This day in history. Read about what happened today. A short and interesting account of historical events and facts about this day as well as any other day of the year. Find historical birthdays, deaths, tragedies, war events, disasters and sports events.

This year in history
In the year 1948

	January 4th	Burma gained its independence from the United Kingdom.
	January 16th	American film director, John Carpenter, was born in Kentucky. He is considered one of the most influential horror and science fiction directors of the 20th century.
	January 28th	Russian dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov, was born in Riga, Latvia. He was one of the leading Russian ballet dancers of the 1960's and 1970's who made headlines when he defected to the United States in 1974 where he continued to dance for the American Ballet Theatre.
	January 30th	Indian political and spiritual leader, Mahatma Gandhi, was shot dead in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu radical.
	February 5th	Swedish football coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, was born in Torsby. He was a highly successful football coach with a celebrated career in various European football clubs. In 2001 he was appointed as head coach of the England's national team, a post he held until 2006 when he retired from the position without having managed to win any title for the English national team.
	February 5th	American actress, Barbara Hershey, was born in Hollywood, California. She is most known for her role in the critically and commercially successful film, Hannah and Her Sisters.
	February 11th	Russian film director, Sergei Eisenstein, died at the age of 49. He is widely considered as one of the most influential directors of all time. His movie, Battleship Potemkin, has been labelled as one of the most important and influential films of all time.
	February 21st	NASCAR was incorporated. It is the largest motorsports organization in the United States overseeing several different races and race circuits.
	March 20th	American actor, John de Lancie, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is most known for his role as 'Q' on the various Star Trek series.
	March 22nd	British composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber, was born in London. He is probably the most popular theatre composer of the late 20th century, having produced musicals such as Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Evita.
	March 26th	American musician, Steven Tyler, was born in Yonkers, New York. He is the lead singer of the band Aerosmith. He was born under the name Stephen Victor Tallarico.
	March 28th	American actress, Dianne Wiest, was born in Missouri, USA. She became famous after staring in Woody Allen's film, Hannah and Her Sisters, in 1986, for which she won the academy award for best supporting actress.
	April 3rd	US President, Harry Truman, signs the Marshall Plan which sanctioned financial aid for 16 countries.
	April 7th	The World Health Organization was established.
	April 9th	Politician, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, was assassinated in Bogota, Columbia. His assassination sparked a 10 year violent period in Columbia's history.
	April 30th	The Organization of American States was established. Its members are the 35 independent states of the American continent.
	May 1st	The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established.
	May 14th	Israel was declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established.
	May 19th	Jamaican singer and actress, Grace Jones, was born in Kingston, Jamaica. She has had success as a model, actress and singer.
	June 6th	French movie pioneer, Louis Lumiere, died at the age of 81. Along with his brother, Auguste Lumiere, he was one of the earliest filmmakers in history.
	June 16th	The first ever hijacking of a passenger plane took place aboard a Cathay Pacific Airways seaplane.
	June 20th	The television show, Toast of the Town, debuted. The show was later renamed to, The Ed Sullivan Show and continued to run uninterrupted for 23 years.
	June 28th	American actress, Kathy Bates, was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Considered as on of the best actresses of her generation, she is best known for her role as Annie Wilkes in the 1990 film Misery.
	July 5th	British National Health Service Act was enacted. The National Health Service is the publicly funded health care system of Great Britain to this day.
	July 29th	The 14th modern Olympic Games opened in London, England. These were the first games to be held in 12 years, due to the Second World War. The previous games had been the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
	July 30th	French actor, Jean Reno, was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He received widespread recognition after his participation in the hit moves, The Big Blue (1988), and Leon (1994) .
	August 15th	The Republic of Korea was established. It was recognized by the United Nations on December of the same year.
	August 20th	British musician, Robert Plant, was born in West Bromwich, West Midlands. He is best known as the lead singer of the legendary rock band, Led Zeppelin.
	August 24th	French musician Jean-Michel Jarre, was born in Lyon. He is considered as one of the founders of the Electronic and New Age music genres.
	September 17th	Jewish terrorist group, Lehi, assassinated Count Folke Bernadotte, who was appointed by the United Nations to be the mediator between the Arabs and Jews.
	September 19th	English actor, Jeremy Irons, was born in Cowes, England.
	September 24th	The Honda Motor Company was founded.
	November 4th	T.S. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
	November 14th	Prince of Wales, Charles, was born in Buckingham Palace. He is heir-apparent to the thrones of the United Kingdom. The Prince is also known for his marriage to the late Lady Diana and his more recent marriage to Camilla, The Duchess of Cornwall.

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