1949 in the United States

Federal Government

President: Harry S. Truman (D-Missouri)

Vice President: vacant (until January 20), Alben W. Barkley (D-Kentucky) (starting January 20)

Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson (Kentucky)

Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph William Martin, Jr. (R-Massachusetts) (until January 3), Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) (starting January 3)

Senate Majority Leader: Wallace H. White, Jr. (R-Maine) (until January 3), Scott W. Lucas (D-Illinois) (starting January 3)

Congress: 80th (until January 3), 81st (starting January 3)

January–March

January 2 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

January 3 - Eric's B-Day

January 4 – RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York City on her maiden voyage.

January 4–February 22 – Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada – winds of up to 72 mph – tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish.

January 5 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.

January 11 – Los Angeles, California receives its first recorded snowfall.

January 17 – The first Volkswagen Beetle to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York City by Dutch businessman Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models will be sold in America that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff that the car has no future in the U.S. (The VW Beetle goes on to become the greatest automobile phenomenon in American history.)

January 19 – The Poe Toaster first appears at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe.

January 20 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman begins his full term.

January 25 – The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.

February 10 – Arthur Miller's tragedy Death of a Salesman opens at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway in New York City with Lee J. Cobb in the title rôle of Willy Loman and runs for 742 performances.

February 19 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.

February 22 – Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow, gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.

March 2 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight (it was refueled in flight 4 times).

March 17 – The Shamrock Hotel in Houston, Texas, owned by oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy, has its grand opening.

March 20 – The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Oakland, California, as the first long distance train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment.

March 26 – The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert (i.e. no scenery or costumes), is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. The second half is telecast a week later. This is the only complete opera that Toscanini ever conducts on television.

March 28 – United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.

March 29 – The 21st Academy Awards ceremony is held.

April–June

April 4 – The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., creating the NATO defense alliance.

April 7 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza, opens on Broadway and goes on to become R&H's second longest-running musical. It becomes an instant classic of the musical theatre. The score's biggest hit is the song Some Enchanted Evening.

April 23 – Development of the USS United States (CVA-58) "supercarrier" is cancelled; high-ranking Navy officials resign in protest in what has been called the Revolt of the Admirals.

May ? – A working group has been set up by United States Department of State, to codify the White Paper. This team consists of more than 80 staff members, Lead by Secretary of State Dean Acheson, former Columbia University Professor of Public International Law Philip C. Jessup.

May 10 – Noah's Birthday.

June 8 – Red Scare: Celebrities including Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members.

June 14 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, becomes the first primate to enter space, on Hermes project V-2 rocket Blossom IVB, but is killed on impact at return.

June 19 – Glenn Dunaway wins the inaugural NASCAR race at Charlotte Speedway, a 3/4 mile oval in Charlotte, North Carolina, but is disqualified due to illegal springs. Jim Roper is declared the official winner.

June 24 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, airs on NBC.

June 29 – The last U.S. troops withdraw from South Korea.

July–September

August 05 – United States Department of State Published 《The China White Paper, originally United States Relations with China: With Special Reference to the Period 1944-1949》。

August 10 – The National Military Establishment (formerly the Department of War) is renamed the Department of Defense.

August 16 – Office of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff created.

August 28 – The last 6 surviving veterans of the American Civil War meet in Indianapolis.

September 5 – Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey with a souvenir Luger to become America's first single-episode mass murderer.

September 15 – The Housing Act of 1949 is enacted.

September 29 – Iva Toguri D'Aquino is found guilty of broadcasting for Japan as "Tokyo Rose" during World War II.

October–December

October 27 – An airliner flying from Paris to New York City crashes in the Azores island of São Miguel. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu and boxer Marcel Cerdan.

November – Englewood race riot in Chicago.

November 24 – The ski resort in Squaw Valley, California officially opens.

Undated

General Services Administration established per Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949

The first 20 mm M61 Vulcan Gatling gun prototypes are completed.

1949 is the first year in which no African-American is lynched in the USA.

Births

January 2

Christopher Durang, playwright

Iris Marion Young, political scientist (died 2006)

January 3 – Sylvia Likens, murder victim (died 1965)

January 6 – Carolyn D. Wright, poet

January 10

George Foreman, heavyweight boxer

James Lapine, director and playwright

Linda Lovelace, pornographic film actress (died 2002)

January 22 – Steve Perry, musician

February 15 – Ken Anderson, American football player and coach

February 17 – Dennis Green, American football player and coach

February 19 – Danielle Bunten Berry, born Dan(iel Paul) Bunten, software developer (died 1998)

February 25 – Ric Flair (Richard Fliehr), wrestler

February 28 – Ilene Graff, actress and singer

March 2

Gates McFadden, actress and choreographer

Eddie Money (Edward Mahoney), rock guitarist and singer

March 3

Gloria Hendry, African American actress

Jesse Jefferson, baseball player (died 2011)

March 10 – Larry Wall, computer programmer

March 12 – Rob Cohen, film director

March 13 – Julia Migenes, soprano

March 16

Erik Estrada, television actor and police officer

Elliott Murphy, singer-songwriter

March 17 – Patrick Duffy, television actor

March 29 – Michael Brecker, jazz saxophonist (died 2007)

April 1 – Gil Scott-Heron, African American poet, jazz/soul musician and author (died 2011)

April 5 – Judith Resnik, astronaut (died 1986)

April 9 – Stephen Hickman, illustrator

April 11 – Dorothy Allison, novelist and campaigner

April 20 – Jessica Lange, actress

May 3 – Ron Wyden, U.S. Senator from Oregon from 1996

May 4 – John Force, race car driver

May 7 – Deborah Butterfield, sculptor

May 9 – Billy Joel, singer-songwriter and pianist

May 13 – Zoë Wanamaker, actress

May 15 – George Adams, basketball player

May 26 – Ward Cunningham, computer programmer

June 3 – John Rothman, actor

June 16 – Karl J Thomas, The Innkeeper

July 1 – Denis Johnson, writer

July 15 – Richard Russo, novelist

June 20 – Lionel Richie, African American singer-songwriter

June 22

Alan Osmond, pop singer

Meryl Streep, actress

Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 2013.

July 24 – Michael Richards, actor and comedian

July 29 – Marilyn Quayle, wife of Dan Quayle, Second Lady of the United States

July 31 – Mike Jackson, basketball player

August 1 – Jim Carroll, author, poet and punk musician (died 2009)

August 3 – Peter Gutmann, journalist

August 4 – John Riggins, American football player

August 11 – Tim Hutchinson, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1997 to 2003

August 17 – Norm Coleman, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009

August 31

Richard Gere, film actor

H. David Politzer, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004

September 1 – Leslie Feinberg, transgender activist

September 7

Gloria Gaynor, African American singer

Lee McGeorge Durrell, zoologist

September 10 – Bill O'Reilly, conservative political commentator

September 13 – John W. Henry, foreign exchange advisor and Boston Red Sox owner

September 15 – Joe Barton, politician

September 16 – Ed Begley, Jr. actor and environmentalist

September 23 – Bruce Springsteen, singer-songwriter

September 26 – Jane Smiley, novelist

October 8

Jerry Bittle, cartoonist (died 2003)

Sigourney Weaver (Susan Weaver), film actress

October 25 – Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., film producer, record producer, singer and voice artist (son of Alvin and the Chipmunks creator Ross Bagdasarian, Sr.)

November 2 – Lois McMaster Bujold, author of speculative fiction

November 12 – Jack Reed, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 1997

November 14 – James Young, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Styx)

November 29

Jerry Lawler, wrestler

Garry Shandling, comedian (died 2016)

December 4 – Jeff Bridges, film actor

December 9 – Tom Kite, golfer

December 13

Randy Owen, country lead vocalist, rhythm guitar player

Tom Verlaine, rock singer/guitarist

December 14 – Bill Buckner, baseball player

December 15 – Don Johnson, television actor

December 16 – Billy Gibbons, rock guitarist (ZZ Top)

December 25

Sissy Spacek, film actress

Joe Louis Walker, African American electric blues musician

December 28 – Barbara De Fina, film producer

Deaths

January 6 – Victor Fleming, film director (born 1889)

January 11 – Nelson Doubleday, publisher (born 1889)

January 14 – Harry Stack Sullivan, psychiatrist (born 1892)

February 1 – Herbert Stothart, composer (born 1885)

February 17 – Ellery Harding Clark, field athlete (born 1874)

March 7

Sol Bloom, politician and impresario (born 1870)

Bradbury Robinson, footballer who threw the first forward pass in American football history in 1906 (born 1884)

March 17 – Felix Bressart, German American actor (born 1892)

March 20 – Irving Fazola, jazz clarinetist (born 1912; heart attack)

March 25 – Jack Kapp, president of the U.S. branch of Decca Records (born 1901)

April 15 – Wallace Beery, film actor (born 1885)

April 22 – Charles Middleton, actor (born 1874)

May 22 – James Forrestal, U.S. Secretary of Navy and Defense (born 1892)

May 27 – Robert Ripley, creator of Ripley's Believe It or Not! (born 1890)

June 14 – Russell Doubleday, author and publisher (born 1872)

June 25 – Buck Freeman, baseball player (born 1871)

July 7 – Bunk Johnson, African American jazz trumpeter (born 1879?)

July 18 – Alice Corbin Henderson, poet (born 1881)

July 26 – Linda Arvidson, silent film actress (born 1884)

August 9

Gustavus M. Blech, German American physician and surgeon (born 1870)

Harry Davenport, actor (born 1866)

August 16 – Margaret Mitchell, novelist (born 1900; killed in road accident)

August 18 – Paul Mares, dixieland jazz cornet player (born 1900; lung cancer)

September 10 – Wiley Rutledge, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (born 1894)

September 12 – Harry Burleigh, African American baritone and classical composer (born 1866)

September 18 – Frank Morgan, character actor (born 1890)

September 19 – Will Cuppy, humorist (born 1884)

September 20 – Richard Dix, film actor (born 1893)

September 22 – Sam Wood, film director (born 1883)

September 27 – David Adler, architect (born 1882)

October 1 – Buddy Clark, singer (born 1911; killed in aviation accident)

October 14 – Fritz Leiber (Sr.), actor (born 1882)

October 15 – Elmer Clifton, film actor and director (born 1890)

October 23 – Almanzo Wilder, writer, husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder (born 1857)

October 31 – Edward Stettinius, Jr., U.S. Secretary of State (born 1900; coronary thrombosis)

November 3 – Solomon R. Guggenheim, philanthropist (born 1861)

November 25 – Bill Robinson ("Bojangles"), African American dancer (born 1878)

December 6

Lead Belly (Huddie William Ledbetter), African American blues musician (born 1888)

Mary Margaret O'Reilly, Assistant Director of the United States Mint (born 1865)

December 7 – Rex Beach, adventure novelist and Olympic water polo player (born 1877)

December 25 – Leon Schlesinger, film producer (born 1884)

December 28

Hervey Allen, novelist (born 1889)

Ivie Anderson, African American jazz singer (born 1905; asthma)