1947

Published on Friday, January 19th 2007. Edited by Rye Sataskrut, Fort Huachuca, United States.

Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century

Decades: 1910s 1920s 1930s – 1940s – 1950s 1960s 1970s

Years: 1944 1945 1946 – 1947 – 1948 1949 1950

Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

January 1: Nigeria gains autonomy.

Events of 1947

January

January 1
British mines are nationalized.
Nigeria gains limited autonomy.
The Canadian Citizenship Act goes into effect.
January 3 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
January 10 – The United Nations takes control of the free city of Trieste.
January 15 – Elizabeth Short (the “Black Dahlia”) is found murdered.
January 16 – Vincent Auriol is inaugurated as president of France.
January 19 – 392 drown in a shipwreck near Athens, Greece.
January 24 – Dimitrios Maximos founds monarchist government in Athens.
January 25 – Philippine plane crashes in Hong Kong with $5 million worth of gold and money.
January 30 – February 8 – A heavy blizzard in Canada buries towns from Winnipeg to Calgary.
January 31 – Communists take power in Poland.

February

February 3
In Snag, Yukon Territory, -63 degrees Celsius, lowest recorded temperature in North America.
Percival Prattis becomes the first black news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press gallery.
February 5 – Boleslaw Bierut becomes president of Poland.
February 8 – A dance hall fire in Berlin kills over 80.
February 10 – Paris peace treaties are signed between the World War II Allies and Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Finland: Italy cedes most of Istria to Yugoslavia.
February 12 – A meteor creates a crater in Sikhote-Alin, Soviet Union.
February 17 – Cold War: The Voice of America begins to transmit radio broadcasts into the Soviet Union.
February 20 – An explosion at the O'Connor Electro-Plating Co in Los Angeles, California leaves 17 dead, 100 buildings damaged, and a 22-foot crater.
February 21 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first “instant camera”, the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
February 23 – International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is founded.
February 25
State of Prussia ceases to exist.
Worst-ever train crash in Japan kills 184.
February 28
USA gives France a military base in Casablanca.
In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with large loss of civilian lives.

March

March 1
The International Monetary Fund begins to operate.
Wernher von Braun marries his first cousin, 18-year-old Maria von Quirstorp.
March 6 – USS Newport News, the first air-conditioned naval ship, is launched from Newport News, Virginia.
March 12 – The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
March 14 – The River Thames bursts its banks.
March 15 – Hindus and Muslims clash in Punjab.
March 19 – 19th Academy Awards ceremony
March 21 – Homer Collyer of the Collyer brothers is found dead in their house in Harlem, New York City. His brother is found April 8.
March 25 – A coal mine explosion in Centralia, Illinois kills 111.
March 28 – A WW2 Japanese booby trap explodes in Corregidor, killing 28.
March 29 – Rebellion against French rule erupts in Madagascar.
March 31 – The leaders of the People’s Republic of Mahabad, the second Kurdish state in the history of Iran, are hanged at the Chuwarchira Square in Mahabad after the country is conquered by Iranian forces.

April

April 1
Jackie Robinson, the first African American baseball professional, signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
King George II of Greece is succeeded by his brother King Paul I.
April 9 – A multiple outbreak of tornadoes occur from Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas killing 181 and injuring 970. Not known how many touched down.
April 15 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play Major League Baseball.
April 16 – The Texas City Disaster: An Ammonium nitrate cargo of SS Grandcamp explodes in Texas City, Texas – 552 dead, 3,000 injured, 200 lost, 20 city blocks destroyed.
April 18 – The British Royal Navy detonates 6,800 tonnes of explosives in a concerted attempt to destroy the small island of Heligoland, Germany, creating the biggest non-nuclear explosion in history.

May

May 1 – The Salvatore Giuliano Gang opens fire on a labor parade near Portella Della Ginestra, Sicily, killing 11 and wounding 30.
May 3 – The new post-war Japanese constitution goes into effect.
May 12 – The Cartoon Rabbit Transit Directed by Friz Freleng where Bugs goes to jail is made.
May 22
Cold War: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, President Harry S. Truman signs an act implementing the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece.
David Lean’s film Great Expectations, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, opens in the United States. Critics call it the finest film ever made from a Dickens novel.

June

June 5 – Secretary of State George Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan for U.S. aid to Europe.
June 7 – The ASA (currently Steaua) sport club is founded in Bucharest, Romania.
June 10 – Saab produces its first automobile.
June 15 – Portuguese government orders 11 military officers and 19 university professors accused of revolutionary activity to resign.
June 18 – Rear Admiral Shigematsu Sakaibara hanged in Guam for war crimes related to the Battle of Wake Island on October 7, 1943.
June 20 – Bugsy Siegel is found shot in the Beverly Hills mansion of Virginia Hill.
June 21
Seaman Harold Dahl claims to have seen six UFOs near Maury Island. The next morning Dahl reports the first modern Men in Black encounter.
The Canadian Parliament votes unaminiously to pass several laws regarding displaced foreign refugees.
June 23 – The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.
June 24 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.

July

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), created July 1947

July 7 – A downed UFO is allegedly found in the Roswell UFO incident, written about by Stanton T. Friedman.
July 10 – Princess Elizabeth announces her engagement to Philip Mountbatten.
July 11 – Exodus (ship) departs France to Palestine with 4,500 Jewish Holocaust survivor refugees.
July 17 – 625 killed, Indian passenger ship Ramdas capsized by cyclone at Mumbai, India.
July 18 – Following wide media and UNSCOP coverage, Exodus (ship) is captured by British troops and refused entry to Palestine in the port of Haifa.
July 18 – President Harry S. Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act into law which places the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the United States Vice President.
July 19 – Burmese nationalist Aung San is murdered.
July 26 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into law, creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
July 27 – Take It or Leave It airs its final episode on CBS Radio.
July 29 – After being shut off on November 9, 1946 for a refurbishment, ENIAC, one of the world’s first digital computers, is turned on after a memory upgrade. It will remain in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.

August

Flag of the newly independent Pakistan

Flag of the newly independent India

August 4 – UK Betty Moore from Horsham, Sussex, sails in her first Cowes Week. 59 years later she is awarded the Skandia Cowes Week Ladies Day Trophy after campaigning her Solent Sunbeam, WHY, in all 60 consecutive regattas.
August 5 – The Netherlands stops political actions in Indonesia.
August 7
Thor Heyerdahl’s balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101 day, 4,300 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
August 14 – After 90 years of British colonial rule, Pakistan gains independence from the British Empire. While the transition is officially at midnight on this day, Pakistan celebrates its independence on August 14 compared to India on the 15th. Muhammad Ali Jinnah became the first Governor General of Pakistan.
August 15
After a long struggle India gained independence from British rule. Pakistan splits from India. Rajendra Prasad is the first President of India. Jawaharlal Nehru takes office as the first Prime Minister of India.
The Khan of Kalat (princely state), Baluchistan joins Muslim Pakistan (accedes to Pakistan in 1948).
August 16 – In Greece, General Markos Vafiadis takes over.
August 23 – Prime Minister of Greece Dimitrios Maximos resigns.
August 24 – The first Edinburgh International Festival begins, with a post-war mission to ‘provide a platform for the flowering of the human spirit’.
August 27 – When the French government lowers the bread ration to 200 grams, it causes riots in Verdun and Le Mans.
August 30 – Fire at a movie theatre in Rueil, a suburb of Paris, France kills 87.
August 31 – Communists take power in Hungary.

September

September 13 – Indian Prime Minister Nehru suggests the transfer of 4 million Hindus and Muslims between India and Pakistan.
September 17-September 21 – A hurricane in southeast Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama leaves 51 dead.
September 18
The United States Army Air Forces, along with some components of the United States Navy’s air arm, becomes the United States Air Force.
The National Security Act creates the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA.

October

October 14 – American test pilot Captain Chuck Yeager flies a Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound, the first man to do so in level flight.
October 20 – The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 begins.
October 30 – The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which is the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is founded.

November

November 2
In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built (flight lasted only eight minutes).
Earthquake in Chilean Andes kills 233.
November 6 – Meet the Press makes its television debut on the NBC television network.
November 10 – The arrest of four steel workers in Marseille begins a communist riot that spreads to Paris.
November 16
In Brussels, 15,000 demonstrate against the relatively short sentences of Nazis.
The British begin to withdraw their troops from Palestine.
November 18 – Ballantyne’s Department Store fire in Christchurch, New Zealand, kills 41 in New Zealand’s worst ever fire
November 20
The Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI marries the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, London.
Paul Ramadier resigns as Prime Minister of France — he is succeeded by Robert Schuman. Schuman calls 80,000 reservists to quell the rioting miners.
November 21 – The United Nations Conference on Trade and Employment begins in Havana, Cuba. The conference ends in 1948, when members finish the Havana Charter.
November 24 – Red Scare: The United States House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt of U.S. Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10 after the 10 had refused to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of Communist influence in the movie industry, (the 10 were blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios the next day).
November 25 – New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.
November 27 – In Paris, police occupy the editorial offices of communist newspapers.
November 29 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews, resulting in the creation of the State of Israel.

December

December 3
French communist strikers derail the Paris-Tourcoing Express train because of false rumors that it was transporting soldiers – 21 dead.
Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire opens on Broadway.
December 4 – French interior minister Jules Moch secures emergency measures against riots after six days of violent arguments in the national assembly.
December 6 – Arturo Toscanini conducts a concert performance of the first half of Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello, based on Shakespeare’s Othello, on NBC radio. The second half will be broadcast a week later. Starring are Ramon Vinay, Giuseppe Valdengo, and Herva Nelli. The complete performance (both parts) will eventually be released on LP and CD. Many believe this is one of the very finest opera performances led by Toscanini. It is for some the definitive Otello.
December 9 – French labour unions call off the general strike and begin negotiations with the French government.
December 12 – The Iranian Royal Army takes back power in Azerbaijan province.
December 22
The Italian Constituent Assembly votes to accept the new constitution.
The first practical transistor is demonstrated.
December 30 – King Michael of Romania abdicates.

Undated

The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigations into communism in Hollywood.
Cambridge University begins to admit women as full students.
Mikhail Kalashnikov designs the AK-47 assault rifle.
Raytheon produces first commercial microwave oven.
Women’s suffrage is granted in Argentina.
In a cave in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea), several tall pottery jars containing leather scrolls are discovered, which later became known as the Dead Sea scrolls.
By discovery of Promethium in products of nuclear fission, last gap of periodic table was closed.

Ongoing

Marshall Plan

Births

1947 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1947 MCMXLVII

Ab urbe condita 2700

Armenian calendar 1396 ԹՎ ՌՅՂԶ

Bahá'í calendar 103 – 104

Berber calendar 2897

Buddhist calendar 2491

Burmese calendar 1309

Byzantine calendar 7455 – 7456

Chinese calendar 丙戌年十二月初十日 (4583/4643-12-10)

— to —

丁亥年十一月二十日 (4584/4644-11-20)

Coptic calendar 1663 – 1664

Ethiopian calendar 1939 – 1940

Hebrew calendar 5707 – 5708

Hindu calendars

- Vikram Samvat 2002 – 2003

- Shaka Samvat 1869 – 1870

- Kali Yuga 5048 – 5049

Holocene calendar 11947

Iranian calendar 1325 – 1326

Islamic calendar 1366 – 1367

Japanese calendar Shōwa 22 (昭和22年)

Korean calendar 4280

Thai solar calendar 2490

January-February

January 2
Ai, American poet
Jack Hanna, American zoologist
January 3 – Patricia Anthony, American author
January 6 – Sandy Denny, British singer (d. 1978)
January 7 – Shobha De, Indian writer
January 8
David Bowie, English musician
Jenny Boyd, British model
Samuel Schmid, Swiss Federal Councilor
January 9 – Ronnie Landfield, American artist
January 10 – Ronald Harris, American
January 11
Tom Netherton, American singer
Mart Smeets, Dutch sports journalist
January 14 – Bill Werbeniuk, Canadian snooker player (d. 2003)
January 16 – Laura Schlessinger, American psychologist and radio talk show host
January 18 – Takeshi Kitano, Japanese film director and actor
January 23 – Thomas R. Carper, U.S. Senator from Delaware
January 24 – Warren Zevon, American musician (d. 2003)
Masashi Ozaki, Japanese golfer
January 26 – Richard Portnow, American actor
January 29 – Linda B. Buck, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
January 30
Les Barker, English poet
Steve Marriott, British musician (The Small Faces) and (Humble Pie) (d. 1991)
January 31 – Nolan Ryan, baseball player
February 1 – Jessica Savitch, American journalist (d. 1983)
February 2 – Farrah Fawcett, American actress
February 3
Melanie, American singer
Paul Auster, American novelist
February 4 – Dan Quayle, Vice President of the United States
February 5 – Darrell Waltrip, American race car driver and broadcaster
February 10
Louise Arbour, Canadian jurist
Nicholas Owen, English newsreader (ITN)
February 12 – Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, Punjabi saint, military leader (d. 1984)
February 13 – Mike Krzyzewski, American basketball coach
February 15 – John Coolidge Adams, American composer
February 18
Princess Christina of the Netherlands
Dennis DeYoung, American musician (Styx)
February 20
Peter Osgood, English footballer (d. 2006)
Peter Strauss, American actor
February 21 – Victor Sokolov, Russian dissident journalist and priest (d. 2006)
February 24 – Edward James Olmos, American actor
February 25 – Doug Yule, American singer and musician (The Velvet Underground)
February 26 – Sandie Shaw, British singer
February 27 – Gidon Kremer, Latvian violinist

March-April

March 4
David Franzoni, American screenwriter
Jan Garbarek, Norwegian musician
Gunnar Hansen, Icelandic actor
Gwen Welles, American actress (d. 1993)
March 6
Kiki Dee, English singer
Dick Fosbury, American athlete
Teru Miyamoto, Japanese author
March 7
Matthew Fisher, British singer, songwriter, and producer
Walter Röhrl, German race car driver
Richard Lawson, American actor
March 8 – Carole Bayer Sager, American composer
March 10
Kim Campbell, Prime Minister of Canada
Tom Scholz, American musician, songwriter, and inventor
March 11
David Ferguson (impresario), American music producer and activist
March 12
Kalervo Palsa, Finnish artist
Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts
March 13 – Beat Richner, Swiss pediatrician and cellist
March 14 – Pam Ayres, British poet
March 15 – Ry Cooder, American guitarist.
March 16 – Ramzan Paskayev, Chechen accordionist
March 17 – Yury Chernavsky, Russian-born composer and producer
March 19 – Glenn Close, American actress
March 20 – John Boswell, American historian (d. 1994)
March 24 – Louise Lanctôt, Canadian terrorist and writer
March 25 – Elton John, English singer, pianist, and songwriter
March 27 – Walt Mossberg, American newspaper columnist
April 1 – Alain Connes, French mathematician
April 2
Emmylou Harris, American singer
Camille Paglia, American literary critic
April 4 – Eliseo Soriano, Philippine preacher
April 5 – Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, incumbent Philippine president and daughter of former president Diosdado Macapagal
April 6 – John Ratzenberger, American actor
April 8 – Tom DeLay, American politician
April 11 – Deem Bristow, American video game actor (d. 2005)
April 12
Tom Clancy, American author
David Letterman, American entertainer
April 15
Lois Chiles, American actress
Mike Chapman, Australian-born record producer and songwriter
April 16 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, American basketball player
April 16 – Gerry Rafferty, Scottish singer
April 18
Kathy Acker, American author (d. 1997)
James Woods, American actor
April 19 – Murray Perahia, American pianist
April 20 – Hector, Finnish rock musician
April 21
Iggy Pop, American musician (The Stooges)
John Weider, British musician (Eric Burdon and the Animals and Family)
April 25 – Johan Cruijff, Dutch footballer and coach
April 28 – Ken St. Andre, American game designer and author
April 29 – Olavo de Carvalho, Brazilian philosopher
April 29 – Tommy James, American singer and producer
April 30 – Leslie Grantham, British actor

May-June

May 4 – Theda Skocpol, American sociologist
May 6 – Martha Nussbaum, American philosopher
May 8 – H. Robert Horvitz, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
May 11- Walter Selke, a German physicist
May 12 – Michael Ignatieff, a Canadian public intellectual with a background in philosophy and history.
May 13 – Stephen R. Donaldson, American novelist
May 19 – Paul Brady, Northern Ireland singer/songwriter
May 23 – Bernard Comrie, English linguist
May 24 – Maude Barlow, Canadian author, activist and National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians
May 26 – Glenn Turner, New Zealand cricket captains
May 27
Branko Oblak, Slovenian football player and coach
Peter DeFazio, American politician
May 29 – Stan Zemanek, Australian radio broadcaster (d. 2007)
June 4 – Viktor Klima, Chancellor of Austria
June 6
David Blunkett, British politician
Ada Kok, Dutch swimmer
Robert Englund, American actor
June 7 – Thurman Munson, Yankee catcher (d. 1979)
June 8 – Eric F. Wieschaus, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
June 14 – Barry Melton, American musician (Country Joe and The Fish and The Dinosaurs)
June 15 – John Hoagland, American war photographer (d. 1984)
June 16 – -minu, Swiss columnist and writer
June 19 – Paula Koivuniemi, Finnish singer
June 19 – Salman Rushdie, Indian-born author
Candy Clark, American actress
June 21
Shirin Ebadi, Iranian activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
Meredith Baxter, American Family Ties actress
Michael Gross, American Family Ties actor
June 22
Octavia Butler, American author (d. 2006)
David Lander, American actor and baseball scout
Pete Maravich, American basketball player (d. 1988)
Mike Stone, American football player
June 28 – Mark Helprin, American writer

July-August

July 2 – Larry David, American actor, writer, producer, and director
July 3 – Dave Barry, American writer
July 7
Felix Standaert
Richard Beckinsale, British actor (d. 1979)
Rob Townsend, British drummer (Family)
July 8 – Bobby Sowell, pianist and composer
July 9
Haruomi Hosono, Japanese musician (Yellow Magic Orchestra)
Mitch Mitchell, American drummer (Jimi Hendrix Experience)
O.J. Simpson, American football player and actor
July 10 – Arlo Guthrie, American singer
July 17 – Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall
July 18 – Steven W. Mahoney, Canadian politician
July 19 – Brian May, English guitarist (Queen)
July 20
Gerd Binnig, German physicis, Nobel Prize laureate
Carlos Santana, Mexican-born guitarist
July 21 – Co Adriaanse, Dutch football manager
July 24 – Peter Serkin, American pianist
July 30 – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-born American actor, bodybuilder, and 38th Governor of California
July 31 – Richard Griffiths, English actor
August 7 – Franciscus Henri, Dutch born Australian children’s entertainer, composer and artist
August 9 – John Varley, American science-fiction author
August 10 – Ian Anderson, British musician (Jethro Tull)
August 12 – William Hartston, British chess player
August 14 – Maddy Prior, English folk singer
August 15 – Raakhee Gulzar, Indian actress
August 16 – Marc Messier, Canadian actor
August 19 – Gerard Schwarz, American conductor
August 19 – Terry Hoeppner, American football coach (d. 2007)
August 23 – Willy Russell, British playwright
August 24 – Roger De Vlaeminck, Belgian cyclist
August 26 – Emiliano Díez, American Actor
August 27 – Barbara Bach, American actress
August 28 – Liza Wang, Hong Kong actress
August 30 – Allan Rock, Canadian politician and diplomat
August 31 – Ramon Castellano de Torres, Spanish painter

September-October

September 1 – Al Green, American politician
September 3 – Kjell Magne Bondevik, Prime Minister of Norway
September 6 – Bruce Rioch, Scottish footballer and coach
September 14 – Sam Neill, New Zealand actor
September 17 – Tessa Jowell, British politician
September 19 – Steve Bartlett, U.S. Congressman and Mayor of Dallas, Texas
September 21 – Stephen King, American author
September 22 – Norma McCorvey, American abortion plaintiff
September 25 – Ali Parvin, Iranian footballer and coach
September 26 – Lynn Anderson, American country music singer
September 27
Dick Advocaat, Dutch football manager
Meat Loaf (born Marvin Lee Aday), singer and actor
September 30 – Marc Bolan, English musician (T. Rex) (d. 1977)
October 1 – Aaron Ciechanover, Israeli biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
October 2 – Ward Churchill, American author and activist
October 5 – Brian Johnson, English singer (AC/DC)
October 6 – Gail Farrell, American singer
October 7
Pip Williams, British record producer
October 9 – France Gall, French singer
October 10 – Martin Ruane, British wrestler best known as Giant Haystacks and later, The Loch Ness Monster (d. 1998)
October 13 – Sammy Hagar, American singer
October 14 – Lukas Resetarits, Austrian singer and actor
October 16 – Bob Weir, American guitarist (Grateful Dead)
October 17
Gene Green, American politician
Michael McKean, American actor and comedian
October 18 – James H. Fallon, American neuroscientist
October 19 – Giorgio Cavazzano, Italian comics artist and illustrator
October 22 – Ed Welch, English television composer
October 24 – Kevin Kline, American actor
October 25 – Glenn Tipton, English guitarist (Judas Priest)
October 26
Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States and Senator from New York
Trevor Joyce, Irish poet
October 29 – Richard Dreyfuss, American actor

November-December

November 6
Jim Rosenthal, ITV sport presenter
November 7 – Yutaka Fukumoto, Japanese professional baseball player
November 10 – Glen Buxton, American guitarist (Alice Cooper) (d. 1997)
November 14 – P. J. O'Rourke, American journalist and satirist
November 17 – Inky Mark, Canadian politician
November 19
Bob Boone, baseball player and manager
Anfinn Kallsberg, former Faroese Prime Minister
Lamar S. Smith, American politician
November 20 – Joe Walsh, Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist
November 22 – Valerie Wilson Wesley, American author
November 24
Dwight Schultz, American actor
Johnny Zell, American musician
November 25 – John Larroquette, American actor
November 30
Véronique Le Flaguais, Canadian actress
Sergio Badilla Castillo, Chilean poet
David Mamet, American playwright
December 1 – Bob Fulton, English-born Australian rugby league identity
December 2 – Isaac Bitton, French rock band drummer (Les Variations)
December 7 – Wendy Padbury, British actress
December 8 – Thomas R. Cech, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
December 9 – Tom Daschle, U.S. Senator
December 10 – Rainer Seifert, German field hockey player
December 12 – Will Alsop, English architect
December 14 – Christopher Parkening, American guitarist
December 16 – Vincent Matthews, American athlete
December 18 – Rod Piazza, American musician
December 21
Paco de Lucía, Spanish guitarist
Bryan Hamilton, Irish footballer and football manager
December 26 – Carlton Fisk, baseball player
December 28 – Aurelio Rodríguez, Mexican Major League Baseball player (d. 2000)
December 29 – Ted Danson, American actor
December 30
Michael Burns, American actor
Jeff Lynne, British musician (Electric Light Orchestra)
December 31
Burton Cummings, Canadian musician
Tim Matheson, American actor

Unknown date

Chua Ek Kay, Singaporean painter (d. 2008)
Peter Irniq, Commissioner of Nunavut

Deaths

January – June

January 15 – Elizabeth Short, “The Black Dahlia”, famous murder victim (b. 1924)
January 20
Andrew Volstead, American politician (b. 1860)
Josh Gibson, baseball player (b. 1911)
January 23 – Pierre Bonnard, French painter (b. 1867)
January 25 – Al Capone, American gangster (b. 1899)
January 27 – Vasily Balabanov, an administrator and Provincial Governor of Imperial Russia (b.1873)
February 6 – O. Max Gardner, Governor of North Carolina
February 12 – Sidney Toler, American actor, best known for playing Charlie Chan (b. 1874)
February 27 – Heinrich Häberlin, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1868)
March 5 – Alfredo Casella, Italian composer (b. 1883)
March 11 – Victor Lustig, Austrian-born con artist (b. 1890)
March 12 – Walter Samuel Goodland, Governor of Wisconsin (b. 1862)
March 18 – William C. Durant, American automobile pioneer (b. 1861)
March 19 – Prudence Heward, Canadian painter (b. 1896)
March 20 – Victor Goldschmidt, Swiss geochemist (b. 1888)
March 23 – Archduchess Luise of Austria, Princess of Tuscany (b. 1870)
March 25 – Chen Cheng-po, Taiwanese painter (b. 1895)
March 28 – Karol Świerczewski, Polish military leader (b. 1897)
March 30 – Arthur Machen, Welsh-born author (b. 1863)
April 1 – King George II of Greece (b. 1890)
April 7 – Henry Ford, American automobile manufacturer (b. 1863)
April 20 – King Christian X of Denmark (b. 1870)
April 24 – Willa Cather, American novelist (b. 1873)
May 8 – Harry Gordon Selfridge, American department store magnate (b. 1858)
May 13 – Sukanta Bhattacharya, Bengali poet (b. 1926)
May 16 – Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (b. 1861)
May 17 – George William Forbes, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1869)
May 20 – Philipp Lenard, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
May 24 – C. F. Ramuz, Swiss writer (b. 1878)
May 30 – Georg Ritter von Trapp, sailor (b. 1880)
May 31 – Adrienne Ames, American actress (b. 1907)
June 11 – Richard Hönigswald, philosopher (b. 1875)
June 19 – Kōsō Abe, Japanese admiral (b. 1892)
June 26 – Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1870)

July – December

July 19 – Aung San, Burmese nationalist (assassinated) (b. 1915)
July 30 – Joseph Cook, sixth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1860)
August 8 – Anton Ivanovich Denikin, Russian military leader (b. 1872)
September 1 – Frederick Russell Burnham, American Scout, father of the international Scouting movement (b. 1861)
October 4 – Max Planck, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
October 6 – Leevi Madetoja, Finnish composer (b. 1887)
October 28 – Earl Snell, Governor of Oregon (plane crash.) (b. 1895)
October 29 – Frances Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland (b. 1864)
November 25 – Léon-Paul Fargue, French writer (b. 1876)
November 28 – W. E. Lawrence, (b. 1896)
December 1 – Aleister Crowley, British occultist (b. 1875)
December 1 – G. H. Hardy, British mathematician (b. 1877)
December 7 – Nicholas M. Butler, American president of Columbia University, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1862)
December 7 – Tristan Bernard, French writer and lawyer (b. 1866)
December 14
Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
Edward Higgins, General of The Salvation Army (b. 1864)
December 17 – J. N. Brønsted, Danish chemist (b. 1879)
December 25 – Gaspar G. Bacon, was Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1886)
December 27 – Johannes Winkler, German rocket pioneer (b. 1897)
December 28 – Victor Emmanuel III of Italy (b. 1869)
Emil J. Brach, American candy manufacturer (b. 1859)

Nobel prizes

Physics – Edward Victor Appleton
Chemistry – Sir Robert Robinson
Medicine – Carl Ferdinand Cori, Gerty Cori, Bernardo Houssay
Literature – André Gide
Peace – The Friends Service Council (UK) and The American Friends Service Committee (USA), on behalf of the Religious Society of Friends

Ship events

List of ship commissionings in 1947
List of ship decommissionings in 1947
List of shipwrecks in 1947

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947”