1949

1949 is the year Anthony Cragg was born. I began to wonder what else was happening that year in the United Kingdom.

Monarch - King George VI
Prime Minister - Clement Attlee, Labour

Events:

January - A national sex survey is carried out into the sexual behaviour of 4,000 Britons. The results are considered outrageous and suppressed for over 50 years.

January 1st - Peacetime conscription in the United Kingdom is regularised under the National Service Act 1947. Men aged 18–26 in England, Scotland and Wales are obliged to serve full-time in the armed forces for 18 months.

January 4th - RMS Caronia of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage.

February 1st - Women's Auxiliary Air Force renamed as the Women's Royal Air Force.

March 15th - Post-War rationing of clothes ends.

March 25th - Laurence Olivier's film Hamlet becomes the first British film to win a 'Best Picture' Oscar.

March 28th - Astronomer Fred Hoyle coins the term Big Bang during a BBC Third Programme radio broadcast.

April 1st - The Marquess of Bath opens Longleat House to paying visitors, the first privately-owned stately home to be so opened.

April 4th - Britain signs the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO.

April 20th - Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of the Mao's communist forces. Under heavy fire it runs aground off Rose Island. After an aborted rescue attempt at April 26 it anchors 10 miles upstream. Negotiations with the communist forces to let the ship leave drag on for weeks.
The first Badminton Horse Trials are held at Badminton House in Gloucestershire.

April 24th - Wartime rationing of sweets and chocolate ends, but is re-instituted shortly thereafter as shortages return.

April 30th - Wolverhampton Wanderers win the FA Cup for the first time in 41 years with a 3-1 win over Leicester City at Wembley Stadium.

April- First women appointed King’s Counsel: Rose Heilbron and Helena Normanton.
Manchester Mark 1 computer operable at the University of Manchester.

May - Council for Wales and Monmouthshire, set up as a government advisory body, first meets.

May 1st - The gas industry is nationalised.

May 6th - EDSAC, the first practicable stored-program computer, runs its first program at Cambridge University.

May 10th - First self-service launderette opens, in Queensway (London).

June 8th - George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.

June 7-25th - Dock strike forces the government to use troops to unload goods.

June 16th - Ealing Comedy film Whisky Galore! released.

June 21st - Ealing Comedy film Kind Hearts and Coronets released.

July 27th - Maiden flight of the British-built de Havilland Comet, the world's first passenger jet, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

July 31st - Captain Kerans of the HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army both sides of the Yangtze River and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day.

August 24th - Old Trafford football stadium, home of Manchester United, is re-opened following a comprehensive rebuild due to bomb damage by the Luftwaffe eight years ago.

September 2nd - Film The Third Man, with screenplay by Graham Greene, released. The film wins 1949 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

September 19th - The pound devalued by 30% against the United States dollar.

September 21st - The first comprehensive school in Wales is opened in Holyhead, Anglesey.

September 30th - The Berlin Airlift comes to an end, during which 17 American and 7 British planes had crashed delivering supplies to Soviet blockaded Berlin.

October 12th - John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

October 26th - Ealing Comedy film Passport to Pimlico released.

November 4th - Cwmbran designated as the first New Town in Wales under powers of the New Towns Act 1946.

December 16th - Parliament Act given royal assent; cuts the House of Lords veto to one year.

December 17th - Sutton Coldfield transmitting station begins transmitting BBC Television to the English Midlands, the first broadcasts to be seen outside the London area.

Information found from:
http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1940timeline.htm