Events from the year 1949 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: Harry S. Truman (D-Missouri) Vice President: vacant (until January 20), Alben W. Barkley (D-Kentucky) (starting January 20) Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson (Kentucky) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Joseph William Martin, Jr. (R-Massachusetts) (until January 3), Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) (starting January 3) Senate Majority Leader: Wallace H. White, Jr. (R-Maine) (until January 3), Scott W. Lucas (D-Illinois) (starting January 3) Congress: 80th (until January 3), 81st (starting January 3)
Events
January–March
January 2 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. January 4 – RMS Caronia (1947) of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York City on her maiden voyage. January 4–February 22 – Series of winter storms in Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado and Nevada – winds of up to 72 mph – tens of thousands of cattle and sheep perish. January 5 – President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program. January 11 – Los Angeles, California, receives its first recorded snowfall. January 17 – The first Volkswagen Beetle to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York City by Dutch businessman Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his travel expenses. Only two 1949 models will be sold in America that year, convincing Volkswagen chairman Heinrich Nordhoff that the car has no future in the U.S. (The VW Beetle goes on to become the greatest automobile phenomenon in American history.) January 19 – The Poe Toaster first appears at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe. January 20 – President Harry S. Truman begins his full term. Alben W. Barkley is sworn in as Vice President of the United States. January 25 – The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club. February 10 – Arthur Miller's tragedy Death of a Salesman opens at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway in New York City with Lee J. Cobb in the title role of Willy Loman and runs for 742 performances. February 19 – Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University. February 22 – Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow, gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention. March 2 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II under Captain James Gallagher lands in Fort Worth, Texas, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight (it was refueled in flight 4 times). March 17 – The Shamrock Hotel in Houston, Texas, owned by oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy, has its grand opening. March 20 – The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads inaugurate the California Zephyr passenger train between Chicago and Oakland, California, as the first long-distance train to feature Vista Dome cars as regular equipment. March 24 – The 21st Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Robert Montgomery, is held at the Academy Theater in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Laurence Olivier's Hamlet wins the most awards with four, including Best Picture, while John Huston wins Best Director for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Jean Negulesco's Johnny Belinda receives the most nominations with 12. March 26 – The first half of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida, conducted by conductor Arturo Toscanini, and performed in concert (i.e. no scenery or costumes), is telecast by NBC, live from Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center. The second half is telecast a week later. This is the only complete opera that Toscanini ever conducts on television. March 28 – United States Secretary of Defense James Forrestal resigns suddenly.