History happenings in Octobers of the mid-to-late 1940s

 

This time last year, I wrote about a compendium I’d found. I quoted one item each from A to Z. Today, I opened another book, From Elvis to E-mail: Trends, Events and Trivia from the Post-War Era to the End of the Century by Paul Dickson, published by Federal Street Press, a division of Merriam-Webster, Inc. in 1990. I had used this book only once since 2001. During floor refinishing this summer, everything was moved and this volume was placed with other trivia books on my desk.

                Beginning in 1945 (post-war), the book tells a snippet about every important person, place or thing.

                For October that year are these entries: On the 4th: American occupation authorities in Japan ordered the imperial government to end all restrictions on freedom of speech, religion, and assembly, disband the ‘thought police,’ and release 3,000 political prisoners.

                On October 29: The first American ballpoint pens went on sale at Gimbels in NYC. They cost $12.50 each and quickly sold out.

                On October 16 of 1946, ten top German Nazi war criminals were hanged in Nuremberg. On October 25, President Truman, facing demands for housing from returning veterans and others who waited during the war, declared a state of emergency in housing and lifted import restrictions on lumber. The shortage eased only when builders developed new ways to produce inexpensive tract housing on a large scale.

                On the 5^th of October, 1947, during the first televised presidential address, Americans were asked to give up eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to help alleviate food shortages and starvation in Europe.

                On October 14^th of that year, Air force captain Charles Yeager, flying the Bell X-1, exceeded the speed of sound to become the world’s first supersonic flier. The sound barrier had been broken.

                On the 20^th, the House Un-American Activities Committee opened public hearings into Communist influence in Hollywood, laying the groundwork for a blacklist of suspected subversives in the movie industry.

                On the 29^th, the General Electric Company, conducting experiments on the control of weather, used dry ice to seed cumulus clouds at Concord, New Hampshire. It produced rain.

                October 14^th, 1948 saw the beginning of a fluoridation program in NYC. The teeth of 50,000 schoolchildren were coated with sodium fluoride.

                On October 22^nd of that year, inventor Chester Carlson put on the first public demonstration of xerography in NYC.

                The first day of October 1949 saw Mao Tse-tung officially proclaiming China a Communist state.

                On the 6^th of the month that year, President Truman signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, which gave $1.3 billion to our NATO allies.

                On the 14^th, eleven top Communist leaders were convicted of conspiring to advocate the overthrow of the US government. On the 21^st, all were fined $10,000 and given jail sentences of three to five years.

                On the 26^th, the president signed a bill that raised the minimum wage from forty to seventy-four cents an hour.

                We’ve been told what will happen if we ignore history. Let’s don’t.