A British television licensing detector.
By Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
On May 31, 1946, the submarine I-401, one of Japan’s two “underwater aircraft carriers” — the largest non-nuclear subs ever built, and one of two brought to Hawaii — is used as a target ship and sunk off Pearl Harbor by the submarine USS Trumpetfish. At 400 feet long, the subs were designed to carry three Aichi M6A1 Seiran torpedo bombers, which could be readied to fly once the sub surfaced. Configured as seaplanes, the bombers could be recovered and reused. I-401 surrendered to the American sub USS Segundo on August 29, 1945. Her sister ship, I-400, — captured on August 27, 1945, by two U.S. Navy destroyers (USS Blue and USS Mansfield) —was also used as a target and sunk off Oahu by USS Trumpetfish, on June 4. A third sub, I-402, was completed in June 1945, but was converted to a tanker and never went to sea. It was taken to sea by the U.S. Navy and scuttled off Japan to prevent the Soviets from examining the vessel, as they were demanding. In England, London Heathrow Airport officially opens for civilian use.
By a 61-20 vote, the Senate on June 1, 1946, gives President Truman emergency powers to end strikes. The House had passed the bill the previous week. In the United Kingdom, television licenses are introduced (TV owners must have a license to legally receive a monochrome signal from the BBC). They cost £2 each (the equivalent of US$8.07 in 1946, US$105.00 today). Marshal Ion Antonescu, wartime leader of German-allied Romania, and three other Romanian leaders are executed by firing squad near Jilava. Assault wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the seventh thoroughbred to win horse racing’s Triple Crown. The steed had won the Kentucky Derby on May 4 and the Preakness Stakes on May 11.
The Italian electorate in a plebiscite on June 2 votes to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. Also elected is a new constituent assembly: Christian Democrats win the most seats. In the elections, Italian women vote for the first time. In France, elections for a new constituent assembly also take place. The Popular Republican Movement party wins the most seats, followed closely by the Communists and the Socialists.
In the case of Morgan v. Virginia, the Supreme Court of the United States on June 3 rules that segregation by race on interstate bus lines is unconstitutional. The case stems from a 1944 incident where Irene Morgan was jailed in Middlesex, Virginia, for refusing to give up her bus seat in what the driver said was the “white section” of the vehicle. Ch’en Kung-po, former president of the Japanese collaborationist Wang Jingwei Government of China, is executed in Soochow. In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East opens for the trial of 28 Japanese accused of war crimes.
Juan Perón Sosa replaces Edelmiro Farrell Piaui as president of Argentina on June 4. The U.S. Army recovers manuscripts and jewels belonging to members of the dynastic House of Hesse that were stolen in November 1945 from the Friedrichshof Castle, in Kronberg, Germany. The goods were taken by Women’s Army Corps Capt. Kathleen Nash (in charge of the castle, being used by the U.S. Army as an Officers’ Club), Col. Jack Durant (who later became Nash’s husband) and Maj. David Watson. The three mailed much of their loot to the U.S. in 30 boxes over a period of time — some to Nash’s sisters in California and Wisconsin, some to Durant’s brother in Virginia, and some to Watson’s parents in California. Prior to their return to the U.S. for separation from the service, the trio sold large amounts of gold and jewelry that they had kept with them to pawnshops and small jewelry stores in Northern Ireland and Switzerland. Unfortunately for the conspirators, the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division was on to them almost immediately, having received a complaint about the theft from members of the Hesse family. Arrested in the U.S., the “Hesse Three” were brought back to Germany and court-martialed. Each was found guilty on charges of larceny, dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming of an officer. They were dishonorably discharged and sentenced to federal prison — Watson for three years, Nash for five years and Durant for 15 years. Only 10% of what they had stolen — valued at $3 million — was returned to the Hesse Estate.
In Chicago, Illinois, a fire breaks out at 12:20 a.m. on June 5 in the LaSalle Hotel, killing 59 people. At the time, 1,059 guests and 108 employees are present in the 20-story building.
On June 6, after weeks of negotiations led by special envoy U.S. Gen. of the Army George C. Marshall, a 15-day truce in Manchuria is agreed to between the Chinese Communists and the Chinese Nationalists. President Truman nominates Treasury Secretary Fred M. Vinson to be the next Chief Justice of the United States. In New York City, the Basketball Association of America — a predecessor professional league to the National Basketball Association (established in 1949) — is founded. Three of the BAA’s original teams remain in the NBA today: the Boston Celtics, the New York Knickerbockers and the Philadelphia (now Golden State) Warriors.
The BBC on June 7, 1946, restarts its television transmitter at Alexandra Palace in London and resumes regular television service with less than 12,000 viewers. The first program aired is a Mickey Mouse cartoon that had been interrupted almost seven years earlier when the BBC suddenly shut down at noon on September 1, 1939, when war broke out upon Germany’s invasion of Poland. In Italy, riots by monarchists in Naples, Pisa and Rome result in four people dead and 35 injured. (The electorate had voted on June 2 to end the Italian monarchy.)
In Indonesia, President Sukarno on June 8 calls for anti-colonial defiance. In the U.K., the “Victory Celebrations” are held in London, consisting of a nine-mile-long military parade with a 300-plane fly-over by the RAF and nighttime fireworks displays. The event, held to celebrate the victories over the Axis nations, involved contingents from most of the Allies, including military units of the British Empire, the forces of the U.K., the U.S. and France, and units from Belgium, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Luxembourg, Mexico, Nepal, the Netherlands, Norway and Transjordan. Not present are representatives from the U.S.S.R., Yugoslavia and, controversially, Poland.
Twenty-year-old Ananda Mahidol, King Rama VIII of Siam, is found dead of a gunshot wound in his bed in the Royal Palace, in Bangkok, on June 9. He is succeeded by his teen-aged brother, Bhumibol Adulyadej, as King Rama IX. It is unclear whether the king’s death is caused by murder or suicide, but under highly politicized circumstances, the king’s secretary and his two pages are tried 18 months later, convicted of assassinating the monarch, and executed.
The trial of Gen. Dragoljub Mihailović and 23 other Chetniks begins outside of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on June 10. They are charged with high treason and war crimes. Rear Adm. Sidney W. Souers, USNR, ends his term as the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The U.S. Army’s Lt. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg becomes the agency’s second director. Jack Johnson, the first African-American world heavyweight boxing champion is killed in an automobile accident near Franklinton, North Carolina. Johnson held the title from 1908 to 1915.
In Washington, D.C., President Truman on June 11 signs into law the Administrative Procedure Act, governing the judicial and rulemaking functions of all U.S. government agencies.
British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin announces on June 12 that the United Kingdom rejects the unanimous proposal (made in April 1946) of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry to allow up to 100,000 European Jews to immigrate to Palestine. Following Bevin’s pronouncement, Zionist leaders begin a campaign of violence against the British in Mandatory Palestine. In Italy, with the Republic of Italy being declared, the monarchy of the House of Savoy formally ends as deposed King Umberto II — who reigned for 34 days — departs for exile in Lisbon, Portugal. (Umberto had ascended to the throne upon the abdication of his father, King Victor Emmanuel III, on May 9, 1946.)
An agreement on June 13 between the Iranian government and the breakaway province of Azerbaijan ends the standoff between the two. The Italian cabinet, announcing the official results of the June 2 referendum, states that Prime Minister Alcide de Gasperi is the head of state of the new Republic of Italy.
