1948

For some reason I started looking into things that happened in 1948. Here's my list. Please overlook the fact that I haven't figured out how to do European diacritical marks, or em dashes either, in a blog posting.

• Cointreau was registered as a trademark in Canada.
• The movie Hamlet was released, starring Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, etcetera.
• Albert Einstein's wife, Mileva Maric, died.
• The first printing of Dr. Seuss's Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose was copyrighted by Random House. Wish I had a copy of that first edition.
• The SCRABBLE Brand Crossward Game, invented by Alfred Mosher Butts, was trademarked by James Brunow in 1948. The first sets were manufactured in 1949 (2400 sets, at a loss of $450 for the new business). Wish I had a set of that first edition. Current copyright owner is HASBRO in the U.S. and J.W. Spear and Sons, PLC, outside of the U.S. (a subsidiary of Mattell, Inc.)
• Swiss hiker and dog owner, George de Mestrel, came up with the brilliant idea of velcro, the name of which he made up from velour and crochet. After several years of experimentation, he patented a process for making velcro from nylon in 1955 and founded Velcro Industries, the current manufacturer of the registered trademark product VELCRO.
• Andrew Lloyd Webber was born in London, U.K. Phantom of the Opera, here we come!
• The first Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club was founded on 17 March, 1948, in the Fontana/San Bernardino area of California. The San Bernardino (Berdoo) club charter still exists today. (Ref: www.hells-angels.com)
• The Summer Olympic Games were held in London, U.K. and included the founding of the Union International de Modern Pentathlon.
• Ghandi-ji was assassinated, 30 January.
• A prototype custom sports cabriolet was built; it was a one-off aluminum-bodied prototype car and one of two prototypes built in 1948 by Hans Waibel for Dr. Porsche. All future Porsches were still to come. This particular car was fully restored in 1988--1992 and came up for sale most recently in 2010 at a value of, oh, let's say, half a million or so. Nobody knows for sure.
• The movie The Naked City as in "there are eight million stories in the naked city. . .", narrated by producer Mark Hellinger, and directed by Jules Dassin, is released.
• The Calgary Stampeders won the Grey Cup.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup.
• The New York City Ballet (George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein) was born.
• In South Africa, the election of May 1948 ushered in the new Reunited National Party of Daniel Francois Malan, and ousted the United Party of Jan Smuts. The new government only got a popular vote of 37% but won because of the "First past the post system", which is what we have here in Canada. The ousted party got a popular vote of 49% but still lost. The first legislation of the Reunited National Party, which was passed in the next year, was something entitled "The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949". Sounded promising, doesn't it. I hope some people lost sleep over this in 1949. At least we never had that, in Canada. You couldn't marry the same sex, back then (a prohibition of unmixed marriages act?), but you can now.
• "Cougar Shoes since 1948", trademark of Coug and Company, Inc.
• The Declaration of the State of Israel was signed by Canada and others on 14 May, 1948. Lester B. Pearson, not yet the Canadian Prime Minister nor yet a Nobel Laureate, had been Chairman of the U.N. General Assembly's Special Committee on Palestine since 1947 and working on this.
• Shipments of Cuvee Dom Perignon Champagne to North America, that had stopped from 1939--1947 because of World War II, resumed.
• PEZ, Frisbee, and Styrofoam were all trademarked in 1948.
• My brother MarkAngus (1948--2008) was born. Oh yes, this is why I started on this. I remember now. Requiem in pace, MarkAngus. I'll think of you next time I see a Frisbee. Or a Porsche.