The following events occurred in December 1946:
December 1, 1946 (Sunday) Miguel Alemán Valdés was sworn into office as the 46th President of Mexico and as the nation's first civilian president since Venustiano Carranza's death in 1920.Josefina Zoraida Vázquez and Lorenzo Meyer, The United States and Mexico (University of Chicago Press, 1987) p. 164
December 2, 1946 (Monday) The International Whaling Commission was created by the signing, in Washington, D.C., of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry". The 15 parties signing represented Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, South Africa, the USSR, the UK, and the U.S.International Whaling Commission site U.S. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes, and British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin jointly announced the "economic fusion" of the American and British occupation zones of Germany, to take place effective January 1, 1947, declaring that "The two zones shall be treated as a single area for all economic purposes." Nicknamed "Bizonia", the Anglo-American occupation zone contained the German states of Schleswig-Holstein, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Niedersachsen, Bavaria, Hesse, and Württemberg-Baden (which later became part of Baden-Württemberg). The French zone would join the merger on April 8, 1949, and the three zones would then become West Germany on May 24 of the same year."U.S., Britain Sign Reich Zone Merger", Miami News, December 3, 1946, p. 1; Norman Friedman, The Fifty-Year War: Conflict and Strategy in the Cold War (Naval Institute Press, 2007) p. 66 Born: Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer; in Reggio Calabria (d. 1997)
December 3, 1946 (Tuesday) Notre Dame won the unofficial championship of the 1946 college football season, as the final AP Poll ranked the Fighting Irish #1, with points overall (and 100 first-place votes). In second place was Army, with points and 48 first-place votes. Georgia (1,448) and UCLA (1,141) were third and fourth. All four teams were unbeaten in 1946; Notre Dame and Army were unbeaten, but not untied, having played a 0–0 game on November 9."Notre Dame Rated National Champion: Writers' Poll Gives Irish 100 Firsts To Army's 48", Miami News, December 3, 1946, p. 3-B The John Ford-directed Western film My Darling Clementine starring Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell and Victor Mature was released. Born: Marjana Lipovšek, Yugoslavian/Slovenian opera mezzo-soprano; in Ljubljana Joop Zoetemelk, Dutch cyclist, Tour de France winner 1980; in The Hague
December 4, 1946 (Wednesday) U.S. District Judge T. Alan Goldsborough found the United Mine Workers and its president, John L. Lewis, in contempt of court and fined both for continuing the nationwide coal miners strike. Lewis was fined $10,000 personally, and the union was fined $3,500,000 (equivalent to 35 million dollars in 2011)."Lewis is Defiant in Spite of Fines; Truman Radio Talk Set for Sunday", Milwaukee Journal, December 5, 1946, p. 1 Judge Goldsborough commented that the defiance of an injunction against continuing the strike "is an evil, demoniac, monstrous thing that means hunger and cold and unemployment and destitution and disorganization of the social fabric... if actions of this kind can be successfully persisted in, the government will be overthrown, and the government that would take its place would be a dictatorship, and the first thing the dictatorship would do would be to destroy the labor unions.""Court's Words on John Lewis", Milwaukee Journal, December 5, 1946, p. 2 Born: Sherry Alberoni, American voice actress; in Cleveland Yō Inoue, Japanese voice actress; in Tokyo (d. 2003)
December 5, 1946 (Thursday) U.S. President Truman issued Executive Order 9808, creating the 16-member Presidential Committee on Civil Rights, chaired by General Electric President Charles E. Wilson. Ten months later, the committee would deliver its report, To Secure These Rights.Nikki L. M. Brown and Barry M. Stentiford, eds., The Jim Crow Encyclopedia (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008) pp. 279–280; "Truman Sets Up Civil Rights Group To Fight 'Hatreds'", Daytona Beach Morning Journal, December 6, 1946, p. 1. A crowd of 200 residents of an all-white Airport Homes neighborhood rioted when the Chicago Housing Authority attempted to bring in the families of two distinguished African-American veterans in an attempt at integration of Chicago's West Lawn community. On the first day, the crowd attacked the movers who were bringing in the family furniture. Order was restored after 400 city police moved in, but the next day, demonstrators attacked the police. The project would remain all-white.Adam Cohen and Elizabeth Taylor, American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley (Hachette Digital, Inc., 2000); "Crowd Protests Housing Move", Milwaukee Journal, December 6, 1946, p. 12; "Police Quell Mob in Chicago Riot", New York Times, December 10, 1946, p. 26. U.S. Secretary of State Byrnes announced that, at the request of the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg had agreed to repatriate German war prisoners as soon as possible, and that he was awaiting an answer from France, where most of the 674,000 POWs had been held since World War II.Lawrence Paterson, Black Flag: The Surrender of Germany's U-Boat Forces (MBI Publishing Company, 2009) p. 146; "Prisoner Return Spurred By U.S.", Spokane Daily Chronicle, December 5, 1946, p. 1. The French submarine 2326, converted to use by the French Navy after its capture from Germany as Unterseeboot U-2326, disappeared in the Mediterranean with 18 men on board, after performing test dives near Toulon. It was believed that the sub had struck a sea mine set adrift following a storm."Submarine Missing: Believed To Have Hit Mine", Sydney Morning Herald, December 9, 1946, p. 2. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), state news organ for North Korea, was established. Its stated mission was "to turn all members of society into juche communist revolutionaries unconditionally loyal to the Great Leader".Yonhap News Agency, North Korea Handbook (M. E. Sharpe, 2003) p. 421. Born: José Carreras, Spanish Catalan opera singer, and one of The Three Tenors; in Barcelona Died: Louis Dewis, 74, Belgian Post-Impressionist painter
December 6, 1946 (Friday) The final attempt at resolving the question of the independence of British India, as a single nation, failed. A four-day conference had been held at 10 Downing Street in London with Jawaharlal Nehru of the Congress Party, Muslim League president Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and Sikh leader Sardar Baldev Singh being hosted by Britain's Prime Minister Attlee. "The conversations held by His Majesty's Government... came to an end this evening as Pandit Nehru and Sardar Baldev Singh are returning to India tomorrow morning", the Prime Minister's office began in a press release, closing, "Should the constitution come to be framed by a Constituent Assembly in which a large section of the Indian population had not been represented, His Majesty's Government could not, of course, contemplate— as the Congress have stated they would not contemplate— forcing such a constitution upon any unwilling parts of the country.""British Govt. Gives Jinnah the Veto: No Forcing of New Constitution on Unwilling Parts of Country", Indian Express (Madras), December 8, 1946, p. 1 British India became independent as the separate nations of India and Pakistan (which in turn split in 1971 between Pakistan and Bangladesh).Santosh Kaul, Indian Freedom Movement And States (Anmol Publications, 1998) p. 45 The first known reference to the sport of wheelchair basketball was published in the Framingham, Massachusetts News, in a story entitled "Cushing Wins Over Celtics In Wheel-Chair Basketball". The demonstration took place at the Boston Garden, with players from the Cushing Veterans Hospital going up against the Boston Celtics, who were sitting in wheelchairs as well. The Celtics lost, 18–2.Horst Strohkendl and Armand Thiboutot, The 50th Anniversary of Wheelchair Basketball: A History (Waxmann Verlag, 1996) pp. 12–13 In the regular game, before 2,509 fans, the Celtics lost to the Detroit Falcons, 65–61."Detroit Falcons Triumph, 65–61", Windsor Star, December 6, 1946 Born: Nancy Brinker, American diplomat and activist; in Peoria, Illinois
December 7, 1946 (Saturday)
An early-morning fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta killed 119 people. The fire broke out on the third floor of the 15-story building, in front of Room 326, before spreading to the floors above. The Atlanta Fire Department received the first call at 3:42 a.m.Atlanta Fire Department report, from Firefighter411.com Built before strict fire codes were put in place, the luxurious Winecoff Hotel had no alarms, no sprinklers, and no fire escape. Final records concluded that 46 people died of their burns, 40 died of smoke inhalation, and 31 others jumped from the building to their deaths.Firefighter411.com The United Nations emblem was approved by the General Assembly's Resolution 92 ("a map of the world representing an azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole, inscribed in a wreath consisting of crossed conventionalized branches of the olive tree, in gold on a field of smoke-blue with all water areas in white. The projection of the map extends to 60 degrees south latitude, and includes five concentric circles"). The flag, which has the emblem in white against a light blue background, was adopted on October 20, 1947. Facing a huge fine for contempt of court, United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis called an end to a walkout of 400,000 coal miners that he had called on November 20. Died: Laurette Taylor, 62, American actress Sada Yacco, 75, Japanese stage actress
December 8, 1946 (Sunday) The French liner SS Liberté, formerly the German liner SS Europa, was accidentally sunk, not long after it had been captured from Germany as part of the spoils of World War II. The 49,746-ton ship, third largest ocean liner in the world, broke loose from its moorings, collided with the wreckage of the sunken liner Paris, and went down in the harbor at Le Havre. It was finally put back into service on August 2, 1950."Big Liner Sails", Saskatoon Star-Phoenix – August 2, 1950, p. 12William H. Miller, Picture History of the French Line by (Courier Dover Publications, 1997) p. 72 Isma'il Sidqi resigned as Prime Minister of Egypt following a failure to guarantee that the Sudan would remain part of the territory administered from Cairo upon full independence of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. He was succeeded by Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha.Selma Botman, The Rise of Egyptian Communism, 1939–1970 (Syracuse University Press, 1988) p. 67 Born: John Rubinstein, American TV actor; in Los Angeles Jacques Bourboulon, French photographer
December 9, 1946 (Monday) At 11:00 am, in New Delhi, the first Constituent Assembly of India convened, with 323 of the 389 members present. Boycotting the session were the 76 Muslim League members.Shree Govind Mishra, Democracy in India (Sanbun Publishers, 2000) p. 183Ananth V. Krishna, India Since Independence: Making Sense Of Indian Politics (Pearson Education India, 2011) p. 31 The Nuremberg Doctors' Trial opened with 23 defendants, 16 of whom would be convicted.Norbert Ehrenfreund, The Nuremberg Legacy: How the Na//zi War Crimes Trials Changed the Course of History (Macmillan, 2007) p. 94
The first powered flight of the Bell X-1 experimental plane was made, by Slick Goodlin, who took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California."Bell X-1", in Air Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, Walter J. Boyne, ed., Volume 1 (ABC-CLIO, 2002) p. 79 Born: Sonia Gandhi, Italian-born President of the Indian National Congress Party; as Edvige Antonia Albina Maino in Lusiana, Italy
December 10, 1946 (Tuesday)