WORLD HISTORY · 1947 日本語
Events of 1947Showa 22 (Japan) · Year of the Pig
What happened in 1947?
In 1947, the Constitution of Japan took effect, and a new 6-3 school system of six years of elementary and three years of junior high began. Abroad, the Truman Doctrine was announced, and India and Pakistan became independent as separate nations.
- February 28 Incident erupts in TaiwanAsia
- Truman Doctrine announcedNorth America
- Japan's new 6-3 school system beginsAsia
- Constitution of Japan takes effectAsia
- Katayama Tetsu cabinet takes officeAsia
- India and Pakistan gain independence through partitionAsia
- Typhoon Kathleen strikes the Kanto regionAsia
- X-1 makes first crewed supersonic flightNorth America
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1947 at a glance
| Japanese era | Showa 22 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Pig |
| Age of people born in 1947 | Turn 79 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1946 (Showa 21) ／ 1948 (Showa 23) |
| Events | 93 |
| AP World History | Unit 8 (Cold War and Decolonization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 8 |
Famous people born in 1947
Our birthday pages list 835 people born in 1947. Here are some of them.
- Sam NeillBorn September 14 · turns 79 this year · New Zealand actor best remembered as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and for Th…
- Arnold SchwarzeneggerBorn July 30 · turns 79 this year · Austrian-born American bodybuilder, action movie star of The Terminator, and fo…
- David BowieBorn January 8 · turns 79 this year · English singer, songwriter, and actor famed for constant reinvention, from Zigg…
- Jack HannaBorn January 2 · turns 79 this year · American zookeeper and TV host who led the Columbus Zoo and brought wildlife to…
- Farrah FawcettBorn February 2 · turns 79 this year · American actress who became a 1970s pop-culture icon on Charlie's Angels and la…
- Mitt RomneyBorn March 12 · turns 79 this year · American businessman and politician who governed Massachusetts, won the 2012 Re…
- Elton JohnBorn March 25 · turns 79 this year · British singer, pianist, and songwriter behind classics like "Your Song," "Rock…
- David LettermanBorn April 12 · turns 79 this year · American comedian and talk-show host known for Late Night and the Late Show wit…
- Kareem Abdul-JabbarBorn April 16 · turns 79 this year · American basketball Hall of Famer known for his skyhook shot, six NBA champions…
- Carlos SantanaBorn July 20 · turns 79 this year · Mexican-born American guitarist whose band Santana blended rock with Latin rhyt…
- Danielle SteelBorn August 14 · turns 79 this year · American novelist whose many best-selling romance novels have sold hundreds of…
- Stephen KingBorn September 21 · turns 79 this year · American novelist from Maine who revived horror fiction with best sellers such…
Show 28 more
- Meat LoafBorn September 27 · turns 79 this year · American rock singer and actor famous for the blockbuster album Bat Out of Hell…
- Kevin KlineBorn October 24 · turns 79 this year · American stage and screen actor who won an Academy Award for the comedy A Fish…
- Hillary ClintonBorn October 26 · turns 79 this year · American lawyer and politician who served as first lady, U.S. senator from New…
- Joe WalshBorn November 20 · turns 79 this year · American rock guitarist and singer known for the James Gang, solo hits like Roc…
- Geoffrey HintonBorn December 6 · turns 79 this year · British-Canadian computer scientist and Nobel laureate whose work on neural net…
- Takeshi KitanoBorn January 18 · turns 79 this year
- Yukio HatoyamaBorn February 11 · turns 79 this year
- Rob ReinerBorn March 6 · turns 79 this year
- O. J. SimpsonBorn July 9 · turns 79 this year
- Jon CorzineBorn January 1 · turns 79 this year
- Calvin HillBorn January 2 · turns 79 this year
- David ShapiroBorn January 2 · turns 79 this year
- Fran CottonBorn January 3 · turns 79 this year
- ZulemaBorn January 3 · turns 79 this year
- Chris CutlerBorn January 4 · turns 79 this year
- Marie-Thérèse LetablierBorn January 4 · turns 79 this year
- Mercury MorrisBorn January 5 · turns 79 this year
- Mike DeWineBorn January 5 · turns 79 this year
- Sandy DennyBorn January 6 · turns 79 this year
- Tony ElliottBorn January 7 · turns 79 this year
- Antti KalliomäkiBorn January 8 · turns 79 this year
- George Alec EffingerBorn January 10 · turns 79 this year
- James MorrisBorn January 10 · turns 79 this year
- Peer SteinbrückBorn January 10 · turns 79 this year
- Tiit VähiBorn January 10 · turns 79 this year
- Hamish MacdonaldBorn January 11 · turns 79 this year
- Richard CarwardineBorn January 12 · turns 79 this year
- Sally Hamwee, Baroness HamweeBorn January 12 · turns 79 this year
Events of 1947 (timeline · 93)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
Cold War: The American and British occupation zones in Allied-occupied Germany, after World War II, merge to form the Bizone, which later (with the French zone) became part of West Germany.
The Canadian Citizenship Act 1946 comes into effect, converting British subjects into Canadian citizens. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King becomes the first Canadian citizen.
Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer a round-the-world ticket.
The Black Dahlia murder: The dismembered corpse of Elizabeth Short is found in Los Angeles.
KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood.
Thomas Goldsmith Jr. files a patent for a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device", the first ever electronic game.
The Paris Peace Treaties are signed by Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland and the Allies of World War II.
Christian Dior unveils a "New Look", helping Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world.
The largest observed iron meteorite until that time creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.
The act abolishing all noble ranks and related styles comes into force in Hungary.
First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to the mountains.
In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
The formal abolition of Prussia is proclaimed by the Allied Control Council, the Prussian government having already been abolished by the Preußenschlag of 1932.
Soviet NKVD forces in Hungary abduct Béla Kovács—secretary-general of the majority Independent Smallholders' Party—and deport him to the USSR in defiance of Parliament. His arrest is an important turning point in the Communist takeover of Hungary.
February 28 incident: In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the death of an estimated 18,000 - 28,000 civilians.
Cold War: The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 22 relating to Corfu Channel incident is adopted.
The Glazier–Higgins–Woodward tornadoes kill 181 and injure 970 in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
The Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride begins through the upper South in violation of Jim Crow laws. The riders wanted enforcement of the United States Supreme Court's 1946 Irene Morgan decision that banned racial segregation in interstate travel.
Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
An explosion on board a freighter in port causes Texas City in the state of Texas, United States, to catch fire, killing almost 600 people.
Bernard Baruch first applies the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Operation Big Bang, the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion to that time, destroys bunkers and military installations on the North Sea island of Heligoland, Germany.
Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to demonstrate that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
Portella della Ginestra massacre against May Day celebrations in Sicily by the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano where 11 persons are killed and 33 wounded.
Ferenc Nagy, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Hungary, resigns from office after blackmail from the Hungarian Communist Party accusing him of being part of a plot against the state. This grants the Communists effective control of the Hungarian government.
Cold War: Marshall Plan: In a speech at Harvard University, the United States Secretary of State George Marshall calls for economic aid to war-torn Europe.
Pan Am Flight 121 crashes in the Syrian Desert near Mayadin, Syria, killing 15 and injuring 21.
The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft–Hartley Act.
Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.
The Diary of a Young Girl (better known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is published.
The "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the independence of the Provinces of British India into two sovereign countries: India and Pakistan.
Reports are broadcast that a UFO crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico in what became known as the Roswell UFO incident.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah is recommended as the first Governor-General of Pakistan by the British Prime Minister, Clement Attlee.
Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and eight others are assassinated.
Cold War: U.S. president Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.
In Vatican City, Rome, canonization of Catherine Labouré, the saint whose apparitions of the Virgin Mary originated the worldwide distribution of the Miraculous Medal.
A British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian airliner crashes into a mountain during a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile. The wreckage would not be found until 1998.
The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7,000 kilometres (4,300 mi) journey across the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to prove that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
Pakistan gains independence from the British Empire as the Dominion of Pakistan, due to the partition of India.
India gains independence from British rule after nearly 190 years of British company and crown rule and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
Founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah is sworn in as first Governor-General of Pakistan in Karachi.
The Radcliffe Line, the border between the Dominions of India and Pakistan, is revealed.
Typhoon Kathleen hits the Kantō region, in Japan killing around 1,000-2,000 people.
The National Security Act reorganizes the United States government's military and intelligence services.
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake strikes South Khorasan in Iran, killing over 500 people.
The 1947 World Series begins. It is the first to be televised, to include an African-American player, to exceed $2 million in receipts, to see a pinch-hit home run, and to have six umpires on the field.
Flying the Bell X-1 over Muroc Army Air Field in California, Captain Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in level flight, reaching Mach 1.05.
The Philippines takes over the administration of the Turtle Islands and the Mangsee Islands from the United Kingdom.
Cold War: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of the Hollywood film industry, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.
United Air Lines Flight 608 crashes in the Bryce Canyon National Park in Garfield County, Utah, while attempting an emergency landing at Bryce Canyon Airport, killing 52 people.
Famed animator Walt Disney testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming Disney employees he believes to be communists.
Partition of India: The Maharaja of Kashmir and Jammu signs the Instrument of Accession with India, beginning the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 and the Kashmir conflict.
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), is founded.
In California, designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden (and only) flight of the Hughes H-4 Hercules (also known as the "Spruce Goose"), the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built until Scaled Composites rolled out their Stratolaunch in May 2017.
Meet the Press, the longest running television program in history, makes its debut on NBC Television.
The Soviet Union completes development of the AK-47, one of the first proper assault rifles.
American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.
The Ballantyne's Department Store fire in Christchurch, New Zealand, kills 41; it is the worst fire disaster in the history of New Zealand.
The Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen) marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London.
New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom.
French forces carry out a massacre at Mỹ Trạch, Vietnam during the First Indochina War.
The United Nations General Assembly approve the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.
Civil War in Mandatory Palestine begins, leading up to the creation of the State of Israel and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Arabs riot in Jerusalem in response to the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.
Cold War: King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1947 in the Japanese calendar?
1947 was Showa 22 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1947?
1947 is the Year of the Pig.
How old is someone born in 1947?
They turn 79 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1947?
In 1947, the Constitution of Japan took effect, and a new 6-3 school system of six years of elementary and three years of junior high began. Abroad, the Truman Doctrine was announced, and India and Pakistan became independent as separate nations.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.