1949 Timeline

1949 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments Built
860–880 Lake Shore Drive is a twin pair of glass-and-steel apartment towers on N. Lake Shore Drive along Lake Michigan in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. They were de...
1949 Andy Warhol graduates from the School of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute of Technology
Warhol showed early artistic talent and studied commercial art at the School of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (now Carnegie Mellon University)....
1949
to 1951
Ferrari Produces the 166 Inter
The Ferrari 166 Inter was Ferrari's first true grand tourer. An evolution of the 125 S and 166 S racing cars, it was a sports car for the street with coachbuilt bodies. The Inter name com...
1949 Founding of the Ghetto Fighters' House
The Ghetto Fighters' House (Hebrew: בית לוחמי הגטאות‎), full name, Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum and Study Center, was founded in 1949 by members of K...
1949 Jackie Robinson wins National League Most Valuable Player (MVP)
Jackie Robinson won the Most Valuable Player award for the National League, leading the league with a .342 batting average and 37 stolen bases. Baseball fans also voted Robinson as the s...
1949
to 1952
Maya Angelou marries Tosh Angelos
In 1952, she married a Greek sailor named Tosh Angelos. When she began her career as a nightclub singer, she took the professional name Maya Angelou, combining her childhood nickname with...
1949 Physician William Schwartz Administers Sulfanilamide to Help with Hypertension
In 1949, Bill Schwartz reported that three patients with marked edema due to heart failure who were given sulfonamides all showed dramatic improvement but that these drugs were also "too ...
1949 Porsche 360 Cisitalia is First Produced
Porsche 360 Cisitalia is an automobile from Porsche introduced in 1949. The name Cisitalia (short for Consorzio Industriale Sportive Italia) is the name of the company that ordered the mo...
1949 The AAFC and NFL Agree to Merge
On December 9, 1949, two days before the AAFC title game, the two leagues made peace. Three AAFC teams were admitted to the NFL: the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, and Baltimore C...
1949 The Green Jacket is First Awarded at The Masters Tournament
The winner of the Masters tournament is presented with a distinctive green jacket, awarded since 1949. The green sport coat is the official attire worn by members of Augusta National whil...
1949 Walter Kempner Reports Improvement in Hypertension from Reduction in Sodium Intake
The first proof that reducing sodium intake could benefit some patients with hypertension also came in 1949 when Walter Kempner reported improvement in malignant hypertension associated w...
1949 William Faulkner is Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
"for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel." —Nobel Foundation
1949 Jan 5 President Harry Truman Delivers His State Of The Union Address
On January 5, 1949, President Harry Truman used his State of the Union address to recommend measures including national health insurance, raising the minimum wage, strengthening the posi...
1949 Jan 17 British South American Airways' Star Ariel Disappears
G-AGRE Star Ariel was an Avro Tudor Mark IVB passenger aircraft owned and operated by British South American Airways (BSAA) which disappeared without trace over the Atlantic Ocean while o...
1949 Jan 19 So Dear to My Heart is released
So Dear to My Heart is a feature film produced by Walt Disney, released in Chicago on November 29, 1948 and nationwide on January 19, 1949 by RKO Radio Pictures. Like 1946's Song of the S...
1949 Jan 20 "A Letter To Three Wives" Is Released
A Letter to Three Wives is a 1949 film which tells the story of a woman who mails a letter to three women, telling them she has left town with the husband of one of them. It stars Jeanne ...
1949 Jan 20 Harry Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, is inaugurated
A former county judge, Senator and Vice President, Harry S. Truman had taken the oath of office first on April 12, 1945, upon the death of President Roosevelt. Mr. Truman's victory in...
1949 Feb
to 1949 Jul
Armistice agreements signed, West Bank/Gaza divided between Jordan and Egypt
The 1949 Armistice Agreements are a set of agreements signed during 1949 between Israel and neighboring Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The agreements ended the official hostilities of...
1949 Mar Agatha Christie publishes Crooked House
Three generations of the Anglo-Greek Leonides family live together in a large, seemingly crooked house, under the patriarchy of Aristide. He is an ageing millionaire who originally moved ...
1949 Mar 24 21st Academy Awards
The 21st Academy Awards features numerous firsts. It was the first time a non-Hollywood production won Best Picture, Hamlet. It was the first time an individual (Laurence Olivier) directe...
1949 Mar 26 Kentucky Beats Oklahoma A&M in NCAA Men's Basketball Championship
The 1949 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 8 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. ...
1949 Mar 29 "The Set-Up" Is Released
The Set-Up (1949) is an American film noir boxing drama directed by Robert Wise and featuring Robert Ryan and Audrey Totter. The screenplay was adapted by Art Cohn from a 1928 poem writte...
1949 Apr Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly star in Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Take Me Out to the Ball Game is a 1949 Technicolor musical film starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. The title and nominal theme is taken from the unofficial anthem of American baseball...
1949 Apr 4 St. Anthony's Hospital Fire
The death toll in the St. Anthony's hospital fire, which investigators believed may have been fed by fresh paint and varnish, was set at 66 today by the Catholic Chancery office. The k...
1949 Apr 4 The NATO Agreement is Signed in Washington DC
The Treaty of Brussels, signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom is considered the precursor to the NATO agreement. The treaty and th...
1949 Apr 7
to 1949 Apr 10
 Sam Snead wins the 13th Masters Tournament
Back-to-back 67s in the final two rounds propelled Sam Snead to a three-stroke victory. That year the Green Jacket was first awarded to the Masters champion.
1949 Apr 16 Toronto Maple Leafs win Stanley Cup
The 1949 Stanley Cup Final was a best-of-seven series between the Detroit Red Wings and the defending champion Toronto Maple Leafs, the second straight between Detroit and Toronto. The Ma...
1949 May 4 Superga Air Disaster
The plane was taking home the Turin soccer team after a match in Lisbon. The Fiat plane took off at 09:52 and made a refueling stop at Barcelona at 13:15. Weather in the Turin area was ba...
1949 Jun "Kind Hearts And Coronets" Is Released
Kind Hearts and Coronets is a 1949) English black comedy directed by Robert Hamer. It was written by John Dighton and Hamer, and loosely based upon the novel Israel Rank: The Autobiograph...
1949 Jun 8 "Nineteen Eighty-Four" Is Published
Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes abbreviated to 1984) is a classic dystopian novel by English author George Orwell. Published in 1949, it is set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repr...
1949 Jul 2 "The Fugitive" Is Released
The Fugitive is a 1947 American-Mexican drama film starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford, based on the novel The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. It was shot on location in ...
1949 Jul 11 Ronald Reagan Appears as John Lawrence in "John Loves Mary"
Returning from four years of war, soldier John Lawrence telephones his girl friend Mary McKinley to announce that he will be with her in New York City that afternoon. Mary buys champagne ...
1949 Jul 16 Ronald Reagan Appears as Bob Randolph in "The Girl from Jones Beach"
In 1949, Ronald Reagan needed something good to happen in his life. He was sad over his recent divorce from Jane Wyman, and his acting career was in the doldrums. After a promising early ...
1949 Jul 21 Senate Approves the North Atlantic Treaty
President Truman sent the North Atlantic Treaty to the Senate for consideration on April 12, 1949. During lengthy hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee many witnesses exp...
1949 Aug 1 Ronald Reagan Appears in "It's a Great Feeling"
It's a Great Feeling (1949) is a Warner Bros. feature film starring Doris Day, Jack Carson, and Dennis Morgan in a spoof of what goes on behind-the-scenes in Hollywood movie-making. The s...
1949 Aug 5 The Great Earthquake of 1949
Ambato was completely destroyed by a large earthquake on the afternoon of 5 August 1949. Tragically, the entire city and surrounding villages were reduced to rubble; in total 50 towns and...
1949 Aug 12 Geneva Conventions Adopted
Various coventions to protect those involved in armed conflict were adopted from the mid-19th century onwards. However, they did not apply to civilian populations. The adoption of the 194...
1949 Aug 22 Ronald Reagan Appears as John Galen in "Night Unto Night"
Night Unto Night is a 1949 drama film directed by Don Siegel, based on the 1944 novel by Philip Wylie. Cast * Ronald Reagan - John Galen * Viveca Lindfors - Ann Gracy ...
1949 Aug 29 The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb to become the world's second nuclear power.
The RDS-1 (Russian: РДС-1), was the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test. It is also known as Joe-1, in reference to Joseph Stalin. It was test-exploded on 29 August 1949, at Semipala...
1949 Sep 9 Albert Guay Affair
On this date in 1951, Albert Guay was hanged in Canada for one of the earliest commercial airline attacks — bombing a Canadian Pacific Airline flight to murder his wife. Stuck in a lov...
1949 Sep 17 SS Noronic Fire
About 2:30 a.m. on the morning of the 17th, a passenger discovered a small fire in a linen closet. Attempts to extinguish the fire proved futile and the flames spread quickly through the ...
1949 Oct 'Bartholomew and the Oobleck' is Published
Tired of snow, fog, rain, and sunshine, the king wants something new to fall from the sky. What he gets are green, gooey globs of oobleck that threaten to destroy the kingdom. Comical ill...
1949 Oct 1 People's Republic of China is Formally Established
Mao Zedong inexplicably arrived an hour early at the red-lacquered Gate of Eternal Peace, entrance to the 500-year-old palace of China's emperors. He had chosen a symbol of ancient power ...
1949 Oct 5
to 1949 Oct 9
 1949 World Series
The 1949 World Series featured the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Yankees winning in five games for their second defeat of the Dodgers in three years, and the twelfth...
1949 Oct 5 The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is released
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is an animated feature produced by Walt Disney and released to theaters on October 5, 1949 by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the eleventh animated featur...
1949 Oct 6 "The Heiress" Is Released
The Heiress is a 1949 drama film by Ruth and Augustus Goetz adapted from their 1947 play of the same title that was based on the 1880 novel Washington Square by Henry James. The film was ...
1949 Oct 7 Establishment of the German Democratic Republic (Commonly Known as East Germany)
At the end of the war, Soviet authorities forcibly unified members of the Communist Party of Germany and Social Democratic Party in the Socialist Unity Party (SED), which swept to victory...
1949 Oct 22 "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" Is Released
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a 1949 western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. The film was the second of Ford's trilogy of films focusing on the US Cavalry (and the only ...
1949 Nov 1 Eastern Airlines Flight 537 Collides with NX-26927
Eastern Air Lines Flight 537, registration N88727, was a Douglas DC-4 aircraft en route from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. via intermediate points on November 1, 1949. NX-2692...
1949 Nov 8 "All The King's Men" Is Released
All the King's Men is a 1949 drama film based on the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name. It was directed by Robert Rossen and starred Broderick Crawford in the role of Willie Stark.