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| Year | Name / Event | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 01-01-1949 | United Nations | United Nations cease-fire takes effect in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly. |
| 01-04-1949 | Chinese Civil War | Chinese Civil War: The Chinese Communist Party holds unsuccessful peace talks with the Nationalist Party in Beijing, after three years of fighting. |
| 01-04-1949 | Government of Canada | The Government of Canada repeals Japanese-Canadian internment after seven years. |
| 01-07-1949 | Kochi | The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin royal family. |
| 01-10-1949 | China | The People's Republic of China is established. |
| 01-11-1949 | Eastern Air Lines Flight 537 | All 55 people on board Eastern Air Lines Flight 537 are killed when the Douglas DC-4 operating the flight collides in mid-air with a Bolivian Air Force Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft over Alexandria, Virginia. |
| 02-01-1949 | Luis Muñoz Marín | Luis Muñoz Marín is inaugurated as the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. |
| 02-03-1949 | Captain (United States O-3) | Captain James Gallagher lands his B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight in 94 hours and one minute. |
| 02-11-1949 | Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference | The Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference ends with the Netherlands agreeing to transfer sovereignty of the Dutch East Indies to the United States of Indonesia. |
| 02-12-1949 | Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others | Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others is adopted. |
| 03-01-1949 | Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas | The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established. |
| 03-08-1949 | Basketball Association of America | The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League finalize the merger that would create the National Basketball Association. |
| 03-10-1949 | WERD (Atlanta) | WERD, the first black-owned radio station in the United States, opens in Atlanta. |
| 03-11-1949 | Battle of Dengbu Island | Chinese Civil War: The Battle of Dengbu Island occurs. |
| 04-04-1949 | Cold War | Cold War: Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. |
| 04-05-1949 | Torino FC | The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Renato Gandolfi, because of coach request) is killed in a plane crash. |
| 04-09-1949 | Paul Robeson | Paul Robeson performs a second concert in Peekskill, New York eight days after the Peekskill riots. |
| 04-12-1949 | Duncan Stewart (colonial administrator) | Sir Duncan George Stewart, governor of the Crown Colony of Sarawak, was fatally stabbed by a member of the Rukun 13. |
| 05-01-1949 | Harry S. Truman | In his State of the Union address, United States President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program. |
| 05-04-1949 | St. Anthony's Hospital fire | A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements in the United States. |
| 05-06-1949 | Thailand | Thailand elects Orapin Chaiyakan, the first female member of Thailand's Parliament. |
| 05-08-1949 | Ecuador | In Ecuador, an earthquake destroys 50 towns and kills more than 6,000. |
| 05-08-1949 | Montana | In Montana, 12 smokejumper firefighters and 1 US Forest Service fire guard are killed in the Mann Gulch Fire. |
| 06-05-1949 | EDSAC | EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation. |
| 07-10-1949 | East Germany | The communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is formed. |
| 07-11-1949 | Neft Daşları | The first oil was taken in Oil Rocks (Neft Daşları), the world's oldest offshore oil platform. |
| 07-12-1949 | Chinese Civil War | Chinese Civil War: The Government of the Republic of China moves from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan. |
| 08-06-1949 | George Orwell | George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published in the United States |
| 10-03-1949 | Mildred Gillars | Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") is convicted of treason. |
| 10-08-1949 | National Security Act of 1947 | An amendment to the National Security Act of 1947 enhances the authority of the United States Secretary of Defense over the Army, Navy and Air Force, and replaces the National Military Establishment with the Department of Defense. |
| 10-12-1949 | Chinese Civil War | Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan. |
| 11-01-1949 | KDKA-TV | The first "networked" television broadcasts took place as KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania goes on the air connecting the east coast and mid-west programming. |
| 11-11-1949 | People's Liberation Army Air Force | The People's Liberation Army Air Force is founded. |
| 12-05-1949 | Cold War | Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin. |
| 13-05-1949 | Aeroflot Flight 17 | Aeroflot Flight 17 crashes on approach to Severny Airport in Novosibirsk, killing 25. |
| 13-12-1949 | Knesset | The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. |
| 14-02-1949 | Knesset | The Knesset (parliament of Israel) convenes for the first time. |
| 14-02-1949 | Asbestos strike | The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec. |
| 14-06-1949 | Albert II (monkey) | Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first mammal and first monkey in space. |
| 14-10-1949 | Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders | The Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders in the United States convicts eleven defendants of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the federal government. |
| 15-01-1949 | Chinese Civil War | Chinese Civil War: The Communist forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist government. |
| 15-02-1949 | Gerald Lankester Harding | Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls. |
| 16-10-1949 | Greek Civil War | The Greek Communist Party announces a "temporary cease-fire", thus ending the Greek Civil War. |
| 17-02-1949 | Chaim Weizmann | Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of Israel. |
| 17-08-1949 | 1949 Karlıova earthquake | The 6.7 Ms Karlıova earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 320–450 dead. |
| 17-08-1949 | Matsukawa derailment | Matsukawa derailment: Unknown saboteurs cause a passenger train to derail and overturn in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, killing three crew members and igniting a political firestorm between the Japanese Communist Party and the government of Occupied Japan that will eventually lead to the Japanese Red Purge. |
| 17-09-1949 | SS Noronic | The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives. |
| 18-04-1949 | The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 | The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force, declaring Éire to be a republic and severing Ireland's "association" with the Commonwealth of Nations. |
| 18-08-1949 | 1949 Kemi strike | 1949 Kemi strike: Two protesters die in the scuffle between the police and the strikers' protest procession in Kemi, Finland. |
| 18-11-1949 | Iva Valley | The Iva Valley Shooting occurs after the coal miners of Enugu in Nigeria go on strike over withheld wages; 21 miners are shot dead and 51 are wounded by police under the supervision of the British colonial administration of Nigeria. |
| 19-02-1949 | Ezra Pound | Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University. |
| 20-04-1949 | Amethyst incident | Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing during the Chinese Civil War. |
| 20-05-1949 | National Security Agency | In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established. |
| 20-07-1949 | Israel–Syria Mixed Armistice Commission | The Israel–Syria Mixed Armistice Commission brokers the last of four ceasefire agreements to end the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. |
| 20-08-1949 | Hungary | Hungary adopts the Hungarian Constitution of 1949 and becomes a People's Republic. |
| 21-07-1949 | United States Senate | The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty. |
| 22-08-1949 | 1949 Queen Charlotte Islands earthquake | The Queen Charlotte earthquake is Canada's strongest since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. |
| 23-04-1949 | Chinese Civil War | Chinese Civil War: Establishment of the People's Liberation Army Navy. |
| 23-05-1949 | Allied-occupied Germany | Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany. |
| 24-02-1949 | 1949 Armistice Agreements | The Armistice Agreements are signed, to formally end the hostilities of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. |
| 24-03-1949 | Hanns Albin Rauter | Hanns Albin Rauter, a chief SS and Police Leader, in the Netherlands, is convicted and executed for crimes against humanity. |
| 24-06-1949 | Westerns on television | The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, starring William Boyd, is aired on NBC. |
| 24-08-1949 | NATO | The treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization goes into effect. |
| 24-10-1949 | Headquarters of the United Nations | The cornerstone of the United Nations Headquarters is laid. |
| 25-01-1949 | Emmy Awards | The first Emmy Awards are presented in the United States; the venue is the Hollywood Athletic Club. |
| 25-03-1949 | Kulak | More than 92,000 kulaks are suddenly deported from the Baltic states to Siberia. |
| 25-10-1949 | Battle of Guningtou | The Battle of Guningtou in the Taiwan Strait begins. |
| 26-01-1949 | Hale Telescope | The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976). |
| 26-11-1949 | Constituent Assembly of India | The Constituent Assembly of India adopts the constitution presented by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. |
| 27-07-1949 | De Havilland Comet | Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner. |
| 27-09-1949 | Zeng Liansong | Zeng Liansong's design is chosen as the flag of the People's Republic of China. |
| 27-12-1949 | Indonesian National Revolution | Indonesian National Revolution: The Netherlands officially recognizes Indonesian independence. End of the Dutch East Indies. |
| 28-04-1949 | Hukbalahap | The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to dedicate a hospital in memory of her late husband; her daughter and ten others are also killed. |
| 28-10-1949 | Air France | An Air France Lockheed Constellation crashes in the Azores, killing all 48 people on board. |
| 29-08-1949 | Soviet atomic bomb project | Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. |
| 30-03-1949 | Cold War | Cold War: A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joins NATO. |
| 30-09-1949 | Berlin Blockade | The Berlin Airlift ends. |
| 31-01-1949 | These Are My Children | These Are My Children, the first television daytime soap opera, is broadcast by the NBC station in Chicago, United States. |
| 31-03-1949 | Dominion of Newfoundland | The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada. |
| 31-08-1949 | Democratic Army of Greece | The retreat of the Democratic Army of Greece into Albania after its defeat on Gramos mountain marks the end of the Greek Civil War. |
