1946
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1 January 1946 Emperor Hirohito issues a proclamation requiring that his subjects refrain from believing that he is descended from divinity.
Great Britain, India, and Siam sign a treaty of peace in Singapore.
Heathrow Airport opens to serve London.
2 January 1946 King Zog I of Albania formally abdicates his throne.
Protests and a general strike take place in Damascus and Beirut against French rule.
Aaron Copland (45) writes to William Schuman (35) trying to negotiate a more flexible teaching position at the Juilliard School than the one Schuman offered. See 10 January 1946.
3 January 1946 The Polish government nationalizes all industries with over 50 workers and all businesses formerly owned by Germans.
William Joyce, “Lord Haw Haw”, is hanged by the British for treason, in London.
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh is published.
Concerto for clarinet and orchestra op.230 by Darius Milhaud (53) is performed for the first time, in the Marine Barracks, Washington. The work was commissioned by Benny Goodman.
4 January 1946 Concert Music for orchestra by Norman Dello Joio (32) is performed for the first time, in Pittsburgh.
6 January 1946 The Polish government nationalizes banks, communications, mines, factories, and utilities.
7 January 1946 Two Japanese captains are sentenced to death at a British military tribunal in Labuan, North Borneo. They are found guilty of causing the deaths of 820 British and Australian prisoners of war.
The Second Austrian Republic is recognized by the victorious Allies.
Newell Jenkins, theatre and music control officer for the US military government in Munich, writes to Carl Orff (50) telling him that he would be very valuable if he could prove that he engaged in anti-fascist activities over the last twelve years.
Three former members of the Hungarian government are sentenced to death in Budapest for war crimes.
8 January 1946 British troops attack Indonesians in the Semarang area.
In an attempt to escape the difficult conditions of postwar Paris, Arthur Honegger (53) and his family depart for Switzerland.
Francis Poulenc (47) is named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
Capriccio (Ofrenda a Pablo Sarasate) for violin by Joaquín Rodrigo (44) is performed for the first time, in Madrid.
9 January 1946 Two Japanese are sentenced to death in Manila for the torture and death of 105 Filipinos.
Children’s Hour for orchestra by Roy Harris (47) is performed for the first time, in the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House.
10 January 1946 Former Hungarian Prime Minister Laszlo de Bardossy is hanged in Budapest for treason.
The first human contact with the moon takes place as a US Army team at Evans Signal Laboratory in Belmar, New Jersey, led by Lt. Col. John H. Dewitt, bounces a radar signal off of it.
The General Assembly of the United Nations meets for the first time, in the Central Hall of Westminster, London. Paul-Henri Spaak of Belgium is elected the first President.
Aaron Copland (45) returns the invitation to teach at the Juilliard School offered by William Schuman (35), at Schuman’s request. See 17 December 1945.
11 January 1946 38 delegates representing different groups and interests in China meet in Nanking and in ten days will reach agreement on most military and political issues of contention in the country. The agreement will never be implemented.
Albania’s communist-dominated assembly ends the monarchy and establishes a people’s republic.
Paul Hindemith (50) becomes a citizen of the United States.
13 January 1946 Omer Nishani becomes President of Albania.
The Yugoslav War Crimes Commission names 27 Germans and 15 Yugoslavs as war criminals.
17 January 1946 Ba Maw, who headed the government of Burma during Japanese occupation, surrenders to the Allies in Rangoon.
Seven Germans, including Lt. General Herman Winkler, are hanged before 65,000 people in Nikolayev, USSR for war crimes. Winkler was the commander of Nikolayev.
900 Jewish immigrants are captured by British boats off Haifa.
Nadia Boulanger (58) disembarks in La Pallice after five years of exile in the United States. She was recently appointed to the faculty of the Paris Conservatoire.
18 January 1946 Etudes and Polkas for piano by Bohuslav Martinu (55) is performed for the first time, in Canegie Hall, New York.
19 January 1946 General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
Bombs go off in Jerusalem, blowing up a power substation and a wall of the Central prison.
At Dachau, American and Polish troops use tear gas to forcibly repatriate 339 Soviet citizens who served with Germany during the war.
20 January 1946 Acting President and Prime Minister of France Charles de Gaulle resigns his positions “irrevocably.” He rejects leftist demands that the army budget be cut by 20%. He is replaced as acting President by Vincent Auriol.
150,000 people demonstrate in Athens against barring members of the resistance from upcoming elections.
The first free elections in Germany since 1933 are held for local offices in the American occupation zone.
21 January 1946 Greece declares martial law in the Peloponnesus and sends troops to Kalamata in the face of royalist uprisings.
Incidental music to MacNeice’s (after Browning) radio play The Dark Tower by Benjamin Britten (32) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC Home Service.
Three Dance Variations from Fancy Free for orchestra by Leonard Bernstein (27) is performed for the first time, in New York conducted by the composer. See 18 April 1944.
23 January 1946 Félix Gouin is elected President of the Provisional Government by the French Constituent Assembly.
La hija de Cólquide, a ballet by Carlos Chávez (46) to a scenario by Graham, is performed for the first time, in the Plymouth Theatre, New York.
Songs of Separation for voice and piano by William Grant Still (50) to words of various authors is performed for the first time, in Delaware, Ohio.
24 January 1946 The first resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly calls for the peaceful development of atomic energy and the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Igor Stravinsky’s (63) Symphony in Three Movements is performed for the first time, in New York conducted by the composer.
25 January 1946 Today begins a process, continuing to November, which will remove 1,500,000 ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia.
Metamorphosen “In memoriam” for 23 strings by Richard Strauss (81) is performed for the first time, in Zürich.
26 January 1946 Acting President Félix Gouin names himself Prime Minister of France.
Three Pieces for String Orchestra by Arthur Berger (33) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York. See 17 October 1985.
28 January 1946 The government of Chile declares a state of siege after clashes between police and workers in Santiago kill nine people.
29 January 1946 Incidental music for Clifford Bax’ play Golden Eagle by Arnold Bax (62) is performed for the first time, in Westminster Theatre, London.
30 January 1946 14 Germans, including three generals, are hanged in Minsk for their part in the murder of millions of Soviet civilians and prisoners of war.
Clarinet Concerto by Darius Milhaud (53) is performed for the first time, at the Washington Marine barracks.
31 January 1946 The Chinese People’s Consultative Congress holds its last session in Chungking (Chongqing). They finalize plans to create a coalition government, a new constitution, and to reorganize the army.
Kuang Aphaiwong replaces Seni Pramoj as Prime Minister of Siam.
A new constitution for Yugoslavia is announced, based on the Soviet model.
Enrico Gaspar Dutra replaces Jose Linhares as President of Brazil.
1 February 1946 The constituent assembly in Hungary proclaims the establishment of a republic.
2 February 1946 Southern Sakhalin Island is incorporated into the USSR.
Zoltán Tildy becomes the first President of the Republic of Hungary.
A one-day strike ordered by the Arab Higher Committee against Jewish immigration paralyzes Palestine.
Trygve Lie of Norway becomes the first Secretary-General of the United Nations.
3 February 1946 Three dance episodes from On the Town by Leonard Bernstein (27) are performed for the first time, in San Francisco conducted by the composer.
4 February 1946 Ferenc Nagy replaces Zoltán Tildy as Prime Minister of Hungary.
The United States and Great Britain recognize the Groza government of Romania provided it holds free elections.
5 February 1946 The British government announces a return to dark bread due to a wheat shortage. Rations of cooking fat will be lowered but milk will be raised.
The Yugoslav government announces that Field Marshal Milan Nedic, Prime Minister during the German occupation, has killed himself by self-defenestration. He was probably killed yesterday by Yugoslav authorities.
6 February 1946 The British government announces that Sir Charles Vyner Brooke, the ruler of Sarawak, will cede his state to Great Britain. It has been under British protection since 1842.
String Trio op.105 by Florent Schmitt (75) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
After playing a Brahms (†48) concerto in New York, pianist Claudio Arrau invites the conductor, Leonard Bernstein (27) to his birthday party. There he meets a young Chilean, Felicia Montealegre y Cohn, and there, according to Bernstein, “we fell in love.” See 9 September 1951.
7 February 1946 The US and USSR agree to transportation, mail, and radio communication between their two occupation zones in Korea.
8 February 1946 The United Nations Commission on Human Rights is established.
Piano Concerto no.3 by Béla Bartók (†0), left unfinished at his death, is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia. The last 17 bars were completed by Tibor Serly.
10 February 1946 Hubertus J. van Mook, acting Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies, offers commonwealth status and internal autonomy to Indonesian leaders in Batavia (Jakarta).
100,000 people protest in Kanpur against a 50% cut in wheat rations.
11 February 1946 Lt. General Masaharu Homma is convicted in a Manila court of ordering the Bataan Death March in 1942. He is sentenced to death.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, leader of the Moslem League, promises revolution if India is not divided.
12 February 1946 Musicians Wrestle Everywhere for chorus and strings by Elliott Carter (37) to words of Dickinson, is performed for the first time in a concert, in New York. See 20 December 1945.
14 February 1946 Royal Assent is granted to the nationalization of the Bank of England.
Former Albanian Prime Minister Milio Bushati and regents Anton Arapi and Lev Nossi are executed in Tirana as war criminals.
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering. Based on an idea of Alan M. Turing, and built by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr., it is the first all-electronic computer. It occupies 170 square meters, uses 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 27 metric tons.
15 February 1946 A court on Morotai Island convicts 36 Japanese of torturing Australian and Dutch prisoners on Ambon Island.
The RCMP announces the arrest of 22 men for suspected Soviet espionage in Canada.
Dance Sonata for piano by Otto Luening (45) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of radio station WNYC, New York.
16 February 1946 Northern Ballad no.2 for orchestra by Arnold Bax (62) is performed for the first time, in the Royal Albert Hall, London.
17 February 1946 Chinese Nationalist forces claim the conquest of Liaochung (Liaozhong), Manchuria.
In the first elections in Belgium since 1939, the Christian Social Party wins the most seats followed by the Socialists.
An orchestral arrangement of the two-piano work Danzón cubano by Aaron Copland (45) is performed for the first time, in Baltimore. See 9 December 1942.
19 February 1946 Un ami viendra ce soir, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (53), is shown for the first time, in Paris.
21 February 1946 Indian seamen begin a widespread mutiny in Bombay, Poona, and Karachi, seizing ships and officers. Gunfire breaks out between sailors and troops sent to subdue them.
Riots and demonstrations against British rule take place amidst a general strike in Cairo. British troops fire into the crowds killing at least twelve people and injuring over 100.
Former President Rysto Ryti, two former prime ministers and five former ministers are convicted in Helsinki of driving Finland into war allied with Germany. They receive prison terms.
Memories of a Child’s Sunday for orchestra by Roy Harris (48) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of CBS radio originating in Carnegie Hall.
22 February 1946 Rioting and looting spreads to the general population in Bombay.
23 February 1946 Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita is hanged as a war criminal in Los Baños, 55 km south of Manila, along with two other Japanese.
Indonesian leader Sutan Sjahrir rejects the Dutch proposal of 10 February.
The mutiny in the Indian Navy ends after the British commander promises amnesty. Rioting continues in Bombay. 266 people were killed in the fighting, 677 injured.
25 February 1946 Chinese Nationalist and Communist leaders sign and agreement in Chungking (Chongqing) to unify their armies.
22 RAF planes are destroyed in attacks on four different airfields in Palestine.
26 February 1946 British authorities round up 5,000 Jews in response to the attacks last night.
France closes its border with Spain over the execution of ten Spanish veterans of the French resistance.
Oboe Concerto by Richard Strauss (81) is performed for the first time, in Zürich.
Ciaccona, Intermezzo e Adagio for cello by Luigi Dallapiccola (42) is performed for the first time, in Teatro Nuovo, Milan.
Clavecin obtempérant op.107, a suite by Florent Schmitt (75), is performed for the first time, in Paris.
27 February 1946 Spain closes the border with France and sends troops to the area.
28 February 1946 British commanders announce that Indian troops will begin evacuating the Netherlands East Indies immediately.
Béla Imrédy, former Prime Minister of Hungary, is executed in Budapest.
Field Mass, a cantata for baritone, male chorus, and orchestra by Bohuslav Martinu (55) to liturgical texts, is performed for the first time, in Prague.
1 March 1946 Nationalization of the Bank of England goes into effect.
2 March 1946 Soviet troops evacuate some areas of Iran but remain in the northwest of the country.
Arabs strike for twelve hours in Palestine over the deportation of Arab leaders to the Seychelles after their capture in Germany.
3 March 1946 Coal Scuttle Blues for two pianos by Otto Luening (45) is performed for the first time, in Times Hall, New York.
Three Pieces for string quartet by Arthur Berger (33) is performed for the first time, in Washington.
4 March 1946 19 people are killed and 299 injured in anti-British rioting in Alexandria, Egypt.
Leftist rioters in Teheran prevent the Parliament from sitting.
Sonatina canonica on “Capricci” of Niccolò Paganini for piano by Luigi Dallapiccola (42) is performed for the first time, in Perugia.
5 March 1946 The second part of Ivan the Terrible, a film by Sergey Eisenstein with music by Sergey Prokofiev (54) is banned by the Central Committee of the CPSU because of its “anti-historical and anti-artistic qualities.” (Morrison 2009, 245)
Trio d’anches for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon op.206 by Charles Koechlin (78) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of French Radio-National.
In a speech in Fulton, Missouri, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill says, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended upon the continent.”
6 March 1946 With weapons, uniforms, vehicles, and landing craft supplied by the United States, French troops come ashore at Haiphong to recolonize northern Indochina. Ten French soldiers are killed when Chinese troops fire on them “by mistake.”
Prime Minister Gavam of Iran personally protests to Stalin in Moscow about the continued presence of Soviet troops in Iran.
The US government ends wartime controls on many consumer items, including musical instruments and phonograph records.
7 March 1946 Police fire on rioters in New Delhi killing six. The rioters object to the presence of US troops in a British victory parade.
The presence of armed police allows the Parliament to meet in Teheran for the first time in three days.
8 March 1946 The Third Suite from Sergey Prokofiev’s (54) ballet Romeo and Juliet op.101 is performed for the first time, in Moscow. See 30 December 1938.
9 March 1946 Juho Kusti Paasikivi replaces Karl Gustaf Emil, Baron Mannerheim as President of Finland.
The British ambassador in Cairo announces that British troops will be withdrawn from Egypt.
10 March 1946 Italian women are allowed to vote for the first time, in local elections.
Werner Egk (44) charges himself with being a Nazi in order to clear his name. See 2 May 1947.
11 March 1946 Karl Amadeus Hartmann (40) signs an affidavit for the denazification court about his activities over the last 13 years. It contains several lies, which are never checked by the judges.
12 March 1946 The Chinese occupation of Laos north of the 16th parallel ends.
Peter Sculthorpe (16) has his first piano lesson with Raymond Lambert in Melbourne.
Former Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Szalasy is executed in Budapest, along with four of his aides.
Paul Henri Spaak replaces Achille van Acker as Prime Minister of Belgium.
Barcarolle: A Portrait of Georges Hugnet for violin and piano by Virgil Thomson (49) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York. See 29 November 1946.
13 March 1946 Chinese Nationalist troops peacefully replace Soviets in Mukden.
Formal negotiations begin for a peace settlement between Dutch and Indonesian leaders.
Soviet troops reach Karaj, 30 km from Teheran.
Cetnik leader Dragoljub Mihajlovic is captured by Yugoslav authorities.
16 March 1946 Maximilien Blokzijl, who made broadcasts to the Netherlands for the Nazis, is executed at The Hague for treason. It is the first execution in the Netherlands since 1854.
19 March 1946 Nikolay Mikhailovich Shvernik replaces Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Iran appeals to the UN Security Council over the presence of Soviet troops in the country after the treaty date for their withdrawal, 2 March.
French Guiana, Réunion, Martinique, and Guadeloupe become overseas departments of France.
21 March 1946 Trio in B flat for violin, cello, and piano by Arnold Bax (62) is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London.
String Quartet no.7 by Paul Hindemith (50) is performed for the first time, in Washington.
22 March 1946 Scherzo a la Russe by Igor Stravinsky (63) is performed for the first time in an orchestral version, in San Francisco, conducted by the composer.
Henry Cowell’s (49) Hymn for strings is performed for the first time, in Denton Texas, directed by the composer.
23 March 1946 The strike by the United Auto Workers against General Motors, begun 21 November, ends when workers win an 18.5 cents per hour increase in wages.
Introduction and Fugue for two pianos by Ralph Vaughan Williams (73) is performed for the first time, at Wigmore Hall, London.
24 March 1946 Pridi Banomyong replaces Khuang Aphaiwong as Prime Minister of Siam.
A mission from the British cabinet arrives in Delhi to discuss the future independence of India within the Commonwealth.
The USSR announces it will withdraw its troops from Iran, thus diffusing a diplomatic crisis with Great Britain.
The BBC begins broadcasting in Russian to the Soviet Union.
Mauno Pekkala replaces Juho Kusti Paasikivi as Prime Minister of Finland.
25 March 1946 The United Nations Security Council convenes in the gymnasium of Hunter College, New York.
Sonatina no.2 for 16 winds by Richard Strauss (81) is performed for the first time, in Winterthur, Switzerland.
Ebony Concerto for clarinet and jazz band by Igor Stravinsky (63) is performed for the first time, by Woody Herman and his band, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
26 March 1946 A large demonstration takes place in Athens against the elections scheduled for 31 March. They are attacked by soldiers and police and many are injured in the beatings, including Mikis Theodorakis (20). He is knocked unconscious and awakes lying in a morgue surrounded by corpses. See 27 March 1946.
27 March 1946 After awakening in a morgue following a brutal beating by police, friends of Mikis Theodorakis (20) get him transferred to a more secure hospital where he is diagnosed with a fractured skull and operated on. He will be hospitalized for two months. The beating causes permanent impairment of the vision in his left eye. See 26 March 1946.
Marche nuptiale op.108 for organ by Florent Schmitt (75) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Tricks and Trifles for orchestra by Ernst Krenek (45) is performed for the first time, in Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis.
29 March 1946 A new constitution for the British Gold Coast Colony goes into effect. For the first time, the legislative council has a black majority.
31 March 1946 Achille van Acker replaces Paul Henri Spaak as Prime Minister of Belgium.
The first post-war elections take place in Greece. 38% of the population adhere to a left-wing boycott. International observers note “serious intimidation” of leftists. An extreme right-wing royalist government is elected.
1 April 1946 400,000 coal miners in the United States go on strike.
The Malay Union is created by Great Britain. Singapore is created a separate crown colony.
The Airborne Symphony for chorus and orchestra of Marc Blitzstein (41) to his own words is performed for the first time, at the City Center, New York conducted by Leonard Bernstein (27). The audience is very appreciative, the critics mixed.
3 April 1946 Lt. General Masaharu Homma, who oversaw the Bataan Death March, is executed at Los Baños south of Manila. Lt. General Hikotaro Tajima is also executed there.
The International Court of Justice convenes for the first time, at The Hague.
4 April 1946 Panagiotis Poulitsas replaces Themistoklis Panagiotou Sophoulis as Prime Minister of Greece.
5 April 1946 The last Soviet troops leave Bornholm Island. It reverts to Danish sovereignty.
Samuel Barber’s (36) Cello Concerto is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston.
Symphony no.3 “The Camp Meeting” for small orchestra by Charles Ives (71) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Chamber Music Hall, New York, conducted by Lou Harrison (28) 44 years after it was composed. The work will win the 1947 Pulitzer Prize. Also premiered is Harrison’s Motet for the Day of Ascension for chamber orchestra conducted by the composer.
Labyrinth, a ballet by David Diamond (30) to a story by Marchowsky, is performed for the first time, in Times Hall, New York.
7 April 1946 Hungary agrees to pay $300,000,000 in reparations to Czechoslovakia, the USSR, and Yugoslavia.
8 April 1946 The League of Nations meets in Geneva to dissolve the organization.
9 April 1946 Dutch and Indonesian representatives resume talks at Hoge Veluwe in the Netherlands to try to resolve the crisis. The talks will prove fruitless.
Les demons de l’aube, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (54) is performed for the first time, in Madeleine-Cinema, Paris.
10 April 1946 The first elections in post-war Japan bring conservatives to power. Women vote for the first time in Japanese elections.
12 April 1946 Extemporale: Fünf Stücke für Klavier by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (28) is performed for the first time, in Cologne.
14 April 1946 The Birds’ Courting Song for chorus by Roy Harris (48) is performed for the first time, in Times Hall, New York. Also premiered is Hymn and Fuguing Tune no.5 for five voices by Henry Cowell (49).
Radio Piece for orchestra by Roy Harris (48) is performed for the first time, at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York the composer conducting.
The first four of the Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano by John Cage (33) are performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
16 April 1946 The 1945 Variations for piano and baritone by Robert Erickson (29) is performed for the first time, at Hamline University. Also premiered is Erickson’s The Star Song for female voices to words of Herrick.
17 April 1946 The Republic of Syria is proclaimed independent of France, under President Shukri al-Quwatli.
18 April 1946 Chinese Communists capture Changchun.
The inaugural session of the International Court of Justice takes place at The Hague.
At the last meeting of 34 countries in Geneva, the League of Nations officially dissolves itself and transfers all of its assets of $11,700,000 to the United Nations.
The United States exchanges full recognition with the Yugoslav government of Josip Broz Tito.
Konstantinos Stavrou Tsaldaris replaces Panagiotis Poulitsas as Prime Minister of Greece.
At the War Crimes trials in Nuremberg, Hans Frank, former governor of Poland, admits he ordered the extermination of the Jews, created ghettos and forced labor, and did not blame anyone else. In so doing, he states, “A thousand years will pass and this guilt of Germany will still not be erased.”
19 April 1946 The Constituent Assembly in Paris votes 309-249 to adopt a constitution for the Fourth Republic. A referendum is scheduled for 5 May.
Saying that “millions will surely die unless we eat less”, US President Truman asks his citizens to live on a low-calorie European diet twice a week.
Sextet for piano, strings, and clarinet op.55 by Hans Pfitzner (76) is performed for the first time, in Berlin.
20 April 1946 General Rikichi Ando, Japanese governor of Taiwan, kills himself in his Shanghai cell by ingesting poison.
21 April 1946 2,000 representatives of the Communist and Socialist parties in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany vote to merge into the Socialist Unity Party.
The Columbia Broadcasting System announces that it has successfully tested the transmission of color television over coaxial cables between New York and Washington.
23 April 1946 The French protectorate over Laos is reestablished.
Arturo Toscanini arrives in Italy to conduct a concert celebrating the reinauguration of Teatro alla Scala, Milan. He orders all Jewish musicians who lost their jobs at the house in 1938 reinstated. Also, those removed for opposing fascism are given their jobs back.
Piaggio & Co. SpA of Pontedera files for a patent in Florence for a new type of motor scooter. Enrico Piaggio calls it a Vespa because the high whine of the engine reminds him of a wasp.
25 April 1946 Chinese Communist troops take over Harbin as the Soviets evacuate.
The foreign ministers of the “Big Four” countries convene in the Luxembourg Palace, Paris to work out peace treaties with the allies of Nazi Germany.
Jews raid a British military camp near Tel Aviv, killing seven and carrying off arms. The British respond by detaining 1,200 people.
26 April 1946 Where Does the Uttered Music Go? for chorus by William Walton (44) to words of Masefield is performed for the first time, at St. Sepulchre’s, Holborn, London. The occasion is the unveiling of a stained glass window in memory of Henry Wood.
Les cloches, a ballet by Darius Milhaud (53) after Poe, is performed for the first time, in Chicago.
27 April 1946 Major General Shempei Fukuei is executed on the exact spot of an execution he ordered in Singapore.
28 April 1946 Danses de Jacaremirim op.256 for violin and piano by Darius Milhaud (53) is performed for the first time, in Hollywood.
29 April 1946 Former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and 27 others are indicted in Tokyo on 55 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
30 April 1946 The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine recommends (among other things) that 100,000 European Jews be immediately accepted into Palestine.
2 May 1946 A prototype National Health Service is approved by the British Parliament by a large majority.
Representatives of the Netherlands and Indonesia reach tentative agreement at The Hague for Indonesian independence under Dutch sovereignty.
Pierre Boulez (21) concludes two years of weekly counterpoint lessons with Andrée Vaurabourg (Mme Arthur Honegger (54)) in Paris.
5 May 1946 The government of China is officially moved to Nanking.
A national referendum in France narrowly rejects the proposed constitution. A new constituent assembly will be formed.
92nd Psalm for chorus by Arthur Berger (33) is performed for the first time, in Park Avenue Synagogue, New York.
6 May 1946 The second movement of Sinfonica prosodica by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (28) is performed for the first time, in Cologne. See 18 July 1947.
7 May 1946 Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita found the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation with 20 employees. In 1958 the name will be changed to Sony Corporation.
Anton Mussert, founder of the Dutch Nazi Party, is hanged in The Hague.
Six of Les chants de Nectaire for flute op.199 by Charles Koechlin (78) are performed for the first time, at the École Normale de Musique, Paris.
8 May 1946 The US government orders dim-outs in 22 states due to the coal strike. 51,000 railroad workers are laid off and the Ford Motor Company begins a nationwide shutdown.
Incidental music for the concert spectacle Victorious Spring by Dmitri Shostakovich (39) is performed for the first time, in Moscow Dzerzhinsky Central Club.
The Medium, an opera by Gian-Carlo Menotti (34) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in New York, at the Brander Matthews Theatre of Columbia University, conducted by Otto Luening (45).
9 May 1946 Peter Sculthorpe (17) gives his first performance on the Australian mainland, playing some of his piano compositions in Melbourne.
King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy abdicates his throne in favor of his son Umberto II who succeeds him. He immediately sails with his wife to Egypt and exile.
10 May 1946 Soft coal mine owners agree to a two-week truce in the US coal strike. 400,000 miners go back to work temporarily.
The Serpent Heart (later called Medea), a ballet by Samuel Barber (36) to a scenario by Graham, is performed for the first time, in New York. See 27 February 1947, 5 December 1947 and 2 February 1956.
New works on Jewish themes are performed for the first time, in the Park Avenue Synagogue, New York: Kiddush for cantor, chorus, and organ by Kurt Weill (46), The Voice of the Lord (Psalm 29) for solo voice, chorus, and piano by William Grant Still on the eve of the composer’s 51st birthday, and Mi Chomocho for tenor or baritone, chorus, and organ by Roy Harris (48) to words from Exodus.
In paradisum, a motet for female chorus by Ernst Krenek (45) is performed for the first time, in Jeanne d’Arc Auditorium, College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Evocation for concert band by Ulysses Kay (29) is performed for the first time, at Wayne State University in Detroit.
11 May 1946 A truce between Nationalist and Communist forces in Shantung (Shandong) Province is signed in Tsinan (Jinan).
Teatro alla Scala reopens after an American bomb damaged the auditorium on 16 August 1943. The performance is conducted by the theatre’s former music director, Arturo Toscanini. It is the first time he has conducted in Italy in 15 years. The Piazza della Scala and Piazza del Duomo are closed to traffic and filled with citizens listening to the concert on loudspeakers. It is broadcast throughout Italy and the world via short wave. After the last note, the applause lasts 37 minutes.
Two Contemplations for small orchestra (The Unanswered Question (revised version) and Central Park in the Dark) by Charles Ives (71) are performed for the first time, in McMillin Theatre, Columbia University, New York, 40 years after they were composed. See 17 March 1984. Also premiered is Ives’ song The Housatonic at Stockbridge to words of Johnson. (There is some evidence that Central Park in the Dark was performed around 1906 in a much cut-down instrumentation.)
12 May 1946 Melody for orchestra by Roy Harris (48) is performed for the first time, in McMillan Academic Theatre, Columbia University, New York.
Blow the Man Down for vocalist, chorus, and orchestra by Roy Harris (48) to words of Tennyson is performed for the first time, in Public Auditorium, Cleveland.
13 May 1946 Negotiations between Iranian Prime Minister Ahmad Ghavam Saltaneh and the leader of the breakaway province of Azerbaijan collapse in Teheran.
A US military court in Dachau sentences 58 Germans to death and three to life imprisonment for the murders in Mauthausen Concentration Camp.
14 May 1946 Chota rustaveli, a ballet by Arthur Honegger (54), Alexander Tcherepnin, and Tibor Harsányi, to a story by Evreinoff and Lifar after Roustaveli, is performed for the first time, in Monaco.
When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom’d: Requiem for those we Love for mezzo-soprano, baritone, chorus, and orchestra by Paul Hindemith (50) to words of Whitman, is performed for the first time, in New York.
15 May 1946 Leonard Bernstein (27) conducts for the first time outside of North America with the Czech Philharmonic in Prague.
16 May 1946 The British cabinet mission to India proposes that, since Hindus and Moslems can not agree, independence must be enforced on British terms. They recommend a united country made up of Hindu provinces, Moslem provinces and princely states.
The conference of “Big Four” foreign ministers in Paris adjourns with little progress.
Rosa de América, a film with music by Alberto Ginastera (30), is released in Argentina.
Irving Berlin’s musical Annie Get Your Gun opens at the Imperial Theatre, New York.
17 May 1946 Ion Antonescu, wartime Prime Minister of Romania, and twelve of his cabinet ministers are sentenced to death by a Bucharest court. Six of the condemned are still at large.
In the face of a threatened strike, US President Truman seizes the country’s railroads.
Marc Blitzstein (41) is presented with an award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
A general election is held in the Netherlands for the first time since World War II. The Catholic Peoples Party wins the most seats, followed closely by the Workers Party.
18 May 1946 Divertimento for nine instruments by Walter Piston (52) is performed for the first time, in New York.
20 May 1946 Jubilation, an overture for orchestra by Robert Ward (28), is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
21 May 1946 By this date, the Soviet evacuation of Iran is complete.
Almost two months after 400,000 coal miners go on strike, US President Truman orders the seizure of the coal mines.
22 May 1946 Shigeru Yoshida replaces Baron Kijuro Shidehara as Prime Minister of Japan.
Karl Hermann Frank, former chief of police in Bohemia and Moravia, is hanged before 5,000 people in Prague. He ordered the liquidation of the town of Lidice.
The British Trade Disputes And Trade Unions Act 1946 receives royal assent. It repeals a 1927 act which outlawed general and sympathetic strikes.
El duende azul, an operetta by Joaquín Rodrigo (44) to words of Castell and Villaseca, is performed for the first time, in Teatro Calderón, Madrid.
23 May 1946 Chinese Nationalists retake Changchun from the Communists.
250,000 US railroad workers strike over wages and work rules. President Truman mobilizes government resources to make up the deficit.
24 May 1946 The Arab Higher Commission in Jerusalem demands the withdrawal of British troops and an end to the mandate, an end to Jewish immigration, and the creation of an Arab Palestine.
25 May 1946 The Kingdom of Transjordan is proclaimed independent of Great Britain under King Abdullah and Prime Minister Ibrahim Hashim. A constitution is promulgated.
The strike of 250,000 US rail workers is settled.
26 May 1946 In parliamentary elections held today in Romania, communists gain a plurality of seats.
Piano Concerto no.3 by Darius Milhaud (53) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
The strike having been settled, the US government returns the nation’s railroads to private hands.
27 May 1946 US coal miners resume their strike after a two-week truce expires.
Henry Cowell’s (49) Big Sing for orchestra is performed for the first time, in Fresno, California.
28 May 1946 14 Nazis are hanged in Landsberg Prison, west of Munich for their activities at the Dachau Concentration Camp.
29 May 1946 Chinese Nationalist forces capture Kirin (Jilin).
14 more Nazis are hanged in Landsberg Prison, west of Munich, for their activities at the Dachau Concentration Camp.
One week after President Truman seized the coal mines, and two months after the strike began, US coal miners reach a settlement with the government. Workers will receive pay increases and retirement benefits.
Haj Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, leaves his villa near Versailles and, with a fake passport, flies from Paris to Damascus.
30 May 1946 Claude Champagne (55) receives an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Université de Montreal.
31 May 1946 Sinfonia elegiaca by Alberto Ginastera (30) is performed for the first time, in Buenos Aires.
1 June 1946 Marshal Ion Antonescu, wartime leader of Romania, and three other Romanian leaders are executed by firing squad near Jilava.
Television licenses are introduced in Britain. They cost £2.
2 June 1946 The Italian electorate votes to abolish the monarchy. They also elect a new constituent assembly. The Christian Democrats win the most seats. Women vote in Italy for the first time.
Elections for a new constituent assembly take place in France. The Popular Republican Movement wins the most seats, followed closely by the Communists and Socialists.
Pilgrim Psalms for soloists, chorus, organ, or orchestra by Ross Lee Finney (39) to words from the Ainsworth Psalter is performed for the first time, in Ithaca, New York.
3 June 1946 Ch’en Kung-po (Chen Gongbo), former president of the Japanese dominated Chinese republic, is executed in Soochow (Suzhou).
In the case of Morgan v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court rules that segregation by race on interstate bus lines is unconstitutional.
4 June 1946 Juan Domingo Perón Sosa replaces Edelmiro Julián Farrell Piaui as President of Argentina.
5 June 1946 Incidental music to Aeschylus’ (tr. Bonnard) play Prométhée by Arthur Honegger (54) is performed for the first time, in an open air theatre in Avenches.
6 June 1946 A 15-day truce is agreed to in Manchuria.
7 June 1946 The BBC resumes regular television service with less than 12,000 viewers. The transmitter at Alexandra Palace is reopened.
Monarchist riots in Naples, Pisa, and Rome kill four people and injure 35 others.
9 June 1946 Ananda Mahidol, King Rama VIII of Siam, is shot to death in the Royal Palace, Bangkok, and is succeeded by his brother Bhumibol Adulyadej as Rama IX. It is unclear who shot the King. It could be murder or suicide.
10 June 1946 The trial of General Dragoljub Mihajlovic and 23 other Cetniks begins outside of Belgrade.
12 June 1946 Eight scenes from Sergey Prokofiev’s (55) opera War and Peace to his own words after Tolstoy are staged for the first time, in Malyi Theatre, Leningrad. It is a smashing success. See 16 October 1944 and 8 November 1957.
13 June 1946 An agreement between the central government in Iran and the breakaway province of Azerbaijan ends the standoff.
The Italian cabinet announces that Prime Minister Alcide de Gasperi became head of state when the official results of the 2 June referendum were announced 10 June. A few hours later, King Umberto II leaves Rome for Barcelona. The monarchy is ended.
14 June 1946 The Italian government banishes former King Umberto II and his male heirs from the country.
L’histoire de Babar, a melodrama for speaker and piano by Francis Poulenc (47) to words of de Brunhoff, is performed for the first time, in a radio broadcast from Paris the composer at the keyboard. See 8 February 1949.
15 June 1946 The “Big Four” foreign ministers reconvene in Paris to work out peace agreements.
16 June 1946 Following the breakdown of independence negotiations, Viceroy Viscount Wavell unilaterally invites 14 prominent Indians to form a government.
17 June 1946 Jewish extremists blow up the central workshop of the Palestine Railway in Haifa. Eight road and rail bridges are destroyed across the mandate.
A ceremony takes place making Francis Poulenc (47) a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He was named in January.
18 June 1946 Irgunists kidnap six British officers in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and hold them hostage to prevent the execution of two of their members.
Drei geistliche Lieder for voice and piano by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (28) are performed for the first time, in Cologne.
20 June 1946 Congress Party leader Jawaharlal Nehru is arrested at Domel for defying an order to stay out of Kashmir. Strikes and other mass actions take place in major Indian cities.
One of the British officers kidnapped by the Irgun two days ago escapes.
21 June 1946 Vergilii Aeneis, a sinfonia eroica by Gian Francesco Malipiero (64) to his own words after Virgil (tr. Caro), is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of RAI. See 6 January 1958.
22 June 1946 Jawaharlal Nehru returns to New Delhi after being released by Kashmir authorities.
The Irgun releases two British officers kidnapped 18 June when the Haganah threatens to “abduct the captives’ captors.”
24 June 1946 Georges Bidault replace Félix Gouin as Prime Minister of France.
Harawi: chant d’amour et de la mort for soprano and piano by Olivier Messiaen (37) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in Mâcon the composer at the keyboard.
Due liriche di Anacreonte for soprano and four instruments by Luigi Dallapiccola (42) is performed for the first time, in Brussels. See 13 January 1949.
25 June 1946 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) begins operations.
In Hungary, a 100,000,000,000,000 pengo bank note is issued. It is worth US$0.20.
27 June 1946 Sergey Prokofiev (55) is informed that he has won a Stalin Prize, first class for Cinderella.
28 June 1946 Enrico de Nicola takes office as provisional President of the Republic of Italy.
29 June 1946 British troops arrest 2,700 Zionists in Palestine.
Yugoslav and Italian civilians battle in Trieste. Over three days two people will be killed, 60 injured.
Seven scenes from The Young Guard, a film with music by Dmitri Shostakovich (39), are shown for the first time, at the All-Union State Institute for Cinematography. See 11 & 25 October 1948.
30 June 1946 The Soviets begin to prevent movement of Germans from their occupation zone to the west.
1 July 1946 The United States explodes the first atomic bomb since the end of the war, at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands.
Great Britain annexes Sarawak, ending the personal rule of the Brooke family.
Allied forces revert all of the Netherlands East Indies to Dutch control, except Java and Sumatra.
Königsberg is renamed Kaliningrad by the Soviet Union.
2 July 1946 Two days of rioting ends in Ahamadabad. 33 people are killed when Moslems attack Jains.
Benjamin Britten’s (32) Piano Concerto no.1 op.13 is performed for the first time with a new third movement, at Cheltenham. See 18 August 1938.
3 July 1946 Klement Gottwald, a communist, becomes Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia.
Louis Joseph Maria Beel of the Catholic Peoples Party replaces Willem Schermerhorn as Prime Minister of the Netherlands heading a left-right coalition.
4 July 1946 The Philippines gains its independence from the United States, under President Manuel Roxas y Acuña.
Poles recently freed from Nazi atrocities carry out a pogrom in Kielce, killing 42 Jews.
The Irgun releases their remaining British hostages in Tel Aviv.
5 July 1946 The “bikini” makes its debut at a Paris fashion show of Louis Réard.
Michael Tippett’s (41) organ work Preludio al Vespro di Monteverdi is performed for the first time, in Central Hall, Westminster.
6 July 1946 British and Soviet occupation zones of Germany exchange 2,250,000 refugees.
A conference on the future of French Indochina begins at Fontainebleau, near Paris.
7 July 1946 The All-India Congress Party, meeting in Bombay, approves Viscount Wavell’s long range plan for independence.
The Soviet periodical Culture and Life announces that part two of Sergey Eisenstein’s film Ivan the Terrible has been banned because it is “contrary to historical truth.”
9 July 1946 Arthur Greiser, former Gauleiter of the Province of Warthegau, is sentenced to death for crimes against Poland.
11 July 1946 A military court in Kielce, Poland sentences nine people to death and three to imprisonment for their parts in the pogrom of 4 July.
12 July 1946 The peace conference of “Big Four” foreign ministers adjourns in Paris.
The National Coal Board (British Coal) is formed to run coal operations in the country when the industry is nationalized on 1 January.
Capriccio for piano by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (28) is performed for the first time, in Horrem, West Germany.
Cantata no.1 for soprano, chorus and orchestra by Anton Webern (†0) to words of Jone, is performed for the first time, in London.
The Rape of Lucretia, an opera by Benjamin Britten (32) to words of Duncan, is performed for the first time, at Glyndebourne.
13 July 1946 Alfred Stieglitz dies in New York at the age of 82.
14 July 1946 The nine people sentenced to death for a pogrom in Kielce, Poland are executed.
The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Dr. Benjamin Spock is published.
15 July 1946 North Borneo becomes a Crown Colony of Great Britain.
Cetnik leader Dragoljub Mihajlovic and 23 others are found guilty of treason by a Belgrade court. Eleven are sentenced to death, the rest are given prison terms of up to 20 years.
The upper house of the Romanian Parliament is abolished.
A five-month investigation by two Canadian Supreme Court justices produces a 700-page report detailing several spy networks operating out of the Soviet embassy in Ottawa.
16 July 1946 A US military court in Dachau sentences 43 Germans to death for the murder of US and Belgian prisoners during the Battle of the Bulge. 22 others receive life imprisonment while seven are sentenced to long prison terms.
The US Army suspends the enlistment of blacks because they make up 20% of the volunteers, but are only allowed to constitute 10% of the army.
17 July 1946 Cetnik leader Dragoljub Mihajlovic and eight others are executed by firing squad in Belgrade.
18 July 1946 The British House of Commons votes bread rationing due to low wheat reserves.
21 July 1946 Nazi leader Arthur Greiser is hanged in Posen (Poznan) in front of 15,000 people.
The Republican Peoples Party wins the great majority of seats in parliamentary elections in Turkey.
22 July 1946 Jewish extremists blow up the headquarters for the British Army in Palestine in the King David Hotel, Jerusalem. 90 people are killed. The Jewish Agency condemns the attack.
A constitution for the World Health Organization (WHO) is signed in New York. It will become effective on 7 April 1948.
At the invitation of Jean Désy, ambassador from Canada to Brazil, Claude Champagne (55) departs Canada for a two-month conducting and lecturing tour of Brazil.
23 July 1946 Officials in Knoxville, Tennessee excise offending scenes from the film Ziegfeld Follies of 1946. The scenes are of Lena Horne.
24 July 1946 Turkey holds an election which, for the first time, includes universal suffrage, secret ballot, and multiple candidates.
Howard Hanson (49) marries Margaret Elizabeth Nelson at her parents’ summer home on Lake Chautauqua near the Chautauqua Institution in New York State.
25 July 1946 The United States detonates an atomic bomb underwater for the first time, off Bikini Atoll.
At the Barrington School for Girls, where he is housed while teaching at Tanglewood, late at night, Bohuslav Martinu (55) accidently falls from a second floor balcony fracturing his skull, crushing his spinal cord and breaking several ribs. He is finally discovered and rushed to Fairview Hospital where he will be in a coma for two days. He will be confined to bed for five weeks and then convalesce in Vermont. Along with being rendered deaf in one ear, he will live with headaches and severe depression for years.
26 July 1946 The First Nationalization Act creates government control over heavy industries in Austria.
27 July 1946 Gertrude Stein dies in Neuilly-sur-Seine at the age of 72.
28 July 1946 In the Trieste railroad station, Virgil Thomson (49) reads in the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune of the death of Gertrude Stein.
29 July 1946 The Indian Moslem League calls for the partition of India into a Hindu state and a Moslem state.
A peace conference of 21 countries opens in the Luxembourg Palace, Paris to craft peace treaties with Germany’s European allies.
1 August 1946 The Salzburg Music Festival opens for the first time since the Anschluss.
Kurt Weill (46) is elected to the Playwrights’ Company.
The United States Congress passes the Fulbright Act. It will eventually provide the basis for the Fulbright Scholarships.
US President Truman signs the McMahon Act creating the Atomic Energy Commission to ensure civilian control over energy.
2 August 1946 Camille Huysmans replaces Achille van Acker as Prime Minister of Belgium.
Arnold Schoenberg (71) suffers a serious heart attack at his home in Los Angeles and is only saved by an injection made directly into his heart.
4 August 1946 A major earthquake hits the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico causing destruction around the Caribbean basin.
5 August 1946 A year-and-a-half of purges of the Bulgarian military begins with the execution of Colonel A. Krustev.
7 August 1946 Mehmet Recep Peker replaces Mehmet Sürkrü Saracoglu as Prime Minister of Turkey.
String Quartet no.1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos (59) is performed in public for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro, 31 years after it was composed.
8 August 1946 The USSR seizes 200 industries in their German occupation zone and will operate them for their own benefit.
9 August 1946 Yugoslav fighters fire on and force down a US transport plane it claims of violating their air space. The plane lands near Ljubljana.
10 August 1946 The Allies approve a temporary constitution for Berlin.
11 August 1946 Henry Cowell’s (49) Festival Overture for two orchestras is performed for the first time, in Interlochen, Michigan.
12 August 1946 Lord Wavell, Viceroy of India, invites the Indian National Congress to form a provisional government.
The British government announces that all Jewish immigration to Palestine, other than that already scheduled, is ended. Any Jews caught attempting to enter Palestine will be sent to detention camps. In Haifa, 500 Jews are put on a ship and sent to Cyprus.
13 August 1946 British authorities implement Operation Igloo to deport recent Jewish immigrants in Palestine to detention camps in Cyprus. 1,300 Jews are put on ships in Haifa and sent to Cyprus. A ship with 600 Jewish immigrants is seized in the port. A crowd of angry Jews try to attack the port area. Three people are killed and seven injured when British troops fire into the crowd. The Secretary-General of the Arab League says that the British policy is “a step on the right road.”
HG Wells dies in London at the age of 79.
14 August 1946 Chiang Kai-shek promises in Shanghai that his one-party rule will give way to democracy and constitutional government “without delay.”
The Central Committee of the CPSU issues a “Resolution on the Journals Star and Leningrad.” They are banned for publishing the works of Anna Akhmatova and Mikhail Zoshchenko. It is the beginning of the postwar assault on the arts and intelligentsia.
15 August 1946 The Raytheon Company demonstrates a new “micro-wave” relay communications system, in Waltham, Massachusetts.
16 August 1946 This is Direct Action Day, designated by Ali Jinnah to prove Moslem power in India. Riots occur in Calcutta in which 3,000 people are killed over the next four days. Mass killings take place in northern and eastern India. The day sets off months of communal fighting in which thousands are killed.
17 August 1946 1,450 Jews resist deportation at the port of Haifa. One person is killed, several injured.
25 members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization are convicted of treason and executed by Bulgarian authorities.
Arthur Honegger’s (54) Symphony no.3 “Symphonie liturgique” is performed for the first time, in the Zürich Tonhalle.
18 August 1946 British troops use tear gas and fire hoses to force over 600 Jewish refugees on to a ship in Haifa for transport to Cyprus. They are successful, but shortly after sailing, two bombs explode in the ship’s hold and it is forced to return to port.
It is reported that captured German records show that Palestinian Arab leader Haj Amin al-Husseini assisted the Nazi leadership for three years against British plans in the Middle East.
Due to some of the worst hyperinflation in recorded history, Hungary replaces its currency. One new Forint is equal to 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengö. Last month’s inflation rate amounted to 207% per day.
19 August 1946 A second US transport plane is shot down over Slovenia. Yugoslavia claims that it repeatedly violated Yugoslav airspace. Five people are killed.
20 August 1946 The Allied Control Commission for Germany dissolves the Wehrmacht.
The United Nations completes its move from Hunter College in the Bronx to a building in Lake Success, Long Island.
21 August 1946 Elegy for string quartet by Elliott Carter (37) is performed for the first time, in Eliot, Maine. See 1 March 1953.
22 August 1946 Yugoslavia frees seven Americans and three Hungarians who were aboard the plane forced down 9 August. A Turkish officer remains in hospital from wounds he sustained during the attack.
23 August 1946 The Prussian province of Hannover is created the Free State of Hannover. Nordrhein-Westfalen is formed by joining Westfalen with Nordrhein. Schleswig-Holstein is separated from Prussia and becomes a state.
Howard Hawks’ film The Big Sleep is premiered in the United States.
24 August 1946 The Japanese Diet approves a new constitution which includes a prohibition against making war.
Evocation for piano by Peter Sculthorpe (17) is performed for the first time, over the local Tasmanian airwaves of the Australian Broadcasting Commission by the composer.
26 August 1946 Thawan Thamrongnawasawat replaces Pridi Banomyong as Prime Minister of Siam.
The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party issues the resolution “On the Repertoire of Dramatic Theatres and Measures for Improving it.” It is an attack on Soviet theatre as part of the ongoing official assault on the arts.
29 August 1946 Chinese Nationalist forces capture Chengteh (Chengde) while Communists take Tatung after a siege of 25 days.
30 August 1946 The Albanian Ministry of the Interior is given the right to regulate the movements of all citizens and foreigners in the country.
1 September 1946 Rioting breaks out in Bombay between Hindus and Moslems over the appointment of a Hindu-dominated Executive Council.
Greek voters approve the return of King Georgios II.
2 September 1946 The first all-Indian executive council takes power in New Delhi. Dominated by Hindus, Jawaharlal Nehru essentially becomes the first Prime Minister of India.
British forces capture a Jewish refugee ship off Tel Aviv and bring it to Haifa. There are 1,200 Jews aboard.
3 September 1946 Symphonic Elegy for string orchestra by Ernst Krenek (46) is performed for the first time, in Saratoga Springs, New York. See 24 March 1965.
4 September 1946 Soviet newspapers and magazines publish a Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, On the film “The Great Life.” The greatest directors and films of Soviet cinema are chastised and some are banned. Singled out is Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible with music by Sergey Prokofiev (55).
Incidental music to Cocteau’s (tr. Duncan) play The Eagle Has Two Heads by Benjamin Britten (32) is performed for the first time, in the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.
5 September 1946 RIAS (Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor) begins broadcasting on AM in Berlin.
Incidental music to Hecht’s Zionist play A Flag is Born by Kurt Weill (46) is performed for the first time, in the Alvin Theatre, New York. Reviews are mixed.
String Quartet no.8 by Heitor Villa-Lobos (59) is performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro.
7 September 1946 Great Britain announces that its 20,000 troops in the Netherlands East Indies will be withdrawn by 30 November.
After a week of communal rioting in Bombay, Calcutta, and other Indian cities, 220 people are dead, 659 injured and 2,000 imprisoned.
8 September 1946 92% of the Bulgarian electorate reject their monarchy. The Council of Regents for Bulgaria’s nine-year-old King Simeon II formally dissolves.
Actions by the Irgun disrupt the Palestine Railway in 50 places. They are protesting the Palestine Conference in London which includes no Jews.
1,500 homeless people seize the Duchess of Bedford House and nine other buildings in London. The government responds by arresting five communist leaders.
A concert takes place in Rio de Janeiro jointly organized by Claude Champagne (55) and Heitor Villa Lobos (59) under the auspices of the Brazilian Minister of Education and the Canadian ambassador to Brazil.
9 September 1946 Nine-year-old King Simeon II of Bulgaria and his family leave their country for exile in Egypt.
10 September 1946 British Prime Minister Clement Atlee opens the Palestine Conference in London. There are 15 representatives from seven Arab states and the Arab League, but no Jews.
The conference at Fontainebleau between French and Indochinese representatives ends without agreement.
11 September 1946 The Satyricon overture by John Ireland (67) is performed for the first time, in Royal Albert Hall, London.
13 September 1946 Lt. General Takashi Sakai, who commanded troops which captured Hong Kong, is executed in Nanking.
Symphony no.1 by Charles Koechlin (78) is performed for the first time, in Brussels 31 years after it was composed.
14 September 1946 Citizens of the Faeroe Islands narrowly vote for independence.
The British government orders gas and electricity cut off in all buildings throughout the country occupied by squatters.
Before leaving the Fontainebleau conference, Ho Chi Minh, representing Vietnam, signs accords in Paris with the French government.
Warble for Lilac-Time for high voice and piano or small orchestra by Elliott Carter (37) to words of Whitman, is performed for the first time, in Saratoga Springs, New York. Also premiered are two works for chamber orchestra by Otto Luening (46): Pilgrim’s Hymn and Prelude.
15 September 1946 The Bulgarian monarchy is abolished and a people’s republic is declared. Vasil Petrov Kolarov becomes acting President and Georgi Dmitrov is named Prime Minister.
Second String Quartet by Charles Ives (71) is performed for the first time, in Saratoga Springs, New York 33 years after it was written. In the same concert, Hymn and Fuguing Tune no.5 arranged for string orchestra by Henry Cowell (49) is performed for the first time. See 14 April 1946.
17 September 1946 Squatters begin to evacuate apartment houses and hotels in London which they have seized, in the face of a court eviction order.
18 September 1946 Archbishop Alois Stepinac of Zagreb is arrested by Yugoslav authorities in his residence.
Pursuant to a referendum of 14 September, the Faeroe Islands declares its independence from Denmark.
19 September 1946 Gross-Hessen is formed by joining Hesse-Darmstadt, Kurhessen, and Nassau.
The Overlanders, a film with music by John Ireland (67), is shown for the first time, in the Odeon Theatre, Leicester Square, London.
20 September 1946 The first Cannes Film Festival opens.
The British government announces a program to house 20,000 homeless people in empty military facilities.
The vote in favor of independence in the Faeroe Islands on 14 September is annulled by Denmark.
Incidental music to Webster’s (adapted by Auden) play The Duchess of Malfi by Benjamin Britten (32) is performed for the first time, in Providence, Rhode Island.
21 September 1946 Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria for organ by Benjamin Britten (32) is performed for the first time, in St. Matthew’s Church, Northampton.
22 September 1946 The Iranian government reports that a rebellion has begun in Fars Province. The rebels demand autonomy similar to that granted to Azerbaijan Province.
Three days of protest against the war in Indonesia begin in Amsterdam.
A ship carrying 600 Jewish refugees is stopped and boarded by British forces off Palestine. One Jew is killed and some are injured. The ship will be taken to Cyprus and the passengers put into internment camps.
23 September 1946 Archbishop Alois Stepinac of Zagreb is indicted in Zagreb for aiding the Ustase and the puppet state of Croatia.
24 September 1946 King Christian X of Denmark dissolves the Assembly of the Faeroe Islands.
25 September 1946 Bushire, Iran falls to rebels in Fars Province.
27 September 1946 King Georgios II returns to Greece.
After he tries to kill Bolivian President Tomás Monje Gutiérrez in La Paz, a mob sets upon Lt. Oblitas Bustamente and kills him. The mob then attacks the jail and lynches former police chiefs Jorge Eguino and José Escobar.
Kammerkonzert for piano, flute, and strings by Hans Werner Henze (20) is performed for the first time, in Darmstadt.
28 September 1946 In national elections in Australia, the Australian Labour Party of Prime Minister Ben Chifley loses seats, but maintains its majorities in both houses.
The four occupying powers create the International Music Library in two rooms of the State Library, Berlin.
29 September 1946 The French Constituent Assembly passes a new constitution for the Fourth Republic.
In the inaugural broadcast of the culturally-oriented BBC Third Programme, Benjamin Britten’s (32) Occasional Overture op.38 is performed for the first time.
30 September 1946 An Arab government for Palestine is set up in Alexandria led by Haj Amin al-Husseini.
1 October 1946 19 of the 22 high Nazi officials accused in the Nuremberg War Crimes trials are found guilty of conspiracy to wage aggressive war, crimes against the peace, crimes violating the laws of war, and crimes against humanity. Sentenced to death are Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring, Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, Gestapo chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the High Command Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel, Minister for occupied territories Alfred Rosenberg, Governor of Poland Hans Frank, Protector for Bohemia and Moravia Wilhelm Frick, anti-Jewish leader Julius Streicher, forced labor chief Fritz Sauckel, head of the General Staff Colonel General Alfred Jodl, Chancellor of Austria Artur Seyss-Inquart, and Martin Bormann (in absentia). Sentenced to life imprisonment are Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, Reichsbank director Walther Funk, and Navy commander Grand Admiral Erich Raeder. In addition, Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach is sentenced to 20 years, Minister of Armaments Albert Speer receives 20 years, former Foreign Minister and Protector for Czechoslovakia Constantin von Neurath receives 15 years and Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz receives ten years. Acquitted are Hjalmar Schacht, former Reichsbank president and Economics Minister, Franz von Papen, ambassador to Turkey, and Hans Fritzsche, propagandist.
5 October 1946 Nuremberg defendants Hjalmar Schacht and Hans Fritzsche are released by US military authorities in Nuremberg. The third acquitted defendant, Franz von Papen remains at his own request.
6 October 1947 Aboriginal Legend for piano by Peter Sculthorpe (18) is performed for the first time, at Melbourne University, by the composer.
A US army bomber arrives in Cairo having flown non-stop from Honolulu over the Polar Regions. This proves that regular polar flights are feasible as long as the craft is properly equipped.
Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson of Sweden suffers a heart attack on a Stockholm street and dies.
7 October 1946 Truce negotiations between Dutch and Indonesian leaders begin in Batavia (Jakarta), chaired by the British.
8 October 1946 Four of those who murdered Jewish children at Bullenhuser Damm, near Neuengamme, the Netherlands in April 1945 are hanged in Hanch Prison.
Two works by Heitor Villa-Lobos (59) are performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro, conducted by the composer: Fantasia for cello and orchestra, and the symphonic poem Madona.
9 October 1946 After considerable bureaucratic wrangling, Richard Strauss (82) and his wife are able to leave Germany for Switzerland.
String Quartet no.2 by Ernest Bloch (66) is performed for the first time, in London.
The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O’Neill is performed for the first time, in New York.
10 October 1946 Moslems in Noakhali, East Bengal rise against Hindus. They begin a terror campaign of deliberate rape and murder which will last about a week.
Appeals for clemency by 16 of the 19 Nazis convicted on 1 October are denied by the Allied Control Council in Berlin. The other three did not appeal.
Tage Fritiof Erlander replaces Per Albin Hansson as Prime Minister of Sweden.
A cavalry regiment revolts in Porto but is easily defeated by Portuguese troops.
11 October 1946 Archbishop Alois Stepinac of Zagreb is sentenced to 16 years in prison for collaborating with the Germans. His property is seized. Ustase Erik Lisak and Pavle Gulin are sentenced to death. Nine priests and one other person are given prison terms. The trial is denounced by the Roman Catholic Church.
Piano Concerto no.1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos (59) is performed for the first time in the Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, along with the premiere of the second suite from his film score Descobrimento do Brasil for orchestra and Mandu çarará, a cantata for children’s voices, chorus, and orchestra, the composer conducting.
12 October 1946 The Iranian government announces that the rebellion in Fars Province is ending.
13 October 1946 The French electorate approves a constitution for the Fourth French Republic. Dahomey, Niger, and Guinea are made overseas territories.
14 October 1946 A preliminary truce is agreed to by Dutch and Indonesian forces in Linggajati.
15 October 1946 The Moslem League joins the interim government of India. Five Moslem members are added to the Executive Committee.
The 21-nation peace conference ends in Paris. Draft treaties with Germany’s European allies are finalized as are reparations. There is no resolution on the Trieste dispute. The Yugoslav delegation boycotts the last session.
Hermann Göring ingests cyanide and dies instantly, hours before he is to be executed. The poison was slipped into his prison cell in Nuremberg by a confederate.
Songs on Two Pages for piano by Bohuslav Martinu (55) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
Benjamin Britten’s (32) Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra op.34 is performed for the first time, in Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.
In Berkeley, California, Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg announces the discovery of Neptunium 237.
16 October 1946 Ten of the leading figures in the Nazi government convicted on 1 October are executed in Nuremberg for crimes against humanity. The eleventh, Hermann Göring, killed himself yesterday.
Granville Bantock dies in London, aged 78 years, two months, and nine days.
17 October 1946 The bodies of those hanged yesterday are transported to Dachau where they are incinerated in the crematoria. Their ashes are dropped in a river near Munich.
Incidental music to Shakespeare’s (tr. Gide) play Hamlet by Arthur Honegger (54) is performed for the first time, in the Théâtre Marigny, Paris.
Quatre cançons en llengua catalana for soprano and orchestra by Joaquín Rodrigo (44) to words of four Catalan poets, is performed for the first time, in Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona. Also premiered is Rodrigo’s Triptic de Mosén Cinto for soprano and orchestra to words of Verdaguer.
18 October 1946 The City of New York formally invites the United Nations to make its permanent home there and turns over their building at Flushing Meadows Park.
Un revenant, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (54), is released in France. It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in September.
Symphony no.3 by Aaron Copland (45) is performed for the first time, in Boston.
19 October 1946 String Quartet no.3 by Michael Tippett (41) is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London.
20 October 1946 In the first Berlin municipal elections since the war, Social Democrats receive almost 50% of the vote. The Soviet-sponsored Socialist Unity Party polls only 19%.
21 October 1946 Jawaharlal Nehru and two of his party are injured when Moslems attack his car near Peshawar.
A Royal Navy vessel intercepts a Jewish refugee ship with 819 aboard and tows it to Haifa. The Jews will be shipped to Cyprus.
President Juan Perón of Argentina outlines his five-year plan for industrialization and development.
The Donkey for voice and piano by Henry Cowell (49) to words of Chesterton is performed for the first time, at Kutztown State Teachers’ College, Pennsylvania.
22 October 1946 Two British destroyers are damaged by mines in the Corfu Channel. After determining Albanian guilt, Great Britain break relations.
Soviet authorities round up 400 German engineers and technicians in Berlin and deport them for service in the USSR.
23 October 1946 The United Nations General Assembly meets in New York for the first time, at Flushing Meadows.
The US government lifts all price controls of food and beverages except rice, sugar, syrups, and molasses.
Violin Sonata no.1 op.80 by Sergey Prokofiev (55) is performed for the first time, at Moscow Conservatory.
24 October 1946 British Lt. Colonel Richard Webb detains reporters when they try to witness a roundup of Jews in Jerusalem. He is quoted as saying the Jews are a “despicable race.”
Acquitted Nuremberg defendant Franz von Papen finally leaves prison.
The New Bodleian Library is opened at Oxford by King George VI.
Ode to Fraternity for chorus and harmonium by Jean Sibelius (80) to words of Sario, is performed for the first time, in Helsinki.
Facsimilie, a ballet by Leonard Bernstein (28) to a scenario by Robbins, is performed for the first time, in the Broadway Theatre, New York conducted by the composer.
25 October 1946 In response to Moslem atrocities in East Bengal, Hindus in Bihar demonstrate and riot. Over the next week, the death toll will be officially 4,580, unofficially 10,000.
Celebration Variations on a Timpani Theme from Howard Hanson’s Third Symphony for orchestra by Roy Harris (48) is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston.
26 October 1946 Continued sectarian violence rages across India. 27 people are killed today in Calcutta. Moslem attacks on Hindus in eastern Bengal cause 250 deaths.
Otto Thierack, Reich Minister of Justice from 1942-1945, hangs himself in Neumünster internment camp.
Witold Lutoslawski (33) marries Maria Danuta (née Dygat) Boguslawska, daughter of an architect.
27 October 1946 The Ubangi-Shari colony, French Equatorial Africa, French Somaliland, Chad, the Comoros, French Settlements in Oceania, Madagascar, French Sudan (Mali), Mauritania, New Caledonia, St. Pierre & Miquelon, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire are made overseas territories of France.
28 October 1946 In the face of conservative government terror tactics, the Greek Communist Party and its allies create the Democratic Army, thus reigniting the Civil War.
28 October 1946 Zoltán Kodály (64) and his wife arrive in New York aboard SS Franconia for an eight city conducting tour of the United States.
29 October 1946 A train carrying Mohandas K. Gandhi is attacked and stoned in Aligarh.
The Vagabonds, a ballet to Mai-Dun and the Concertino pastorale by John Ireland (67), is performed for the first time, in Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London.
30 October 1946 Cello Concerto by Aram Khachaturian (43) is performed for the first time, in Moscow Conservatory Bolshoy Hall. It is generally successful.
31 October 1946 Part of the British embassy in Rome is destroyed by two bombs planted by the Irgun.
1 November 1946 1,279 Jewish refugees are transported from Haifa to Cyprus by the British.
Vocalise op.27 for cello and piano by Vincent Persichetti (31) is performed for the first time, in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
3 November 1946 Betrothal in a Monastery op.86, an opera by Sergey Prokofiev (55) to words of Mira Mendelson (the composer’s mistress) and the composer after Sheridan, is performed for the first time, in the Kirov Theatre, Leningrad.
4 November 1946 The British Parliament hears a report that from July through October, over 5,000 people have been killed and 13,000 injured in communal violence in India.
The constitution for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization comes into effect.
The foreign minister of the “Big Four” meet in a New York hotel to begin writing peace treaties with Germany’s European allies based on the decisions of the Paris conference.
5 November 1946 Thousands of Jews are released from the Latrun detention camp by the British. They were all rounded up this summer as a response to recent violence.
Congressional elections in the United States see large gains for the opposition Republican Party. They gain 13 seats in the Senate and 55 in the House of Representatives, taking control of both houses.
6 November 1946 Mahatma Gandhi arrives in Noakhali on a pilgrimage of peace and views the results of the recent massacres.
The British National Health Act receives royal assent.
The United States breaks relations with Albania.
Deux mélodies for voice and piano by Francis Poulenc (47) to words of Apollinaire are performed for the first time, in Salle Gaveau, Paris, the composer at the keyboard.
8 November 1946 Science magazine announces the synthesis of pure penicillin by a Cornell University team led by Dr. Vincent du Vigneaud.
9 November 1946 Liang Hung-chi (Liang Hongzhi), former President of the puppet Nanking government of China, is executed in Shanghai.
246 people are reported killed at the Hindu fair in Garmukteshwar.
Little Music for string orchestra by Michael Tippett (41) is performed for the first time, in Wigmore Hall, London.
10 November 1946 Hindu-Moslem rioting breaks out again in Bihar. An estimated 20,000 Moslems flee the province.
In the first national election of the Fourth French Republic, Communists make significant gains at the expense of Socialists. They are now the largest party in the National Assembly. The Popular Republican Movement is a close second.
Municipal elections in major Italian cities give victories to Communists and Socialists. Only Palermo is won by rightists.
All wage and price controls in the United States are lifted except for rents, sugar, and rice.
11 November 1946 Five Greek Folk Songs for chorus by Arnold Bax (63) is performed for the first time, in Cowdray Hall, Royal College of Nursing, London.
12 November 1946 The First Suite op.107 from Sergey Prokofiev’s (55) ballet Cinderella is performed for the first time, in Moscow. See 21 November 1945.
Trois chansons de F. Garcia-Lorca for voice and piano by Francis Poulenc (48) is performed for the first time, in Salle Gaveau, Paris, the composer at the keyboard.
The United States Army stages a test between its fastest adding machine and an abacus. The abacus wins four out of five times.
Feldeinsamkeit, a song by Charles Ives (72) to words of Allmers, is performed for the first time, in Royce Hall Auditorium at UCLA.
13 November 1946 Two works for chorus and organ by Arnold Bax (63) are performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC Third Programme: Te Deum and Nunc dimittis.
14 November 1946 Manuel María de los Dolores Clemente Ramón del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús de Falla y Matheu is found dead in his house, “Los Espinillos” in Alta Gracia, Argentina, 640 km northwest of Buenos Aires, the apparent victim of a heart attack. He was aged 69 years, eleven months, and 22 days.
Bohuslav Martinu (55) learns that he has been appointed to the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague. But his doctors forbid any transatlantic journey presently.
Piano Sonata no.4 by Ross Lee Finney (39) is performed for the first time, in Times Recital Hall, New York.
15 November 1946 A constitutional assembly meets in Nanking. It is boycotted by the Communists, Democratic League, and the Social Democratic Party.
Dutch and Indonesian representatives come to agreement at Linggajati. The Netherlands recognizes the authority of the Republic of Indonesia in Java, Sumatra, and Madura. They agree to the goal of a United States of Indonesia under the Dutch crown by 1 January 1949.
Danza for piano by John Alden Carpenter (70) is performed for the first time, in New York.
18 November 1946 A police riot takes place in Tel Aviv. Police attack Jews and fire into houses. 20 Jews are injured.
Three small tone poems, Summer Evening, Winter Night, and Spring Morning by Frederick Delius (†12) are performed for the first time, in Central Hall, Westminster, 56 years after they were composed.
19 November 1946 In Romania, a nationwide general election is held in an atmosphere of intimidation by communists and Soviet troops. Initial results show a defeat of the communists but returns are stopped without explanation.
Results of the municipal election in Livorno show that it will be the first major Italian city to be ruled by communists.
A funeral in memory of Manuel de Falla takes place in the Cathedral of Córdoba, Argentina.
The Kingdom of Afghanistan, the Republic of Iceland, and the Kingdom of Sweden are admitted to the United Nations.
20 November 1946 Dutch forces crush resistance on Bali at Marga.
Thema mit vier Variationen (Die vier Temperamente), a ballet by Paul Hindemith (51), is performed for the first time, in the Central High School of Needle Trades, New York. See 3 September 1940.
Lillian Hellman’s play Another Part of the Forest with incidental music by Marc Blitzstein (41) makes its New York premiere at the Fulton Theatre.
21 November 1946 Georgi Mikhaylov Dimitrov replaces Kimon Georgiev Stoyanov as Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
400,000 US coal miners go on strike.
March Caprice by Frederick Delius (†12) from the Suite de Trois morceaux caracteristiques for orchestra is performed for the first time, in Central Hall, Westminster 56 years after it was composed. Also premiered is Delius’ I-Brasil for voice and orchestra or piano to words of Sharp.
22 November 1946 “Updated” election results in Romania show a 90% vote for communists.
Serenade no.4 op.28 for violin and piano by Vincent Persichetti (31) is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia.
Piano Concerto no.3 by Ernst Krenek (46) is performed for the first time, in Northrup Auditorium, Minneapolis. The conductor, Dmitri Mitropoulos, is also piano soloist.
23 November 1946 Attempting to teach the Vietnamese a lesson, the French subject Hanoi to a day-long bombardment by ships, planes, and artillery. 6,000 civilians are killed.
The cousin of the Palestine Arab High Commission chairman, Fawzi Husseini, is killed in Jerusalem. Police believe he was killed by Arabs for selling land to Jews.
25 November 1946 Spurred on by the conservative victory in mid-term elections three weeks ago, US President Truman creates the President’s Temporary Commission on Employee Loyalty. It is designed to deal with alleged communists in the government.
A US federal judge orders the United Mine Workers to stand trial for contempt of court in the current strike by hundreds of thousands of miners. Six states will declare a state of emergency this week. Many schools are closed.
Xenia Kashevaroff Cage appears in court in Idaho, asking for a divorce from John Cage (34), claiming abandonment. Cage, in New York, has already agreed to the divorce.
26 November 1946 At Haifa, 3,375 Jewish refugees resist transfer to a ship transporting them to detention on Cyprus. One refugee and one British soldier are killed.
Suite for viola and piano by Karel Husa (25) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre opens in New York to mixed reviews.
27 November 1946 The “Big Four” foreign ministers agree to almost all disputed points on the Free Territory of Trieste.
Trio for violin, clarinet, and piano by Ernst Krenek (46) is performed for the first time, in Jeanne d’Arc Auditorium, College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, Minnesota.
28 November 1946 The National Assembly of France meets for the first time under the constitution of the Fourth Republic. President Georges Bidault and the cabinet resign their posts.
Cello Concerto no.2 by Darius Milhaud (54) is performed for the first time, in New York.
29 November 1946 The last British troops leave Indonesia. Java and Sumatra are handed over to Dutch control.
The film Instruments of the Orchestra with music by Benjamin Britten (33) is shown for the first time, in the Empire Theatre, London.
Barcarolle for woodwinds by Virgil Thomson (50) is performed for the first time, in Syria Mosque, Pittsburgh, under the direction of the composer. See 12 March 1946.
Bells for orchestra by William Grant Still (51) is performed for the first time, in Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis.
30 November 1946 A British military court in Rome sentences two German commanders, Colonel General Eberhard von Mackensen and Lt. General Kurt Maelzer, to death for the murder of 335 Italian civilians in the Ardeatine Caves in 1944.
Sonata for violin and harpsichord op.257 by Darius Milhaud (54) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
1 December 1946 The state of Rheinland-Pfalz is created by joining Rheinland-Hessen-Naussau with Pfalz.
Miguel Alemán Váldez replaces Miguel Avila Camacho as President of Mexico.
The first version of the Symphony no.3 by Anton Bruckner (†50) is performed for the first time, in Dresden, 73 years after it was composed.
2 December 1946 The State of Südbaden is renamed Baden.
3 December 1946 The leadership of the United Mine Workers is found guilty of civil and criminal contempt by a US federal judge in the current strike.
6 December 1946 A conference on India held in London collapses when Moslem League leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah refuses to participate in the Indian Constituent Assembly.
The Yugoslav National Assembly votes to nationalize 42 industries.
7 December 1946 The 17-day strike by 400,000 US coal miners ends.
Truth Shall Deliver for male chorus by William Schuman (36) to words of Chaucer (adapted by Farquhar), is performed for the first time, in Bronxville, New York. Composed for the Yale Glee Club, this work was actually performed on a “trial” basis at the Princeton and Harvard Football concerts on 15 and 22 November.
9 December 1946 Niedersachsen is formed by the joining of Brunswick, Oldenburg, and Hannover.
209 delegates open a Constituent Assembly for India in New Delhi. 73 Moslem League delegates boycott.
10 December 1946 Iranian government troops invade Azerbaijan Province.
11 December 1946 Leader of the autonomous Azerbaijan Province, Jaafar Pishevari, orders his troops to surrender to Iranian government forces. He departs Tabriz for the Soviet Union.
The United Nations General Assembly votes to create the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). John D. Rockefeller, Jr. offers to buy land on the East River in Manhattan for $8,500,000 and donate it to the UN for a permanent headquarters.
The Trust Territory of Tanganyika is created by the United Nations and entrusted to Great Britain.
The Williams Storage cathode-ray tube is patented. It will be used in the first stored-program computer, the Manchester University Mark I.
12 December 1946 A report from Dresden in the Soviet occupation zone says that police now forbid the use of “ja wohl” as sounding “too Nazi.” Only “Ja” will be allowed.
The Hollow Men op.25 for trumpet and strings by Vincent Persichetti (31) is performed for the first time, in Germantown, Pennsylvania.
13 December 1946 The trust territories of British Cameroons and French Cameroun are created by the United Nations. A trust territory in Ruanda-Urundi is granted to Belgium. The French Togo Associated Territory and British Togoland are created as trust territories.
Tabriz is taken by Iranian government troops.
Three symphonic poems by Charles Koechlin (79) are performed for the first time, in Brussels: La méditation de Purun Bhagat op.159, La loi de la jungle op.175, and Les bandar-log op.176.
14 December 1946 The General Assembly of the United Nations votes to accept the offer by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. of 11 December.
15 December 1946 The United Nations creates the International Refugee Organization (replaced in 1951 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
16 December 1946 String Quartet no.3 by Dmitri Shostakovich (40) is performed for the first time, in Moscow Conservatory Malyi Hall.
Socialist Léon André Blum replaces Georges Bidault as Prime Minister of France.
The Kingdom of Siam is admitted to the United Nations.
Street Scene, a broadway opera by Kurt Weill (46) to words of Rice and Hughes, is performed for the first time, in the Shubert Theatre, Philadelphia. It will run for three disastrous weeks to nearly empty houses. See 9 January 1947.
17 December 1946 Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler is cleared by a denazification court in Berlin. Three Jewish musicians testified that he risked his life to save them.
18 December 1946 Canções de cordialidade by Heitor Villa-Lobos (59) to words of Bandeira is performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro, in settings for solo voice and piano, and solo voice and orchestra.
19 December 1946 Having learned the lesson of 23 November 1946, that the only survival of their country will be armed resistance, the Viet Minh destroy the central power station in Hanoi and assault French positions in Hanoi and throughout north and central Vietnam.
Rencesvals for voice and piano by Luigi Dallapiccola (42) to words from Le chanson de Roland is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Belgian Radio originating in Brussels. The musicians are Pierre Bernac and Francis Poulenc (47).
Tre ricercare for piano and orchestra by Norman Dello Joio (33) is performed for the first time, in New York the composer at the keyboard.
Incidental music to Shaw’s play Androcles and the Lion by Marc Blitzstein (41) is performed for the first time, in the International Theatre at Columbus Circle, New York.
20 December 1946 Martial law is declared by the French administration in Hanoi.
The British government offers Burma the same independence terms as those given to India.
Symphony no.2 by Darius Milhaud (54) is performed for the first time, in Boston, the composer conducting.
21 December 1946 An earthquake in southern Japan kills over 1,000 and leaves 100,000 homeless.
22 December 1946 The mortal remains of Manuel de Falla (†0) are placed aboard ship in Argentina to be returned to Spain.
The last of the 35,000 German soldiers interned in Canada leave for Germany.
23 December 1946 French authorities extend martial law throughout northern Indochina.
24 December 1946 The upper house of the newly elected French National Assembly convenes in the Luxembourg Palace, thus formally inaugurating the Fourth Republic.
Greek Communist leader Markos Vaphiadis declares a revolutionary government. It is not recognized by anyone.
25 December 1946 The National Assembly of China passes a new constitution which is to take effect exactly one year from today. Communists call it “illegal.”
Emir Mohammed Zeinati is murdered in Haifa for selling land to Jews.
26 December 1946 Beggar’s Holiday, a musical play with music by Duke Ellington (47) to words of LaTouche after Gay, is performed for the first time, in the Broadway Theatre, New York.
30 December 1946 Poema de Itabira for voice and orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (59) to words of Drumond de Andrade, is performed for the first time, in Rio de Janeiro, conducted by the composer.
©2004-2012 Paul Scharfenberger
20 August 2012
Last Updated (Monday, 20 August 2012 14:47)