January: Elizabeth Short is found brutally murdered in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. The press nickname her the 'Black Dahlia'.

February: Edwin Land gives the first demonstration of his Polaroid instant camera at a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

March: Carrie Chapman Catt dies in New Rochelle, New York. She was one of the most prominent female leaders of her time.

April: Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American in modern Major League Baseball after joining the Brooklyn Dodgers.

May: President Truman signs Act granting $400 million in military & economic aid to Turkey & Greece. This begins the Cold War.

June: U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan for American reconstruction & relief aid to Europe.

July: News breaks that a UFO has crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. It is still the cause of much debate & conspiracy theories.

August: Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki reaches Tuamotu Islands demonstrating early South Americas could have reached Polynesia.

September: A moth causes a malfunction in a Harvard Mark II electromechanical computer. Logged as 'First actual case of bug being found.'.

October: Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 rocket plane faster than the speed of sound. The plane is named the 'Glamorous Glennis' after his wife.

November: The Hughes H-4 Hercules known as the 'Spruce Goose' makes its first & only flight. It remains the largest fixed-wing aircraft flown.

December: 'A Streetcar Named Desire' starring Marlon Brando in his major role, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.