The ship Booker T. Washington, the first U.S. merchant ship commanded by a
black captain, was launched.
Benjamin Oliver Davis Sr. became the first black U.S. Army general.
The first lottery for drafting World War II soldiers was held.
The U.S. formed parachute troops.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the 40-hour work week went into
effect.
Grapes of Wrath (John Ford);
The Great Dictator (Chaplin);
Rebecca (Academy Award Winner) (Hitchcock);
Gaslight (Thorold Dickinson);
Fantasia (Disney);
Jus Süss (Ger. anti-Jewish propaganda film with Werner Krauss)
U.S. savings bonds were first sold.
Mount Rushmore was completed.
Though the U.S. had not yet entered World War II, Germany torpedoed the convoy
escort destroyer Reuben James, killing 100 of the 144-man crew.
Over two days the Germans killed 33,771 Jewish men, women and children in the
Babi Yar massacre at a ravine near Kiev.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., opens
The Two-Faced Woman (Garbo's last film);
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles),
Kipps (Carol Reed);
The Big Store (Marx Brothers);
The 49th Parallel (Leslie Howard);
Ohm Krilger (anti-Brit. Nazipropaganda film);
Suspicion (Hitchcock);
How Green Was My Valley (John Ford), Academy Award
The Alaska highway was completed.
Carole Lombard killed in plane crash (b. 1909)
Bambi (Disney);
Mrs. Miniver (Greer Garson);
To Be or Not To Be (Lubitsch);
Holiday Inn (Bing Crosby);
The Evening Visitors (Carné)
Skagit River at its lowest recorded flow, 3,050 CPS
Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emil Gagnan invented the self-contained underwater
breathing apparatus (scuba)
Jane Eyre (Orson Welles);
Milnchhausen (Hans Albers);
Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock);
Stalingrad (Varlenow);
Children Look at You (de Sica);
Desert Victory (Roy Boulting):
Casablanca (Academy Award)
Author Truman Capote ("In Cold Blood") was 20 years old (b.1924 in New
Orleans - d: 1984).
The Nazis crushed the Warsaw Uprising killing 250,000 people.
The Navy said black women could join Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency
Service (WAVES).
Henry V (Olivier);
Les Enfants du Paradis (Carn&);
Lifeboat (Hitchcock)
Zcla (Russian)
It Happened Tomorrow (Ren& Clair);
Going My Way (Academy Award)
Patrick Steptoe, was 20 years old; scientist, perfected in vitro
fertilization of the human egg. (b.1925 - )
Elvis Presley made his first public appearance. He was 10 years old.
The United Nations Charter, adopted by the San Francisco Conference in June
1945, came into force.
The first U.S. Medal of Freedom awarded to a woman was given to Anna Rosenberg
(1902-1983) a/k/a Anna Lederer During 1944-1945 she was President Roosevelt's,
and then President Truman's, special envoy to Europe to oversee military
personnel issues for these Presidents. She went on to be an Ass't Secy of
Defense.
The first ball point pen was sold.
The trial of Hans van Meegeren, the Dutch painter who forged great paintings
Frank Lloyd Wright: design for Guggenheim Museum, New York
Rome, Open City (Rossellini);
Brief Encounter (Noel Coward, David Lean);
The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder);
The Way to the Stars (Asquith);
The Last Chance (Swiss, Lindtberg);
Ivan the Terrible (Eisenstein);
The Man from the South (Renoir)
The United Nations General Assembly met for the first time in New York.
The Best Years of Our Lives (William Wyler);
Die Mörder sind unter Uns (Wolfgang Staudte);
Paisà (Rossellini)
Gilda (Charles Vidor);
La Belle et la Bête (Cocteau);
Notorious (Hitchcock);
Great Expectations (David Lean)
The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of
Palestine between Arabs and Jews Britain granted India and Pakistan
independence.
The first televised World Series game, between the New York Yankees and the
Brooklyn Dodgers, was viewed by 4 million people.
Flying the Bell X-1 rocket-powered research plane, U.S. Air Force Capt.
Charles Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier.
The House UnAmerican Activities Committee opened hearings into possible
Communist influence in Hollywood and the film industry.
Husband and wife Dr. Carl Cori and Dr. Gerty Cori became the first spouses to
be awarded joint Nobel Prizes
Monsieur Verdoux (Chaplin);
Vivere in pace (Luigi Zampe);
Black Narcissus (Michael Powell);
Gentleman's Agreement (Academy Award)
Baseball's Negro National League disbanded.
President Truman was re-elected in an upset victory over Republican Thomas
Dewey. The Chicago Tribune had printed a banner headline "DEWEY WINS!"
prematurely.
D. W. Griffith, Amer. director who produced 484 films, d. (b. 1875)
Hamlet (Academy Award) (Olivier);
The Red Shoes (Michael Powell);
Oliver Twist (David Lean);
The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed);
Bitter Rice (de Santis);
The Naked City (Jules Dassin);
The Bicycle Thief (de Sica);
Louisiana Story (Flaherty);
Macbeth (Orson Welles);
The Young Guard (Gerasimov)
The Berlin Airlift, under which the U.S. and Britain kept Berlin supplied
against a Russian blockade, came to an end after 277,264 flights which carried
2,323,738 tons of supplies.
The People's Republic of China was formed with Mao Zedong as its head.
The United Nations' permanent New York City headquarters was dedicated.
Eugenie Anderson became the first woman U.S. ambassador when she was appointed
ambassador to Denmark.
The Third Man (Carol Reed)
La Macchina Ammazzacattivi (Rossellini);
Manon (H. G. Clouzot)
The Winslow Boy (Asquith)
All the King's Men (Academy Award) (Rossen)
Les Enfants Terribles (Jean Melville)