At
Kraków, Archbishop Adam Sapieha personally ordained 26-year-old
Karol Wojtyla as a Roman Catholic priest. Father Wojtyla's career would see him rise through the hierarchy of the Church, becoming
Pope John Paul II in 1978.[3]
In what has been described as "the beginning of modern accelerator technology",[4] a beam of alpha particles was accelerated at the
synchrotron in
Berkeley, California, to generate an unprecedented 350
MeV of energy.
November 2, 1946 (Saturday)
Twenty-eight people were killed in the derailment of a train in the Soviet zone of Germany near
Leipzig, between
Altenburg and
Zeitz.[5]
The new
Constitution of Japan, which included that nation's renunciation of war, was promulgated by proclamation of the
Emperor Hirohito, who had been allowed to keep the
Chrysanthemum Throne in return for dropping all claims of divinity. The instrument took effect, by its terms, on May 3, 1947.[6]
In the 1946 U.S. midterm Congressional elections, the
Republican Party captured control of both houses from the Democrats.[9] In the
Senate, a 56-39 advantage for the Democrats gave way to a 51-45 Republican majority, while in the
House of Representatives, the Democrats' 242-191 lead was reversed, with the Republicans up 246 to 188. Freshmen Congressmen included Republican
Richard M. Nixon of California's 12th district, and Democrat
John F. Kennedy of the Massachusetts 11th.
The
Boston Celtics very first home game was preceded by the first smashing of a glass backboard. Boston's
Chuck Connors, who would also play major league baseball and become a TV star in The Rifleman, accidentally tore down a poorly fitted rim.[10]
U.S. President Truman and Secretary of State Vandenberg
The day after the Republican takeover of both houses of Congress, U.S. Senator
J. William Fulbright of
Arkansas proposed that his fellow Democrat, President
Harry S. Truman, should resign to make way for a Republican. Fulbright's proposal, endorsed by the Atlanta Constitution and the Chicago Sun, was that
Arthur H. Vandenberg, U.S. Senator from Michigan, be made U.S. Secretary of State (at the time, the Vice-President's office was vacant and the Secretary was next in line for the presidency), after which Truman would step down in favor of President Vandenberg.[11] Truman did not dignify Fulbright's suggestion with a response, but the White House let it be known that the idea would be ignored.[12]
A major reform of the
Japanese writing system was ordered by that nation's Ministry of Education, which eliminated 70% of the
kanji symbols that could be used in legal documents, newspapers and magazines. Effective November 16, a list of
1,850 kanji was made from 6,000 traditional ones, with plans to reduce the number further to 881. Words formerly rendered in kanji were replaced with the
hiragana syllabic system.[13]
Born:Milton Lee Olive, African-American Medal of Honor recipient; in
Chicago (killed in Vietnam, 1965)
November 8, 1946 (Friday)
Viola Desmond, a Black Canadian businesswoman and operator of a beauty college, challenged racial segregation in the town of
New Glasgow, Nova Scotia and began the racial civil rights movement in Canada.[15] Rather than sitting in the balcony section set aside for minorities, Mrs. Desmond sat in the whites-only section of the
Roseland Theatre and then refused to leave. She was arrested, spent the night in jail and was charged with tax evasion for paying a two-cent sales tax on a 20 cent ticket rather than the three-cent tax on a 40 cent ticket. Starting on November 19, 2018, Mrs. Desmond's image replaced that of Sir
John A. Macdonald on the
Canadian ten-dollar note.[16]
The government of Japan expelled from office 162,915 persons who had held posts during World War II, ranging from village employees to prefecture chiefs. The names were supplied by Brigadier General
Courtney Whitney of the American occupational government.[17]
November 9, 1946 (Saturday)
Dubbed the "Game of the Century", the first ever between
college football's two highest ranked teams, took place before a crowd of 74,000 at New York's
Yankee Stadium, with #1
Army facing #2
Notre Dame. The game ended in a 0-0 tie, but brought Army's 25 game winning streak to a halt.[18]
Margaret Truman, the 22-year-old daughter of the President of the United States, made her operatic debut, singing at the opening of the 62nd season of the
Metropolitan Opera in New York.[25]
The Disney film Song of the South, first to combine live action with animation and most popular movie of 1946, premiered at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.[26]
Meteorologist
Vincent Schaefer, a researcher for the
General Electric company, made the first successful test of
cloud seeding as a means of
weather control. Taking off in an airplane from
Schenectady, New York, Schaefer dropped six pounds of
dry ice pellets into the clouds at 14,000 feet over
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Within two minutes, snow flakes began falling. The snow didn't reach the town below, evaporating at about 11,000 feet, but Schaefer, who had earlier discovered a laboratory process for artificially making snow, demonstrated that the process could be duplicated on a large scale.[28]
American embassy chargé d'affaires George R. Merrell, for the
United States, and
Jawaharlal Nehru of the interim government of
India, signed the Air Transport Services Pact in
New Delhi, clearing the way for U.S. airlines to fly around the world.[29]
The
National Assembly of the Republic of China convened at
Nanjing with hopes that a new constitution could be created that would be agreeable to both the Nationalist and Communist parties. The Communists and the China Democratic League boycotted the meeting, which drafted a constitution for the
Republic of China that would eventually be limited to the island of
Taiwan.[31]
Following his participation at a criminal trial of two white men in
Columbia, Tennessee, African-American lawyer
Thurgood Marshall was arrested by city police and narrowly avoided a lynch mob. With the aid of friends, the future U.S. Supreme Court justice managed to get out of town and back to
Nashville.[34]
Zhou Enlai departed Nanjing and returned to Yan'an, bringing to an end the negotiations between the Communists and the Kuomintang. Zhou and nine other Communist officials were provided safe passage on an American aircraft provided by General
George C. Marshall, who arranged for U.S. transport of all remaining Communist leaders from Nationalist held cities.[36]
November 20, 1946 (Wednesday)
Strike wave of 1945–1946: Coal miners across the United States walked out on strike after
United Mine Workers President
John L. Lewis defied a court injunction and ordered members to cease work. In all, 400,000 miners stopped coal production a month before winter was to begin.[37] As the strike wore on, American workers in related industries were laid off,[38] nations dependent on American coal faced their own economic crises,[39] and a worldwide crisis was envisioned.[40] Then, on December 7, Lewis abruptly ordered the miners back to work, at least until the end of March.[41]
A minor incident in
French Indochina set in motion a chain of events that would lead to nearly 30 years of war in
Vietnam, first with
France and then with the
United States. A French patrol boat seized a Chinese
junk as it sailed into the harbor of
Haiphong, smuggling a cargo of gasoline. The
Viet Minh guerrilla army captured the French boat and its crew, and the French Army responded with an ultimatum that expired two days later with deadly consequences.[42]
Students at
Arizona State University (at that time "Arizona State College at Tempe" or Tempe State) voted 819-196 to change the name of their sports teams from the "Bulldogs" to the "
Sun Devils".[43]
On a visit to the Navy base at
Key West,
Harry S. Truman became the first U.S. President to ride underwater in a
submarine. Reporters were barred from accompanying the President aboard the captured
German submarine U-2513. Along with 22 other people, Truman was taken 440 feet below the surface, and witnessed a secret demonstration of the
U-boat's technology, including the "Schnorchel", a Nazi adaptation of the
submarine snorkel.[44]
Communist leader
Georgi Dimitrov, whose party won 247 of the 465 available seats in parliamentary elections, was named as the new
Prime Minister of Bulgaria.[46] Dimitrov, who replaced
Kimon Georgiev, had been the Secretary-General of
Comintern, and had held Soviet citizenship until 1944.[47]
Died:Otto Thierack, 57, Reich Minister of Justice in Nazi Germany from 1942-1945, hanged himself before he could be brought before a United States military court in the Nuremberg
Judges' Trial.
November 23, 1946 (Saturday)
As the French battlecruiser
Suffren sat in Haiphong harbor, Colonel Pierre-Louis Debès delivered an ultimatum at 7:00 a.m., telling the
Viet Minh that it had two hours to withdraw its armies from the port and from the French and Chinese sections of the city, or face bombardment. At 9:45, Debès, who had been directed by General
Jean Etienne Valluy to give the enemy "une dure leçon" ("a hard lesson") for the events earlier in the week, ordered an attack.[48] The Suffren fired its 8-inch shells into the Vietnamese city, killing soldiers and civilians. The Viet Minh claimed that 20,000 people died, and French Admiral
Robert Battet [
fr] later gave the number of deaths as "no more than 6,000".[49]
In response to Republican Party pressure to purge the United States government of suspected Communists, President Truman issued
Executive Order #9806, creating the six member "Temporary Commission on Employee Loyalty".[51] On March 21, 1947, Truman would create a more permanent program by
Executive Order 9835.[52]
Missing since
1823, the remains of Mexican conquistador
Hernán Cortés were discovered behind a wall in chapel of the
Hospital de Jesús Nazareno in
Mexico City. Cortés (1485-1547) had
conquered the Aztec Empire in
1521 before returning to his native Spain. His body was returned to Mexico in 1562, hidden after that nation declared independence from Spain, and then forgotten for 123 years. The four foot long crystal and gold casket was found two weeks after Spanish antiquarian Fernando Baez found church records that showed its location in the unused room.[53]
Born:
Marc Brown, American children's author, illustrator, and creator, starting 1976, of the Arthur series of books; in
Erie, Pennsylvania
In the Soviet Union, Central Committee investigator
Mikhail Suslov began what has been described as "a new page in the history of repression" [54] by recommending the purge of members of the USSR's
Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (EAK). Over the next six years, members of the group were arrested and tortured. On
August 12, 1952, thirteen of the most prominent EAK members were executed after being convicted of treason.
The
23rd Indian Division, which sustained 407 dead, 808 wounded and 162 missing in what author Martin Gilbert described as "the last Allied casualties" of World War II,[56] completed a mission that had begun two weeks before
V-J day. At the end of the
Burma Campaign, the British Empire had ordered 92,000 troops to the Indonesian island of
Java, with a deadly assault on September 15, 1945. Allied casualties continued to be sustained as the Indian and British forces set about to disarm 270,000 Japanese troops and evacuate 110,000 Allied prisoners, even as Indonesian and Dutch forces fought each other.[57]
In the annual
Army-Navy Game at
Philadelphia, a 1-7-0 U.S. Naval Academy nearly upset the 8-0-1 and #1 ranked Army Cadets. Navy was within 3 yards of the goal with 10 seconds left, but game officials failed to stop the clock before another play could be run.[61] When the final Associated Press poll was taken on December 3, Notre Dame took the #1 spot and the unofficial college football championship.[62]
Died:Gustav Noske, 78, former German Defense Minister and Social Democratic Party official
References
^"Do you know who scored THE FIRST BASKET in the NBA?"Archived 2003-06-25 at the
Wayback Machine, TheFirstBasket.com; Charles Rosen, The First Tip-off: The Incredible Story of the Birth of the NBA (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2008) p1; "Knickerbockers Squeeze to 68-66 Win in Opener", Milwaukee Journal, November 2, 1946, pB-2
^"Mikan Scores 19 Points, But Gears Bow to Royals Before Crowd of 3,500", Schenectady (NY) Gazette, November 1, 1946, p22
^Edward Renehan, Pope John Paul II (Infobase Publishing, 2006) p32
^Hans Günter Dosch Beyond the Nanoworld: Quarks, Leptons, and Gauge Bosons (A K Peters, Ltd., 2008) p61
^"28 Die in Rail Wreck", Pittsburgh Press, November 2, 1946, p1
^"Hirohito Hails New Constitution", Pittsburgh Press, November 3, 1946, p1 Grant Kohn Goodman and Barry D. Steben, America's Japan: The First Year, 1945-1946 (Fordham University Press, 2005) p75
^J. C. Aggarwal and S. P. Agrawal, Documentation Encyclopaedia of UNESCO and Education (Concept Publishing Company, 1991) p5
^Salvatore Bizzarro, Historical Dictionary of Chile (Scarecrow Press, 2005) p324
^"LANDSLIDE GIVES GOP CONGRESS AND STATE", Pittsburgh Press, November 6, 1946, p1
^John J. Fontanella, The Physics of Basketball (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006) p129
^"Sen. Fulbright Says Truman Should Resign", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 7, 1946, p1
^"Truman Won't Resign, Will Ignore Suggestion-- White House Believes Proposal Unworthy Of Presidential Denial", Miami Daily News, November 7, 1946, p1
^"Jap Language Cut To 1,800 Characters", Miami Daily News, November 7, 1946, p1; J. Marshall Unger, Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan: Reading Between the Lines (Oxford University Press US, 1996) p58
^
Stuart Miller, The 100 Greatest Days in New York Sports (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006) pp97-100
"Army, Irish Slug To 0-0 Tie In Thriller Before 74,000", Miami Daily News, November 10, 1946, p1
^"92-Ton Constitution Makes Maiden Flight", Miami Daily News, November 10, 1946, p1
^"French Vote Communists Into Power", Daytona Beach Morning Journal, November 11, 1946, p1
^Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (Simon and Schuster, 1996)p272
^David Evans, A History of Nature Conservation in Britain (Psychology Press, 1997) p88
^Oscar Chapuis, The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000) p145
^"Margaret Truman Helps Opera To Colorful Start", Miami Daily News, November 11, 1946, p1
^Leonard Maltin, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons (New American Library, 1987) p369
^Homer Williams, Building Type Basics for Banks and Financial Institutions (John Wiley and Sons, 2010) p33; "First Complete Autobank Opens on La Salle St.", Chicago Tribune, November 13, 1946, p2
^Kristine Harper, Weather and Climate: Decade by Decade (Infobase Publishing, 2007) pp93-94; "Snow From a Cloud Produced by Science", Milwaukee Journal, November 14, 1946, p1
^Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949: Germany-Iran (G.P.O. 1954) pp1236-1244; "India Pact Clears Way For U.S. World Air Routes", Miami Daily News, November 14, 1946, p6-A
^Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung From the Formation of the State of East Indonesia towards the Establishment of the United States of Indonesia (Yayasan Obor Indonesia, 1996) p96
^William L. Tung, The Political Institutions of Modern China (Martinus Nijhoff, 1968) p200
^Charles Yrigoyen, Jr. and Susan E. Warrick, Historical Dictionary of Methodism (Scarecrow Press, 2005) p119-120
^
Arthur J. Dommen, The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (Indiana University Press, 2001) p162
^Ruth T. Feldman, Thurgood Marshall (Lerner Publications, 2001), pp7-11
^Federal Research Division, Romania: A Country Study (Kessinger Publishing, 2004) p86
^Bevin Alexander, The Strange Connection: U.S. Intervention in China, 1944-1972 (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1992) p63
^"THE BIG COAL STRIKE IS ON! U. S. TO ACT AGAINST LEWIS", Chicago Tribune, November 21, 1946, p1; "COAL STRIKE GRIPS NATION; U.S. MOVES AGAINST LEWIS", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, - November 21, 1946, p1
^"Coal Strike Furloughs 175,000 More Workers", Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1946, p2
^"Europe Hit by U.S. Coal Strike; Industry in Peril", Chicago Tribune, December 5, 1946, p1
^"25,000,000 May be Idle If Coal Strike Is Prolonged; Fairly Ample Stock Piles Here", New York Times, November 22, 1946; "Economic Collapse In 90 Days Seen If Strike Continues" Baltimore Sun, December 3, 1946, p1
^"COAL STRIKE OFF!", Pittsburgh Press - December 7, 1946, p1
^Oscar Chapuis, The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000) p150
^Michael Leo Donovan, Yankees to Fighting Irish: What's Behind Your Favorite Team's Name (Taylor Trade Publications, 2004) p82; "Tempe Teams Change Name To Sun Devils", Prescott (AZ) Evening Courier, November 21, 1946, p2-1
^
Robert P. Watson, et al., The National Security Legacy of Harry S. Truman (Truman State University Press, 2005) p27; "Truman Dives 440 Feet In German Sub", Pittsburgh Press, November 21, 1946, p9
^Harriet Hyman Alonso, Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War (University of Massachusetts Press, 2007) p287
^"Dimitrov Asked Form New Bulgaria Cabinet", Montreal Gazette November 22, 1946, p9
^"President Orders Purge of Disloyal from U.S. Posts", New York Times, November 26, 1946, p1; "Communists To Be Ousted", Boise City (ID) News, November 28, 1946, p1
^Walter John Raymond, Dictionary of Politics: Selected American and Foreign Political and Legal Terms (Brunswick Publishing, 1992) p289
^"Find Bones of Cortes, Spanish Conqueror of Mexico, Experts Say", Milwaukee Journal, November 26, 1946, p2
^Alexander N. Yakovlev, et al., A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia (Yale University Press, 2004) p202
^Thomas M. Leonard, Fidel Castro: A Biography (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) p10
^Martin Gilbert, The Day the War Ended: May 8, 1945 - Victory in Europe (Macmillan, 2004) p409
^"U.K.'s Thankless Task In Indonesia To End Thursday As Troops Last of British Troops Embark", Montreal Gazette, November 26, 1946, p9; "British Leave Indonesia Post", Eugene (OR) Register-Guard, November 29, 1946, p3
At
Kraków, Archbishop Adam Sapieha personally ordained 26-year-old
Karol Wojtyla as a Roman Catholic priest. Father Wojtyla's career would see him rise through the hierarchy of the Church, becoming
Pope John Paul II in 1978.[3]
In what has been described as "the beginning of modern accelerator technology",[4] a beam of alpha particles was accelerated at the
synchrotron in
Berkeley, California, to generate an unprecedented 350
MeV of energy.
November 2, 1946 (Saturday)
Twenty-eight people were killed in the derailment of a train in the Soviet zone of Germany near
Leipzig, between
Altenburg and
Zeitz.[5]
The new
Constitution of Japan, which included that nation's renunciation of war, was promulgated by proclamation of the
Emperor Hirohito, who had been allowed to keep the
Chrysanthemum Throne in return for dropping all claims of divinity. The instrument took effect, by its terms, on May 3, 1947.[6]
In the 1946 U.S. midterm Congressional elections, the
Republican Party captured control of both houses from the Democrats.[9] In the
Senate, a 56-39 advantage for the Democrats gave way to a 51-45 Republican majority, while in the
House of Representatives, the Democrats' 242-191 lead was reversed, with the Republicans up 246 to 188. Freshmen Congressmen included Republican
Richard M. Nixon of California's 12th district, and Democrat
John F. Kennedy of the Massachusetts 11th.
The
Boston Celtics very first home game was preceded by the first smashing of a glass backboard. Boston's
Chuck Connors, who would also play major league baseball and become a TV star in The Rifleman, accidentally tore down a poorly fitted rim.[10]
U.S. President Truman and Secretary of State Vandenberg
The day after the Republican takeover of both houses of Congress, U.S. Senator
J. William Fulbright of
Arkansas proposed that his fellow Democrat, President
Harry S. Truman, should resign to make way for a Republican. Fulbright's proposal, endorsed by the Atlanta Constitution and the Chicago Sun, was that
Arthur H. Vandenberg, U.S. Senator from Michigan, be made U.S. Secretary of State (at the time, the Vice-President's office was vacant and the Secretary was next in line for the presidency), after which Truman would step down in favor of President Vandenberg.[11] Truman did not dignify Fulbright's suggestion with a response, but the White House let it be known that the idea would be ignored.[12]
A major reform of the
Japanese writing system was ordered by that nation's Ministry of Education, which eliminated 70% of the
kanji symbols that could be used in legal documents, newspapers and magazines. Effective November 16, a list of
1,850 kanji was made from 6,000 traditional ones, with plans to reduce the number further to 881. Words formerly rendered in kanji were replaced with the
hiragana syllabic system.[13]
Born:Milton Lee Olive, African-American Medal of Honor recipient; in
Chicago (killed in Vietnam, 1965)
November 8, 1946 (Friday)
Viola Desmond, a Black Canadian businesswoman and operator of a beauty college, challenged racial segregation in the town of
New Glasgow, Nova Scotia and began the racial civil rights movement in Canada.[15] Rather than sitting in the balcony section set aside for minorities, Mrs. Desmond sat in the whites-only section of the
Roseland Theatre and then refused to leave. She was arrested, spent the night in jail and was charged with tax evasion for paying a two-cent sales tax on a 20 cent ticket rather than the three-cent tax on a 40 cent ticket. Starting on November 19, 2018, Mrs. Desmond's image replaced that of Sir
John A. Macdonald on the
Canadian ten-dollar note.[16]
The government of Japan expelled from office 162,915 persons who had held posts during World War II, ranging from village employees to prefecture chiefs. The names were supplied by Brigadier General
Courtney Whitney of the American occupational government.[17]
November 9, 1946 (Saturday)
Dubbed the "Game of the Century", the first ever between
college football's two highest ranked teams, took place before a crowd of 74,000 at New York's
Yankee Stadium, with #1
Army facing #2
Notre Dame. The game ended in a 0-0 tie, but brought Army's 25 game winning streak to a halt.[18]
Margaret Truman, the 22-year-old daughter of the President of the United States, made her operatic debut, singing at the opening of the 62nd season of the
Metropolitan Opera in New York.[25]
The Disney film Song of the South, first to combine live action with animation and most popular movie of 1946, premiered at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.[26]
Meteorologist
Vincent Schaefer, a researcher for the
General Electric company, made the first successful test of
cloud seeding as a means of
weather control. Taking off in an airplane from
Schenectady, New York, Schaefer dropped six pounds of
dry ice pellets into the clouds at 14,000 feet over
Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Within two minutes, snow flakes began falling. The snow didn't reach the town below, evaporating at about 11,000 feet, but Schaefer, who had earlier discovered a laboratory process for artificially making snow, demonstrated that the process could be duplicated on a large scale.[28]
American embassy chargé d'affaires George R. Merrell, for the
United States, and
Jawaharlal Nehru of the interim government of
India, signed the Air Transport Services Pact in
New Delhi, clearing the way for U.S. airlines to fly around the world.[29]
The
National Assembly of the Republic of China convened at
Nanjing with hopes that a new constitution could be created that would be agreeable to both the Nationalist and Communist parties. The Communists and the China Democratic League boycotted the meeting, which drafted a constitution for the
Republic of China that would eventually be limited to the island of
Taiwan.[31]
Following his participation at a criminal trial of two white men in
Columbia, Tennessee, African-American lawyer
Thurgood Marshall was arrested by city police and narrowly avoided a lynch mob. With the aid of friends, the future U.S. Supreme Court justice managed to get out of town and back to
Nashville.[34]
Zhou Enlai departed Nanjing and returned to Yan'an, bringing to an end the negotiations between the Communists and the Kuomintang. Zhou and nine other Communist officials were provided safe passage on an American aircraft provided by General
George C. Marshall, who arranged for U.S. transport of all remaining Communist leaders from Nationalist held cities.[36]
November 20, 1946 (Wednesday)
Strike wave of 1945–1946: Coal miners across the United States walked out on strike after
United Mine Workers President
John L. Lewis defied a court injunction and ordered members to cease work. In all, 400,000 miners stopped coal production a month before winter was to begin.[37] As the strike wore on, American workers in related industries were laid off,[38] nations dependent on American coal faced their own economic crises,[39] and a worldwide crisis was envisioned.[40] Then, on December 7, Lewis abruptly ordered the miners back to work, at least until the end of March.[41]
A minor incident in
French Indochina set in motion a chain of events that would lead to nearly 30 years of war in
Vietnam, first with
France and then with the
United States. A French patrol boat seized a Chinese
junk as it sailed into the harbor of
Haiphong, smuggling a cargo of gasoline. The
Viet Minh guerrilla army captured the French boat and its crew, and the French Army responded with an ultimatum that expired two days later with deadly consequences.[42]
Students at
Arizona State University (at that time "Arizona State College at Tempe" or Tempe State) voted 819-196 to change the name of their sports teams from the "Bulldogs" to the "
Sun Devils".[43]
On a visit to the Navy base at
Key West,
Harry S. Truman became the first U.S. President to ride underwater in a
submarine. Reporters were barred from accompanying the President aboard the captured
German submarine U-2513. Along with 22 other people, Truman was taken 440 feet below the surface, and witnessed a secret demonstration of the
U-boat's technology, including the "Schnorchel", a Nazi adaptation of the
submarine snorkel.[44]
Communist leader
Georgi Dimitrov, whose party won 247 of the 465 available seats in parliamentary elections, was named as the new
Prime Minister of Bulgaria.[46] Dimitrov, who replaced
Kimon Georgiev, had been the Secretary-General of
Comintern, and had held Soviet citizenship until 1944.[47]
Died:Otto Thierack, 57, Reich Minister of Justice in Nazi Germany from 1942-1945, hanged himself before he could be brought before a United States military court in the Nuremberg
Judges' Trial.
November 23, 1946 (Saturday)
As the French battlecruiser
Suffren sat in Haiphong harbor, Colonel Pierre-Louis Debès delivered an ultimatum at 7:00 a.m., telling the
Viet Minh that it had two hours to withdraw its armies from the port and from the French and Chinese sections of the city, or face bombardment. At 9:45, Debès, who had been directed by General
Jean Etienne Valluy to give the enemy "une dure leçon" ("a hard lesson") for the events earlier in the week, ordered an attack.[48] The Suffren fired its 8-inch shells into the Vietnamese city, killing soldiers and civilians. The Viet Minh claimed that 20,000 people died, and French Admiral
Robert Battet [
fr] later gave the number of deaths as "no more than 6,000".[49]
In response to Republican Party pressure to purge the United States government of suspected Communists, President Truman issued
Executive Order #9806, creating the six member "Temporary Commission on Employee Loyalty".[51] On March 21, 1947, Truman would create a more permanent program by
Executive Order 9835.[52]
Missing since
1823, the remains of Mexican conquistador
Hernán Cortés were discovered behind a wall in chapel of the
Hospital de Jesús Nazareno in
Mexico City. Cortés (1485-1547) had
conquered the Aztec Empire in
1521 before returning to his native Spain. His body was returned to Mexico in 1562, hidden after that nation declared independence from Spain, and then forgotten for 123 years. The four foot long crystal and gold casket was found two weeks after Spanish antiquarian Fernando Baez found church records that showed its location in the unused room.[53]
Born:
Marc Brown, American children's author, illustrator, and creator, starting 1976, of the Arthur series of books; in
Erie, Pennsylvania
In the Soviet Union, Central Committee investigator
Mikhail Suslov began what has been described as "a new page in the history of repression" [54] by recommending the purge of members of the USSR's
Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (EAK). Over the next six years, members of the group were arrested and tortured. On
August 12, 1952, thirteen of the most prominent EAK members were executed after being convicted of treason.
The
23rd Indian Division, which sustained 407 dead, 808 wounded and 162 missing in what author Martin Gilbert described as "the last Allied casualties" of World War II,[56] completed a mission that had begun two weeks before
V-J day. At the end of the
Burma Campaign, the British Empire had ordered 92,000 troops to the Indonesian island of
Java, with a deadly assault on September 15, 1945. Allied casualties continued to be sustained as the Indian and British forces set about to disarm 270,000 Japanese troops and evacuate 110,000 Allied prisoners, even as Indonesian and Dutch forces fought each other.[57]
In the annual
Army-Navy Game at
Philadelphia, a 1-7-0 U.S. Naval Academy nearly upset the 8-0-1 and #1 ranked Army Cadets. Navy was within 3 yards of the goal with 10 seconds left, but game officials failed to stop the clock before another play could be run.[61] When the final Associated Press poll was taken on December 3, Notre Dame took the #1 spot and the unofficial college football championship.[62]
Died:Gustav Noske, 78, former German Defense Minister and Social Democratic Party official
References
^"Do you know who scored THE FIRST BASKET in the NBA?"Archived 2003-06-25 at the
Wayback Machine, TheFirstBasket.com; Charles Rosen, The First Tip-off: The Incredible Story of the Birth of the NBA (McGraw-Hill Professional, 2008) p1; "Knickerbockers Squeeze to 68-66 Win in Opener", Milwaukee Journal, November 2, 1946, pB-2
^"Mikan Scores 19 Points, But Gears Bow to Royals Before Crowd of 3,500", Schenectady (NY) Gazette, November 1, 1946, p22
^Edward Renehan, Pope John Paul II (Infobase Publishing, 2006) p32
^Hans Günter Dosch Beyond the Nanoworld: Quarks, Leptons, and Gauge Bosons (A K Peters, Ltd., 2008) p61
^"28 Die in Rail Wreck", Pittsburgh Press, November 2, 1946, p1
^"Hirohito Hails New Constitution", Pittsburgh Press, November 3, 1946, p1 Grant Kohn Goodman and Barry D. Steben, America's Japan: The First Year, 1945-1946 (Fordham University Press, 2005) p75
^J. C. Aggarwal and S. P. Agrawal, Documentation Encyclopaedia of UNESCO and Education (Concept Publishing Company, 1991) p5
^Salvatore Bizzarro, Historical Dictionary of Chile (Scarecrow Press, 2005) p324
^"LANDSLIDE GIVES GOP CONGRESS AND STATE", Pittsburgh Press, November 6, 1946, p1
^John J. Fontanella, The Physics of Basketball (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006) p129
^"Sen. Fulbright Says Truman Should Resign", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 7, 1946, p1
^"Truman Won't Resign, Will Ignore Suggestion-- White House Believes Proposal Unworthy Of Presidential Denial", Miami Daily News, November 7, 1946, p1
^"Jap Language Cut To 1,800 Characters", Miami Daily News, November 7, 1946, p1; J. Marshall Unger, Literacy and Script Reform in Occupation Japan: Reading Between the Lines (Oxford University Press US, 1996) p58
^
Stuart Miller, The 100 Greatest Days in New York Sports (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006) pp97-100
"Army, Irish Slug To 0-0 Tie In Thriller Before 74,000", Miami Daily News, November 10, 1946, p1
^"92-Ton Constitution Makes Maiden Flight", Miami Daily News, November 10, 1946, p1
^"French Vote Communists Into Power", Daytona Beach Morning Journal, November 11, 1946, p1
^Richard Rhodes, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb (Simon and Schuster, 1996)p272
^David Evans, A History of Nature Conservation in Britain (Psychology Press, 1997) p88
^Oscar Chapuis, The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000) p145
^"Margaret Truman Helps Opera To Colorful Start", Miami Daily News, November 11, 1946, p1
^Leonard Maltin, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons (New American Library, 1987) p369
^Homer Williams, Building Type Basics for Banks and Financial Institutions (John Wiley and Sons, 2010) p33; "First Complete Autobank Opens on La Salle St.", Chicago Tribune, November 13, 1946, p2
^Kristine Harper, Weather and Climate: Decade by Decade (Infobase Publishing, 2007) pp93-94; "Snow From a Cloud Produced by Science", Milwaukee Journal, November 14, 1946, p1
^Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949: Germany-Iran (G.P.O. 1954) pp1236-1244; "India Pact Clears Way For U.S. World Air Routes", Miami Daily News, November 14, 1946, p6-A
^Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung From the Formation of the State of East Indonesia towards the Establishment of the United States of Indonesia (Yayasan Obor Indonesia, 1996) p96
^William L. Tung, The Political Institutions of Modern China (Martinus Nijhoff, 1968) p200
^Charles Yrigoyen, Jr. and Susan E. Warrick, Historical Dictionary of Methodism (Scarecrow Press, 2005) p119-120
^
Arthur J. Dommen, The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans: Nationalism and Communism in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam (Indiana University Press, 2001) p162
^Ruth T. Feldman, Thurgood Marshall (Lerner Publications, 2001), pp7-11
^Federal Research Division, Romania: A Country Study (Kessinger Publishing, 2004) p86
^Bevin Alexander, The Strange Connection: U.S. Intervention in China, 1944-1972 (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1992) p63
^"THE BIG COAL STRIKE IS ON! U. S. TO ACT AGAINST LEWIS", Chicago Tribune, November 21, 1946, p1; "COAL STRIKE GRIPS NATION; U.S. MOVES AGAINST LEWIS", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, - November 21, 1946, p1
^"Coal Strike Furloughs 175,000 More Workers", Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1946, p2
^"Europe Hit by U.S. Coal Strike; Industry in Peril", Chicago Tribune, December 5, 1946, p1
^"25,000,000 May be Idle If Coal Strike Is Prolonged; Fairly Ample Stock Piles Here", New York Times, November 22, 1946; "Economic Collapse In 90 Days Seen If Strike Continues" Baltimore Sun, December 3, 1946, p1
^"COAL STRIKE OFF!", Pittsburgh Press - December 7, 1946, p1
^Oscar Chapuis, The Last Emperors of Vietnam: From Tu Duc to Bao Dai (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000) p150
^Michael Leo Donovan, Yankees to Fighting Irish: What's Behind Your Favorite Team's Name (Taylor Trade Publications, 2004) p82; "Tempe Teams Change Name To Sun Devils", Prescott (AZ) Evening Courier, November 21, 1946, p2-1
^
Robert P. Watson, et al., The National Security Legacy of Harry S. Truman (Truman State University Press, 2005) p27; "Truman Dives 440 Feet In German Sub", Pittsburgh Press, November 21, 1946, p9
^Harriet Hyman Alonso, Robert E. Sherwood: The Playwright in Peace and War (University of Massachusetts Press, 2007) p287
^"Dimitrov Asked Form New Bulgaria Cabinet", Montreal Gazette November 22, 1946, p9
^"President Orders Purge of Disloyal from U.S. Posts", New York Times, November 26, 1946, p1; "Communists To Be Ousted", Boise City (ID) News, November 28, 1946, p1
^Walter John Raymond, Dictionary of Politics: Selected American and Foreign Political and Legal Terms (Brunswick Publishing, 1992) p289
^"Find Bones of Cortes, Spanish Conqueror of Mexico, Experts Say", Milwaukee Journal, November 26, 1946, p2
^Alexander N. Yakovlev, et al., A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia (Yale University Press, 2004) p202
^Thomas M. Leonard, Fidel Castro: A Biography (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) p10
^Martin Gilbert, The Day the War Ended: May 8, 1945 - Victory in Europe (Macmillan, 2004) p409
^"U.K.'s Thankless Task In Indonesia To End Thursday As Troops Last of British Troops Embark", Montreal Gazette, November 26, 1946, p9; "British Leave Indonesia Post", Eugene (OR) Register-Guard, November 29, 1946, p3