1947
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1 January 1947 The United States and Great Britain unite their German occupation zones to form BIZONIA.
The British coal industry is nationalized.
The National Bank of Romania is nationalized.
Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura begins its operations in Mexico under Director-General Carlos Chávez (47).
3 January 1947 The Irish government announces that bread and flour will be rationed.
The Eightieth Congress of the United States convenes in Washington. The opposition Republican Party holds majorities in both houses for the first time since 1930.
4 January 1947 France creates the Territory of Haute-Volta (Burkina Faso).
The Austrian government orders all heavy industry to cease operation for two weeks to conserve coal.
The first issue of Der Spiegel appears.
5 January 1947 Haganah radio condemns all acts of terrorism in Palestine.
An dem Baum Daphne for chorus by Richard Strauss (82) to words of Gregor, is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
7 January 1947 Indonesian troops withdraw from Palembang after a Dutch ultimatum.
Transportation workers go on strike in London.
8 January 1947 The British steel industry closes down due to a shortage of coal.
British troops complete the evacuation of Alexandria, Egypt.
9 January 1947 Almost two months after his death in Argentina, the earthly remains of Manuel de Falla are interred in the crypt of the Cathedral of Cádiz amidst a large funeral attended by ministers of state and Spain’s musical elite. Pope Pius XII calls Falla a “favorite son of the Church” and allows the burial in the cathedral.
Street Scene, a broadway opera by Kurt Weill (46) to words of Rice and Hughes, opens in New York. To the astonishment of the producers, the work is a popular and critical success. See 16 December 1946.
Symphony no.2 by Roger Sessions (50) is performed for the first time, in San Francisco.
10 January 1947 Finian’s Rainbow by Lane, Harburg, and Saidy opens in the 46th Street Theatre, New York.
11 January 1947 Minna Lederman, editor of Modern Music, announces that the periodical is ceasing publication.
12 January 1947 A Stern Group member drives a truck filled with explosives into the central police station compound in Haifa and detonates it. Five people are killed, 140 injured.
The Rope for solo dancer and piano by Ulysses Kay (30) is performed for the first time, at the 92nd Street Y, New York.
14 January 1947 Representatives of the “Big Four” meet in Lancaster House, London to begin drafting peace treaties with Germany and Austria.
Dr. Hilde Weroicke and nurse Helene Wieczorek, convicted of killing hundreds of the insane, are put to death by guillotine in Berlin.
15 January 1947 Several thousand starving Vietnamese trapped by fighting in Hanoi are allowed to pass through street barricades to safety.
The British government approves the Palestine Arab delegation to the upcoming London conference. It consists entirely of followers of Haj Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.
The Constitutional Commission in Italy votes to make divorce illegal.
16 January 1947 General Helmuth von Pannwitz is hanged in Moscow for the mass murder of tens of thousands of Soviet civilians.
Soviet troops invade and search SPD headquarters in the US zone of Berlin.
Socialist Jules Vincent Auriol replaces Acting President Félix Gouin as President of France.
Iannis Xenakis (24) defends his thesis at the Polytechnic School in Athens. The subject is reinforced concrete.
The Loves of Joanna Godden, a film with music by Ralph Vaughan Williams (74), is shown for the first time, in London.
18 January 1947 Polish Vice-Premier Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, leader of the opposition Peasants Party, charges that 80,000-100,000 of his supporters have been questioned or arrested, and that 131 of his candidates for the upcoming elections are in jail.
19 January 1947 The first general election in Poland since 1935 ends after three days of voting punctuated by police intimidation of non-communist opponents of the government. Communists win 382 of 444 seats.
21 January 1947 Lippe-Detmold becomes part of Nordrhein-Westfalen.
The South African government of Jan Christiaan Smuts refuses to place South West Africa under United Nations trusteeship.
Two works commissioned to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra are performed for the first time, in Basel: Symphony no.4 by Arthur Honegger (54) and Toccata e due Canzoni by Bohuslav Martinu (56).
Concerto for two pianos and orchestra by Roy Harris (48) is performed for the first time, in Denver.
22 January 1947 Paul Ramadier replaces Léon André Blum as Prime Minister of France.
Four fascists go on trial in Rome of the 1924 murder of Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti.
23 January 1947 Concerto for cello and orchestra by Alyeksandr Vasilyevich Mosolov (46) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.
24 January 1947 The prosecution rests in the Tokyo war crimes trial of Hideki Tojo and 24 other wartime Japanese leaders.
Hebrew Melodies for cello by George Perle (31) is performed for the first time, in New York.
25 January 1947 Demetrios Epaminondou Maximos replaces Konstantinos Stavrou Tsaldaris as Prime Minister of Greece.
The Samoan Islands become a United Nations trust territory administered by New Zealand.
26 January 1947 Trio for violin, viola, and cello by Lou Harrison (29) is performed for the first time, at the New School for Social Research, New York.
27 January 1947 Prime Minister Clement Attlee announces that British troops will be withdrawn from Egypt.
British Prime Minister Clement Atlee signs an agreement in London with Aung San to grant independence to Burma within one year.
Palestinian leader Jamal al-Husseini declares in London that Arabs are unalterably opposed to the partition of Palestine.
Concerto in D for string orchestra by Igor Stravinsky (64) is performed for the first time, in Basel.
28 January 1947 British Prime Minister Attlee presents a plan for the independence of Burma to the Parliament.
29 January 1947 All My Sons by Arthur Miller opens in New York.
30 January 1947 A contre-voix op.104, six choruses by Florent Schmitt (76), is performed for the first time, in Paris.
31 January 1947 Lt. General Alan Cunningham, British High Commissioner for Palestine, orders all British civilians to evacuate the province.
1 February 1947 Dmitri Shostakovich (40) begins teaching at the Leningrad Conservatory, commuting one day a week from Moscow.
21 guards at the Struthof-Katzweiler concentration camp are sentenced to death in Rastatt. 20 others receive prison terms.
Paul Hindemith’s (51) orchestral work Symphonia serena is performed for the first time, in Dallas.
2 February 1947 Amidst widespread voting irregularities, Leonardo Arguello, the hand-picked successor of the US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza, is “elected” President of Nicaragua.
3 February 1947 Eleven members of the staff of Ravensbrück concentration camp are sentenced to death in Hamburg.
4 February 1947 Stefan Stefansson replaces Olafur Thors as Prime Minister of Iceland.
Gerhard Eisler, a German communist, is arrested in New York and detained as an “enemy alien.”
Artur Rodzinski resigns as conductor and music director of the New York Philharmonic charging management interference. He will sign with the Chicago Symphony.
5 February 1947 French troops reach Hue and relieve the garrison there which has been under siege by the Vietnamese.
Max Knipping, head of the Vichy militia, is sentenced to death in Paris.
6 February 1947 Tani Hisao, who commanded many of the Japanese troops involved in the Rape of Nanking in 1937, is found guilty in Naking of hundreds of deaths and rapes done by soldiers under his command.
Luigi Russolo dies in Cerro di Laveno, Varese, aged 61 years, nine months, and seven days.
Gerhard Eisler, arrested two days ago in New York, is brought before the House Un-american Activities Committee in Washington and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States, income tax evasion, passport falsification, perjury, and contempt of Congress. He refuses to testify.
Sonata for violin and piano by Irving Fine (32) is performed for the first time, at Harvard University. See 9 February 1947.
7 February 1947 Socialist Józef Cyrankiewicz replaces Edward Osóbka-Morawski as Prime Minister of Poland.
Morning Song for piano and orchestra by Arnold Bax (63) is performed for the first time, in a recording session in the Abbey Road Studios, London. See 13 August 1947.
9 February 1947 At Haifa, British troops take 650 Jews off of a refugee ship and put them on a ship for detention camps in Cyprus. The Jews resist but are subdued.
Dmitri Shostakovich (40) is appointed a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR.
Six sonnets composés au secret op.266 for mixed voices by Darius Milhaud (54) to words of Cassou is performed for the first time, in Basel. Also premiered are the Due Studi for violin and piano by Luigi Dallapiccola (43), the composer at the keyboard.
Sonata for violin and piano by Irving Fine (32) is given its official premiere in Times Hall, New York. See 6 February 1947.
Seven Piano Pieces by Ernst Krenek (46) are performed for the first time, in Bridgman Hall, Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota.
10 February 1947 In Paris, war ends between the Allies and Germany’s European allies. Italy signs a peace treaty with 20 nations; Romania signs a peace treaty with eleven nations; Bulgaria signs a peace treaty with twelve nations; Hungary signs a peace treaty with twelve nations; Finland signs a peace treaty with ten nations. Italy loses its Adriatic islands and part of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia, the Dodecanese Islands to Greece and some frontier territory to France. Saseno Island is returned by Italy to Albania. It also renounces its former North African colonies, pays reparations and limits its armed forces to 300,000. Trieste is established as a free territory. Romania loses Bessarabia and North Bukovina to the USSR but gains Transylvania from Hungary. Hungary is reduced to its 1938 borders. Finland loses Petsamo, its Arctic Ocean outlet, to the USSR. Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, and Yugoslavia announce that they will seek revisions to the treaty. In Italy, ten minutes of silence are observed in mourning over the treaty. Mobs in Rome attack American interests and the Yugoslav embassy. Brig. Robin De Winten, a British commander in Pola, is shot to death by an Italian woman distraught over the terms of the treaty.
In response to the coal shortages, all industries in the center and northwest of England and Wales not considered essential are closed. Electricity to private customers is cut during parts of the day. Power cuts are made in other areas of the country.
12 February 1947 Great Britain recognizes the communist government of Bulgaria.
Power restrictions instituted on 10 February are extended throughout the United Kingdom.
13 February 1947 Prime Minister Attlee estimates that 25% of British industrial workers are out of work due to the coal shortage.
On the 134th try, Imperial Oil strikes a gusher outside Edmonton, beginning Canada’s oil boom.
The National Institute of Arts and Letters awards its gold medal to John Alden Carpenter (70) in New York.
15 February 1947 Chinese Nationalist forces take Lini (Linyi), a communist headquarters in Shantung (Shandong) Province.
John Coolidge Adams is born in Worcester, Massachusetts, the only child of Carl John Vincent Adams and Elinore Mary Coolidge. Both are semi-professional jazz musicians.
16 February 1947 President Chiang Kai-shek of China institutes several measures to resurrect his country’s economy. The currency is devalued by about four times, strikes and lockouts are not allowed, and he describes a plan to get the government out of industry. He outlaws any private transactions in gold or foreign currency.
Piano Sonata by Elliott Carter (38) is performed for the first time, in a broadcast over the airwaves of radio station WNYC from the Frick Art Museum, New York. See 5 March 1947.
17 February 1947 The United States begins regular radio broadcasts into the USSR.
British troops take 790 Jewish refugees captured yesterday and put them on ships at Haifa to be taken to Cyprus.
18 February 1947 British Foreign Minister Bevin announces to the House of Commons, “We have...reached the conclusion that the only course now open to us is to submit the (Palestine) problem to the judgment of the United Nations”
The Telephone, or L’amour a trois, an opera buffa by Gian-Carlo Menotti (35) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in the Heckscher Theatre, New York.
19 February 1947 Bachianas Brasileiras no.3 for piano and orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (59) is performed for the first time, in New York, conducted by the composer.
After years of correspondence and championing of his work, Lou Harrison (29) meets Charles Ives (72) for the first time, in Danbury, Connecticut. Ives asks Harrison to edit his complete works.
20 February 1947 British Prime Minister Clement Attlee announces the decision of his government to hand over power to one or more independent Indian governments by June 1948. This action is taken because no agreement has been reached between Hindus and Moslems on what independence should look like. Viscount Mountbatten, a cousin of King George VI, is appointed Viceroy to oversee the end of British rule.
The President’s Temporary Commission on Employee Loyalty recommends to US President Truman that government act with a program to deal with disloyal federal employees. Unfortunately they can not “state with any degree of certainty how far reaching that threat is.”
City officials in Boston tell Eugene O’Neill that certain changes must be made to The Iceman Cometh before it can play there. The playwright refuses.
21 February 1947 Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas, Viscount Mountbatten of Burma replaces Sir Archibald Percival Wavell, Viscount Wavell as Viceroy of India.
Edwin Land demonstrates his Polaroid camera before an optical society meeting in New York.
Slugging a Vampire, a song by Charles Ives (72) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in Times Hall, New York.
23 February 1947 Chinese Communist forces complete a major breakthrough in Shantung (Shandong) Province and threaten Tsinan (Jinan).
Two chamber works by Alberto Ginastera (30) are performed for the first time, in New York: Dúo for flute and oboe op.13 by and Pampeana no.1 op.16 for violin and piano.
24 February 1947 Acquitted on 1 October, Franz von Papen is convicted by a Denazification court in Nuremberg. He is sentenced to eight years in a labor camp.
25 February 1947 Béla Kovács, Secretary of the Hungarian ruling Smallholders Party, is arrested by Soviet authorities on charges of spying.
British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin blames US President Truman for ruining Palestine negotiations last October when he called for 100,000 Jews to be allowed into the mandate. He says that Truman was motivated by domestic political concerns during the US elections.
Prussia is dissolved by the Allied Control Commission.
The French National Assembly votes to continue the cabinet’s wartime powers for another year. They were set to expire on 1 March.
26 February 1947 Divertimento for piano left hand and orchestra by Bohuslav Martinu (56) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
US President Truman issues a statement calling Ernest Bevin’s accusations of yesterday “most unfortunate and misleading.” He says that his call was only an iteration of a widely known policy held by the US government since 1945.
Irving Fine (32) conducts the first performance of the Kyrie and Gloria from Igor Stravinsky’s (64) Mass for chorus and double wind quintet. The instrumental parts are played on two pianos. Also premiered is Tell This Blood for chorus by Lukas Foss (24). See 27 October 1948.
27 February 1947 Sikh leader Tara Singh announces that civil war in India is inevitable because Moslems can not be trusted.
Paul Hindemith’s (51) Piano Concerto is performed for the first time, in Cleveland.
The Cave of the Heart, a revised version of Samuel Barber’s (36) ballet Medea to a scenario by Graham, is performed for the first time, in New York. See 10 May 1946.
Symphony no.3 by Peter Mennin (23) is performed for the first time, in New York.
28 February 1947 The Chinese government orders that Communist missions in Nanking, Chungking (Chongqing) and Shanghai be closed by 5 March. That is when the US guarantee of their safety runs out.
When British troops attempt to board the Jewish refugee ship Haim Arlosoroff off Haifa they are thrown overboard by the passengers and the ship run aground by its captain. The Jews are eventually subdued and transferred to ships bound for Cyprus and internment.
The British government announces that the economic crisis is easing due to increased coal reserves and warmer weather. Industries are reopening across the country.
Errand Into the Maze, a modern dance by Gian Carlo Menotti (35) to a choreography by Martha Graham, is performed for the first time, in the Ziegfeld Theatre, New York.
1 March 1947 The International Monetary Fund begins operations.
Prime Minister Sung Tzu-wen (Song Ziwen) of China resigns under charges of misconduct and failure of his economic policies. His brother-in-law, President Chiang Kai-shek, names himself to replace Sung temporarily. Meanwhile, Communist forces drive to within 20 km of Changchun.
Jews stage 16 attacks on British installations in Palestine. 22 people are killed, 27 injured.
Kurt Weill’s (46) most beloved relative, his brother Hans, dies of a blood clot at the age of 48. The loss precipitates a nervous breakdown by the composer.
Jews carry out a series of attacks on British targets in Palestine. 20 people are killed.
2 March 1947 The British High Commissioner for Palestine declares martial law in Jewish districts throughout the mandate, including the entire city of Tel Aviv. Jews are immediately deprived of civil rights.
3 March 1947 The Irgun declares “open warfare” and throws five hand grenades into a British military office in Haifa.
Ludwig Fischer, the one-time governor of Warsaw, and two of his aides are sentenced to death in a Warsaw court for their parts in the deaths of 1,000,000 Jews, including the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
4 March 1947 571 leftists are arrested by the Greek government and are immediately deported to the islands.
5 March 1947 Alfredo Casella dies in Rome, aged 63 years, seven months, and eight days.
Piano Sonata by Elliott Carter (38) is performed live for the first time, in New York Times Hall, New York. See 16 February 1947.
Facsimilie, a choreographic essay based on the ballet of the same name by Leonard Bernstein (28), is performed for the first time, in Poughkeepsie, New York, the composer conducting. See 18 April 1944.
6 March 1947 The British government in Palestine announces that after five days of martial law, 25 “known terrorists” have been captured.
The House of Commons approves the British government’s plan for the independence of India. Opposition leader Winston Churchill ridicules the bill, calling it “Operation Scuttle.”
7 March 1947 Troops and police manage to quell three days of violence in the Punjab as Moslems battle Hindus and Sikhs. 192 people were killed.
Song of Songs for soprano and orchestra by Lukas Foss (24) to words from the Bible is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston.
8 March 1947 Irgunists attack British military installations in Tel Aviv, Sarona, and Jaffa. The British detain a refugee ship in Haifa.
9 March 1947 A barber from Manila tries to kill Philippine President Manuel Roxas with a hand grenade. He fails, but does kill one bystander.
In Haifa, 550 Jewish refugees are transferred to a ship bound for internment camps in Cyprus.
Images du Canada français for chorus and orchestra by Claude Champagne (55) is performed for the first time, in Montreal.
10 March 1947 Lt. General Tani Hisao is sentenced to death in Nanking for his part in the “Rape of Nanking” in 1937.
Foreign Ministers of the Allied nations meet for the fifth time, in Moscow to decide on terms for treaties with Germany and Austria.
12 March 1947 A Jewish refugee ship runs the British blockade and beaches north of Gaza. Most of the 800 passengers are caught by British authorities.
In a speech to a joint session of Congress, US President Truman announces the “Truman Doctrine”, committing the United States to support anti-communist forces around the world. He asks for $400,000,000.
Works for chorus by Ernst Krenek (46) are performed for the first time, at Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota: the motet Aegrotavit Ezechias and excerpts from Santa Fe Timetable, to words taken from the timetable of the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe Railroad. See 20 February 1961.
13 March 1947 Brigadoon opens in New York.
14 March 1947 The United States and the Philippines sign a treaty in Manila which guarantees US military bases in the islands for 99 years.
Habeyssée for violin and orchestra by Florent Schmitt (76) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Pastorela for violin and piano by William Grant Still (51) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
16 March 1947 Voyage for voice and piano by Elliott Carter (38) to words of Crane, is performed for the first time, in the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Also premiered is String Quartet no.3 by David Diamond (31). See 8 August 1974.
18 March 1947 Willem Pijper dies in Leidschendam, the Netherlands of cancer, aged 52 years, six months, and ten days.
19 March 1947 Chinese nationalist troops capture Yennan (Yan’an), seat of the Communist government.
Paul Henri Spaak replaces Camille Huysmans as Prime Minister of Belgium.
20 March 1947 As part of a bloody, general attack on anyone with left-wing views, a member of the central committee of the Greek Communist Party is murdered in Thessaloniki. Within a week, armed conservative gangs will roam the leftist districts of the city machine-gunning residents. No one will ever be punished.
Two Acappella Choruses op.111 by Arthur Farwell (74) are performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
21 March 1947 SS General Jurgen Stroop and twelve others are sentenced to death by a US court in Dachau for murdering prisoners of war. In Hamburg, SS leader Joseph Klinger is sentenced to death for murdering death camp inmates. 15 others are executed by a French firing squad in Baden-Baden for death camp crimes.
22 March 1947 Viscount Mountbatten arrives in New Delhi to become the last British viceroy of India.
US President Truman signs Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to swear allegiance to the United States. It also requires loyalty checks on federal employees and potential employees. No employee of the executive branch may belong to, aid or sympathize with any totalitarian ideology which advocates the overthrow of the US constitution.
24 March 1947 Viscount Mountbatten takes the oath as Viceroy of India. Breaking with tradition, he gives an inaugural address, asking all Indians for goodwill and understanding.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. officially turns over land along the East River in New York to the United Nations. The organization’s headquarters will be built on the site.
25 March 1947 After four months of delay, the government of the Netherlands ratifies the Linggajati agreement of last 15 November.
26 March 1947 The Constituent Assembly in Rome approves a provision to make the Roman Catholic Church an established religion supported by taxes.
Canada ends the rationing of meat.
Khamma, a ballet by Claude Debussy (†29) to a scenario by Courtney and Allan, is staged for the first time, at the Opéra-Comique, Paris 35 years after it was composed. See 15 November 1924.
The Minotaur, a ballet by Elliott Carter (38) to a scenario by George Ballanchine, is performed for the first time, in the Central High School of Needle Trades, New York.
28 March 1947 A French court sentences Admiral Jean de Laborde to death. He scuttled the French fleet at Toulon in 1942.
29 March 1947 An arrangement for string orchestra of the Fugue and Romance from Hugo Weisgall’s ballet One Thing is Certain is performed for the first time, in Prague. See 25 February 1939.
30 March 1947 A concerted, country-wide popular uprising against French colonial rule in Madagascar begins. It will eventually be crushed.
Concertino for piano and orchestra by Bohuslav Martinu (56) is performed for the first time, in Bratislava.
31 March 1947 A curfew is imposed in Bombay after two days of rioting take 47 lives.
British forces are withdrawn from all of Egypt except the Suez Canal area.
In a ceremony on Rhodes, Great Britain returns the Dodecanese Islands to Greece.
Jewish terrorists blow up Shell-Mex oil tanks in Haifa, starting a fire which involves a good part of the waterfront. About $1,000,000 in damage is caused.
The law mandating the Selective Service System (conscription) in the United States expires.
A Short Overture for orchestra by Ulysses Kay (30) is performed for the first time, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Leonard Bernstein (28) conducting.
1 April 1947 King Georgios II of Greece dies of a heart attack in Athens. He is succeeded his brother Pavlos.
2 April 1947 A British military court on Singapore convicts seven Japanese for their parts in the deaths of 5,300 Chinese on the island in 1942. Two are sentenced to death. The other five receive life in prison.
The Supreme National Tribunal in Poland sentences Rudolf Höss, commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp, to death.
The British government refers the Palestine question to the United Nations.
The United Nations appoints the United States as trustee of the northern Pacific Islands formerly held by Japan.
3 April 1947 Rights to the music of Giacomo Puccini (†22), seized during the war, are sold to Milton L. Shubert of New York by the US government. Attorney-General Tom Clark says that the music is protected from “despoilment.” Puccini’s heirs are trying to prevent Shubert from making a broadway musical out of them.
Introduzione e Passacaglia “Lauda Sion Salvatorem” for orchestra by Bruno Maderna (26) is performed for the first time, in Florence.
4 April 1947 Three Italian fascists are convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in 1924. Other defendants are acquitted.
6 April 1947 Herbert Backe, Nazi Minister of Food and Agriculture, hangs himself in his Nuremberg cell.
King Christian X of Denmark suffers a heart attack.
350,000 employees of American Telephone and Telegraph go on a nationwide strike for higher wages. Two-thirds of the strikers are women.
Wilhelm Furtwängler conducts in Rome, his first appearance since being cleared by a denazification court.
The first Antoinette Perry awards are given in New York. Kurt Weill (47) receives a special award for his contributions to theatre.
7 April 1947 Rudolf Höss is hanged at the camp he commanded, Auschwitz.
340,000 telephone workers go on strike in the United States.
Crown Prince Frederik becomes regent for his father, King Christian X of Denmark, two days after the king suffered a heart attack.
9 April 1947 Leonard Bernstein (28), his father and sister set sail from New York for Cherbourg. He has been engaged to conduct several concerts in Europe and Palestine.
10 April 1947 Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, the first black player in Major League Baseball.
11 April 1947 The Santa Fe Timetable for chorus by Ernst Krenek (46) is performed completely for the first time, at the University of Chicago on a program with the premiere of Krenek’s Viola Sonata.
12 April 1947 16 Belgians found guilty of torturing other Belgians at Breendonk Camp near Antwerp are executed. Because of the nature of their crimes, they are shot in the back.
13 April 1947 The first known performance of Veni sancte spiritus for male chorus by Leos Janácek (†18) takes place over the airwaves of Czechoslovak Radio Brno, about 44 years after it was composed.
14 April 1947 British troops seize a Jewish refugee ship and its 2,700 passengers off Tel Aviv after a brief gun battle. Two Jews are killed, 14 injured.
15 April 1947 Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play in a Major League Baseball game when he plays first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn.
16 April 1947 British authorities secretly execute four Irgunists in Acre (Akko) Prison.
Three Hungarians are sentenced to death, and ten others to prison, accused of trying to overthrow the government and restore Admiral Horthy to power.
A French freighter explodes in the harbor of Texas City, Texas igniting docks and oil storage tanks. All but three of the crew are killed. About 3,500 people will be killed or injured in the explosion and fire over the next three days. Most of the city is destroyed. A seismograph in Denver registers the blast.
17 April 1947 A mob demanding bread and jobs before the Parliament building in Rome, set upon and beat Foreign Minister Count Carlo Sforza when he appears by chance. Sforza is not seriously injured.
18 April 1947 Msgr Jozef Tizo, president of the “independent” state of Slovakia during the war, is hanged for treason in Prague.
The Trial of Lucullus, an opera by Roger Sessions (50) to words of Brecht, is performed for the first time, at the University of California, Berkeley the composer conducting.
19 April 1947 Paul Hindemith (51) and his wife arrive in Genoa, their first return to Europe since 1940.
20 April 1947 King Christian X of Denmark dies in Copenhagen, succeeded by his son, Frederik IX.
Étude pour Espace for chorus, two pianos and percussion by Edgard Varèse (63) is performed for the first time, at the New School for Social Research, New York, directed by the composer. This is the only fragment of the large projected work Espace to reach a concert hall. Also premiered is Organum for orchestra by Carl Ruggles (71), in a reduction for two pianos made by the composer. See 24 November 1948.
21 April 1947 Two Irgunists kill themselves in their Jerusalem cell, hours before their scheduled execution, by blowing themselves up with explosives smuggled to them in hollowed oranges.
Two former prime ministers of Czechoslovakia, Rudolf Beran and Jan Syrovy, receive sentences of 20 years imprisonment for treason and collaboration.
22 April 1947 A train carrying British troops from Cairo is attacked near Rehovoth. Eight people are killed, 39 injured.
String Quartet no.13 by Darius Milhaud (54) is performed for the first time, in the Library of Congress, Washington.
23 April 1947 Fantasie für Orchester op.56 by Hans Pfitzner (77) is performed for the first time, in Nuremberg.
24 April 1947 The “Big Four” foreign ministers adjourn their conference in Moscow, to be renewed later in the year. They are working on peace treaties with Germany and Austria.
Six former members of the Gestapo are hanged in Prague for their part in the Lidice massacre.
Willa Cather dies in New York at the age of 73.
25 April 1947 Elections to the Japanese House of Representatives give the Socialist Party the most seats but a government is formed by a coalition of the Liberal and Democratic Parties.
Stern Gang members drive a truck full of explosives into a police compound in Sarona and set it off. Five British policemen are killed.
Sinfonietta for orchestra by Karel Husa (25) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
Songs on Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins for voice and piano by Ernst Krenek (46) is performed for the first time, in Waco Hall, Baylor University, Waco, Texas.
The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, a film with music by Darius Milhaud (54), is released in the United States.
26 April 1947 Tani Hisao, who commanded many of the Japanese troops who committed hundreds of thousands of killings and rapes in Nanking in 1937, is marched through the streets of the city. Thousands of survivors of the horrors line the streets. South of the city he is executed by firing squad.
27 April 1947 Leonard Bernstein (28) gives the first of nine concerts with the Palestine Symphony Orchestra.
A tour d’Anches op.97 for piano, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon by Florent Schmitt (76) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
28 April 1947 The first five-year plan for Yugoslavia goes into effect.
The General Assembly of the United Nations meets in special session to consider the issue of Palestine.
29 April 1947 The Indian Constituent Assembly outlaws untouchability.
1 May 1947 Hans Biebow is sentenced to death in Lodz, where he oversaw the ghetto and the deaths of 250,000 Jews.
Three new works commissioned by Harvard University to accompany a symposium on music criticism are performed for the first time, at Sanders Theatre: String Quartet no.3 of Walter Piston (53), String Trio op.45 of Arnold Schoenberg (72), and the Sixth String Quartet of Bohuslav Martinu (56).
2 May 1947 A German court acquits Werner Egk (45) on his own charges of being a Nazi. See 7 July 1947.
While travelling from New York to Los Angeles, Igor Stravinsky (64) stops off in Chicago and views a show at the Art Institute. It features numerous prints by William Hogarth, including a series known collectively as “The Rake’s Progress.”
Adagio pour orgue op.211 by Charles Koechlin (79) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Two new works commissioned by Harvard University to accompany a symposium on music criticism are performed for the first time, at the Harvard University Memorial Church: Apparebit repentina Dies for chorus and brass by Paul Hindemith (51) to an anonymous eighth century text, and In the Beginning for mezzo-soprano and chorus by Aaron Copland (46) to words from the Bible.
3 May 1947 A constitution making Japan a constitutional monarchy and effectively eliminating its ability to make war goes into effect.
War crimes indictments are filed in Nuremberg against 24 officials of the IG Farbenindustrie.
About 700 military prisoners at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas riot when whites are forced to share a mess hall with blacks. One person is killed, eleven injured.
Night Journey, a ballet by William Schuman (36) to a scenario by Graham, is performed for the first time, at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University.
4 May 1947 Great Britain begins to repatriate 82,000 German POWs from Egypt.
251 Arab and Jewish prisoners escape from Acre (Akko) prison after a wall is blasted by Jews. In the battle, 16 people are killed, 32 injured. 23 prisoners are recaptured.
String Quartet in a minor by William Walton (45) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC, originating in London. See 5 May 1947.
5 May 1947 FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover tells a House committee debating his budget that there are 80,000 Communist Party members in the United States who have penetrated “every field of human endeavor in this country.” He says they wield undo influence because for every party member there are ten sympathizers.
The first performance before a live audience of the String Quartet in a minor by William Walton (45) takes place in Broadcasting House, London. See 4 May 1947.
It is announced that Charles Ives (72) has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Symphony no.3, completed around 1911. Ives writes to the man who conducted the premiere last year, Lou Harrison (29), “As you are very much to blame for getting me into that Pulitzer Prize street, and for having a bushel of letters to answer and for having a check of $500 thrown over me by the Trustees of Colum. Uni. you have got to help me by taking 1/2 of this...and the rest I’ll send to the New Music Edition and Arrow Press.” See 5 April 1946.
6 May 1947 Kurt Weill (47) sails aboard the SS Mauretania from New York for a trip to Europe and Palestine.
Two Studies for piano by Witold Lutoslawski (34) are performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Dutch Radio, originating in Amsterdam.
7 May 1947 The Supreme Electoral Tribunal in Brazil outlaws the Communist Party and suspends the Brazilian Workers Confederation for six months.
The Mother of Us All, an opera by Virgil Thomson (50) to words of Stein, is performed for the first time, in Brander Matthews Hall, Columbia University, New York, conducted by Otto Luening (46).
8 May 1947 Dr. Abba Hillel Silver argues the Jewish case in Palestine before the Political Committee of the UN General Assembly.
9 May 1947 Henry Cattan argues the Arab case in Palestine before the Political Committee of the UN General Assembly.
120,000 workers in Hamburg demonstrate against food shortages.
11 May 1947 Today is the first of several “breadless Sundays” in France due to wheat shortages.
Of Ancient Guilt for piano and dancer by Robert Ward (29) is performed for the first time, in New York. See 15 July 1947.
12 May 1947 Emile Ghouri of the Arab Higher Commission for Palestine testifies before the Political and Security Committee of the UN General Assembly. Seeking to deflect Jewish criticism of Arab leader Haj Amin al-Husseini, who spent the war in Berlin, he says, “the Jews are questioning the record of an Arab spiritual leader. Does that properly come from the mouth of a people who have crucified the founder of Christianity?”
13 May 1947 Waltz Suite op.110 for orchestra by Sergey Prokofiev (56) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.
The New York Times reports that William Schuman (36), President of the Juilliard School of Music, is introducing a completely revamped, comprehensive approach to music theory. It also announces the appointment to the faculty of several distinguished musicians including Robert Ward (29) and Peter Mennin (23).
14 May 1947 Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy leaves the country during a crisis caused by Soviet demands that he nationalize the country’s banks and pay the $300,000,000 in reparations required by the peace treaty. The USSR also demands the $220,000,000 that Hungary owes Germany.
15 May 1947 Stern Group members attack the Cairo-Palestine railroad between Haifa and Hadeira. Two people are killed, seven injured.
The UN General Assembly adjourns its meeting on Palestine. They have set up a special eleven-nation inquiry committee which will go to the region.
16 May 1947 Cantate de la guerre op.213 for chorus by Darius Milhaud (54) to words of Claudel, is performed for the first time, at the University of Oregon, Eugene.
17 May 1947 A Jewish refugee ship carrying over 1,000 passengers is brought into Haifa by the British, who transfer the refugees to ships bound for internment in Cyprus.
Variations, fugueing, and rondo for orchestra by Ross Lee Finney (40) is performed for the first time, in New York.
18 May 1947 Martial law is declared in Changchun which is currently under siege by communists.
La Tentation de Sainte Antoine for alto and string quartet by Werner Egk (46) is performed for the first time, in Baden-Baden conducted by composer.
The Seasons, a ballet by John Cage (34), is performed for the first time, in the Ziegfeld Theatre, New York. The dance is by Merce Cunningham, costumes and scenery by Isamu Noguchi.
20 May 1947 Greeks execute General Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller for brutality and Bruno Brauer, the former governor of Crete, in Athens.
The Munich Synagogue is rededicated. Of the 18,000 members of Munich’s pre-war Jewish community, 240 remain.
Bread riots break out in Dijon.
For the first time since he left Germany in 1933, Kurt Weill (47) reunites with his parents, now living in Nahariya, Palestine.
21 May 1947 Bread riots break out in Lyon.
29 white defendants are acquitted by an all-white jury in Greenville, South Carolina for the lynching of Willie Earle, a black man, last February.
22 May 1947 US President Truman signs a bill granting $400,000,000 in aid to Greece and Turkey, part of his “Truman Doctrine” against communism.
Bernard Rogers (54) is inducted into the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
23 May 1947 Arrests of student leaders begin today in China. About 43 universities and high schools are currently on strike against the war.
The British cabinet agrees to the proposal of Viceroy Lord Mountbatten to partition India.
British authorities take over another Jewish refugee ship and its 1,500 passengers off southern Palestine.
The UN Balkan Inquiry Committee finds that Yugoslavia and Albania aided Greek insurgents and that any future aid should be regarded as a threat to world peace.
A suite from the ballet Danse Calinda by Ulysses Kay (30) is performed for the first time, in New York. See 23 April 1941.
24 May 1947 Tetsu Katayama replaces Shigeru Yoshida as Prime Minister of Japan.
Elements of the US Army Group in Greece arrive in Athens to coordinate military aid to the Greek government in its civil war.
25 May 1947 President Leonardo Arguello of Nicaragua, proving too independent for General Anastasio Somoza, is arrested during the night of 25-26 May.
26 May 1947 The Congress of Nicaragua declares Leonardo Arguello mentally incompetent and names Benjamin Lacayo Sacasa to succeed him.
27 May 1947 The Nanking government announces that famine has begun in Kwangsi (Guanxi) and Hunan provinces.
22 guards and other staff at the Mauthausen concentration camp are hanged by US military authorities.
28 May 1947 Arab leader Fawzi al-Kawukji tells reporters in Damascus that an unfavorable result from the UN Inquiry Committee on Palestine will be a signal for war against the Jews.
All major banks in Hungary are placed under state control.
26 more guards and other staff at the Mauthausen concentration camp are hanged by US military authorities.
The House Un-American Activities Committee discloses after closed meetings in Los Angeles that “some of the most flagrant Communist Propaganda films” were as a result of “White House pressure.” It also claims that the National Labor Relations Board helped Communists “infiltrate and control” the movie industry. It does not name any “infiltrators” or “communist” films.
Symphony no.5 by Bohuslav Martinu (56) is performed for the first time, in Prague.
Suite anglaise op.234 for harmonica and orchestra by Darius Milhaud (54) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
31 May 1947 In Hungary, Soviet authorities announce that Béla Kovács, leader of the Smallholders Party arrested on 25 February on spy charges, has implicated Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy in a spy ring. Nagy, “on vacation” in Switzerland, resigns in exchange for the release of his four-year-old son. He is replaced by Lajos Dinnyés.
1 June 1947 Béla Varga, speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly, resigns and flees to Austria to avoid capture by the communists.
Theme and Variations for solo accordion and orchestra by Roy Harris (49) is performed for the first time, in Orchestra Hall, Chicago.
2 June 1947 Irving Fine (32) arrives at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Here he will complete the composition of Toccata Concertante.
3 June 1947 Lord Louis Mountbatten, Viceroy of India, announces the plan to partition India into two independent states, India and Pakistan, and the acceleration of independence to 14 August 1947. Moslem, Hindu and Sikh leaders all express approval.
Francis Poulenc’s (48) opéra-bouffe Les mamelles de Tirésias, to words of Apollinaire, is performed for the first time, at the Opéra-Comique, Paris.
5 June 1947 In a speech by Secretary of State George C. Marshall at Harvard University, the Marshall Plan, providing American economic support for European recovery, is proposed.
Laurie Anderson is born in Chicago, the second of eight children born to Arthur Anderson and Mary Louise Rowland.
6 June 1947 Bulgaria’s communist dominated government arrests Nikola Dimitrov Petkov, leader of the opposition, in Sofiya.
Jacques Benoist-Mechin, former Vichy State Secretary, is sentenced to death for treason in a Versailles court.
7 June 1947 Sergey Prokofiev (56) is informed that he has won another Stalin Prize, first class for his Violin Sonata no.1.
10 June 1947 New Hungarian Prime Minister Lajos Dinnyes announces a purge of the military and a plan to nationalize the country’s banks.
11 June 1947 The Bulgarian National Assembly ejects 23 non-communist members as allies of Nikola Petkov, arrested on 6 June.
The British government rejects the idea of equal pay for women as inflationary.
13 June 1947 From the Delta for band by William Grant Still (52) is performed for the first time, in Central Park, New York.
15 June 1947 Die Bernauerin, an opera by Carl Orff (51) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in the Württembergisches Staatstheater, Stuttgart. The work is dedicated to Kurt Huber, an ethnomusicologist executed by the Nazis.
16 June 1947 The UN Special Committee on Palestine holds its first hearings in Jerusalem. Arabs conduct a one-day strike in protest.
20 June 1947 Gangster Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel is shot and killed by three bullets coming through the window into the home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill in Beverly Hills.
Albert Herring op.39, a comic opera by Benjamin Britten (33) to words of Crozier after de Maupassant, is performed for the first time, at Glyndebourne. The audience is appreciative, the critics mixed.
22 June 1947 The new communist government of Hungary accuses many high officials of attempting to overthrow the government and claiming they had support from Great Britain and the United States.
23 June 1947 US President Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley Act is overridden by the Republican Congress. It puts restrictions on union activities and strikes.
The United States government sues the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers in a New York court for anti-trust violations. It charges that ASCAP is attempting to create a monopoly over music performing rights.
25 June 1947 Het Achterhuis (The Annex) is published in Amsterdam by Contact Publishing. When it is published in English in 1952 it will be called Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.
26 June 1947 A Symphonic Fantasy on themes from Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss (83) is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
27 June 1947 Amir Sjarifuddin replaces Sutan Sjahrir as Prime minister of Indonesia.
Three months after what should have been the end to his eight-year sentence, the Soviet government decides to release Lev Sergeyevich Termen (Leon Theremin) (50) from prison. See 20 March 1939.
16 members of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee are convicted in a Washington court of contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over the organization’s records.
28 June 1947 Stern Gang members fire on British soldiers in a queue outside a movie theatre in Tel Aviv. Three soldiers are killed, two injured.
400,000 US coal miners begin a “ten-day paid vacation” to protest the Taft-Hartley Act.
30 June 1947 The French government announces that its agents have foiled a right-wing plot to overthrow the government and set up a dictatorship. High-ranking military men are among those arrested. The plotters are known as the “Black Maquis.”
America, a Pan-American four-engine Lockheed Constellation, lands in New York after having flown around the world (35, 750 km) in 101 hours and 32 minutes. The flight began in New York 17 June. This is the beginning of regular, commercial global air service.
1 July 1947 Viscount Mountbatten announces that the Indian military will be divided according to religion.
Paul Hindemith (51) is appointed Battell Professor of the Theory of Music by Yale University.
L’ancienne maison de campagne op.124 for piano by Charles Koechlin (79) is performed completely for the first time, over the airwaves of French Radio. See 8 April 1935.
2 July 1947 A conference of foreign ministers of Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union in Paris, designed to create an economic recovery plan, ends in failure. The USSR refuses to go along with British and French proposals. Those two countries announce they are ready to work with the Marshall Plan.
In a Bayreuth court, Winifred Wagner, daughter-in-law of Richard Wagner (†64), is sentenced to 450 days in prison for supporting Hitler.
3 July 1947 Hindu and Moslem leaders agree on the final British partition plan for India.
4 July 1947 The Nanking government declares Communist forces to be in rebellion and orders complete mobilization to fight them.
The death sentences of Field Marshall Albert Kesselring, Col. General Elberhard von Mackensen, and Lt. General Kurt Maeltzer are commuted to life imprisonment by British authorities.
5 July 1947 Almost 10,000 Greek citizens considered “dangerous to the public order” for their political beliefs are arrested. One of them is Mikis Theodorakis (21).
Arthur Honegger (55) flies from Europe to New York to take up residence for the summer at Tanglewood in the Berkshires.
6 July 1947 At a convention of Moslem and Christian Arabs in Haifa, it is resolved that any Arab who sells land to a Jew will be excommunicated. Palestinian leader Sheik Sabri Aabdin declares that “We will kill every single enemy who will try to prevent us from reaching our aims.”
Arthur Honegger (55) takes up residence at Tanglewood where he will be teaching this summer.
7 July 1947 The Czechoslovak cabinet votes unanimously to accept Marshall Plan aid.
The public prosecutor in Munich decides to proceed with charges that Werner Egk (46) was a profiteer during the Third Reich. See 17 October 1947.
Cinque frammenti di Saffo for voice and 15 instruments by Luigi Dallapiccola (43) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of Turin Radio. See 13 January 1949.
8 July 1947 In a Washington court, Eugene Dennis, leader of the Communist Party of the United States, is sentenced to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine for refusing to testify before Congress.
The National University of Ireland confers an honorary DMus on Arnold Bax (63).
Carnaval à la Nouvelle-Orléans op.275 for two pianos by Darius Milhaud (54) is performed for the first time, at Michigan State College.
9 July 1947 With the acquiescence of the United States, the conservative Greek government rounds up at least 14,000 people believed to hold left-wing views. They are exiled to the Aegean islands without trial. Most leading communists escape.
After a summons to Moscow the Czechoslovak cabinet cancels plans to attend a meeting of the Marshall Plan.
10 July 1947 The Souls of the Righteous, a motet for three solo voices and chorus by Ralph Vaughan Williams (74) to words from the Bible, is performed for the first time, in Westminster Abbey.
11 July 1947 Prison guards in Glynn County, Georgia shoot and kill twelve black inmates after one prisoner tries to scale a fence.
12 July 1947 Allied headquarters in Tokyo announces that the current food crisis is the worst in the modern history of Japan.
A four-day conference opens in Paris attended by 16 countries to work out the implementation of the Marshall Plan. Eastern Europe boycotts the meeting.
15 July 1947 The British Parliament approves independence for India and Pakistan.
Five deputies of the National Peasant Party in Romania are arrested at the Bucharest airport as they try to flee the country. The party leader, Juliu Maniu, is arrested at a nursing home. They will be charged with trying to overthrow the government.
According to the terms of a loan from the United States, Sterling is convertible to US dollars. Pounds begin flowing out of Britain.
Lamentation for piano by Robert Ward (29) is performed for the first time, at the Juilliard School, New York. This is the solo piano version of Of Ancient Guilt. See 11 May 1947.
18 July 1947 The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau) is created by the United Nations and entrusted to the United States.
Two refugees and one American crew member are killed as British authorities take over a ship carrying 4,554 Jewish refugees and bring it into Haifa. 30 refugees are injured. The refugee ship and some British warships are also damaged. The refugees are placed on prison ships bound for internment.
The Rh factor is used for the first time in a court case, in Brooklyn, New York. A man is judged not to be the father of a child.
Sinfonica prosodica by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (29) is performed completely for the first time, in Mönchengladbach. See 6 May 1946.
19 July 1947 Gunmen attack a meeting of the Burmese Council in the Council chamber in Rangoon. Among the ten killed are nationalist leader U Aung San.
Viscount Mountbatten announces that India’s government is reconstituted as two provisional governments, one for Hindustan and one for Pakistan.
The UN Palestine Committee ends 31 sessions in Jerusalem. They now move to Beirut.
20 July 1947 Dutch colonial forces in the Netherlands East Indies begin military action to suppress Indonesian nationalists. They occupy West Java, East Java, Madura, Semarang, Medan, Palembang and Padang. Government buildings in Batavia (Jakarta) are seized and Indonesian ministers arrested.
After a gun battle in Rangoon, Burmese police arrest 20 leaders of the Myochit Party, including former prime minister U Saw, in connection with the murders of yesterday. Three people are killed in the fight and an arms cache is seized.
Mongolian Idiot, a song by Ned Rorem (23) to words of Shapiro, is performed for the first time, at Tanglewood the composer at the piano.
21 July 1947 Dutch planes attack several Indonesian airfields on Java and Sumatra.
The Prussian province of Brandenburg becomes a state.
The British administration in Palestine admits that the refugees taken on July 18 were sent not to Cyprus but back to France, their point of origin. Before the announcement is made, all 90,000 Jews in Jerusalem are placed under nightly house arrest.
Arthur Honegger (55) visits the Mexican consulate in New York to obtain visas for a proposed Latin American tour. He suddenly feels ill and goes to see a doctor who prescribes that he go back to Tanglewood and do nothing but rest. He does.
Hieremiae prophetae lamentationes op.14 for chorus by Alberto Ginastera (31) is performed for the first time, in Buenos Aires. Also premiered is Ginastera’s Toccata, Villancico y Fuga op.18 for organ.
22 July 1947 The UN Palestine Committee begins two days of hearings in Beirut where Arab views are heard. Those testifying iterate the Arab position that Palestine belongs to the Arabs, must not be partitioned, and that Jews are “imperialistic invaders.” They vow to respond with force to any decision not corresponding with their views.
Südwürttemberg-Hohenzollern is renamed Württemberg-Hohenzollern.
Toccata for orchestra by Carlos Chávez (48) is performed for the first time, in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, the composer conducting.
23 July 1947 Dutch forces capture Cirebon, 210 km east of Batavia (Jakarta).
24 July 1947 20,000 people march in Amsterdam in protest to the war in Indonesia.
25 July 1947 Hungarian President Zoltán Tildy dissolves Parliament. With changes in electoral laws and arrests of the opposition, upcoming elections are expected to return communists and their allies.
US President Truman signs a joint resolution ending 60 wartime emergency laws and placing time limits on 124 others.
26 July 1947 The National Security Act establishes the United States Central Intelligence Agency to replace the Office of Strategic Services.
China kämpft, an overture by Karl Amadeus Hartmann (41) is performed for the first time, in Darmstadt.
Suite de danzas criollas op.15 for piano by Alberto Ginastera (31) is performed for the first time, in Buenos Aires.
28 July 1947 Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru calls the Dutch military action in Indonesia as a threat to world peace and appeals to the United Nations. He halts Dutch air traffic over India. Karachi longshoremen vote not to load Dutch ships. 19 organizations in Singapore create a committee to recruit fighters against the Dutch.
British authorities seize two ships carrying 1,174 Jewish refugees and bring them into Haifa. The refugees are put on British ships for transport to Cyprus.
A committee of the US Senate opens hearings investigating two wartime contracts. One is with Henry J. Kaiser and Howard Hughes to develop a “flying boat.” The other is with Hughes to produce three plywood reconnaissance planes.
29 July 1947 The Indonesian Republican Air Force carries out its first raids against the Dutch, at Semarang and Salatiga on Java. Dutch fighters accidentally shoot down a transport carrying medical supplies from Singapore to Jogjakarta.
British authorities hang three Irgunists for their part in the Acre (Akko) Prison Break.
Three British transports carrying 4,429 Jewish refugees dock at Port de Bouc, France. They are the refugees taken into Haifa on 18 July as they tried to enter Palestine. A few who are sick are put ashore, the rest refuse to disembark. The French government tells the Jews that they are welcome in France but that they will not be forced ashore.
The Romanian government dissolves its most important opposition, the Peasant Party.
30 July 1947 Dutch forces land near Lubukpakam in northern Sumatra. They occupy it and Pematangsiantar.
The British government suspends all military aid to the Netherlands.
The Irgun announces that it has hanged two British sergeants captured 12 July in retaliation for the hanging of three Irgunists yesterday.
31 July 1947 Dutch forces capture Malang, south of Surabaya.
The two most powerful princely states, Hyderabad and Travancore, decide to join India.
The bodies of two British sergeants executed by the Irgun are found hanging from a tree near Nathanya. As one body is being taken down, a booby trap goes off. British soldiers, enraged over the killings, swarm into Tel Aviv attacking civilians, looting and damaging shops. They fire on a bus killing five Jews.
1 August 1947 Anti-British riots erupt in Tel Aviv during a funeral procession for the five Jews killed by British soldiers yesterday.
Five days of anti-Semitic violence begin in major British cities.
The UN Security Council votes 8-0 to call on the Netherlands and the Indonesians to cease hostilities immediately and submit their dispute to arbitration.
2 August 1947 The first ship carrying US military aid for the Greek government army arrives at Piraeus.
3 August 1947 Dutch forces capture Cilacap in south Java and land on Madura, off the east coast of Java near Surabaya. They then declare a cease-fire to begin at midnight, in accordance with the Security Council appeal of 1 August.
4 August 1947 Indonesian President Sukarno orders a cease-fire to begin at midnight, in accordance with the Security Council appeal of August 1.
Riots in Sfax and Gafsa, Tunisia against French rule leave 19 dead and 54 injured.
5 August 1947 British authorities arrest 35 leading Zionists, including three mayors, in an move to wipe out the Irgun leadership. The Irgun responds by blowing up the Department of Labor in Jerusalem, killing three British policemen.
6 August 1947 British Prime Minister Atlee announces an emergency austerity plan which includes a 40% decrease in imports from dollar countries, demobilization of skilled workers from the armed forces, and a reduction of British forces overseas by 200,000. Gasoline for private use will be cut by one-third, for commercial use by one-tenth.
Due to internal political developments, the United States cancels a $7,000,000 cotton loan to Hungary and will not consider a Polish appeal for food. They also denounce the Romanian government.
Bachianas Brasileiras no.8 for orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos (60) is performed for the first time, in Rome the composer conducting.
7 August 1947 Kon-Tiki, a balsa wood raft, reaches the Tuamotu Islands crashing into a reef. After a 101 day, 8,000 km journey from Peru, Thor Heyerdahl has supported his theory that ancient mariners travelled from South America to Polynesia.
Moslems raid a train in India killing one Hindu passenger.
8 August 1947 In retaliation for yesterday, Hindus attack a train near Calcutta and take off 27 Moslems, knifing eleven of them to death.
10 August 1947 Arabs kill four Jews in a Tel Aviv café.
The US military announces that it released the last of its German prisoners by 30 June. Latest reports say that the USSR still holds 900,000 Axis prisoners, the UK 344,000 and France “several hundred thousand.”
11 August 1947 Contrary to the cease-fire pronouncements, Dutch military activity continues in the East Indies. Today they capture Tasikmalaja in west Java.
The US Senate investigation into irregularities in wartime contracts with Howard Hughes is postponed until November. Hughes claims he is vindicated and the press calls the entire affair a “fiasco.”
12 August 1947 Tejiro Kurozawa is executed in Shanghai for the murder of 120 Chinese in that city. Hundreds of members of the non-Communist Romanian National Peasant Party are arrested and charged with treason and espionage.
31 members of the staff of Buchenwald death camp are found guilty of war crimes.
13 August 1947 Morning Song for piano and orchestra by Arnold Bax (63) is performed publicly for the first time, in Royal Albert Hall, London. See 7 February 1947.
14 August 1947 22 of the 31 Buchenwald staff members convicted of war crimes on 12 August receive death sentences. Five are sentenced to life imprisonment. The other four receive sentences of from ten to 20 years.
15 August 1947 India and Pakistan gain their independence from Great Britain. In New Delhi, Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas, Viscount Mountbatten of Burma becomes Governor-General of India. Jawaharlal Nehru becomes Prime Minister. Britain’s protectorate over Bhutan passes to India. In Karachi, Mohammed Ali Jinnah becomes Governor-General of Pakistan. Liaqat Ali Khan becomes Prime Minister. King George VI of Great Britain ceases to be Emperor of India and confers an Earldom on Viscount Mountbatten.
Haganah bombs an Arab house near Tel Aviv thought to be headquarters for Arab raids on Jews. Eleven Arabs are killed.
A US court in Nuremberg indicts 12 officers of the Krupp munitions company of war crimes. Included is the owner and director, Alfred Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach.
The Inter-American Defense Conference convenes at Petropolis, near Rio de Janeiro, to create a mutual defense treaty for the Western Hemisphere. 20 countries are represented.
16 August 1947 Bulgarian opposition leader Nikola Petkov is sentenced to death in Sofiya.
17 August 1947 The final boundaries between India and Pakistan in the Punjab and Bengal are announced.
Wedding Song for baritone, string trio, and organ by Roy Harris (49) to words of Gibran is performed for the first time, in Shore Chapel, Colorado College, Colorado Springs.
19 August 1947 Aaron Copland (46) arrives in Rio de Janeiro for an extended tour of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.
20 August 1947 Seven high ranking medical officials of the Third Reich, including Hitler’s personal physician, are sentenced to death by a court in Nuremberg. They are found to have carried out inhuman medical experiments. Five armed services medical chiefs are sentenced to life imprisonment. Four others receive prison terms.
21 August 1947 Due to the drain of dollars from the British treasury, the convertability of pounds sterling into dollars is suspended.
Four officials of the Mauthausen death camp are sentenced to death at Dachau.
22 August 1947 A British deadline to the more than 4,000 refugees sitting aboard transports for three weeks in Port de Bouc, France passes. 20 minutes later, the ships sail for Hamburg.
During the night and again this morning, Arthur Honegger (55) suffers heart seizures at Tanglewood. He is hospitalized and appears grave.
27 August 1947 The French National Assembly passes a statute for Algeria creating a Legislative Assembly and allowing for financial autonomy.
The British government announces new restrictions including a reduction in the weekly meat allowance and the elimination of pleasure driving.
28 August 1947 Ruth Crawford Seeger (46) signs a contract with Doubleday to publish her book American Folk Songs for Children.
Peter Mennin (24) marries Georganne Bairson, a student at the Eastman School of Music.
29 August 1947 The joint India-Pakistan Defense Council approves the use of military aircraft against fanatical mobs in Punjab. It orders the immediate death of any Hindu, Moslem or Sikh involved in communal violence. 20,000 are estimated killed in violence in Punjab, with about 1,000,000 homeless.
Konstantinos Stavrou Tsaldaris replaces Demetrios Epaminondou Maximos as Prime Minister of Greece.
30 August 1947 Mme Vaura Honegger arrives from Paris at the hospital where Arthur Honegger (55) is recuperating from heart seizures.
31 August 1947 National elections in Hungary give the Communists the largest number of parliamentary seats. All other parties claim that the Communists committed widespread fraud.
The British government announces that it has stopped buying food from the United States in an effort to conserve dollars.
1 September 1947 Mahatma Gandhi begins a fast unto death to protest violence in Calcutta.
Arthur Honegger’s (55) condition is much improved and he seems out of danger.
Jewish leaders react favorably to the plan for Palestine set out yesterday by the United Nations. The Arab High Commission in Cairo announces that “any attempt to carry out [the plan] will set Palestine and the Arab world on fire…”
2 September 1947 The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty) is signed by representatives of 19 Western Hemisphere countries in a ceremony at the Brazilian Foreign Office in Rio de Janeiro. It creates a defense zone and calls for mutual defense and the renunciation of war between the signatories.
3 September 1947 After ten weeks of investigation, the UN Special Committee on Palestine issues its report. They recommend that Palestine be removed from mandate and given independence with two separate entities, one Jewish, one Arab. The protection of religious minorities and holy sites must be guaranteed throughout the province. The members of the UN must do something to assist 250,000 displaced European Jews. A majority of the committee favor two separate states, while a minority favors one state with two parts.
A British military court in Hamburg sentences 14 Gestapo agents to death. Two others receive life imprisonment and two receive ten-year prison terms. All were involved in carrying out Hitler’s personal order to kill 50 allied prisoners-of-war who escaped from Stalag Luft 3 camp in Silesia in 1944.
The Third Suite op.109 from Sergey Prokofiev’s (56) ballet Cinderella is performed for the first time, in a broadcast from Moscow. See 21 November 1945.
4 September 1947 After peace comes to Calcutta, Gandhi breaks his fast.
The Indian military announces that 100,000 Hindus and Sikhs were killed in East Punjab when Moslems refused to let them escape from a flood.
5 September 1947 The conservative Greek government suspends sections of the constitution, including freedom of the press. A campaign against newspapers begins.
6 September 1947 Two days of communal rioting in New Delhi leave 450 dead.
Hymn of Praise op.113/9 for solo voice, male chorus, and harmonium by Jean Sibelius (81) to words of Sario is performed for the first time, in Helsinki.
8 September 1947 Themistoklis Panagiotou Sophoulis replaces Konstantinos Stavrou Tsaldaris as Prime Minister of Greece. The more moderate stance of the new government allows for the release of many leftists in prison for their political beliefs, among them Mikis Theodorakis (22).
1,406 Jewish refugees from one of the British ships of 22 August disembark in Hamburg.
9 September 1947 Hasan Saka replaces Mehmet Recep Peker as Prime Minister of Turkey.
1,420 Jewish refugees from a second British ship disembark in Hamburg. Later, the 1,485 refugees on the third ship put up spirited resistance. British authorities use clubs and fire hoses to force them ashore. 27 people are injured and 50 arrested.
France ends gasoline rations for pleasure driving.
11 September 1947 Daybreak for voice and piano by Henry Cowell (50) to words of Blake is performed for the first time, at the San Francisco Museum of Art.
13 September 1947 Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru estimates that 4,000,000 people have crossed the border in both directions between India and Pakistan since partition. He further estimates that 1,000 people have been killed in recent violence in New Delhi and 15,000 have been killed in the Punjab.
16 September 1947 The Free Territory of Trieste comes into existence under a United Nations mandate. Half of the territory is administered by the US and UK, the other half by Yugoslavia.
17 September 1947 James Forrestal is sworn in as the first US Secretary of Defense.
22 September 1947 The bread ration in the Netherlands is reduced to 2,000 grams per week.
Concerto for Orchestra by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (29) is performed for the first time, at Cologne University.
Leonard Bernstein (29) conducts Mahler (†36) for the first time, the Resurrection Symphony, at the City Center, New York.
23 September 1947 Former Bulgarian opposition leader Nikola Dimitrov Petkov is hanged in Sofiya on charges of plotting a coup.
A law giving women the right to vote is signed by Argentine President Juan Perón.
24 September 1947 Raiders from Pakistan invade Kashmir.
1,200 Moslems are killed on a train at Amritsar in the worst atrocity since the partition of India.
26 September 1947 The British government announces that it will give up the Palestine mandate at an early date regardless of what the UN does on the Arab-Jewish issue.
27 September 1947 Arab terrorists detonate a bomb at the Swedish consulate in Jerusalem.
While traveling in Ireland, Arnold Bax (63) learns that his estranged wife Elsita has died. Bax does not alter his travel plans.
29 September 1947 The Indian military announces that the peak of violence in the Punjab seems to have passed, but estimates say that there are still 7,000,000 displaced persons in India and Pakistan.
Irgunists blow up the Haifa police headquarters, killing ten people and injuring 46 others.
Four Inventions for piano by Ulysses Kay (30) is performed for the first time, in Town Hall, New York.
30 September 1947 The United States recognizes the communist government of Bulgaria.
The Republic of Pakistan and the Kingdom of Yemen are admitted to the United Nations.
French soldiers take down barricades at Verdun intended by civilians to stop Army vehicles carrying sugar to the French zone of occupation in Germany. The trucks proceed.
1 October 1947 The bread ration in Spain is cut.
The United States Air Force is separated from the Army.
The first US jet fighter, the F-86 Sabre, is tested for the first time, at Muroc Dry Lake, California.
3 October 1947 Thirty Years for orchestra op.113 by Sergey Prokofiev (56) is performed for the first time, in Moscow. The work was composed to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the October Revolution.
Concerto for harp and orchestra by Norman Dello Joio (34) is performed for the first time.
4 October 1947 Richard Strauss (83) rides in an airplane for the first time, from Zürich to London where he will conduct his music.
5 October 1947 Communist Party leaders from nine countries form the Communist Information Bureau to combat “the imperialistic camp and its directing force, the USA.”
Concertino for piano, winds, and percussion by Hans Werner Henze (21) is performed for the first time, in Baden-Baden.
In the first televised White House address, President Truman asks that Americans cut down on their consumption of meat and bread so that more grain can be sent to starving Europeans.
The Actors’ Studio is founded by Elia Kazan and others in New York.
6 October 1947 The Canadian government announces that it will double its acceptance of European “displaced persons” bringing the number to 20,000.
7 October 1947 Pakistan reports that 1,628,000 refugees have been exchanged in the Punjab since independence.
9 October 1947 The Arab League Council meeting in Lebanon recommends that its member states send troops to the borders of Palestine to aid the Arabs therein when the British withdraw.
10 October 1947 Bachianas Brasileiras no.5 for soprano and eight cellos by Heitor Villa-Lobos (60) is performed completely for the first time, in Paris. See 25 March 1939.
11 October 1947 The United States government announces it will support the partition of Palestine into two independent states, largely on the basis of that suggested by the UN Special Committee on Palestine.
Symphony no.6 op.111 by Sergey Prokofiev (56) is performed for the first time, in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. The audience is ecstatic.
12 October 1947 Arab terrorists explode a bomb at the Polish consulate in Jerusalem.
The Briga and Tenda areas of Italy approve by referendum their transfer to France, as provided for in the Italy peace treaty.
13 October 1947 Arab terrorists explode a bomb at the United States consulate in Jerusalem.
The USSR says that it favors a one-state solution in Palestine but believes that cooperation between Arabs and Jews is impossible. It therefore endorses the two-state model.
36 US distillers representing 90% of the industry agree to a 60-day shutdown in order that grain may be sent to Europe.
14 October 1947 Captain Charles E. Yeager USAF flies the X-1 rocket-powered aircraft faster than the speed of sound, over Muroc AFB, California in what is generally accepted to be the first supersonic flight.
15 October 1947 The security law in Finland, passed during the Soviet war of 1939, expires thus ending censorship.
Ten forest fires are burning in the State of Maine in the US during the worst drought in 30 years. Over the next twelve days, nine towns are destroyed, 15 people are killed, 81,000 hectares are burned, 900,000 meters of cut lumber are destroyed. The state is patrolled by National Guard.
16 October 1947 Three works by Bohuslav Martinu (56) are performed for the first time, in Prague: Serenade no.1 for clarinet, french horn, three violins, and viola, Serenade no.3 for oboe, clarinet, four violins and cello, and the Divertimento for chamber orchestra.
17 October 1947 A Munich court clears Werner Egk (46) of any profiteering during the Nazi regime.
Variations for an Album for piano op.32 by Vincent Persichetti (32) is performed for the first time, at Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio.
18 October 1947 The Chinese Communist administration announces a program to strip all landlords of their property rights and to cancel all debts.
Palestinian troops are sent to the border area with Syria and Lebanon to replace British units which recently evacuated the area.
20 October 1947 The Un-American Activities Committee of the US House of Representatives opens hearings into the infiltration of the American film industry by communists. Producers Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Sam Wood testify, naming 14 screenwriters and four directors as Communists or having “un-American” tendencies, including Clifford Odets, Irwin Shaw, Dalton Trumbo, and Ring Lardner.
Three of the Six Children’s Songs for voice and piano by Witold Lutoslawski (34) are performed for the first time, in Krakow. See 26 January 1948.
Music for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for orchestra by David Diamond (32) is performed for the first time, in New York.
21 October 1947 It is reported that a recent poll in Cincinnati showed that 30% of respondents never heard of the United Nations. 55% said they thought its purpose was to work out the post-war peace treaties.
Actor Adolphe Menjou appears before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He mentions the films Mission to Moscow and North Star as evidence of communist propaganda. He further suggests that “anyone attending any meeting at which Paul Robeson appears, and applauds, can be considered a Communist.”
Canticle for violin and piano by David Diamond (32) is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
Symphony no.1 op.18 by Vincent Persichetti (32) is performed for the first time, in Rochester, New York conducted by Howard Hanson (50).
22 October 1947 Appearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee, actor Robert Taylor names Howard da Silva, Karen Morley, and Lester Cole as “possible Communists.”
23 October 1947 The Greek government executes 24 people in Thessaloniki for the killing of three air force officers. That brings the total executions for the crime to 47.
Present and past Presidents of the Screen Actors Guild, Ronald Reagan, Robert Montgomery, and George Murphy testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. They say that there are a small number of communists in the guild but that they have never controlled it. Writers John Niblo and Richard Macauley add twelve more names of screenwriters to those already mentioned whom, they are “morally certain”, are Communists.
24 October 1947 A Provisional Government of Kashmir is established in Moslem-held Kashmir for the expressed purpose of conducting a referendum in the province on whether it should join Pakistan or India.
Testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Walt Disney names Herbert Sorrell a Communist and blames him for a strike at his studio. He also calls the League of Women Voters a Communist-front organization.
Symphony no.4 “Short Symphony” by Henry Cowell (50) is performed for the first time, in Symphony Hall, Boston.
25 October 1947 Three Fanfares for four trumpets by Ulysses Kay (30) is performed for the first time, in New York. Also premiered is Kay’s Duo for flute and oboe.
26 October 1947 In the face of raids from Pakistan, Maharajah Hari Singh, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, cedes his lands to India. The mostly Moslem province is admitted into India, provoking outrage in Pakistan.
British troops withdraw from Iraq.
Four Democratic senators and about 30 film industry notables make a nationwide broadcast called “Hollywood Fights Back.” Led by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, it attacks the House Un-American Activities Committee, denying that there is communist infiltration in American films and questions “the right of Congress to ask any man what he thinks on political issues.”
27 October 1947 A protest against the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee is signed by 66 prominent citizens, including Kurt Weill (47). At the hearings, screenwriter John Howard Lawson is cited for contempt for refusing to answer questions. Eric Johnston, President of the Motion Picture Association, condemns the committee for “unsupported generalizations” which “we are denied the opportunity to refute.”
28 October 1947 Testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo charges that the committee is creating an American concentration camp. The committee recommends contempt citations against Trumbo, Albert Maltz, and Alvah Bessie for refusing to answer questions. Bessie says he is following the example of General Eisenhower who refuses to divulge his politics.
Parliamentary elections in Denmark result in a gain of nine seats for the Social Democratic Party, who will form the next government, and the Left-Liberals.
29 October 1947 The USSR begins a purge of non-communist officials in their German occupation zone.
A Civil Rights Commission empanelled by US President Truman makes its report of a one-year investigation. It finds that discrimination based on race or religion is widespread throughout every section of the country.
Emmett Lavery, President of the Screen Writers Guild, denies that he has ever been a communist or that the Guild is dominated by communists. The committee recommends contempt citations against screen writers Samuel Ornitz, Herbert Biberman, Edward Dmytryk, and Adrian Scott for refusing to answer questions.
30 October 1947 Symphony no.3 “Hymnus Ambrosianus” by Darius Milhaud (55) is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Bertolt Brecht appears before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington. He declares that he is not a communist and will leave the United States tomorrow, never to return. Contempt citations are recommended for screenwriters Ring Lardner and Lester Cole for refusing to answer questions.
31 October 1947 Toccata for Percussion Instruments by Carlos Chávez (48) is performed for the first time, in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City.
1 November 1947 Nauru is created a trust territory by the United Nations, under the auspices of Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Canticle I “My beloved is mine” op.40, for voice and piano by Benjamin Britten (33) to words of Quarles, is performed for the first time, in Central Hall, Westminster by Peter Pears and the composer.
3 November 1947 Stanislaw Mikolajczyk lands in London from the British sector of Berlin after being accused of treason on 12 October. He fled Warsaw by train on 20 October. Mikolajczyk was the last significant opposition leader in Poland.
Four leaders of the SS receive death sentences from an American court in Nuremberg. Eleven other defendants receive prison terms of from ten years to life.
President Truman authorizes US military officers to advise the Greek army at all levels of operations against leftist rebels.
Trois poèmes op.276 for voice and piano by Darius Milhaud (55) to words of Supervielle is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Due pezzi per orchestra by Luigi Dallapiccola (43) are performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC, originating in London.
5 November 1947 The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR raises Sergey Prokofiev (56) from Merited Activist of the Arts of the RSFSR to the level of People’s Artist of the RSFSR.
Ten employees of the US State Department who were sacked as “potential security risks” are refused hearings on their cases because the department “could not give the employees a full statement of charges.”
Incidental music to Anouilh’s play L’invitation au château by Francis Poulenc (48) is performed for the first time, in the Théâtre de l’Atelier, Paris.
7 November 1947 Incidental music to Perventsev’s play The Southern Junction by Aram Khachaturian (44) is performed for the first time, in Moscow.
8 November 1947 Indian troops, counterattacking against Moslems in Kashmir, capture Baramula.
Potato rationing is introduced in Great Britain.
9 November 1947 Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsongkram, wartime dictator of Siam, overthrows the government of Prime Minister Thawan Thamrongnawasawat in a bloodless coup.
10 November 1947 The new military government in Siam institutes a cabinet headed by Prime Minister Khuang Aphaiwong.
The Indian government takes over the princely state of Junagadh. The Maharaja of the mostly Hindu state expressed interest in joining Pakistan.
Howard Hughes testifies before a Senate investigating committee, defending his wartime contracts and making accusations against the former deputy procurement chief for the Air Corps, Maj. General Bennett E. Meyers.
Sonata for violin and piano by Henry Cowell (50) is performed for the first time, in Wilshire Ebell Theatre, Los Angeles the composer at the piano.
11 November 1947 The president and vice president of the opposition Peasant Party, Juliu Maniu and Ion Mihalache are sentenced to solitary confinement for life for treason, in Bucharest. Fifteen other defendants are sentenced to prison for terms of from one to 25 years.
Fleeing persecution in right-wing Greece, Iannis Xenakis (25) arrives in Paris after having been spirited across the Italy-France border at Vintimille by Communist Party members.
Italian Communists call a four-day gas strike. They destroy the Genoa headquarters of the Nationalist Party and set fire to the headquarters of the Italian Social Movement.
The British government orders 500,000-750,000 people to switch from non-essential to essential employment, beginning 8 December.
Former deputy procurement chief for the Air Corps, Maj. General Bennett E. Meyers testifies before a Senate investigating committee, and denies the accusations made against him yesterday by Howard Hughes.
The film The Shocking Miss Pilgrim is released. The score is made up of unpublished songs by George Gershwin (†10).
12 November 1947 In France, the communist general trade-union federation calls a general strike which lasts, with varying degrees of success, until 10 December. Crowds attack the city hall of Marseille and beat the mayor.
In Milan, Communists attack the Common Man Front and a Monarchist newspaper.
Flourish, Mighty Homeland op.114, a cantata for the 30th anniversary of the October Revolution by Sergey Prokofiev (56) to words of Dolmatovsky, is performed for the first time, in Moscow.
Trois chansons de F. Garcia-Lorca for voice and piano by Francis Poulenc (48) is performed for the first time, the composer at the keyboard.
13 November 1947 Social Democrat Hans Hedtoft replaces Left-Liberal Knud Kristensen as Prime Minister of Denmark.
The British government announces that it plans to totally withdraw from Palestine by August 1948. If it becomes apparent that the General Assembly can not provide an agreement acceptable to both Arabs and Jews, the British will withdraw immediately. No British forces may be used to maintain order in Palestine once the mandate is dissolved.
Communists in Naples attack an anti-Communist club and attempt to raise the red flag over city hall. Anti-Communist establishments are also attacked in Venice, La Spezia, Bologna, and Reggio Emilia. An arms factory near Milan is blown up.
14 November 1947 The UN General Assembly approves a plan to hold elections in Korea by March 1948 and to assist in creating a provisional government.
The Communist led violence of the last week spreads to Palermo and Turin.
15 November 1947 Arthur Honegger (55) and his wife arrive in Paris from his summer at Tanglewood which included a heart attack and months of recuperation.
WH Auden arrives in Hollywood and is granted the use of the sofa in the North Wetherly Drive home of Igor Stravinsky (65). Here he will pen the libretto to The Rake’s Progress.
16 November 1947 A small blockade runner manages to land 185 Jewish refugees in Palestine near Nahariya. The Jews escape British authorities. Meanwhile, a larger refugee ship carrying 794 passengers is stopped by the British and brought into Haifa. The Jews are put on a ship for Cyprus and internment.
19 November 1947 William Walton (45) is presented with the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society.
20 November 1947 Pope Pius XII issues the encyclical Mediator Dei which allows some forms of “modern music” into the liturgy.
Documents placed in evidence at the Nuremberg trial of 24 IG Farben executives show that their treatment of prisoners at Auschwitz was so bad that even the SS complained about it.
Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Two Fanfares for the Royal Wedding for brass by Arnold Bax (64) are performed for the first time, at the event in Westminster Abbey, London.
Virgil Thomson (50) writes a letter declining to sign a petition in support of the composer Hanns Eisler, presently being charged with concealing membership in the Communist Party.
21 November 1947 A US military court in Yokohama sentences Captain Yoshio Tsuneyoshi to life in prison for the deaths of 1,400 prisoners of war at Camp O’Donnell in the Philippines.
Le Village Perdu, a film with music by Arthur Honegger (55), is performed for the first time, in Paris.
Symphony no.3 op.30 by Vincent Persichetti (32) is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia.
22 November 1947 Sergey Prokofiev (56) files for divorce from his wife Lina in a Moscow court. He has been living with his mistress, Mira Mendelson, since 1941.
Ten days of communist-led strikes and violence begin to subside in Italy. 22 people have been killed, 154 injured. Anti-Communist clubs are particular targets.
The Voice Out of the Whirlwind for chorus and organ or orchestra by Ralph Vaughan Williams (75) to words from the Bible, is performed for the first time, in St. Sepulchre, Holborn.
23 November 1947 China completes three days of voting for a National Assembly.
24 November 1947 A group of screenwriters, producers and directors who have become known as the “Hollywood Ten” are cited for contempt of Congress for failing to answer questions about communists in the film industry.
Robert Schuman replaces Paul Ramadier as Prime Minister of France.
The full orchestra version of The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein (42) is performed for the first time, in a concert setting, in City Center, New York conducted by Leonard Bernstein (29). Bernstein decided to stage it in direct confrontation to the increasing attacks on the Left and the labor movement in the Congress and the country.
25 November 1947 A group of movie industry executives meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York form an industry policy to deal with investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee. The “Hollywood Ten” are immediately fired and will not be hired by anyone until they swear under oath that they are not communists. No one in the movie industry will knowingly hire communists or anyone refusing to testify before the HUAC. This is seen as the beginning of the Hollywood blacklist
27 November 1947 A Moscow court denies the petition of Sergey Prokofiev (56) for divorce. The ruling asserts that since the marriage took place in Germany, and was not registered with a diplomatic representative of the USSR, it never officially took place. Therefore, they never were married in the eyes of the Soviet Union.
The Italian government devalues the lira by 68%.
Ernst Krenek’s (47) Symphony no.4 is performed for the first time, in Carnegie Hall, New York.
28 November 1947 The last indictments at Nuremberg charge 13 generals and one admiral with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The National Broadcasting Company in the US is now allowing comedians to use the word “diaper” over their airwaves. The lyrics to the song “Body and Soul” are also allowed.
29 November 1947 The Hungarian government nationalizes hundreds of industrial and commercial concerns.
The foreign ministers of the “Big Four” powers meet for a fifth time, in London. They will once again attempt to agree on peace treaties for Germany and Austria as well as plans for their economies and demilitarization.
The General Assembly of the United Nations votes to partition the British mandate of Palestine into two independent states, one Arab, one Jewish to be accomplished by 1 October 1948. Arab delegations walk out and say they will refuse to allow its implementation.
30 November 1947 Arabs kill seven Jews in various places in Palestine. The mayor of Nablus proclaims jihad.
Mobs in Damascus attack the Soviet cultural center and Communist Party headquarters. Four people are killed.
A Sermon on Miracles for solo voice, chorus, and strings by Ned Rorem (24), to words of Goodman, is performed for the first time, in Second Church, Boston.
1 December 1947 The Syrian government orders military training for all schoolboys.
Lebanese youths attack the US legation in Beirut, breaking windows.
The City of Atlanta allows the use of black policemen “under such conditions as will not create any strife or tension between the races.”
2 December 1947 Chang Duk-soo, moderate leader of the Korean Democratic Party, is murdered in Seoul. He opposed Syngman Rhee’s policy of immediate independence.
A peaceful protest by Arabs in Jerusalem against the United Nations vote on Palestine dissolves into rioting. Mobs set the New City to the torch. 20 Jews and 15 Arabs are killed. Haganah forces operate in the open for the first time to quell Jewish retaliation and protect Jewish districts, in the absence of British law enforcement.
The Syrian government enacts a draft law and votes $860,000 to aid Palestinian Arabs. Mobs attack the Jewish district of Aleppo (Halab).
3 December 1947 Jews and Arabs battle on the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. Twelve people are killed, 75 injured. During the fighting, Jews managed to get 174 immigrants ashore.
16 people are killed and 40 injured when saboteurs derail a train near Arras, France. The action is probably related to recent strikes. Authorities blame Communists.
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams opens in New York starring Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, and Kim Hunter and directed by Elia Kazan.
4 December 1947 The People’s Republic of Bulgaria is proclaimed under Georgi Mikhaylov Dimitrov. A Soviet-style constitution is adopted.
Police battle 15,000 demonstrators in Cairo. Public demonstrations are henceforth banned.
Youths in Baghdad attack the US Information office.
The French National Assembly passes drastic measures to combat the current wave of strikes and sabotage.
5 December 1947 Rioting between Arabs and Jews in Aden kills 75 people.
Incidental music to Molière’s play Amphitryon by Francis Poulenc (48) is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre de Marigny, Paris.
An orchestral suite from the ballet Medea by Samuel Barber (37) is performed for the first time, in Philadelphia. See 10 May 1946.
6 December 1947 Cambridge University votes to accept women for the first time.
The United States declares a unilateral embargo on arms to the Middle East. Since the British continue to ship arms to the Arabs, this embargo affects only the Jews.
The conservative government of Greece bans strikes under penalty of death.
7 December 1947 British troops withdraw from Italy.
Ernst Krenek (47) resigns his position at Hamline University, intending to move to California.
A suite from Werner Egk’s (46) unperformed ballet Abraxas is performed for the first time, in Baden-Baden conducted by the composer.
8 December 1947 Representatives of the Netherlands and Indonesia begin negotiations aboard the USS Renville in the harbor of Batavia (Jakarta).
The Arab League begins meetings in Cairo, pledging to aid Palestinian Arabs. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, proclaims, “when the sword speaks, everything else must be silent.”
Three of Les chants de Nectaire for flute op.200 by Charles Koechlin (80) are performed for the first time, in Paris.
9 December 1947 Mincho Kolev Neychev becomes Chairman of the Presidium of the National Assembly of Bulgaria (Head of State).
The General Confederation of Labor in France calls off its month of strikes and accepts the government’s last wage offer. It is seen as a victory for the government.
10 December 1947 Arab and Jewish businessmen in Tel Aviv and Jaffa arrange a truce in an attempt to save the orange harvest.
Hymn and Fuguing Tune no.7 for viola and piano by Henry Cowell (50) is performed for the first time, in Kimball Hall, Chicago.
11 December 1947 Great Britain announces that it will end its mandate over Palestine on 15 May.
Arabs renew attacks against the Old City of Jerusalem.
12 December 1947 Haganah counterattacks in Jerusalem and Haifa.
Mobs in Aleppo (Halab) torch the synagogue, a 2,750-year-old structure which held the Ben-Asher Codex, a Tenth Century Hebrew Bible.
A two-day general strike by 200,000 workers in Rome is called off with both sides claiming victory.
13 December 1947 Irgun bombs kill at least 16 people and injure 67 in Jerusalem and Jaffa.
Aram Khachaturian’s (44) Symphony-Poem is performed for the first time, in Leningrad Philharmonic Bolshoy Hall.
The Los Angeles Times publishes an article identifying Igor Stravinsky (65) as the most important sponsor of a concert to benefit Hanns Eisler, presently being accused of concealing membership in the Communist Party.
14 December 1947 Transjordanian troops attack a bus convoy near Lydda killing 14 people and injuring twelve.
The government of the USSR devalues the ruble by 90% and ends all wartime rationing.
The last Soviet troops are withdrawn from Bulgaria.
The last United States troops depart from Livorno, completing their evacuation of Italy.
A letter written by Igor Stravinsky (65) two days ago is published by the Los Angeles Times. He tells the paper that he lent his name to the Eisler concert for purely musical reasons and it was not a political statement.
Western Dance from Merce Cunningham’s dance The Open Road by Lou Harrison (30) is performed for the first time, in the version for six instruments, at Hunter College, New York.
15 December 1947 After three weeks, the fifth meeting of foreign ministers of the “Big Four” powers in London collapses in failure. No peace treaties with Germany and Austria are agreed to.
The Saarland Territory is created with France as the sovereign power.
16 December 1947 Pirogov, a film with music by Dmitri Shostakovich (41), is shown for the first time.
18 December 1947 Two Japanese lieutenants are found guilty of killing over 150 people each during the Rape of Nanking in 1937. They will be executed.
19 December 1947 The US Congress votes $540,000,000 in stopgap aid to four countries out of a four-year $17,000,000,000 recovery program requested by President Truman.
Incidental music to Sophocles’ (tr. by Obey) play Oedipus by Arthur Honegger (55) is performed for the first time, in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris.
21 December 1947 Speaking in Damascus, Arab People’s Army leader Fawzi al-Kawukji states the Arab plan to gain military control of Palestine and then set up an all-Arab state.
Symphonie gaspésienne for orchestra by Claude Champagne (56) is performed for the first time, in Montreal.
22 December 1947 23 SS officers are sentenced to death by the Supreme National Council in Krakow for their activities at Auschwitz. 16 others receive prison terms.
Military rule over European Turkey is lifted by the Turkish government.
After 18 months of work, the constitution of the Republic of Italy is approved by the Constituent Assembly.
Three Madrigals for violin and viola by Bohuslav Martinu (57) is performed for the first time, in New York.
23 December 1947 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley inform their superiors at Bell Laboratories that they have developed the first transistor.
24 December 1947 A rival Greek government called the First Provisional Democratic Government of Free Greece, is set up in the mountains led by Markos Vafiadis, thus officially beginning the civil war.
Duke Ellington (48) and his Orchestra record Liberian Suite in New York. The work was commissioned by the Republic of Liberia to celebrate its centennial.
25 December 1947 The Nanking government declares the new constitution is in effect and sets 29 March as the first meeting of the new National Assembly.
Incidental music to the radio play Men of Goodwill by Benjamin Britten (34) is performed for the first time, over the airwaves of the BBC Home Service.
27 December 1947 The Greek government outlaws the National Liberation Front (EAM) and the Communist Party of Greece.
President Enrico de Nicola signs the new Italian constitution approved 22 December. It will go into effect on 1 January.
29 December 1947 13 people are killed by an Irgun bomb at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.
South Africa annexes Marion Island.
Former Vice-President Henry Wallace announces his candidacy for the presidency of the United States on the Progressive Party ticket.
Virgil Thomson (51) is elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in New York.
30 December 1947 The People’s Republic of Romania is proclaimed, thus abolishing the monarchy of King Mihai. Constantin I. Parhon becomes Chairman of the Presidium (Head of State).
Arabs kill 41 Jews after an Irgun bomb kills six Arabs at an oil refinery in Haifa.
Trials by a US court at Dachau conclude with the conviction of 15 Germans for their actions at the Nordhausen death camp.
31 December 1947 String Quartet no.4 by Ross Lee Finney (41) is performed for the first time, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
©2004-2012 Paul Scharfenberger
20 August 2012
Last Updated (Monday, 20 August 2012 14:48)