The Vatican announced rejection of an offer from the Hungarian government to enter negotiations on the status of the Catholic Church in Hungary. Vatican officials made it known that the offer could not be considered as long as Cardinal József Mindszenty remained in jail.[2]
At Boeing Field in Seattle, a Douglas DC-3 skidded down an ice-coated runway until it struck a hangar and burst into flames, killing all 3 crew and 11 of the 27 passengers aboard. The chartered plane was for Yale University students returning to school from Christmas vacation.[3]
The final major combat operation of the Arab-Israeli War was launched when the Battle of Rafah began, as Israel attempted to encircle all Egyptian forces in Palestine and drive them back to Egypt.
A UN Security Council committee of six experts issued a plan for settlement of the Berlin currency control dispute. The plan called for creation of separate banking systems for East and West Berlin as well as a new bank of issue for the entire city under Big Four supervision.[6]
Dutch paratroopers took the Sumatran city of Rengat and, according to eyewitness accounts, carried out a massacre of civilians there. Dutch authorities listed the event as an "incident" in which about 80 "non-combatants" died, but Indonesian estimates place the number killed in the thousands.[7]
Several clashes were reported to have broken out between Burmese and separatist Karen tribesmen over a series of Christmas Eve incidents in which Burmese military police allegedly massacred 200 Karen men and women who were attending religious services in the Mergui district of Burma.[11] This was the beginning of the Karen conflict, one of the longest-running civil wars in the world.
The Air Ministry stated that British aircraft "have now been instructed to regard as hostile any Jewish aircraft encountered over Egyptian territory."[9]
The low band FM-radio transmitters at 42-50 mhz permanently closed down in the United States after the transition period from 1945 when the 88-108 mhz FM band was introduced ended.
President Truman submitted the annual federal budget to Congress. The budget called for expenditure of a peacetime record $41.858 billion dollars and projected a deficit of $873 million, which the president said should be transformed into a surplus by raising taxes.[14]
The US State Department said it had "no immediate plans" to comply with a request from Communist Hungary to return the 950-year old crown of King Saint Stephen, which had been found by American troops hidden in an Austrian salt mine in 1945.[17]
WDTV (known today as KDKA-TV) went on the air in Pittsburgh, providing the first "network" connecting Pittsburgh and 13 other cities from Boston to St. Louis.[18]
A statement from Mao Zedong was broadcast over Chinese radio announcing his conditions for peace in the Civil War. Mao's demands included abolition of the Kuomintang government, punishment of war criminals and the convocation of a political consultative conference to establish a new coalition government.[23]
Poland signed the largest deal made by an Eastern European country since the end of the war when it concluded a trade agreement with Britain providing for an exchange of goods over the next five years worth £260 million.[24]
The Smith Act trial of 11 leading American Communists charged with plotting the overthrow of the US government opened in New York City.[28]
The Volkswagen Beetle was introduced to the United States when Dutch businessman Ben Pon arrived on a ship with two Beetles, striving to establish a dealer network in America. Due to their small size and a stigma associated with German products in the years after the war, Pon found no takers and the Beetle would not catch on in America for several more years.[29]
A television version of the popular radio show The Goldbergs premiered on CBS. The program would become one of TV's first hit sitcoms, running through 1955.[30]
Spain decreed that starting July 1, a gift of $230 US would be given to working class newlyweds to "help the labouring masses to found new homes and numerous families."[31]
The United States extended diplomatic recognition to the junta governments of Venezuela and El Salvador. The State Department emphasized that doing so did not "imply any judgement whatsoever as to the domestic policy" of either regime.[36]
The headquarters of Nationalist Chinese military leader Fu Zuoyi announced an agreement "to shorten the civil war and to satisfy the public desire for peace" by allowing Beijing to peacefully come under control of the Communists.[37]
Franz von Papen was freed by a denazification court in Nuremberg, which ruled that he was only a class 2 offender and that the four years he had already served in prison were sufficient punishment. Von Papen had his personal property restored but was barred from holding public office, voting, and writing or making speeches on public affairs.[43]
The UN Security Council voted 8-0 to approve a plan to transfer sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to a new United States of Indonesia by July 1950. Dutch delegate Herman van Roijen attacked the plan as amounting to imposing a UN "guardianship" over his country and warned that it would lead to lawlessness and disorder if implemented.[45]
In an interview with a reporter from the International News Service, Joseph Stalin said he had "no objection" to meeting with President Truman at some mutually acceptable place to discuss a US-Soviet peace pact.[48]
The Pingjin Campaign ended in decisive Communist victory when the Fourth Field Army of the People's Liberation Army entered Beijing to take over the city.
The United States extended full diplomatic recognition to Israel and Transjordan.[49]
The soap opera television show These Are My Children premiered on NBC. Although the show only lasted a month, it is widely credited as the first daytime soap opera in TV history.
^Liberman, Henry R. (January 22, 1949). "Chiang Relinquishes Post to Speed Peace With Reds; Mission for Talks Named". The New York Times: 1.
^"Two Latin Regimes Recognized By U. S.". The New York Times: 5. January 22, 1949.
^Rowan, Roy (2004). Chasing the Dragon: A Veteran Journalist's Firsthand Account of the 1946-9 Chinese Revolution. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press. p. 144. ISBN9781599217017.
^Thomas, Donald (2003). The Enemy Within: Hucksters, Racketeers, Deserters, and Civilians During the Second World War. New York University Press. p. 390. ISBN9780814782866.