World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis announced his retirement to become director of the newly formed International Boxing Club promotion.[1]
Indonesian Republic forces launched the General Offensive of 1 March 1949 against the Dutch in Yogyakarta. Indonesian troops held the city for six hours before retreating, but won a moral and diplomatic victory.
A law went into effect in Bulgaria putting organized religion under control of the state.[2]
The B-50 SuperFortress Lucky Lady II landed at Fort Worth, Texas 94 hours and 1 minute after takeoff to complete the first nonstop round-the-world flight in history. Strategic Air Command chief Curtis LeMay, welcoming the plane at its landing, stated that the flight proved that a B-50 based in the United States could drop an atomic bomb "any place in the world."[3]
Production of the Tucker 48 automobile ended when the Tucker Corporation headed by Preston Tucker ceased operations amidst a heavily publicized stock fraud scandal.
Israel's application of membership to the United Nations was approved by the Security Council by a vote of 9–1, with Egypt casting the only dissenting vote and Britain abstaining.[6]
North Korean leader Kim Il Sung met with Joseph Stalin at the Kremlin and secured an agreement for the USSR to provide North Korea with extensive financial credit. Kim informally broached the subject of reuniting Korea by force, but was rebuffed.[7]
A Budapest court handed down prison sentences for thirteen people accused of complicity in the alleged black market dealings of Cardinal József Mindszenty.[8]
US Department of Justice employee Judith Coplon was arrested on suspicion of espionage.[9]
Ted Williams signed a contract with the Boston Red Sox believed to be worth almost $100,000 a year, which would make him the highest-paid player in baseball.[11]
Died:Sol Bloom, 78, American entertainment impresario and politician; Bradbury Robinson, 65, American football player best known for throwing the first legal forward pass in history
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion presented the Knesset with a four-year development plan for the country. The program called for a doubling of immigration, development of Jerusalem, encouragement of private investment and the eradication of illiteracy.[12]
Sun Fo resigned as Premier of the Republic of China.[13]
The Israeli Defence Forces reached the shores of the Red Sea at Umm Rashrash and raised an improvised flag that would come to be known as the Ink Flag, marking the end of the Arab–Israeli War.
Soviet Finance Minister Arseny Zverev presented a budget estimating revenues at 445.208 billion rubles and expenditures at 415.35 billion rubles. The budget allotted 79 billion rubles to the military, a 20% increase over the previous year.[15]
US Defense Secretary James Forrestal broke a three-year taboo against official public discussion of biological warfare when he described much of what had been written about germ weapons as "extravagant, inaccurate and unduly spectacular" in a statement released to correct misconceptions about them.[18][19]
South Korean Army forces launched a spring offensive against the Jeju uprising as South Korean President Syngman Rhee issued orders to eradicate the insurgents.[20]
Clothes rationing ended in Britain after seven years and 287 days.[21]
425,000 United Mine Workers east of the Mississippi River began a 2-week work stoppage on the order of John L. Lewis. Officially the stoppage was a memorial to the 1,015 miners killed and over 50,000 injured in 1948, but it was also a protest against the appointment of James Boyd as director of the federal Bureau of Mines, whom Lewis called an "incompetent, unqualified person."[22]
Argentine President Juan Perón swore allegiance to the new Argentine Constitution which, having been drawn up in accordance with Perón's own specifications, allowed him to hold the Presidency for another six years after his present term expired in 1952.[24]
The cruiser USS Milwaukee, loaned to the Soviets in 1944, was returned to the US Navy in a state of disrepair.[25]
In a move to impede the establishment of a West German state, the East German People's Council in Berlin adopted a constitution providing for the creation of a central government in a unified Germany after the Allied occupation.[26]
The British, French and American authorities in Germany decreed the Deutsche Mark the sole legal currency of West Berlin. While no one was prevented from trading or holding the East German mark, the decree made the currency virtually worthless in West Berlin.[27]
A parade by members of Oswald Mosley's Union Movement in East London was disrupted by violent clashes with Communists. 10 policemen were injured and 35 Communists were arrested.[28][29]
Canadian Finance Minister Douglas Abbott presented a budget for the next fiscal year estimating revenue at $2.477 billion and expenditure at $2.39 billion. $368 million worth of taxes were cut from a wide variety of items ranging from personal and corporate taxes to soft drinks, cosmetics and matches.[30]
Lebanon and Israel signed an armistice agreement providing for the exchange of prisoners of war and the setting of the demarcation line to correspond with the international Lebanese-Palestinian border.[31]
The British North American Act 1949, known since 1982 as the Newfoundland Act, was enacted in the United Kingdom to confirm and give effect to the Terms of union agreed to between Canada and Newfoundland.
The 21st Academy Awards were held at the Academy Theater in Hollywood. Hamlet won four Oscars including Best Picture, the first time a non-Hollywood production took the top prize.
Danish Parliament approved joining the North Atlantic alliance by a vote of 64 to 8.[34]
Soviet authorities began Operation Priboi, a four-day mass deportation of over 90,000 people from the Baltic states to forced settlements in inhospitable areas of the Soviet Union.
Winston Churchill told an audience of 14,000 people in Boston Garden that the Soviets would have overrun all of Europe and attacked Britain "but for the deterrent of the atomic bomb in the hands of the United States."[42]
The first batch of 7-inch single vinyl records, often referred to as "45s" for the number of revolutions on the turntable per minute, was released in the United States by RCA Victor. The new format caught on with the public over the next few years since the discs were lighter in weight than the old 78s and yet still durable, making them an ideal format for jukeboxes.[43]
References
^Effrat, Louis (March 2, 1949). "Louis Resigns Heavyweight Title And Will Become Boxing Promoter". The New York Times: 1, 35.