The following events occurred in May 1946:
May 1, 1946 (Wednesday) At least 800 Indigenous Australian pastoral workers walked off the job in Northwest Western Australia, starting one of the longest industrial strikes in Australia. Born: John Woo (Wu Yu-seng), Hong Kong and U.S. action film director known for Face/Off (1997) and Red Cliff (2008); in Guangzhou,Republic of China. Joanna Lumley, English television and stage actress known for Absolutely Fabulous; in Srinagar in British India Lesley Gore, American rock singer known for "It's My Party"; as Lesley Sue Goldstein in New York City (d. 2015) Died: Bill Johnston, 61, American tennis player who was the U.S. champion 1915 and 1919, and winner of Wimbledon in 1923
May 2, 1946 (Thursday) Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc., completed an engineering study on the feasibility of designing a human-carrying satellite. The study showed that if a vehicle could be accelerated to a speed of and aimed properly it would revolve on a circular orbit above the Earth's atmosphere as a new satellite. Such a vehicle would make a complete circuit of the Earth approximately every hour and a half. However, it would not pass over the same ground stations on successive circuits because the Earth would make about a one-sixteenth turn for each circuit of the satellite. Two fuels were considered in the study: hydrogen-oxygen and alcohol-oxygen. The liquid alcohol-hydrogen had been used to propel the German V-2 rockets. The use of either fuel to orbit an artificial satellite, the study showed, would require the use of a multistage vehicle. The study also indicated that maximum acceleration and temperatures could be kept within limits safe for humans. The vehicle envisioned would be used in obtaining scientific information on cosmic rays, gravitation, geophysics, terrestrial magnetism, astronomy, and meteorology. Six inmates unsuccessfully tried to escape from Alcatraz Prison, leading to a riot later recalled as the so-called "Battle of Alcatraz". The drama film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice starring Lana Turner and John Garfield was released.
May 3, 1946 (Friday) The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal began the trial of Japanese military and political leaders for war crimes. In Paris, at the Luxembourg Palace, the Council of Foreign Ministers debated the Italian peace treaty and Italy's border with Yugoslavia, in the presence of the two countries’ delegations, led by the Prime Ministers Alcide De Gasperi and Edvard Kardelj. Kardelj asked for Trieste’s annexation to Yugoslavia, while De Gasperi defended the Italian character of the Julian March. Willie Francis, 17, was strapped into the electric chair, awaiting execution at St. Martinville, Louisiana, but got only a mild shock when the circuits failed. Francis had been convicted of the murder of a local pharmacist. After the chair was repaired, Francis's execution was rescheduled for May 9, but Lieutenant Governor Emile Verret used his power as acting governor to grant a stay of execution. Francis would eventually be executed on May 9, 1947.
May 4, 1946 (Saturday) Despite being the leader of the party that won the 1946 Japanese general election, Ichirō Hatoyama was barred from becoming Prime Minister of Japan, after the American occupational authority vetoed the choice. Shigeru Yoshida became prime minister instead. In Rome, the third congress of the Italian Liberal Party ended; concerning the institutional referendum, the Party declared itself favorable to the maintenance of monarchy. Born: Enrico Oldoini, Italian director; In La Spezia (d. 2023)
May 5, 1946 (Sunday) In Italy, the SISAL football pools gambling system was launched; the first winner was the clerk Emilio Blasetti, who won 463,846 liras. In the following decades, SISAL (renamed Totocalcio) would become the most popular Italian betting pool and a social phenomenon. Voters in France rejected the proposed constitution for the Fourth Republic. Another vote, boycotted by millions, would be taken on October 13, and a new draft would be approved. Mariano Ospina Pérez was elected President of Colombia, defeating Jorge Gaitan. The later assassination of Gaitan precipitated "La Violencia", in which thousands of people would be killed. Stan Laurel was married for the fifth time, to the actress Ida Kitaeva.
May 6, 1946 (Monday) American Zuni and Navajo veterans of World War II were denied in their attempts to register to vote in the 1946 general elections in New Mexico. The county clerk of McKinley County rejected their applications, citing a provision in the state constitution that denied the right of suffrage to "Indians not taxed", referring to Native Americans who lived on federal reservations."Indians Seek Vote Right", Salt Lake Tribune, May 7, 1946, p1 The applicants challenged the provision, and on August 3, 1948, a federal court ruled that the New Mexico constitutional provision violated the United States Constitution. The 1948 general election marked the first time that residents of New Mexico's Indian reservations were allowed to vote."Suffrage for the Suffering Indians", Milwaukee Journal, October 12, 1948, p20 LIFE Magazine published "Bedlam 1946: Most U.S. Mental Hospitals are a Shame and a Disgrace" in its May 6, 1946, issue. Albert Q. Maisel's exposé of the atrocities at two mental institutions, in Ohio and Pennsylvania, which he described as "concentration camps masquerading as hospitals",LIFE Magazine, May 6, 1946 p102 spurred reforms in psychiatric care.The American Experience, pbs.org Curly Howard, the bald member of The Three Stooges, suffered a stroke on the final day of filming of Half-Wits Holiday and retired at age 42.
May 7, 1946 (Tuesday) Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo or Totsuko) was founded by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, who started with only 20 employees and built the company into one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers. In 1955, the company renamed itself Sony."Sony Corporate History", SonyEurope.com Born: Thelma Houston, American pop singer known for "Don't Leave Me This Way"; in Leland, Mississippi Michael Rosen, English author and poet; in Harrow, London
May 8, 1946 (Wednesday) For the first time, the United States invited the rest of the world's nations to watch nuclear testing, bringing eleven other member nations of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission to view Operation Crossroads in July. The Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France, China, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Poland, the Netherlands and Mexico were afforded the chance to send government and press representatives as witnesses. The Chief of Naval Operations directed the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics to make preliminary investigations in the field of earth satellite vehicles.
May 9, 1946 (Thursday)
Hour Glass, considered the first network television entertainment show, premiered at on WNBT-TV in New York City. The program, described by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh as "one of the most important pioneers in the early history of television",Brooks and Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–present (8th Ed., Random House, Inc., 2003) pp554–555 By November, the show was telecast on the NBC television network, which consisted of three stations (New York, Philadelphia and Schenectady). King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicated, and was succeeded by his son Umberto II."Italian King Abdicates; Umberto Wins Crown", Salt Lake Tribune, May 10, 1946, p1 Born: Candice Bergen, American film and television actress and comedian known for the TV series Murphy Brown, and daughter of radio comedian and ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and model Frances Westerman Bergen; in Beverly Hills, California"Girl Born to Wife Of Edgar Bergen", Hollywood Citizen-News, May 10, 1946, p.1
Drafi Deutscher, German Schlager music singer; in Charlottenburg, West Berlin (d. 2006)
May 10, 1946 (Friday) Two naval airplanes collided during a training mission at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, killing 28 U.S. Navy airmen. The two PB-4Y planes were practicing evasive maneuvers with an F6F Hellcat fighter and crashed into a wooded area eight miles north of the town of Munson in Santa Rosa County, Florida. An American-launched V-2 rocket reached a record high altitude, soaring above the White Sands, New Mexico, proving grounds. Prior to the flight, a man from Dorchester, Massachusetts, had volunteered to ride inside the nose cone of the reassembled German missile, and the U.S. Army politely declined his offer to become the first astronaut in history. "Experts said that there was room in a V-2 for a human being and he probably could survive the 3,500 mile an hour top speed," noted a report, "but added there was no known means of escaping alive before the rocket crashed to earth." Born: Donovan Leitch, Scottish rock musician ("Mellow Yellow"); in Maryhill Dave Mason, English rock musician, Traffic ("We Just Disagree"); in Worcester Maureen Lipman, British actress; in Hull
May 11, 1946 (Saturday) Sixty-one SS members, who had carried out exterminations at the Mauthausen concentration camp at Dachau, were convicted of murdering 70,000 people, mostly Jewish. Forty-nine of them were executed, and the other 12 released from prison by 1951.United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The first 20,000 "CARE Packages", each with almost of food, were delivered to people in need, as a ship unloaded the materials at the French port of Le Havre. Under the charity program, an individual could pay for a CARE Package to be delivered elsewhere in the world. The phrase "care package" would become a generic term for sending necessary items to someone in need. CARE originally stood for "Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe", and later for "Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere".CARE.org Born: Robert Jarvik, American physicist and artificial heart inventor; in Midland, Michigan
May 12, 1946 (Sunday) The Newfoundland Herald published its first issue, originally as The Sunday Herald, founded by Geoffrey Sterling.Newfoundland Herald website The U.S. Army Air Forces' Project RAND filed a report entitled "Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship," which indicated the technical feasibility of building and launching an artificial satellite. Born: Richard Bruce Silverman, American chemist and developer of Pregabalin (Lyrica), treatment for fibromyalgia; in Philadelphia
May 13, 1946 (Monday) The Soviet ballistic missile program was formally created by a top secret decree (No. 1017-419ss) signed by Joseph Stalin, and Minister of Armaments Dmitriy Ustinov was made overseer of the project.RussianSpaceWeb.com The Federal Airport Act was signed into law by U.S. President Harry S Truman, providing for dollars in federal grants for civilian airport projects across the United States over a seven-year period."The History of Government Airport Funding" With U.S. coal supplies dwindling, striking American coal miners returned to work for two weeks on the orders of United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis, who said that the walkout would start anew if negotiations on a new labor contract failed."Coal Unions Trek Back to Mines", Salt Lake Tribune, May 13, 1946, p1
May 14, 1946 (Tuesday) Nueces County, Texas, including Corpus Christi, was quarantined to prevent the spread of a "polio-like disease" that had broken out in Corpus Christi and San Antonio. In addition to the closing of all schools, churches, theaters, and parks, the roads leading into and out of Nueces County were blocked by 300 members of the Texas National Guard, and nobody under 21 was allowed in. Buses and trains were "sprayed with DDT", with the pesticide being used as a disinfectant."Guardsmen Patrol Texas City As Polio-Like Disease Spreads", Miami Daily News, May 14, 1946, p1
May 15, 1946 (Wednesday)