1948

Harry S. Truman
1945-1953

1948 Births
Albert Gore
Bryant Gumbel
Andrew Lloyd Webber

1948 Deaths
Mahatma Gandhi
General John Pershing
George "Babe" Ruth
Orville Wright

New In 1948
Velcro (from "velvet" and "crochet"; invented in Switzerland)

Injections of synthetic cortisone (to relieve arthritis).

Land rover Jeep

Porsche automobile.

Thanks to voting by blacks (grateful for executive edicts against lynching and segregation), labor (upset by the Taft-Hartley bill), and farmers (who feared a reduction in subsidies), Harry Truman trumped the pollsters and in 1948 was elected to a full term.

Gandhi Assassinated

Throughout his career, Gandhi played a spiritual as well as a political role. Mahatma, he was called, the great soul. On January 30, 1948, Gandhi succumbed to the violence he had spent a lifetime repudiating, assassinated by a Hindu fanatic outraged by his placation of Muslims.

Instant Pictures

The Polaroid Land Camera became a huge success upon hitting the market in 1948. First demonstrated the year before by its inventor, Edwin Herbert Land, the Polaroid acted as an instant darkroom, producing finished pictures within 60 seconds.

Selected Service Act

This 1948 Act required registration of all U.S. men between the age of 18 and 25.

One of the many innovations that would transform postwar life was introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. Columbia's new twelve-inch, long-playing vinyl record was bigger than its precursor, had smaller grooves, and was designed to be played at 33 1/3 revolutions per minute instead of the old 78. LPs offered "high fidelity" sound that was more faithful to the original than that of previous discs, as well as more plentiful, offering up to 25 minutes of music per side instead of three to five minutes. The result was a hi-fi boom that revolutionized home listening.

Kinsey Studies Sex

In 1948 - after ten years and some 9,000 interviews - Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, hit the bookstores and became an instant bestseller.

One in three men admitted to some kind of adult homosexual experience, 30 to 45 percent of husbands said they had been unfaithful to their wives, and 90 percent of men said the had masturbated.