- Wartime draft ended

- Secretary of State, George Marshall proposed plan to rebuild Europe

- Congress appropriated $350 million to assist war-ravaged countries

- Congress passed Taft-Hartley "Employer Rights" Act over Truman veto

- Congress approved sending the 22nd Amendment, limiting presidents to two four-year terms, to the states for ratification

- President Truman became the first president to address the nation on television

- House Un-American Activities Committee began hearings on Hollywood communists

- National Security Act created the Department of Defense

- Ballerina (Vaughn Monroe)

- Mam'selle (Frank Sinatra)

- Peg o' My Heart (The Harmonicats)

- Across the Alley From the Alamo (Mills Brothers)

- Temptation (Red Ingle)

- Open the Door Richard (Count Basie)

- Heartaches (Ted Weems)

- Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (Tex Williams)

- Near You (Francis Craig)

- That's My Desire (Frankie Laine)

- Ajax cleanser

- Sony Corporation

- Supersonic airplane flight

- Geodesic dome

- UFOs

- Slinky

- Howdy Doody

- First nationwide telephone strike

- Polaroid Land Camera

- Power automobile seats and windows (Packard)

- Levittown

- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

- Everglades National Park

- Elmer's Glue-All

- Diary of Anne Frank

- Tubeless tires (B.F. Goodrich)

- Holography

- "Steve Canyon"

- The UN flag

- Cleveland Indian Larry Doby became first black player in the American League

- The World Series was televised for the first time

- New York Yankees won the World Series

- Chicago Cardinals were NFL champs

- Cleveland Browns were AAFC champs

- Notre Dame was college football champ

- Holy Cross won the NCAA basketball title

- John Lujack of Notre Dame won the Heisman Trophy

- John Kramer won the men's U.S. Open tennis title

- Louise Brough won the women's U.S. Open tennis title

- Lou Worsham won the USGA Open

- Jimmy Demaret won the Masters golf tournament

- Betty Jameson won the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament

- World Series

- Meet the Press

- Puppet Television Theater (later Howdy Doody)

- Juvenile Jury

- The Week in Review

- Musical Merry-Go-Round

- Charade Quiz

- Small Fry Club

- A United Airlines pilot reported seeing large flying discs over Idaho

- Thor Heyerdal set sail on his raft, Kon Tiki, from Peru toward Tahiti

- Sugar rationing ended

- An estimated 75,000 U.S. students received no schooling due to teacher shortage

- The Public Roads Administration designated the first 60,000 miles of interstate highways for construction

- Gillette and Ford paid $65,000 to sponsor the first TV World Series broadcast

- Crossfire

- A Double Life

- Miracle on 34th Street

- Life With Father

- The Egg and I

- Body and Soul

- Kiss of Death

- The Farmer's Daughter

- Best Director: Elia Kazan (Gentleman's Agreement)

- Best Actress: Loretta Young (The Farmer's Daughter)

- The Moneyman, Thomas B. Costain

- Gentleman's Agreement, Laura Z. Hobson

- Lydia Baily, Kenneth Roberts

- The Vixens, Frank Yerby

- The Wayward Bus, John Steinbeck

- House Divided, Ben Ames Williams

- Kingsblood Royal, Sinclair Lewis

- East Side, West Side, Marcia Davenport