Diplomats Walter Bedell Smith of the US, Yves Chataigneau of France and Frank Roberts of the UK had a two-hour meeting in the Kremlin with Joseph Stalin to discuss the Berlin Blockade.[2] Stalin stressed his opposition to the unification of Germany's western zones into a single governing body, but said he was willing to lift the blockade if implementation of the London agreement of May 31 was postponed pending further discussions among the Big Four powers.[3]
Israeli forces concluded Operation GYS 2 with the successful transport of goods to the Negev enclave.
The New York Metropolitan Opera canceled its 1948-49 season after three of the twelve unions representing the organization's employees refused to accept contracts under the previous year's terms.[5]
Former US State Department official Alger Hiss voluntarily appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee and denied under oath that he had ever been a Communist or known anybody by the name of Whittaker Chambers.[6]
US President Harry S. Truman said at a press conference that the Congressional spy hearings were yielding no information that had "not long been known to the FBI," and were just a "red herring" to distract the public from the Congress not getting anything done about the country's inflation problem.[7]
The Federal Communications Commission issued a statement threatening to crack down on the growing number of so-called "giveaway" programs - radio quiz shows that came dangerously close to violating lottery laws by offering prizes to listeners under systems that appeared to depend "upon lot or chance." The FCC publicized a set of new proposed rules, which among other restrictions would forbid giving "aid to answering the question correctly."[8][9]
Egypt rejected Israel's proposal for direct peace negotiations on the Palestine situation. Acceptance of the proposal would have meant recognition of the Jewish state.[10]
Born:Dino Bravo, professional wrestler, as Adolfo Bresciano in Campobasso, Italy (d. 1993)
Born:Deanna Booher professional wrestler, as Matilda the Hun in GLOW and Queen Kong in POWW (d. 2022)
Torrential flooding of the Min River in the Chinese province of Fujian drowned 1,000 people and sent 1 million refugees to higher ground. The tragedy became the source of a war of words between the two sides in the Civil War, as the Nationalists blamed the Communists for destroying dikes while the Communists retorted that it was impossible to repair the dikes because of Nationalist attacks.[11]
The special extra session of the 80th United States Congress adjourned after passing only a fraction of the legislation President Truman had asked for.[12]
The Eighth Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion ended after five weeks of deliberations in Lambeth, England. Archbishop of YorkCyril Garbett said in his closing sermon that "with the discovery and use of the atomic bomb, we live more nearly in the mental and spiritual atmosphere of the first Christians who expected at any time the end of the world."[14]
A group of sixteen young Québécois artists released the anti-establishment manifesto Le Refus Global (Total Refusal), calling for "an untamed need for liberation" and "resplendent anarchy".
An armor-plated Mercedes-Benz that Adolf Hitler once presented to Baron MannerheimofFinland was driven through Times Square at the beginning of a nationwide tour of the United States. The long black automobile was scheduled to stop at recruitment centers throughout the country to encourage enlistment in the US military.[16]
The hidden camera/practical joke reality television series Candid Camera premiered on ABC, the year after it initially began on radio as The Candid Microphone.
In further testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Elizabeth Bentley described an incident in October 1945 in which she was paid $2000 for her spy work by first secretary of the Russian Embassy Anatoly Gromov. Bentley said the cash payoff happened by the New York waterfront and was probably witnessed by agents of the FBI, who had instructed Bentley to maintain her contacts with the Communists while it watched.[17]
The Pohl trial ended at Nuremberg with the tribunal issuing its final sentences.
Aninternational incident began when Soviet consular employee Oksana Kasenkina jumped from a third-floor window of the Soviet consulate in New York City, injuring herself critically. Kasenkina, who had been in New York for three years as a tutor for the consulate's children, was taken to Roosevelt Hospital where she regained consciousness several hours later and told police that she did not want to see anyone from the Russian consulate.[18][19]
The United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan adopted a three-part resolution (amending and amplifying Security Council Resolution 47 from April), calling for a ceasefire in the Kashmir conflict and for the governments of India and Pakistan to agree to enter consultation with the Commission to determine the future status of the disputed region in accordance with the will of the people.[20]
Lauchlin Currie and Harry Dexter White appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee and denied under oath that they were ever members of, or had any knowledge of, any Communist spy rings before or during the war.[21]
President Truman signed an anti-inflation bill authorizing him to restrict bank credit and reimpose wartime consumer credit controls, but he called it a "tiny fraction of what we need."[24]
The Soviet Union vetoed Ceylon's application for membership in the United Nations, saying it was still dominated by Britain.[26]
The Yugoslavian Interior Ministry issued a report announcing that Colonel General Arso Jovanović had been shot and killed by border guards on August 12 while attempting to flee into Romania.[27]
At the intersection of the Soviet, American and British zones of Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, police from the Soviet sector opened fire on a crowd of black marketers who were resisting arrest by throwing stones at them. About twenty people were injured in the disturbance.[28]
Lee Pressman, John Abt and Nathan Witt refused on constitutional grounds to give any testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning their alleged involvement in Communist spy rings.[31]
The US government ordered the expulsion of Jacob M. Lomakin, Soviet consul general in New York, for improper conduct in connection with the case of Oksana Kasenkina. The State Department's diplomatic note cited Lomakin pressuring Kasenkina to make false statements to the press claiming that she had been kidnapped by the Americans.[32]
"Axis Sally" Mildred Gillars was flown under guard in a C-54 military transport plane from Frankfurt, Germany to Washington, DC to face charges of treason for broadcasting Nazi propaganda during the war.[33]
The Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Betzer (Strength), aimed at rounding up draft dodgers and deserters. Over the next five days Tel Aviv was put under curfew, all exits from the city were blocked and a total of 2,794 citizens were arrested.[35][36]
In Berlin, Soviet military police arrested Thomas Headen, deputy chief of the US military information division, for strolling across the demarcation line of the British and Soviet zones in the Potsdamerplatz area while carrying a camera.[37] Headen would be released the following day.[38]
Israeli forces launched Operation Avak, with the objective of sending supplies to the Israeli enclave in the northwestern Negev desert by air.
The prototype McDonnell XF-85 Goblin fighter plane had its first flight, but it would never go into full production.
The New York Metropolitan Opera saved its season after a compromise agreement was announced with the twelve unions representing the organization's employees.[40]
South Korean President Syngman Rhee and military governor John R. Hodge signed an agreement providing for American assistance in equipping and training South Korean security forces.[42]
In response to the Lomakin expulsion, the Soviet Union ordered its two US consulates (inNew York City and San Francisco) closed and requested that the US close its only consulate in the USSR (atVladivostok).[43]
5,000 Berlin Communists occupied the City Hall, located in the Soviet sector of the city, in order to prevent the predominantly non-Communist City Assembly from meeting.[49]
InCheltenham, England at the final session of the International Congress on Population and World Resources in Relation to the Family, a four-nation committee (US, Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden) was established to promote birth control on an international scale.[51]
The House Un-American Activities Committee issued an interim report claiming that numerous Communist espionage rings had infiltrated the American government during World War II.[43]
The Law on Organization of National Defense was promulgated in South Korea, reorganizing the Korean Constabulary and Coast Guard into the army and navy.[52]
^Sivirsky, Marcelo (2014). After Israel: Towards Cultural Transformation. Zed Books.
^Middleton, Drew (August 23, 1948). "American Seized By Soviet's Police in Eastern Berlin". The New York Times. p. 1.
^Morrow, Edward A. (August 24, 1948). "Russians Free 3 Americans; Tension Is Eased in Berlin". The New York Times. p. 1.
^"Churches Create A World Council". The New York Times. August 24, 1948. p. 2.
^"New York Opera Season Set". San Bernardino Sun. August 24, 1948. p. 1.
^Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series: Volume 2, Part 2, Number 2, Periodicals July-December 1948. Library of Congress. p. 176.
^Schnabel, James F. (1990). United States Army in the Korean War - Policy and Direction: The First Year. Washington, DC: Center of Military History. p. 34.
^ abcdYust, Walter, ed. (1949). 1949 Britannica Book of the Year. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. p. 11.
^Trussell, C. P. (August 26, 1948). "Hiss and Chambers Meet Face to Face; Clash In Testimony". The New York Times. p. 1.
^"Tito Note Charges That Rumania Is Trying to Foment a Revolution". The New York Times. August 26, 1948. p. 1.
