Stories from 1947
Browse a timeline of top world events from 1947. Or, use Proust to tell your life story and share personal
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February 21, 1947
Edwin Land invented instant photography with the Polaroid camera.
April 1, 1947
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New York, New York
Jackie Robinson was the first African American in major league baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. His first game with the team was on August 15, 1947; the Dodgers would go on to win six championships and one World Series title.
June 23, 1947
The Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, later renamed the Taft-Hartley Act, severely limited the power of labor unions.
July 26, 1947
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was established.
October 5, 1947
President Harry Truman gave the first presidential speech on television and asked Americans to cut back on the food they consume in order to provide relief to Europeans post-World War II.
November 6, 1947
Political show Meet the Press aired for the first time on NBC and would become the longest-running network television program.
December 1, 1947
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New York
Levitttown became the epitome of suburbia with its quickly constructed tract homes on large lawns. Soldiers returning from war and wanting to settle down could buy these inexpensive homes with subsidized loans and mortgages under the G.I. Bill.
December 1, 1947
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Israel
Two shepherd boys found the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Hebrew manuscripts and one of the most important discoveries in modern archaeology and history, near Qumran.
December 23, 1947
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NJ
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley invented the transistor at Bell Labs, a huge contribution to modern society that would earn them a Nobel Prize in physics nine years later.
December 27, 1947
"Oh, ho, ho, howdy doody" NBC broadcasted the first episode of children's television program Howdy Doody.
