1946 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Harry S. Truman
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Harlan F. Stone , Fred M. Vinson
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn
• Senate Majority Leader: Alben W. Barkley
• Congress: 79th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 6 - A revised revival of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat opens on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre.
• January 17 - U.S. Senator Dennis Chávez calls for a vote on a Fair Employment Practice Committee bill which calls for an end to discrimination in the workplace. A filibuster prevents it from passing.
• January 25 - The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.
• January 29 - The Central Intelligence Group is established.
• February 12 - Isaac Woodard, an African American army veteran, is beaten and blinded by police chief Lynwood Shull in Batesburg, South Carolina, an event which is brought to national attention on Orson Welles's radio show.
• February 14 - ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.
• February 18 - President Truman signs the Rescission Act of 1946 annulling benefits payable to Filipino troops who fought for the U.S. during World War II.
• February 28 - In Philadelphia, General Electric strikers and police clash.
• 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 7 - The 18th Academy Awards ceremony are held.
• March 21 - The Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League, newly relocated from Cleveland, sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in the league since 1933.
• March 24 - BBC Home Service radio in the United Kingdom broadcasts Alistair Cooke's first American Letter. As Letter from America, this programme will continue until a few weeks before Cooke's death in 2004.

  April–June

• April 1 – The 8.6 Aleutian Islands earthquake affects Alaska with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI, causing a destructive basin wide tsunami, leaving 165–173 dead.
• April 18 – The United States recognizes Josip Broz Tito's government in Yugoslavia.
• April 22 – Girouard v. United States, a citizenship case decided in the Supreme Court, overturns the decision in United States v. Schwimmer.
• April 23
• *The Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League is founded.
• *Howard Hughes's Western movie The Outlaw, starring Jane Russell, goes on general release.
• June 6 – The Basketball Association of America is formed in New York City.
• June 17
• *The 1946 Windsor-Tecumseh, Ontario tornado on the Detroit River kills 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.

  July–September

• July 4 - The Philippines is granted independence by the United States.
• July 7 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.
• July 14 - Benjamin Spock's influential The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care is published.
• July 25
• *Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, when the United States detonates the Baker device during Operation Crossroads.
• *At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
• *1946 Georgia lynching: In the last mass lynching in the United States, a mob of white men shoot and kill two African-American couples near Moore's Ford Bridge in Georgia.
• August 1 - President Harry Truman signs the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, which establishes the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
• September 15 - DuMont Television Network begins broadcasting regularly.
• September 22 - Yogi Berra makes his Major League Baseball debut, entering a game for the New York Yankees against the Philadelphia A's and hitting a home run in his first time at bat.
• September 24 - White House counsel Clark Clifford presents President Truman with a top secret report authored by George Elsey on American Relations with the Soviet Union which forms the basis of the U.S. policy of containment.

  October–December

• October 15 - The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Boston Red Sox, 4 games to 3, to win their 6th World Series Title.
• October 16 - The United Nations' first meeting in Long Island is held.
• 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 12 – In Chicago, a branch of the Exchange National Bank opens the first 10 drive-up teller windows.
• 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 2 - The International Whaling Commission was signed in Washington, D.C. to "provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry".
• December 5 - President Harry Truman establishes the President's Committee on Civil Rights to investigate the status of civil rights in the United States and propose measures to strengthen and protect the civil rights of American citizens.
• December 7 - A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119.
• 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 22 - The Havana Conference begins between U.S. organized crime bosses in Havana, Cuba.
• December 26 – The Flamingo Hotel opens on the Las Vegas Strip.

  Undated

• Airport Homes race riots in Chicago.
• The 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun contract is released.
• The All-America Football Conference team San Francisco 49ers is formed.

  Births

January

• January 1 – Shelby Steele, American journalist, author, and director
• January 3 – Cissy King, American dancer, singer
• January 5 – Diane Keaton, American actress, film director
• January 7 – Michael Roizen, American anesthesiologist and author
• January 8
• * Robby Krieger, American rock musician
• * Stanton Peele, American psychologist
• January 11
• * Naomi Judd, American country singer
• * John Piper, American theologian
• January 12 – George Duke, African-American musician
• January 16 – Michael Coats, American astronaut
• January 19 – Dolly Parton, American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist
• January 20 – David Lynch, American film director
• January 21 – Johnny Oates, American baseball player, manager
• January 23 – Don Whittington, American race car driver
• January 26
• * Deon Jackson, American singer-songwriter
• * Gene Siskel, American film critic
• January 27 – Nedra Talley, African-American singer
• January 29 – Bettye LaVette, African-American soul singer, songwriter
• January 31 – Terry Kath, American rock musician

  February

• February 2 – Blake Clark, American actor, comedian
• February 6 – Jim Turner, American politician
• February 7 – Sammy Johns, American singer-songwriter
• February 9 – Jim Webb, American politician
• February 13
• * Richard Blumenthal, American politician
• * Joe Estevez, American actor
• February 14 – Gregory Hines, African-American dancer, actor
• February 16 – Marvin Sease, American blues, and soul singer-songwriter
• February 19 – Karen Silkwood, American activist
• February 20 – J. Geils, American guitarist
• February 21
• * Monica Johnson, American screenwriter
• * Tyne Daly, American actress
• February 28
• * Don Ciccone, American singer, songwriter
• * Don Francisco, American Christian musician
• * Syreeta Wright, African-American singer, songwriter

  March

• March 1 – Lana Wood, American actress, producer
• March 6 – Larry Huber, American television producer, animator
• March 7
• * John Heard, American actor
• * Peter Wolf, American rock musician
• March 12
• * Frank Welker, American voice actor, singer
• * Liza Minnelli, American singer, actress
• March 13 – Yonatan Netanyahu, American-born Israeli soldier
• March 15 – Bobby Bonds, American baseball player, manager
• March 17 – Larry Langford, American politician
• March 24 – Kitty O'Neil, speed record holder and stuntwoman
• March 26 – Johnny Crawford, American child actor, musician
• March 27 – Mike Jackson, American former MLB pitcher

  April

• April 8
• * Catfish Hunter, American baseball player
• * Tim Thomerson, American actor, comedian
• April 10 – David Angell, American television producer
• April 11 – Chris Burden, American artist
• April 12 – Ed O'Neill, American actor
• April 13 – Al Green, American singer, songwriter and record producer
• April 15 – Marsha Hunt, American actress, singer and novelist
• April 16 – Margot Adler, American journalist
• April 20 – Tommy Hutton, American baseball player and sportscaster
• April 22 – John Waters, American film director
• April 24
• * Stafford James, bassist and composer
• * Phil Robertson, American businessman and reality television personality
• April 25
• * Talia Shire, American actress
• * Strobe Talbott, American journalist
• April 26 – Richard S. Fuld Jr., American banker
• April 28 – Larissa Grunig, American public relations theorist, feminist
• April 30 – Bill Plympton, American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker

  May

• May 2 – Lesley Gore, American rock singer
• May 5 – Jim Kelly, African-American actor, martial artist and tennis player
• May 6 – Grier Jones, American golfer and coach
• May 7 – Thelma Houston, African-American singer
• May 9 – Candice Bergen, American actress
• May 11 – Robert Jarvik, American physicist, artificial heart inventor
• May 12 – Richard Bruce Silverman, John Evans Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University
• May 18
• * Reggie Jackson, African-American baseball player
• * Andreas Katsulas, American actor
• May 20
• * Craig Patrick, American-Canadian hockey player, coach and manager
• * Cher, born Cherilyn Sarkisian, singer, songwriter and actress
• May 30 – Candy Lightner, American founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving

  June

• June 4 – Suzanne Ciani, American pianist, electronic composer
• June 7 – Robert Tilton, American televangelist, author
• June 13 – Paul L. Modrich, American biochemist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015
• June 14 – Donald Trump, American businessman, television producer, politician, 45th President of the United States
• June 15 – Janet Lennon, American singer
• June 16 – Jodi Rell, American politician
• June 17 – Marcy Kaptur, American politician
• June 18 – Bruiser Brody, American professional wrestler
• June 20
• * Bob Vila, American television host
• * Joseph Waeckerle, American physician and diplomat
• June 22 – Kay Redfield Jamison, American psychiatrist
• June 23 – Ted Shackelford, American actor
• June 24
• * Ellison Onizuka, American astronaut
• * Robert Reich, 22nd United States Secretary of Labor
• June 26
• * Leo Rossi, American actor
• * Ricky Jay, American actor, author, and magician
• June 27 – Russ Critchfield, American basketball player
• June 28 – Gilda Radner, American comedian, actress

  July

• July 2 – Richard Axel, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• July 4
• * Michael Milken, American financier, financial criminal and philanthropist
• * Ed O'Ross, American actor
• July 6
• * George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States
• * Sylvester Stallone, American actor, filmmaker and screenwriter
• * Fred Dryer, American football defensive end, actor
• * Jamie Wyeth, American painter
• July 10
• * Sue Lyon, American actress
• * Oliver Martin, American cyclist
• July 11 – Jack Wrangler, American porn star
• July 13 – Cheech Marin, Mexican-American actor, comedian
• July 14 – Vincent Pastore, American actor
• July 15 – Linda Ronstadt, American singer, songwriter
• July 16
• * Dave Goelz, American puppeteer
• * Ron Yary, American football player
• July 19 – Suzanne de Passe, music and screen producer
• July 22 – Danny Glover, African-American actor, film director and political activist
• July 23 – Sally Flynn, American singer
• July 27 – Gwynne Gilford, American actress
• July 28 – Jonathan Edwards, American singer, songwriter and guitarist
• July 30 – Neil Bonnett, American race car driver

  August

• August 1
• * Mike Emrick, American sportscaster
• * Sandi Griffiths, American singer
• August 5
• * Ron Silliman, American poet
• * Loni Anderson, American actress
• * Shirley Ann Jackson, African American physicist and academic administrator
• August 9 – Jim Kiick, American football player
• August 13 – Janet Yellen, American Chair of the Federal Reserve
• August 14 – Dennis Hof, American brothel owner
• August 16 – Lesley Ann Warren, American actress, singer
• August 17 – Drake Levin, American rock guitarist
• August 19
• * Charles Bolden, African-American astronaut
• * Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States
• August 20 – Connie Chung, Asian-American reporter
• August 25
• * Nancy Blomberg, American art curator
• * Rollie Fingers, American baseball player
• * Charles Ghigna, American poet, children's author
• August 26
• * Valerie Simpson, African-American singer
• * Mark Snow, American composer
• * Swede Savage, American race car driver
• August 29 – Bob Beamon, American athlete
• August 30 – Peggy Lipton, American actress and model
• August 31
• * Jerome Corsi, American political commentator and conspiracy theorist
• * Tom Coughlin, American football player, coach, and executive

  September

• September 2
• * Billy Preston, African-American soul musician
• * Dan White, American politician, murderer
• September 4
• * Gary Duncan, American rock guitarist
• * Greg Elmore, American rock drummer
• September 5
• * Dennis Dugan, American actor, director
• * Loudon Wainwright III, American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor
• September 7 – Willie Crawford, American baseball player
• September 9 – Doug Ingle, American rock vocalist
• September 10 – Jim Hines, American athlete
• September 15
• * Tommy Lee Jones, American actor and filmmaker
• * Oliver Stone, American film director, screenwriter, producer and veteran.
• September 18
• * Peter Alsop, American musician
• * Otis Sistrunk, American football player and wrestler
• September 19 – Connie Kreski, American model
• September 20 – Dorothy Hukill, American politician
• September 21 – Richard St. Clair, American musician, composer
• September 25 – Jerry Penrod, American bass player
• September 26
• * Andrea Dworkin, American feminist, writer
• * Christine Todd Whitman, American politician
• September 28 – Jeffrey Jones, American actor

  October

• October 1 – Tim O'Brien, American author
• October 3 – P. P. Arnold, American singer
• October 4
• * Chuck Hagel, American politician, 24th United States Secretary of Defense
• * Susan Sarandon, American actress
• October 6 – Lloyd Doggett, American politician
• October 7 – Catharine MacKinnon, American feminist
• October 8 – John T. Walton, American son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton
• October 10 – John Prine, American country folk singer
• October 11 – Daryl Hall, American rock musician
• October 12 – Drew Edmondson, American politician
• October 13
• * Dorothy Moore, American singer
• * Demond Wilson, African-American actor, minister
• October 14 – Craig Venter, American biotechnologist
• October 15
• * Richard Carpenter, American pop musician, composer
• * John Getz, American actor
• October 16 – Suzanne Somers, American actress, singer
• October 17 – Bob Seagren, American athlete, actor
• October 18 – James Robert Baker, American novelist, screenwriter
• October 23 – Mel Martinez, American politician
• October 26 – Pat Sajak, American game-show host
• October 29 – Kathryn J. Whitmire, Texas politician, mayor of Houston
• October 30
• * Lynne Marta, American actress
• * Andrea Mitchell, American journalist

  November

• November 1 – Lynne Russell, American newsreader
• November 4
• * Laura Bush, former First Lady of the United States
• * Les Lannom, American actor, musician
• * Robert Mapplethorpe, American photographer
• November 5
• * Loleatta Holloway, American singer
• * Gram Parsons, American musician
• November 6 – Sally Field, American actress, singer
• November 10 – Alaina Reed Hall, American actress
• November 11 – Corrine Brown, American politician, fraudster
• November 15 – Sandy Skoglund, American photographer
• November 16
• * Barbara Leigh, American fashion model and film actress in the 1970s
• * Terence McKenna, American writer, philosopher, ethnobotanist and shaman
• * Jo Jo White, American basketball player
• November 17 – Terry Branstad, American politician
• November 18 – Alan Dean Foster, American novelist
• November 20
• * J. Blackfoot, American singer
• * Greg Cook, American football player
• * Judy Woodruff, American television reporter
• * Duane Allman, American rock guitarist, co-founder and leader of the Allman Brothers Band
• November 23 – Bobby Rush, African-American politician, activist and pastor
• November 24 – Ted Bundy, American serial killer
• November 27 – Richard Codey, American politician, 53rd Governor of New Jersey
• November 29 – Suzy Chaffee, American singer, actress
• November 30 – Barbara Cubin, U.S. Congresswoman from Wyoming

  December

• December 1
• * Jonathan Katz, American comedian and actor
• * Jimmy McMillan, founder of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, political activist, perennial candidate
• December 4 – Sherry Alberoni, American actress, voice artist
• December 6
• * Frankie Beverly, American singer-songwriter and producer
• * Nancy Brinker, American health activist, diplomat
• December 8 – John Rubinstein, American actor, director and composer
• December 9 – Dennis Dunaway, American bassist and composer
• December 10
• * Chrystos, American poet
• * Thomas Lux, American poet and academic
• December 11
• * Susan Kyle, American writer
• * Ellen Meloy, American writer
• December 12
• * Josepha Sherman, American author, folklorist and anthropologist
• * Paula Wagner, American film producer and executive
• * Gloria Loring, American singer
• * Don Gummer, American sculptor
• December 13 – Heather North, American television, voice actress
• December 14
• * Patty Duke, American actress
• * Lynne Marie Stewart, American actress
• December 16 – Alice Aycock, American sculptor
• December 18 – Steven Spielberg, American film director, screenwriter, producer and executive
• December 19
• * Candace Pert, American neuroscientist
• * Robert Urich, American actor
• December 20
• * John Spencer, American actor
• * Dick Wolf, American television producer
• December 21 – Carl Wilson, American musician
• December 23 – Susan Lucci, American actress
• December 24
• * Brenda Howard, American bisexual activist
• * Jeff Sessions, American politician, United States Attorney General
• December 25
• * Jimmy Buffett, American rock singer, songwriter
• * Larry Csonka, American football player
• * Gene Lamont, American baseball player, manager
• December 27 – Lenny Kaye, American guitarist
• December 28
• * Mike Beebe, American politician, attorney
• * Tim Johnson, American politician
• * Edgar Winter, American rock musician
• December 29 – Paul S. Trible, Jr., American politician
• December 30 – Patti Smith, American poet, singer

  Date Unknown

• Tyler Burge, philosopher

  Deaths

January

• January 3 - William Joyce, Nazi propaganda broadcaster
• January 5 - Kitty Cheatham, singer
• January 6 - Slim Summerville, actor
• January 9 - Countee Cullen, African American poet
• January 10 - Harry Von Tilzer, songwriter
• January 29
• * Harry Hopkins, politician
• * Adriaan van Maanen, astronomer

  February

• February 2 - Rondo Hatton, film character actor
• February 15
• * Putney Dandridge, African American jazz musician
• * Cornelius Johnson, athlete
• February 17 - Dorothy Gibson, silent film actress and model
• February 21 - Theodore Stark Wilkinson, admiral
• February 26 - Jackie, MGM lion

  March

• March 2 - George E. Stewart, Medal of Honor recipient
• March 23 - Gilbert N. Lewis, chemist

  April

• April 1
• * Noah Beery Sr., actor
• * Edward Sheldon, playwright
• April 2 - Kate Bruce, silent film actress
• April 5 - Vincent Youmans, Broadway composer
• April 14 - Otto Dowling, Captain and 25th Governor of American Samoa
• April 20 - Mae Busch, film actress
• April 22 - Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States

  May

• May 1 - Bill Johnston, tennis player
• May 2 - Simon Flexner, pathologist and bacteriologist
• May 19 - Booth Tarkington, novelist
• May 25 - Patty Hill, nursery teacher and co-composer of "Happy Birthday to You"

  June

• June 10 - Jack Johnson, African American heavyweight boxer
• June 13
• * Charles Butterworth, comic actor
• * Edward Bowes, radio personality
• June 23 - William S. Hart, stage actor and silent film cowboy star
• June 27 - Wanda Gág, artist, author, translator and illustrator
• June 28 - Antoinette Perry, actress and director

  July

• July - Howard Hyde Russell, founder of the Anti-Saloon League
• July 2 - Mary Alden, stage and screen actress
• July 8 - Orrick Glenday Johns, poet and playwright
• July 12 - Ray Stannard Baker, journalist and author
• July 13 - Alfred Stieglitz, photographer
• July 14 - Riley Puckett, country musician
• July 20 - Tricky Sam Nanton, trombonist
• July 27 - Gertrude Stein, writer

  August

• August 6 - Tony Lazzeri, baseball player
• August 26 - Jeanie MacPherson, film actress and screenwriter
• August 28 - Florence Turner, film actress
• August 29 - John Steuart Curry, painter

  September

• September 16 - Mamie Smith, African American vaudeville performer and blues singer
• September 17 - Frank Burke, baseball player
• September 26 - William Strunk, Jr., professor of English

  October

• October 4 - Barney Oldfield, race car driver and automobile pioneer
• October 9 - Enrica Clay Dillon, opera singer
• October 12 - Joseph Stilwell, general

  November

• November 5 - Joseph Stella, Futurist painter
• November 7 - Henry Lehrman, film director
• November 23 - Arthur Dove, abstract painter
• November 25 - George Gandy, entrepreneur

  December

• December 7 - Laurette Taylor, stage and silent film actress
• December 10
• * Walter Johnson, baseball player
• * Damon Runyon, short-story writer
• December 13 - Curtis Hidden Page, New Hampshire politician
• December 14 - Tom Dowse, baseball player
• December 16 - Zachary Taylor Davis, Chicago architect
• December 23 - John A. Sampson, gynecologist
• December 25 - W. C. Fields, comic actor
• December 28
• * Carrie Jacobs-Bond, singer-songwriter
• * Elie Nadelman, sculptor