long-distance train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment. March 24 – The 21st Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Robert Montgomery, is held at the Academy Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Laurence Olivier's Hamlet wins the most awards with four, including Best Picture, while John Huston wins Best Director for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Jean Negulesco's Johnny Belinda receives the most nominations with 12. March 26 – The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert (i.e. no scenery or costumes), is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. The second half is telecast a week later. This is the only complete opera that Toscanini ever conducts on television. March 28 – United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.
April–June
April 4 – The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., creating the NATO defense alliance. April 7 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, opens on Broadway and goes on to become R&H's second longest-running musical. It becomes an instant classic of the musical theatre. The score's biggest hit is the song Some Enchanted Evening. April 13 – The 6.7 Olympia earthquake affected the Puget Sound region of western Washington with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), causing eight deaths and $25 million in damage. April 23 – Development of the USS United States (CVA-58) "supercarrier" is cancelled; high-ranking Navy officials resign in protest in what has been called the Revolt of the Admirals. May 1 Albert Einstein publishes Why Socialism? in the first edition of the Monthly Review. May ? – A working group has been set up by United States Department of State, to codify the White Paper. This team consists of more than 80 staff members, led by Secretary of State Dean Acheson, former Columbia University Professor of Public International Law Philip C. Jessup."FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1949, THE FAR EAST: CHINA, VOLUME IX" June 8 – Red Scare: Celebrities including Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members. June 14 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, becomes the first primate to enter space, on Hermes project V-2 rocket Blossom IVB, but is killed on impact at return. June 19 – Glenn Dunaway wins the inaugural NASCAR race at Charlotte Speedway, a 3/4 mile oval in Charlotte, North Carolina, but is disqualified due to illegal springs. Jim Roper is declared the official winner. June 24 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC. June 29 – The last U.S. troops withdraw from South Korea.
July–September
August 5 – United States Department of State published The China White Paper as Department of State Publication 3573, entitled "United States Relations With China, With Special Reference to the Period 1944–1949.""FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1949, THE FAR EAST: CHINA, VOLUME IX" August 10 – The National Military Establishment (formerly the Department of War) is renamed the Department of Defense. August 16 – Office of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff created. August 28 – The last 6 surviving veterans of the American Civil War meet in Indianapolis. September 5 – Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer. September 15 – The Housing Act of 1949 is enacted. September 29 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" during World War II.
October–December
October 5 – Walt Disney Productions' eleventh feature film, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, is released. It is Disney's final package film to be released during the 1940s and the last the studio would produce until 1977's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. October 9 – The New York Yankees defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4 games to 1, to win their 12th World Series Title. October 27 – An airliner flying from Paris to New York City crashes in the Azores island of São Miguel. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu and boxer Marcel Cerdan. November – Englewood race riot in Chicago. November 24 – The ski resort in Squaw Valley, California officially opens.
Undated General Services Administration established per Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 The first 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun prototypes are completed. 1949 is the first year in which no African-American is lynched in the USA.From Harding to Hiroshima by Barrington Boardman (1988), p. 14.
Ongoing Cold War (1947–1991) Second Red Scare (1947–1957) Marshall Plan (1948–1951)
Births January 2 Christopher Durang, playwright (d. 2024) Iris Marion Young, political scientist (died 2006) January 6 – Carolyn D. Wright, poet (died 2016) January 7 – Chavo Guerrero Sr., professional wrestler (died 2017) January 8 John Podesta, lawyer and politician, 20th White House Chief of Staff Anne Schedeen, actress January 10 George Foreman, heavyweight boxer (died 2025) James Lapine, director and librettist Linda Lovelace, pornographic film actress (died 2002) January 11 – Chris Ford, basketball player and coach (died 2023) January 13 – Brandon Tartikoff, television executive (died 1997) January 22 – Steve Perry, musician January 24 - John Belushi, actor and comedian (died 1982) January 28 – Gregg Popovich, basketball coach January 30 – Ken Wilber, philosopher February 2 – Brent Spiner, actor, comedian and singer February 3 – Arthur Kane, bass guitarist (died 2004) February 4 – Michael Beck, actor February 8 – Brooke Adams, actress February 11 – George Winston, pianist (died 2023)George Winston, Grammy-Winning Pianist, Dead of Cancer at 74 February 12 – Lenny Randle, baseball player (died 2024) February 15 – Ken Anderson, American football quarterback and coach February 17 – Dennis Green, American football player and coach (died 2016) February 18 Pat Fraley, voice actor, voice-over teacher Gary Ridgway, serial killer February 19 – Danielle Bunten Berry, born Dan(iel Paul) Bunten, software developer (died 1998) February 21 – Jerry Harrison, songwriter February 25 Ric Flair (Richard Fliehr), wrestler Sherman Packard, speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives February 27 – John Wockenfuss, baseball player (died 2022)Longtime Detroit Tigers utilityman John Wockenfuss dies at 73 February 28 Ilene Graff, actress and singer A. J. Smith, American football executive (died 2024)A.J. Smith, winningest GM in Chargers history, dies March 2 – Gates McFadden, actress and choreographer March 3 Roberta Alexander, operatic soprano (died 2025) Gloria Hendry, African American actress Jesse Jefferson, baseball player (died 2011) Sandy Martin, actress March 4 – Helen Frost, writer March 10 – Barbara Corcoran, businesswoman, investor and television personality March 12 Rob Cohen, film director Mary Catherine Lamb, textile artist (died 2009) March 13 – Julia Migenes, soprano March 16 Erik Estrada, television actor and police officer Elliott Murphy, singer-songwriter March 17 – Patrick Duffy, television actor March 20 – Marcia Ball, blues musician March 21 – Eddie Money (Edward Mahoney), rock guitarist and singer (died 2019) March 25 – Sue Klebold, author and activist March 26 – Ernest Lee Thomas, actor March 28 – Michael W. Young, geneticist and chronobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017 March 29 – Michael Brecker, jazz saxophonist (died 2007) April 1 – Gil Scott-Heron, African American poet, jazz/soul musician and author (died 2011) April 2 – Paul Gambaccini, broadcaster and author April 5 – Judith Resnik, astronaut (died 1986) April 7 – Mitch Daniels, academic administrator, businessman, author and politician, 49th governor of Indiana April 8 – William O'Neal, FBI informant (died 1990) April 9 – Stephen Hickman, illustrator (died 2021) April 11 – Dorothy Allison, novelist and campaigner (died 2024) April 18 – Geoff Bodine, race car driver April 20 – Jessica Lange, actress April 22 – Spencer Haywood, basketball player April 23 – Joyce DeWitt, actress April 26 – Jerry Blackwell, professional wrestler (died 1995) April 30 – Phil Garner, baseball player and manager (died 2026) May 1 Gavin Christopher, singer (died 2016) Sarah Clayborne, pie chef, restaurateur and community activist May 3 – Ron Wyden, U.S. Senator from Oregon from 1996 May 4 John Force, race car driver Gary Gaines, American football coach (died 2022)Gary Gaines, coach at heart of Friday Night Lights, dies aged 73 May 6 – Larry Rivers, basketball player and coach (died 2023)Basketball legend Larry 'Gator' Rivers, longtime Globetrotter, has died at 73 May 7 – Deborah Butterfield, sculptor May 9 – Billy Joel, singer-songwriter and pianist May 13 – Zoë Wanamaker, actress May 15 – George Adams, basketball player