The following events occurred in April 1946:
April 1, 1946 (Monday) A tsunami, generated by an 8.6 magnitude earthquake near Alaska, killed 159 people in Hawaii. Waves high struck Hilo shortly after local time, and almost five hours after the Alaskan tremor. Bituminous coal miners walked off the job across the United States, as 400,000 UMWA members went on strike in 26 states. The miners returned to work after six weeks. As part of Operation Road's End, the United States Navy destroyed and sank 24 Japanese submarines that had been surrendered at the end of World War II. Twenty-three were blown up with demolition charges. The I-58, which had sunk the , was destroyed by shellfire. Dissolution of the Straits Settlements: The United Kingdom made Singapore a Crown colony, separating the predominantly Chinese population from the rest of the Union of Malaya. The United States Supreme Court declined to grant certiorari on an appeal from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chapman v. King, et al. 154 F.2d 460 (5th Cir. 1946), which held that African-Americans could not be barred from voting in primary elections in Georgia. At the time, the Democratic Party was the dominant political party in Georgia and other Southern states in the Fifth Circuit, and the winner of the Democratic primary was frequently unopposed in the general election. Primus E. King of Columbus, Georgia, had commenced the suit in 1944, to challenge the practice of allowing political parties to set their own rules concerning who would be allowed to vote in a nominating election. The decision paved the way for allowing Black Americans to vote in primary elections in other states. Born: Robert Garwood, U.S. Marine and Vietnam POW, who was convicted in 1981 of collaboration with the enemy; in Greensburg, Indiana Died: Noah Beery, Sr., 64, American film actor Edward Sheldon, 60, American playwright
April 2, 1946 (Tuesday) In Japan, General Douglas MacArthur, administrator of the American occupation, issued the first regulations against fraternization between American soldiers and Japanese citizens. Originally intended to stop soldiers from consorting with prostitutes, the regulations soon provided for segregation in public transportation, food service and accommodation, with Japanese residents being barred from American facilities, and vice versa.Yukiko Koshiro, Trans-Pacific Racisms and the U.S. Occupation of Japan (Columbia University Press, 1999) p. 60 Japanese storekeeper Katsumi Yanagisawa began the business of manufacturing music stands, which grew into the Pearl Musical Instrument Company, and eventually became Pearl Drums.Pearl Drums company history Born: Yves "Apache" Trudeau, Canadian murderer alleged to have killed 43 people for the Hells Angels group.Yves Lavigne, Hell's Angels: "Three Can Keep a Secret If Two are Dead" (Carol Publishing, 1993) p. 335 (d. 2008) Died: Kate Bruce, 88, American silent screen actress
April 3, 1946 (Wednesday) An article on the front page of the Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool brought the attention of publishers to the existence of a diary, written by a teenage girl who had died in a Nazi concentration camp. Historian Jan Romein wrote, under the headline "Kinderstem" ("A Child's Voice"), "[T]his apparently inconsequential diary by a child ... stammered out in a child's voice, embodies all the hideousness of fascism, more so than all the evidence at Nueremberg put together." Published in the Netherlands as 1947 as Het Archterhuis: Dagboekbrieven ("The Attic: Diary Notes"), the book would be translated into English in 1952 as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.Anne Frank Museum
Died: Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, Japanese general who ordered the Bataan death march, was executed in Manila by a U.S. Army firing squad.
April 4, 1946 (Thursday) The eleven nation Far Eastern Commission exempted Japan's Emperor Hirohito from being tried for war crimes.John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (W.W. Norton, 1999) p616 Nine U.S. Navy personnel, from the aircraft carrier USS Tarawa, were killed while watching training exercises from an observation tower in Puerto Rico. One of the airplanes inadvertently released a bomb which made a direct hit on the tower."Bomb in Air Test Kills 9 Observers", New York Times, April 6, 1946, p. 5 Born: Dave Hill, English guitarist (Slade), in Holbeton
April 5, 1946 (Friday) The Soviet Union and Iran announced a 25-year agreement to create a "Soviet-Persian Oil Company", with the U.S.S.R. to have 51% of Iran's oil rights in return for the withdrawal of Soviet troops."Soviet, Iran in Accord on Oil" Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), April 6, 1946, p. 1 However, the treaty, subject to the approval of Iran's Majlis, was rejected in 1947.Iranian History Chronicle The Soviet Union ended its occupation of the island of Bornholm, a territory of Denmark located in the Baltic Sea. A British Vickers Wellington airplane, part of the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy and designated as HE274, crashed into a residential area in Rabat, Malta during a training exercise, killing 16 civilians on the ground and all four crew members. By a 41–27 margin, the United States Senate approved increasing the 40¢/hour minimum wage to 65¢ per hour."Senate Votes 65c Wage And Higher Farm Prices" Salt Lake Tribune, April 6, 1946, p1 Thirty-six years after it had been written, Charles Ives's Third Symphony was given its first public performance. In 1947, Ives would win a Pulitzer Prize for the 1910 symphony.Gilbert Chase, America's music, from the Pilgrims to the present (University of Illinois Press, 1987) p. 443 Born: Björn Granath, Swedish actor; in Gothenburg (d. 2017) Died: Vincent Youmans, 45, American songwriter
April 6, 1946 (Saturday) Captain Hoshijima Susumu, Japanese commander of the Sandakan prisoner-of-war camp in Indonesia, was hanged for war crimes. Capt. Hoshijima had ordered the "Sandakan Death Marches" as the war approached a close in 1945. During his administration, nearly 6,000 prisoners died—4,000 Indonesians, 1,381 Australians and 641 British."Sandakan Death March" Acting on a tip from a geisha house, American officials unearthed two billion dollars' worth of gold, silver and platinum that had been hidden in the muddy bottom of Tokyo Bay. An officer of the Japanese Army had carried out the concealment of the precious metals in July 1945, shortly before the surrender of Japan."Bullion Is Found in Tokyo Bay Mud", New York Times, April 7, 1946, p. 1
April 7, 1946 (Sunday) Free elections were conducted in Milan for the first time since 1922, when Benito Mussolini had installed a Fascist regime, and 800,000 ballots were cast in voting for local councilmen."Milan Election Is Quiet; First Free Votes in 24 Years Cast by 800,000 for Council", New York Times, April 8, 1946, p. 3 Born: Colette Besson, French athlete, 1968 Olympic gold medalist in the 400 m race; in Saint-Georges-de-Didonne (d. 2005) Zaid Abdul-Aziz, American NBA player, as Donald A. Smith in Brooklyn Léon Krier, Luxembourgian architect (d. 2025)
April 8, 1946 (Monday) In Geneva, the League of Nations, predecessor to the United Nations, opened its final session. The Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, who would later become the NBA's Detroit Pistons, won their third consecutive World Professional Basketball Tournament, defeating the Oshkosh All-Stars 73-57 to win the third and final game of the best-of-three series. Two iconic films of 1946, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives, began filming on the same day. Électricité de France (EDF) was created, as the French government nationalized the electric industry in that nation, formerly handled by more than 1,450 firms.EDF official site Ethiopian Airlines, now one of the largest airlines in Africa, began its first service, with a flight between Addis Ababa and Cairo.Ethiopian Airlines website Born: Robert L. Johnson, the first African-American billionaire and founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET); in Hickory, Mississippi Jim "Catfish" Hunter, American MLB pitcher; in Hertford, North Carolina (d. 1999)
Died: Qin Bangxian, (alias Bo Gu), 38, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, 1932–35, Ye Ting, Deng Fa and others in a plane crash while en route from Chongqing to Yan'an.
April 9, 1946 (Tuesday) The Montreal Canadiens won the Stanley Cup, defeating the Boston Bruins 6–3 to win the series in five games.Montreal Canadiens website Angkatan Udara Republik Indonesia (AURI), the Indonesian Air Force, was formally established, drawing primarily from a fleet of about 50 captured Japanese airplanes.Dutch Aviation Society The University of Bergen was founded in Norway.
April 10, 1946 (Wednesday) In Japan's first multiparty election since 1937, women were allowed to vote for the first time as 2,770 candidates vied for 464 seats in the House of Representatives of Japan. The Liberal Party, led by Ichirō Hatoyama, won 142 seats, followed by the Progressive Party (94) and the Japanese Socialist Party (92), but Hatoyama was not allowed by the Allied occupation authorities to serve as Prime Minister, because of prior service in the enemy government. The Federal Communications Commission approved the first expansion of long-distance telephone calling since before World War II, as AT&T was granted the right to add 1,000 new phone circuits.
At the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Atlantic City, Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg announced the names for the two newest elements which had been created in 1946 at the University of California. Element 95 was dubbed americium and Element 96 was curium.
April 11, 1946 (Thursday) The French National Assembly passed a resolution sponsored by deputy Félix Houphouët-Boigny of the Ivory Coast, finally outlawing the practice of "forced labor", in France's overseas territories. Until that time, it was permissible for the colonial government to require adult males in the African colonies to work on government projects, without remuneration, for a set number of days in each year. On the island of Madagascar, Malagasy men had to labor a minimum of fifty days on colonial projects.A New Paradigm of the African State: Fundi wa Afrika (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) pp. 76–77 Houphouët-Boigny, for whom the "Loi Houphouët-Boigny" was named, would become the first President of the Ivory Coast in 1960. The Bell X-1 experimental jet airplane made its first powered flight, with Chalmers "Slick" Goodlin taking the first of the three prototypes, X-1-1, on a flight from the Muroc Army Air Field. The X-1-1 had first been glide-tested on January 25, 1946. On October 14, 1947, Chuck Yeager would fly the X-1-1 at faster than the speed of sound."X-1 specifications" at GlobalAircraft.org Born: Bob Harris, radio presenter in Northampton, England
April 12, 1946 (Friday) British war hero Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, took office as the 17th Governor General of Canada, serving until 1952."Alexander Takes Office in Canada", New York Times, April 13, 1946, p6 The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company announced its plans to build dirigibles that would carry up to 300 passengers on overseas trips in the same manner as an ocean liner."Dirigibles Planned to Fly 300 Overseas", New York Times, April 13, 1946, p13 None were ever put into service. Born: Ed O'Neill, American TV actor known for Modern Family and Married... with Children; in Youngstown, Ohio John Dunsworth, Canadian TV Actor (Trailer Park Boys) (d. 2017) Died: "Chips", 6, mixed breed dog who was awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross for combat during World War II (both were later rescinded); of kidney failure.Michael G. Lemish, War Dogs: A History of Loyalty and Heroism (Brassey's, 1999) pp. 73–78
April 13, 1946 (Saturday)