Prompt # 12 - The Year I Was Born

Prompt # 12 - The Year I Was Born

Research tells me that the year I was born, the tape recorder, transistor radio, 33 &1/3 RPM long-playing record, fax machine, and zoom lens were invented.

Louis St. Laurent replaced William Lyon Mackenzie King as Prime Minister of Canada. Newfoundland became a province and Joey Smallwood its premier. Tommy Douglas was already premier of Saskatchewan. Harry Truman was re-elected president of the USA and he desegregated American forces. In Britain, London hosted the first Olympics since Berlin in 1936, the Labour government implemented the National Health Service, and Charles, Prince of Wales, was born. In Europe, the Berlin blockade was followed by the Berlin airlift. In the Middle East, the British withdrew from Palestine and the Jewish National Council proclaimed the state of Israel. It immediately went to war against aggressive neighbours. In Asia, rumblings began in Korea, Mao Zedong was marching in China, and Gandi was assassinated in India. The International Court of Justice opened in The Hague. And on December 10, the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Popular songs that year include: I'm Looking Over A Four Leafed Clover, Buttons and Bows, My Happiness, Now Is the Hour, and The William Tell Overture (which I suspect has something to do with the popularity of The Lone Ranger.) Movies made that year which I have since watched include Olivier's Hamlet, Key Largo, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. George Orwell wrote 1984. James Mitchner and Tennessee Williams won Pulitzers, Hugh MacLennan, A.M. Klein, and Thomas H. Raddall won Governor General's Awards for Literature, and Paul Hiebert won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, for Sarah Binks, Sweet Songstress of Saskatchewan. T.S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize for Literature. No Peace Prize was awarded.

In our family, my parents married on Easter Monday (the minister made them wait until Lent was over.) In December, my cousin Lew was born in Peace River, Alberta about twelve hours before I was born in Rivers, Manitoba. Borne in rivers.