January 26 - Teigin poison case: a man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 of 16 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced to death for the crime, but is never executed.
Ludwig van Beethoven\'s Ninth Symphony is played on television in its entirety for the first time, in a concert featuring Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra. The chorus is conducted by Robert Shaw.
The murder of a three-year-old girl in Blackburn, England leads to the fingerprinting of more than 40,000 men in the city in an attempt to find the murderer.
June 20 - U.S.Congress: Commencement of Congressional Recess for the remainder of 1948 after an overtime session closed on this Saturday at 0700 D.C. time (to be shortly interrupted by Truman\'s recall from Congressional recess for July 20, 1948).
July 13 - The Coptic and Ethiopian Churches reach an agreement leading to the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalous Patriarchate. Five bishops are immediately consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria, and the successor to Abuna Qerellos IV is granted the power to consecrate new bishops, who are empowered to elect a new Patriarch for their church.
September 12 - Invasion of the State of Hyderabad by the Indian Army on the day after the Pakistani leader Jinnah\'s death to assist damage control. Operation Polo led to the deaths of an estimated tens of thousands of Hyderabadi Muslims.
Literature In the spring, playwright Arthur Miller writes "Death of a Salesman." He completes Act I in less than a day. Act II and the Requiem are completed in the next six weeks. He writes his new play in a small, freshly built studio that he constructed himself on his property in Roxbury, CT.
