Dutch troops in Indonesia completed Operation Product, taking over large parts of Java and Sumatra from Republican forces.
North Carolina Governor R. Gregg Cherry called the failure of a grand jury in Jackson, North Carolina to indict seven white men on charges of lynching an African-American a "miscarriage of justice" and said he would order the case reopened.[4]
Howard Hughes made his first appearance before a senatorial inquiry into wartime contracts and testified that committee chairman Owen Brewster had offered to kill the investigation if Hughes would agree to merge TWA with Pan-American Airlines, which Brewster had part interest in.[6]
Died:Alan Sullivan, 78, Canadian poet and short story author
After 101 days and 4,300 miles, the raft of the Kon-Tiki expedition led by Thor Heyerdahl smashed into a reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus. Heyerdahl demonstrated that there were no technical reasons preventing South Americans of pre-Columbian times from settling Polynesia.
The British House of Commons on second reading passed a bill to give the Labour government sweeping powers to deal with Britain's economic crisis. Opposition leader Winston Churchill accused the government of seeking a "blank check for totalitarianism."[4]
General Lucius D. Clay reported the release of the last 8 million German prisoners of war and the complete destruction or conversion of all armaments plants in the US-occupied zone. The United States became the first of the four occupying powers to release all of its German POWs.[7]
William Odom landed in Chicago after a record 73-hour solo flight around the world in the Reynolds Bombshell, a converted A-26 bomber.[8]
Senator Homer S. Ferguson suddenly called a suspension of the senatorial inquiry into Howard Hughes' war contracts, reportedly due to the bad publicity it was generating. Hughes claimed that the move was a "vindication" of his conduct.[4][8]
Born:Diether Krebs, actor, cabaret artist and comedian, in Essen, Germany (d. 2000)
Huge fires raged in Lahore following a full day of arson, killings and other crimes on the eve of the announcement of how the Punjab boundary commission would partition the province. At least 100 people died in the violence.[9]
The two-day riot total in Lahore rose to over 200 dead.[10]
General Lucius D. Clay testified before the UN Palestine Inquiry Commission in Berlin that the German economy probably could not absorb many displaced persons without causing an increase in anti-Semitism.[11]
The Buchenwald Trial ended. 22 of the 31 convicted staff members of Buchenwald concentration camp received death sentences, five were sentenced to life imprisonment, and the remaining four were given sentences of 10 to 20 years.[1]
Nikola Petkov was sentenced to death on charges of conspiracy against the Bulgarian government.[4]
Indian Prime Minister Nehru declared in a broadcast that it was "the first and sacred duty of this Government to restore peace and order in the country." Nehru warned that rioting must cease and that his government would spare no one who participated in disorders "whether he be Hindu, Muslim or Sikh."[15]
Soviet authorities in Germany passed their own version of a law already adopted on the American side by declaring an amnesty for all Nazis except important party officials.[16]
Cádiz Explosion: at least 147 people were killed and 5,000 injured in Cádiz, Spain when munitions in a storage depot exploded for reasons that were never determined.
The US government called the Petkov sentence a "gross miscarriage of justice" and called on the USSR to pressure the Bulgarian government to suspend the sentence pending review of the case.[4]
A US offer to settle the Indonesian-Netherlands dispute was rejected by Indonesian representative Sutan Sjahrir, who renewed his demand that the UN Security Council set up an arbitration commission to settle the matter.[4]
The Doctors' trial ended in Nuremberg. Seven high-ranking medical officials of Nazi Germany, including Hitler's personal physician Karl Brandt, were sentenced to death for having been involved in human experimentation and other crimes against humanity.[1]
President Truman estimated in his annual mid-year review of the US budget that the government would end its 1948 fiscal year June 30 with a record surplus of $4.7 billion, which he asserted would be used to pay down the national debt and provide a reserve against emergencies.[19]
Died:Franz Cumont, 79, Belgian archaeologist and historian; Max Gaines, 53?, American comic book publisher and founder of EC Comics; James Harbord, 81, American general and President and Chairman of the Board of RCA
Soviet UN delegate Andrei Gromyko vetoed the applications of Italy and Austria for UN membership, on the grounds that the Italian peace treaty had not yet been ratified and that treaty negotiations with Austria had not yet been started.[4]
Chile's Chamber of Deputies authorized the government to suspend civil liberties to deal with a wave of Communist-led strikes.[20]
Died:Theodore G. Bilbo, 69, American politician and white supremacist
In Cairo, 1 person was killed and 75 injured in clashes between police and 5,000 demonstrators protesting the United States' support for a Brazilian proposal in the UN Security Council to refer Egypt's demand for Britain to leave the Nile valley back to Britain and Egypt for direct negotiations.[21]
British transport ships with 4,500 refugees from the SS Exodus left Port de Bouc, France and sailed for Hamburg after the passengers refused to disembark.[22]
24 people were killed in a suburb of Berlin in the Soviet zone when a train burst into flames. It was believed that sparks from the engine ignited reels of film in the carriage while the train was moving.[23]
Prominent American liberals marked the 20th anniversary of the Sacco-Vanzetti execution with a manifesto warning against all forms of tyranny. "The twenty years since that execution night in August 1927," the manifesto read, "have brought upon the world mass slaughter and human suffering on a scale staggering to human reason. In retrospect we now see that the fate of the good shoemaker and the poor fish peddler was an omen of this worldwide tragedy from which the human family has scarcely yet begun to emerge." Signers included Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Gahagan Douglas and her husband Melvyn Douglas, Herbert H. Lehman and Robert Maynard Hutchins.[24]
European officials reported that a large part of the continent was experiencing its worst drought in ten years and that near-famine conditions would exist over the winter if rain did not fall soon. The situation was particularly serious in Germany, which was going through its worst drought in 50 years.[25]
Ecuador's new dictator Carlos Mancheno abolished the country's 1944 constitution and proclaimed himself president under the 1906 charter with sweeping powers of decree.[27][28]
In the Dutch town of Beek, 17,000 karats of cut diamonds worth $2.5 million US that had been taken by the Nazis from Dutch merchants during the occupation were returned to the Netherlands by a heavily armed US convoy.[29]
Three British transports carrying SS Exodus refugees sailed on from Gibraltar to Hamburg when the passengers maintained their refusal to disembark.[22]
About 90 people were killed and 60 injured in a movie theater fire in the Rueil district of Paris, France. Police said the blaze was caused by a wire in the second balcony that short-circuited.[30]
The Inter-American Defense Conference in Brazil concluded with the approval of a joint defense treaty for the entire Western hemisphere.[31]
Paul Mantz repeated as the winner of the Bendix Trophy air race, making his run at an average speed of 460.423 miles per hour.[32]