1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election, Nominating stage
In addition, the Hall of Fame Committee had instituted a set of criteria for the voters to observe in completing their ballot; for each candidate, they were to take into consideration:


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election, Nominating stage
A total of 202 ballots were cast, with 1,948 individual votes for 76 specific candidates, an average of 9.64 per ballot; due to a tie for 20th place, the top 21 candidates (those who had received 39 or more votes) were announced on January 3, 1946, and advanced to the final ballot.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election, Nominating stage
Even following the previous year's election of several players from that era, the emphasis on the stars of the 1900s and 1910s – who many voters felt should be given priority – was again evident, although not quite at the levels seen previously. Only five of the top 14 candidates in the voting, and none of the top five, had seen any substantial play since 1917; only two of the top 26, and none of the top 19, had played their final season anytime between 1918 and 1933. Players who had been retired over 28 years—35 of the 76 named—received 53% of the votes. No player received 75% of the vote in this stage; even if the rules had allowed a selection at this point, none would have occurred.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election, Nominating stage
Individuals who were barred from baseball were still not officially ineligible. Shoeless Joe Jackson received two votes; this was the first time since 1937 that anyone who had been thrown out of baseball had received any votes, and it would be the last time any such candidate received any recognized votes. Candidates who have since been selected in subsequent elections are indicated in italics; players selected by the Old-Timers Committee in 1946 are marked with an asterisk (*).


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election, Final ballot
The 21 final candidates were listed on the ballot in alphabetical order, as their vote totals in the first round had not been revealed. Because no more than five selections were desired at this time, voters were restricted to voting for their top five choices; this, of course, did not allow for the fact that candidates were less likely to be among a voter's top five choices than they were to be among his top ten, thus making any selections less probable than they otherwise might have been. A total of 263 ballots were cast, with 1318 individual votes for the 21 candidates; 198 votes were required for election. The results were announced on January 23, 1946.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election, Final ballot
For the second year in a row, no candidate gained the necessary number of votes, with none even coming within 40 of the required total. As might have been mathematically projected, every candidate got a lower percentage of the vote than they had received on the nomination ballot. As a result of the restriction to five choices, only four candidates received even half the necessary votes for election. Again, an emphasis on the earliest candidates was evident; the top six candidates were all retired by 1917, while the bottom four were all active in 1934 or later, with the eleven candidates who were retired over 23 years receiving 65% of the vote.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election, Final ballot
The continuing inability to elect anyone created an even greater clamor for radical revision of the selection method. Some suggested that perhaps a lower threshold than 75% was advisable; others proposed that the final ballot should include only ten names, with voters choosing the top five. The Hall of Fame Committee, meeting in April and again in December, found it necessary to again overhaul the election method.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, BBWAA election, Final ballot
All of the candidates on the ballot were elected by 1955, with the exception of manager Miller Huggins, who was elected in 1964.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee
After its 1945 selections, the committee had intended to review the pitchers from the pre-1910 era and to also re-focus on the earlier 19th century players; but after the BBWAA had failed to select any inductees for the second year in a row, and with only one player chosen by the BBWAA since 1939, it was generally accepted that a dramatic revision of the election process by the Hall of Fame Committee was necessary. The committee firmly agreed that any flaws in the rules were causing errors of omission rather than ones of liberality in selections, and that the wide field of candidates from the entire 20th century was making it unlikely that any candidate could draw 75% of the vote from the BBWAA.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee
The committee members were: Hall of Fame president Stephen C. Clark, who chaired the committee; Hall of Fame treasurer Paul S. Kerr, the committee secretary; former Yankees president Ed Barrow; Athletics owner/manager Connie Mack; former Braves president Bob Quinn; and Boston sportswriter Mel Webb. New York sportswriter Harry Cross, who had been named in February to fill the vacancy created by the death of Sid Mercer, also died, on April 4. On April 23, the members of the committee met in New York City to consider their selections and to make further revisions in the election process. In May, Grantland Rice was named to fill the vacancy on the committee, and another major revision in the BBWAA voting process was enacted at their meeting in December.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee, Selections
The committee determined that the candidates from the early part of the century were gaining the most support, but would likely never reach the necessary threshold of 75% because many younger writers were reluctant to vote for players about whom they had limited first-hand knowledge.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee, Selections
In 1945 the committee had believed that only a handful of those early candidates whose careers bridged the turn of the century needed to be removed from BBWAA consideration in order to facilitate elections; they were now more certain that they needed to select players whose careers began after 1900, and extended through the 1910s, in order to break the deadlock in the BBWAA voting. There was even some support on the committee from eliminating the BBWAA from the process entirely, due to their inability for several years to agree on appropriate inductees.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee, Selections
The committee selected 11 inductees – five of whom were still living – including the first two left-handed pitchers to reach the Hall. They were formally inducted on July 21, 1947, with National League president Ford Frick officiating; however, of the four still living at that time (Johnny Evers died in the interim), only Ed Walsh attended the ceremonies:


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee, Selections
The committee had followed up on its intent to review most of the popular pitching candidates of the era, but took no further action on the candidacies, proposed one year earlier, of Abner Doubleday and Franklin Roosevelt. They also took no action on additional stars such as Jim "Deacon" White from the era before 1890, an area in which selections had continually been postponed.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee, Honor Rolls of Baseball
The Hall of Fame Committee also announced the creation of the Honor Rolls of Baseball, which would be displayed at the museum, featuring the names of significant non-players in four areas. This second-tier list consisted of five managers, 11 umpires, 11 executives and 12 sportswriters. These contributors were not designated as official Hall of Fame members, so plaques on the wall were not authorized, as they were reserved only for those outstanding players, along with certain pioneers of the game.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee, Honor Rolls of Baseball
The Honor Roll recognition was not meant to be a final destination for the selected writers, umpires, managers, and executives. The committee was clear that any of the men named to the Honor Rolls would be eligible for full admission into the Hall in the future, and eight of the 39 were later selected and inducted. Of the 39 honorees, eight were still living: Barrow, Carrigan, Connolly, Dinneen, Evans, Heydler, Klem, and Quinn.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee, Criticism and rationale
Whereas the committee's 1945 selections met with criticism only in later years, complaints regarding their moves in 1946 began more immediately. The committee had not yet outlined the revised voting rules for BBWAA elections, and many observers felt that the BBWAA's privilege of selecting 20th century players was being infringed. It was widely suggested that the committee should either reform the BBWAA's voting rules or eliminate the writers entirely from the process; it was also noted that there was still plenty of work for the committee in selecting further 19th century inductees.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee, Criticism and rationale
Criticism was also directed at the Roll of Honor, which had been created by the committee without any popular request; many felt that the Roll was a backhanded, secondary honor for individuals who had perhaps earned full membership in the Hall, and that the committee had simply established it as an excuse for inaction regarding non-playing candidates. It was further noted that managers (Connie Mack), executives (Ban Johnson), sportswriters (Henry Chadwick) and pioneers (Alexander Cartwright) were already included among the Hall's members, indicating that it had not been intended as an honor solely for players. Probably as a result of this criticism, there were never any additions to the Roll of Honor.


1946 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting, Old-Timers Committee, Criticism and rationale
Specific, individual criticism regarding the 11 inductees selected by the committee was not as immediate, although the choices included some which have come to be met with greater disapproval than any of the 1945 choices; McCarthy has been described as the worst player in the Hall of Fame. Again, it is reasonably clear to discern the several factors which the committee likely found most important in making their selections in both 1945 and 1946:


1946 Battersea North by-election
The Battersea North by-election, 1946 was a parliamentary by-election held on 25 July 1946 for the British House of Commons constituency of Battersea North in the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea.


1946 Battersea North by-election
The seat had become vacant on the resignation from the House of Common of the constituency's Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Francis Douglas, who had been appointed as Governor of Malta and ennobled as Baron Douglas of Barloch. He had held the seat since a by-election in 1940.


1946 Battersea North by-election, Candidates
The Labour Party selected as its candidate Douglas Jay, a 39-year-old economist who had been a financial journalist, a Fellow of All Souls and then (from 1941) a civil servant.


1946 Battersea North by-election, Candidates
The Conservative Party candidate was B.A. Shattock, while the Liberal Party did not field a candidate.


1946 Battersea North by-election, Candidates
The third candidate was 38-year-old Trotskyite and adult education tutor, Hugo Dewar of the Independent Labour Party (ILP). He had joined the ILP in 1928, and in 1929 co-founded the Marxian League. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1931, but was expelled the following year. He was one of the founders in 1932 of the Communist League, Britain's first 'official' Trotskyist group, and had remained active in 'Left Opposition' groups until he was drafted into the army in 1943.


1946 Battersea North by-election, Results
On a turnout reduced to 55% from the 71% at the 1945 general election, Jay held the seat for Labour with 69% of votes, a small reduction from the 74% won by his predecessor in 1945. Shattock's 29.6% share was a small increase on the 26.1% Conservative vote the previous year, while Dewar won only 240 votes (1.5%) of the total, and lost his deposit.


1946 Battersea North by-election, Aftermath
Jay joined the government the following year as Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and held several other government offices before his retirement from the House of Commons in 1983. He was made a life peer in 1987.


1946 Baylor Bears football team
The 1946 Baylor Bears football team represented Baylor University in the Southwest Conference (SWC) during the 1946 college football season. In their fourth and final season under head coach Frank Kimbrough, the Bears compiled a 1–8 record (0–6 against conference opponents), finished in last place in the conference, and were outscored by opponents by a combined total of 181 to 56. They played their home games at Municipal Stadium in Waco, Texas. Olan Runnels and Wenzell A. Gandy were the team captains.


1946 Baylor Bears football team, After the season
The 1947 NFL Draft was held on December 16, 1946. The following Bear was selected.


1946 Bebington Municipal Borough Council election
The 1946 Bebington Municipal Borough Council election took place in 1946 to elect members of Bebington Municipal Borough Council in England.


1946 Bebington Municipal Borough Council election, Notes
• italics denote a sitting councillor • bold denotes the winning candidate


1946 Belgian Grand Prix
The 1946 Belgian Grand Prix was a non-championship sportscar race held on 16 June 1946 in the public park of Bois de la Cambre in Brussels.


1946 Belgian Grand Prix, Report
There were two supporting races. The 2000 cc (1000 cc s/c) race, officially called the Seaman Cup, was won by St John Horsfall driving an Aston Martin, with Leslie Johnson coming second in a Frazer Nash and earning the Winston Churchill Cup for the fastest lap. The 1100 cc race was won by Franco Bertani in a Stanguellini, ahead of Simca-Gordini co-founder Amédée Gordini in a car of his own construction, the latter having turned around whilst leading.


1946 Belgian general election
General elections were held in Belgium on 17 February 1946. The result was a victory for the Christian Social Party, which won 92 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 51 of the 101 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 90.3%.


1946 Belgian general election
They were the first elections after the Second World War and saw fundamental changes among the political parties. The Flemish National Union, which held 17 seats prior to the war and collaborated with Nazi Germany during the war, was outlawed. The Catholic Party changed into the Christian Social Party while the Belgian Labour Party changed into the Belgian Socialist Party. The Liberal Party suffered major losses, while the Christian Social Party and the Communist Party made major gains. Despite this, the Socialist Party led by Paul-Henri Spaak formed a minority government, which fell shortly after.


1946 Belmont Stakes
The 1946 Belmont Stakes was the 78th running of the Belmont Stakes. It was the 40th Belmont Stakes held at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York and was held on June 1, 1946. With a field of three horses, Assault, the winner of that year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes won the 1 1⁄2–mile race (12 f; 2.4 km) by 3 lengths over Natchez.


1946 Belmont Stakes
With the win, Assault became the seventh Triple Crown champion.


1946 Berlin state election
The election to the Greater Berlin City Council on October 20, 1946 was the only overall Berlin election in the period between the end of the Second World War and the reunification of Germany.


1946 Berlin state election
The clear winner of the election was the SPD under Otto Ostrowski, which with 48.7% and 63 of 130 seats fell just three seats short of holding an absolute majority. The CDU finished in second place under Ferdinand Friedensburg with a meager 22.2% of votes and 29 seats. The SED suffered a significant defeat, winning just 19.8% of the vote and 26 mandates. The remaining 9.3% of the votes went to the Free Democratic Party which received 12 mandates.


1946 Berlin state election
Voter turnout was 92.3%. The result was a clear rejection of the Socialist Unity Party, which was the party favored by the Soviet occupying forces, and of the CDU, which came to dominate politics in West Germany.


1946 Berlin state election
The city council chose Ernst Reuter as mayor and formed a black-red-yellow coalition of the SPD, CDU and FDP. The pro-western coalition conflicted with the occupying Soviet forces considerably and less than two years later in 1948 the opposition Socialist Unity Party led riots which led to the division of Berlin and the ending of the work of the City Council for the whole of Berlin.


1946 Bexley by-election
The Bexley by-election of 1946 was held on 22 July 1946. The byelection was held due to the deputy chairman of assistance board of the incumbent Labour MP, Jennie Adamson. It was won by the Labour candidate Ashley Bramall, with a much reduced majority.


1946 Big Nine Conference football season
The 1946 Big Nine Conference football season was the 51st season of college football played by the member schools of the Big Nine Conference (also known as the Big Ten Conference and the Western Conference) and was a part of the 1946 college football season.


1946 Big Nine Conference football season
The 1946 Illinois Fighting Illini football team, under head coach Ray Eliot, won the Big Nine championship, compiled an 8–2 record, was ranked No. 5 in the final AP Poll, and defeated UCLA, 45–14, in the 1947 Rose Bowl. Illinois guard Alex Agase was a consensus first-team All-American and received the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy as the most valuable player in the conference.


1946 Big Nine Conference football season
Michigan, under head coach Fritz Crisler, compiled a 6-2-1 record, led the conference in both scoring offense (25.9 points per game) and scoring defense (8.1 points allowed per game), and was ranked No. 6 in the final AP Poll. The team's two losses came against No. 2 Army and No. 5 Illinois. Halfback Bob Chappuis received the team's most valuable player award.


1946 Big Nine Conference football season
Indiana, under head coach Bo McMillin, compiled a 6–3 record, finished third in the conference, and was ranked No. 20 in the final AP Poll. End Pete Pihos received the team's most valuable player award. Quarterback Ben Raimondi won first team All-Big Nine honors.


1946 Big Nine Conference football season, Season overview, Results and team statistics
KeyAP final = Team's rank in the final AP Poll of the 1946 seasonAP high = Team's highest rank in the AP Poll throughout the 1946 seasonPPG = Average of points scored per gamePAG = Average of points allowed per gameMVP = Most valuable player as voted by players on each team as part of the voting process to determine the winner of the Chicago Tribune Silver Football trophy


1946 Big Nine Conference football season, Season overview, Bowl games
In 1946, the Big Nine dropped its long-standing ban on participation in bowl games. Conference champion Illinois accepted an invitation to play UCLA in the 1947 Rose Bowl. The Illini defeated the Bruins by a 45–14 score. Buddy Young scored two touchdowns for Illinois, and Russ Steger returned an interception 68 yards for a touchdown.


1946 Big Nine Conference football season, All-Big Nine players
The following players were picked by the Associated Press (AP) and/or the United Press (UP) as first-team players on the 1946 All-Big Nine Conference football team.


1946 Big Nine Conference football season, All-Americans
At the end of the 1946 season, Big Nine players secured two of the consensus first-team picks for the 1946 College Football All-America Team. The Big Nine's consensus All-Americans were:


1946 Big Nine Conference football season, All-Americans
Other Big Nine players who were named first-team All-Americans by at least one selector were:


1946 Big Nine Conference football season, 1947 NFL Draft
The following Big Nine players were among the first 100 picks of the 1947 NFL Draft:


1946 Bihar riots
Communal riots occurred in Bihar from 24 October to 11 November 1946, in which Hindu mobs targeted Muslim families. The riots were triggered by the Great Calcutta Killings, as well as the Noakhali riots earlier that year. Mahatma Gandhi declared that he would fast unto death if the riots did not stop. The riots were part of a sequence of communal violence that culminated in the partition of India.


1946 Bihar riots, Background
The 1946 Bihar riots were part of a series of incidents of communal violence that occurred across North India. The frequency of such riots increased in the 1930s and 1940s; in the 1945 alone, 1,809 riots took place in Uttar Pradesh, and 3,176 riots took place across the country in 1946. On 16 August 1946, the All-India Muslim League proclaimed Direct Action Day in Calcutta, as part of their demand for a separate state for Muslims. Major riots ensued across the city, with 4,000 people being killed. These riots triggered communal violence across the country, including in Bihar. The Noakhali riots that occurred from 10–21 October also provoked violence in Bihar.


1946 Bihar riots, Background, June riots
The trigger for the riots that occurred in June was a dispute concerning a false allegation that a woman whom Hindus stated had been abducted by Muslims. In the village of Andhana, a group of Hindus demanding that the woman be brought forward and turned violent were fired upon by Muslims, leading to two fatalities. Hindus also killed four Muslim people.


1946 Bihar riots, Background, September riots
More riots occurred in September 1946, once again triggered by a dispute over the alleged abduction of Noor Jahan, formerly known as Kalyani Devi. A group of 30,000 Hindus led by members of the Arya Samaj attempted to rescue Noor Jahan in the belief that she had been kidnapped from Calcutta during the Direct Action Day riots. The failure of this rescue attempt turned into a riot, in which 200 houses belonging to 144 Muslim families were burned down, and 14 people were killed.


1946 Bihar riots, October–November riots
The largest riots of the year occurred from 27 October to 6 November, during which period a large number of Muslims were killed by Hindus in retaliation for the Noakhali riots that had occurred earlier that month. There was wide variation in estimates of the number of casualties. A statement given to the British Parliament put the death toll at 5,000. The Statesman estimated the number of fatalities at between 7,500 and 10,000, while the Indian National Congress put it at 2,000. Mohammed Ali Jinnah of the Muslim League stated that 30,000 people had been killed. An unofficial report on 8 November stated that 500 people had been killed in one incident in which a village in Monghyr district was leveled by fire, and 100 people had died when a mob was fired upon by the military. Another estimate stated that 35,000 had fled the fighting.


1946 Bihar riots, October–November riots
The riots were severe enough that Jawaharlal Nehru, then the head of the interim government, threatened to bombard rioters from the air. A statement from the provincial capital of Patna stated that military forces had been deployed against the rioters, and inflicted heavy casualties on them. Some historians have stated that the province's Hindu premier did not permit British troops to fire on Hindu rioters, ignoring the complicity of the Congress party in the riots. Others point out that the government was eventually able to put a stop to the violence in Bihar, unlike in other regions.


1946 Bihar riots, October–November riots
On 5 November, Mahatma Gandhi, who was in Calcutta, visiting riot-stricken areas, stated that he would fast unto death if the violence in Bihar did not stop within 24 hours. His statement was broadcast nationally by Congress leader Rajendra Prasad. At the time, official reports stated that 400 people had been killed, while leaders of the Muslim league states that the real toll was 5,000–8,000 people. Mohammad Yunus, a leader of the Muslim league, asked Muslims to observe the festival of Bakr-Eid, which occurred on 5 November, as a day of mourning.


1946 Bihar riots, October–November riots
On 5 November, Jawaharlal Nehru issued a statement, saying "We must put an end to this madness; we can argue later," and adding "What has happened and what is happening in certain parts of Bihar province is terrible and I can hardly believe that human beings can behave in such a manner."


1946 Bihar riots, Aftermath
Following the riots, the Muslim League said that it had received a large number of complaints from its members, which stated that they were afraid to leave their homes. On 17 November the Muslim League passed a resolution asking the Viceroy of India to act on the riots in Bihar. The resolution stated that Muslims in Bihar still felt a threat "to life or property," and that the disturbances might easily spread. The resolution also stated that the Hugh Dow, the governor of Bihar and the Indian National Congress were responsible for the massacre. The Muslim League stated that Hindu mobs had killed 30,000 people in the province. Historians such as Suranjan Das have referred to the Great Calcutta Killings of 1946 as the first explicitly political communal violence in the region.


1946 Birthday Honours
The 1946 King's Birthday Honours, celebrating the official birthday of King George VI, were announced on 13 June 1946 for the United Kingdom and British Empire.


1946 Birthday Honours
The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and arranged by honour, with classes (Knight, Knight Grand Cross, etc.) and then divisions (Military, Civil, etc.) as appropriate.


1946 Birthday Honours (New Zealand)
The 1946 King's Birthday Honours in New Zealand, celebrating the official birthday of King George VI, were appointments made by the King on the advice of the New Zealand government to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by New Zealanders. They were announced on 13 June 1946.


1946 Birthday Honours (New Zealand)
The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour.


1946 Boston Braves season
The 1946 Boston Braves season was the 76th in the history of the Major League Baseball franchise, and its 71st season as a charter member of the National League. In finishing 81–72 (.529) and in fourth place, the Braves enjoyed their most successful year since 1933, and signaled the post-World War II renaissance of the franchise under its new ownership group, headed by Louis R. Perini, and its Baseball Hall of Fame manager, Billy Southworth, in his first year at the Boston helm after departing the St. Louis Cardinals. The 1946 team set a new club record for attendance, with 969,373 paying fans passing through Braves Field's turnstiles; it would break that record in 1947.


1946 Boston Braves season, Regular season
The Braves' home schedule began on an inauspicious note April 16. Perini and his partners had invested $500,000 in refurbishing Braves Field, lowering the playing surface to improve sight lines, installing lights for night baseball, and applying a fresh coat of green paint to the wooden grandstands. But colder than expected April weather fouled their plans. The club's home opener, against the Brooklyn Dodgers, attracted 19,482 fans, who witnessed a 5–3 Boston victory. However, some 13,000 of those fans were dismayed to discover that their clothing was smeared with green paint, still wet, from their grandstand seats. The seats eventually dried out, as the Braves went on an early-season road trip punctuated by a Sunday doubleheader played at Fenway Park, home of the American League Red Sox.


1946 Boston Braves season, Regular season
On the other hand, the first-ever MLB night game to be played in the city of Boston, on May 11 against the New York Giants, was an off-field success. The contest, on a Saturday night, drew 37,407 fans to Braves Field—the team's largest crowd since 1933—with the home side sporting satin uniforms, specially designed to glow under the arc lights of night baseball. On the field, however, the Giants' Monte Kennedy outpitched Boston's Johnny Sain, 5–1.


1946 Boston Braves season, Regular season
Despite his May 11 setback, Sain was the Braves' leading pitcher, winning 20 games and posting a superb 2.21 earned run average, second-best in the National League. Although a poor May and June doomed their pennant chances, a strong 36–23 mark during August and September enabled the Braves to claim the final spot in the first division, only one game out of third place.


1946 Boston Braves season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1946 Boston Braves season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1946 Boston Braves season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1946 Boston Braves season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1946 Boston Braves season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1946 Boston College Eagles football team
The 1946 Boston College Eagles football team represented Boston College during the 1946 college football season. The Eagles were led by third-year head coach Denny Myers, who returned to coach the team after serving in the United States Navy during the previous three seasons. The team played their home games at Braves Field in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston College finished with a record of 6–3.


1946 Boston College Eagles football team, After the season
The 1947 NFL Draft was held on December 16, 1946. The following Eagles were selected.


1946 Boston Red Sox season
The 1946 Boston Red Sox season was the 46th season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. The Red Sox finished first in the American League (AL) with a record of 104 wins and 50 losses. This was the team's sixth AL championship, and their first since  1918. In the 1946 World Series, the Red Sox lost to the National League (NL) champion St. Louis Cardinals, whose winning run in the seventh game was scored on Enos Slaughter's famous "Mad Dash".


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Regular season, Overview
The 1946 Red Sox were led by their All-Star left fielder, Ted Williams, who was in his first year back in the majors after serving as a fighter pilot in World War II. 1946 was Ted Williams first of two MVP seasons, and the only time he ever won a pennant. He was among the league leaders in many offensive categories, with a batting average of .342, 38 home runs and 123 runs batted in.


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Regular season, Overview
On April 24, the Red Sox were 6–3, 1 game behind the Yankees and tied for second with the defending world series champion Tigers. Then, from April 25 through May 10, they won 15 games in a row, beating the Yankees twice and sweeping the Tigers in a three-game series. Over this stretch Ted Williams had a batting average of .442, with 4 home runs and 17 runs batted in. On May 10 the Red Sox were 21–3 and leading the American League, 5.5 games ahead of the Yankees and 8 games ahead of the Tigers.


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Regular season, Overview
This was their biggest lead in 28 seasons, since winning their last pennant in 1918. The fans took notice as the Red Sox had their highest attendance ever, nearly doubling their previous record. For the first time in Fenway Park history the Red Sox were averaging over 10,000 fans per game, averaging 18,166 fans per game throughout 1946.


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Regular season, Overview
The Red Sox never turned back, winning 12 straight decisions from May 29 through June 11, including their second three-game sweep of the Tigers. On June 11, the Red Sox were 41–9, 10 games ahead of the Yankees. From June 5 through July 21, in 48 games, Ted Williams had a batting average of .399, with 18 home runs and 52 runs batted in. The Red Sox swept the Tigers for the third time that year on July 11–13. On July 14, Williams hit three home runs in a game.


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Regular season, Overview
The Red Sox swept their rivals, the Yankees, in a double-header at Yankee Stadium on September 2, expanding their lead to 15.5 games ahead of the Yankees and 18 games ahead of the Tigers. The Red Sox clinched the American League Pennant on September 13. It was their first Pennant since 1918, when they won the World Series. The Red Sox ended the season 12 games ahead of the Tigers and 17 games ahead of the Yankees.


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Regular season, Overview
The Red Sox played a three-game series against an American League all star team following the end of the regular season and the beginning of the World Series. While the Red Sox had clinched in September, the St Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers would play a three-game playoff for the National League pennant, pushing back the start of the World Series. The Red Sox hosted the three game exhibition series beginning October 1, 1946, at Fenway Park. The Red Sox won two of three, but Williams exacerbated his injury which would plague him in the Series against St. Louis.


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1946 Boston Red Sox season, 1946 World Series
NL St. Louis Cardinals (4) vs. AL Boston Red Sox (3)


1946 Boston Red Sox season, Farm system
Noel Casbier is listed as the sole manager for Salem/Lenoir by Baseball-Reference.com


1946 Boston University Terriers football team
The 1946 Boston University Terriers football team was an American football team that represented Boston University as an independent during the 1946 college football season. In its second season under head coach Walt Holmer, the team compiled a 5–2–1 record.


1946 Boston Yanks season
The 1946 Boston Yanks season was their third in the National Football League. The team failed to improve on their previous season's output of 3–6–1, winning only two games. They failed to qualify for the playoffs for the third consecutive season. The season opener against the Giants was scheduled for Monday, September 30 at Braves Field. Due to heavy rain the game was rescheduled for and played on Tuesday October 1. This was the last NFL regular season game played on a Tuesday until the 2010 season.


1946 Boston Yanks season, Standings
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.


1946 Bowling Green Falcons football team
The 1946 Bowling Green Falcons football team was an American football team that represented Bowling Green State College (later renamed Bowling Green State University) as an independent during the 1946 college football season. In its sixth season under head coach Robert Whittaker, the team compiled a 5–3 record and outscored opponents by a total of 95 to 39. Wayne Bordner and  Stanley Yoder were the team captains.


1946 British Embassy bombing
The bombing of the British Embassy at Porta Pia in Rome was a terrorist action perpetrated by the Irgun that occurred on 31 October 1946. Two timed explosives encased in suitcases were planted by the Embassy's front entrance; the resulting blast injured two people and damaged the building's residential section beyond repair. The Irgun targeted the Embassy because they considered it an obstacle to illegal Jewish immigration into Mandatory Palestine. One of the Irgun's intended targets, ambassador Noel Charles, was away on leave during the attack.


1946 British Embassy bombing
It was quickly determined that foreign militants from Mandatory Palestine were behind the attack and under pressure from Great Britain, the Italian police, Carabinieri and the Allied Police Force rounded up numerous members of the Betar organization, which had recruited militants from among the displaced refugees. Confirming fears of the expansion of Jewish terrorism beyond Mandatory Palestine, the bombing of the Embassy was the first attack against British personnel by the Irgun on European soil.


1946 British Embassy bombing
The British and Italian governments commenced an extensive investigation and concluded that Irgun operatives from Mandatory Palestine organized the attack. The attack was condemned by the leaders of Jewish agencies superintending their refugees. Italy subsequently enacted strict immigration reform and antisemitic sentiment heightened in the United Kingdom. During the early 1950s, Israel lobbied the British to pressure the Italian government not to pursue the militants. In 1952, eight suspects–including ringleader Moishe Deitel–were tried in absentia and received light sentences ranging from 8 to 16 months.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Background
The British government anticipated the threat of Jewish terrorism emanating outside Mandatory Palestine in the aftermath of the Second World War. The Irgun had been founded before the Holocaust out of discontent with the Haganah's policy of havlagah, or self-restraint. It became the armed wing of Revisionist Zionism in 1936, a turn related to the Arab recourse to insurrectionary violence in that year, itself a protest against British policy regarding Jewish immigration. Terrorism, the Irgun reasoned, was a winning tactic for it had enabled the Arabs to alter Great Britain's policy on Jewish migration into Palestine.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Background
The consequent White Paper of 1939 severely curtailed further Jewish immigration by imposing quotas and ignited a brief military response by the Irgun as well as its later offshoot Lehi, with both concluding that only campaigns of political violence targeting British personnel and installations could shift the British. The Irgun suspended these operations when the Second World War broke out some months later. News from occupied Europe of the Holocaust led them to undertake an insurrection in 1944 under the leadership of Menachem Begin. The Irgun also played a key role in organizing Aliyah Bet to enable clandestine Jewish immigration into Palestine, and is said to have singled out the Embassy convinced that it was a center of "anti Jewish intrigue" curbing illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Background
Before he retired as MI5's wartime Director General in May 1946, David Petrie offered an assessment of the threat of Jewish terrorism in Europe and a warning: "the red light is definitely showing". The alert was confirmed by his successor Sir Percy Sillitoe in August and September, when he designated the Irgun and Lehi as the possibly planning to assassinate prominent English figures outside the Middle East.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Background
MI5 considered Mandatory Palestine a priority within the British Empire and had Defence Security Officers (DSO) stationed within the Mandate, working with local criminal investigation departments (CID) as well as MI5's sister agency the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), to collect intel on Jewish terrorist threats to Britain. Their sources warned that the Irgun and Lehi were targeting British personnel outside Mandatory Palestine. MI5 were obliged to take these threats seriously: on 22 July 1946, the Irgun bombed the King David Hotel, housing British government offices, in Jerusalem, killing 91.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Background
A low intensity guerilla war was being waged in Palestine, with sabotage of communication lines and attacks on British soldiers and mandatory policemen, 99 being killed for the period 1 October through to 18 November. While the Haganah decided at this time to suspend its role in sabotage operations, the Irgun and the Lehi extended their operations to Europe to strike at British diplomatic representatives.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Bombing
By November 1945 alone, it was calculated that some 15,000 Jewish refugees had managed to enter Italy over the preceding six months since the termination of hostilities; the country's geographical location was favorable for the traffic of refugees to Palestine.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Bombing
In September 1945, already engaged for several years in an insurgency against the British Mandatory authorities and army in Palestine, the Irgun high command dispatched a mission to Europe whose aim was to organize the flow of displaced Jewish survivors of the Holocaust to Palestine, recruit soldiers, engage in sabotage against Great Britain and coordinate activities among Zionist organizations sympathetic to the cause.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Bombing
Eli Tavin, nicknamed Pesach, was appointed head of operations in the diaspora and set up the first logistical base for the group in Italy. Tavin found strong support there among Italian antifascist resistance groups, and, recruiting many members of the Betar organization among the refugees, many of the latter of whom, residing in camps run by UNRRA were also eager to participate, set up cells through the country, while establishing two schools to train commandos for operations at Tricase and Ladispoli.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Bombing
Already in March 1946, several refugees, Dov Gurwitz(Roumenian), Aba Churman (Polish), assisted by several others – Natan Rzepkowicz (Polish), Tiburzio Deitel (Fiume), Chono Steingarten (Polish) and Girsh Guta (Polish), had established an office of Jewish correspondence in via Sicilia 135, near the Allied Intelligenced offices, and this was chosen to become the central office for Irgun operations in Italy. The British Embassy in Italy was considered by the Irgun to be a centre of operations hindering Jewish migration to Palestine, and thus was singled out as a target. Planning for the operation was completed by early October.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Bombing
Before the war Zeev Jabotinsky's Betar movement had obtained permission from Mussolini to have militants train at a Naval College established in Civitavecchia under the auspices of the Italian fascist authorities. According to the historian of fascism Giuseppe Parlato, the Irgun had purchased from the post-war neofascist terrorist group FAR the explosives used for the attempt via the offices of its co-founder Pino Romualdi a fascist who had set up a secret repository of army munitions and explosives after war's end. Furio Biagini states that the material was taken from deposits located in a center administered by UNRRA.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Bombing
On the night of 31 October 1946, Irgun operatives divided into two squads: one daubed a large swastika on the front wall of the British Consulate, and the other planted two explosives, amounting to 40 kilos of TNT encased in suitcases and rigged to a timer on the steps of the Embassy's front entrance in Via XX Settembre. A driver, working for the embassy, noticed the suitcases and entered the rear of the building to report them. A few moments later, at 02:43, the explosives detonated.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Bombing
The report of the explosion echoed throughout the entire city and was sufficiently powerful to shatter all the windows of the houses and apartments within a distance of one kilometer. The 350-children school of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart was "badly damaged." The Embassy's residential section was destroyed by the blast which created a gaping hole in the entranceway. Noel Charles–the British ambassador and main target of the attack–was away on leave though his quarters were heavily damaged. No British personnel were harmed but two Italians, one a soldier who happened to be passing by and the other the Embassy's concierge, suffered severe wounds that left them in a critical condition.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Aftermath
The bombing was the first terrorist operation by the Irgun against British personnel in Europe; it resulted in both a setback for illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine, and a major public relations disaster for the Zionist mainstream.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Aftermath
The chief of the Italian police declared the following day that no Italian nationals were involved, that the incident bore the hallmarks of similar operations against the British in Palestine, and that those responsible were Jews from Palestine, dismissing rumours alleging that Italian fascists might have been responsible. An investigation was conducted by the Polizia di Stato with British and American assistance.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Aftermath
On the 4 November the Irgun plastered streets in many Italian cities with notices proclaiming it was behind the explosion and released to an American journalist a communiqué claiming responsibility and this was duly reported in The Times on 6 November. The Irgun also threatened more coordinated attacks against Britain, and justified its actions by charging that Great Britain was engaged in a "war of extermination" against Jews throughout the world. Soon three refugees were quickly arrested on suspicion, and another two detained on 4 November. The Irgun Zvai Leumi sabotage school was discovered in Rome, where pistols, ammunition, hand grenades, and training literature were found. Four other suspects were caught in Genova, and Tavin arrested in December. Among those arrested were Dow Gurwitz, Tiburzio Deitel, Michael Braun and David Viten.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Aftermath
Many were members of Betar. The English authorities requested that those rounded up be handed over, for transfer to British prison camps in Eritrea. One of the arrested, Israel (Zeev) Epstein, a childhood friend of the Irgun leader Menachem Begin, attempted to flee from his imprisonment on 27 December 1946. He had been receiving assistance from the American League for a Free Palestine, which provided blankets, food and cash, but which denied sending him the rope with which he escaped. He was shot in the stomach after an Italian officer on the scene fired a warning shot and called on him to stop. He died of his wounds later that day. Eventually after reported pressure from the Allied Command, the suspects were released.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Aftermath
The distinguished Italian criminal lawyer Giovanni Persico, who was a friend of Jabotinsky's from their days at university, took on the suspects' defense. In November, the British media began to sensationalize the idea that Jewish terrorism was a threat to Britain itself, creating unsubstantiated accounts of other putative terrorist plots and activities. However, the American League for Free Palestine on behalf of Irgun and Irgun itself made the same threats as what the media was reporting. As a consequence, antisemitic sentiments increased in the United Kingdom.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Aftermath
Though the Jewish leadership of displacement camps condemned the bombing, the attack had an adverse effect on refugees in Italy. Encouraged by Britain, the Italian government enacted several pieces of legislation, reforming their immigration policy. The government set a registry deadline for 31 March 1947 and imposed strict travel visa requirements. The Irgun bases of operations in Italy were closed down and shifted to other European capitals where operatives continued to strike at British targets: the Sacher Hotel in Vienna, which at the time was headquarters of the British Army in that area, to name just one.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Aftermath
In order not to be outdone by the Irgun, the rival Lehi undertook similar operations against the Colonial Office in London, which the Scotland Yard unit investigating Jewish terrorist activities linked to the Embassy bombing, and only desisted from a plan to release a strain of cholera bacteria into London's underground water supply system by news that the British government had decided to leave Palestine.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Aftermath
According to Italian historian Furio Biagini the entire world cheered at the way such bold feats by members of the Palestinian yishuv managed to humiliate Great Britain and the recourse to terrorism by the Irgun and Lehi were complementary to the activities of the Haganah and the diplomacy of the Jewish Agency in effecting the British withdrawal from Palestine.


1946 British Embassy bombing, Aftermath
Five years following the bombing, Israel urged Britain to pressure Italy not to pursue eight suspected perpetrators of the bombing who resided in Israel. Five of them had been arrested in Rome but had jumped bail and escaped, while three others had never been arrested. On 17 April 1952, the Italian government tried Moshe Deitel in absentia for his leading part in the bombing. Deitel was found guilty and sentenced to 16 months imprisonment. The seven other suspects were also convicted for taking part in the bombing and received eight-month sentences. The sentences, however, were immediately annulled by amnesties.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers (AAFC) season
The 1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season was the first season for the Brooklyn Dodgers football team and also the inaugural season of the All-America Football Conference. The team compiled a 3–10–1 record.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers (AAFC) season
In October 1945, team co-owners William D. Cox and Gerald Smith announced that the new Brooklyn football team would play its home games at Ebbetts Field and that they had signed Mal Stevens as head coach and Glenn Dobbs and Bill Daley to play in the backfield.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers (AAFC) season
Stevens resigned as the Dodgers head coach in October 1946 after the team posted a 1–4–1 record in its first six games. Assistant coach Tom Scott took over on an interim basis after Stevens' resignation. Cliff Battles was hired as the new head coach on November 1, 1946.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers (AAFC) season
The team's statistical leaders included halfback Glenn Dobbs with 1,886 passing yards, 208 rushing yards, and end Saxon Judd with 443 receiving yards. Dobbs and guard/fullback Phil Martinovich tied for the team scoring lead with 36 points each. Dobbs' total of 1,886 passing yards also led the AAFC.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers (AAFC) season, Roster
Players shown in bold started at least one game at the position listed as confirmed by contemporary game coverage.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season
The 1946 Brooklyn Dodgers finished the season tied for first place with the St. Louis Cardinals. The two teams played in the first ever playoff series to decide the pennant, and the Cardinals took two straight to win the title.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season
With their star players back from the war, Brooklyn had jumped back into serious contention. They would be respectable until their move to Los Angeles 10 years later.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season
This season was the team's – and Major League Baseball's – last non-integrated one.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season, Offseason
On October 23, 1945, the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson as a free agent. Robinson was the first black player to be officially a part of a major league organization in over 60 years, since the barring of Fleet and Welday Walker in 1884. For the 1946 season, Robinson was assigned to the Montreal Royals, the Dodgers' top farm team.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season, Offseason
Later in the offseason, the Dodgers signed two more players from the Negro leagues, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, who were assigned to the Nashua Dodgers.


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1946 Brooklyn Dodgers season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1946 Brown Bears football team
The 1946 Brown Bears football team represented Brown University during the 1946 college football season.


1946 Brown Bears football team
In their third season under head coach Charles "Rip" Engle, the Bears compiled a 3–5–1 record, and were outscored 184 to 122 by opponents. J. Lalikos was the team captain.


1946 Brown Bears football team
Brown played its home games at Brown Stadium in Providence, Rhode Island.


1946 Brown Bears football team, After the season
The 1947 NFL Draft was held on December 16, 1946. The following Bear was selected.


1946 Brownlow Medal
The 1946 Brownlow Medal was the 19th year the award was presented to the player adjudged the fairest and best player during the Victorian Football League (VFL) home and away season. Don Cordner of the Melbourne Football Club won the medal by polling twenty votes during the 1946 VFL season.


1946 Bucknell Bison football team
The 1946 Bucknell Bison football team was an American football team that represented Bucknell University as an independent during the 1946 college football season. In its seventh season under head coach Al Humphreys, the team compiled a 3–6 record. Gene Hubka was the team captain.


1946 Bucknell Bison football team
The team played its home games at Memorial Stadium on the university campus in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.


1946 Bucknell Bison football team, After the season
The 1947 NFL Draft was held on December 16, 1946. The following Bison was selected.


1946 Buffalo Bisons season
The 1946 Buffalo Bisons season was their inaugural season in the All-America Football Conference. The team finished 3-10-1, failing to qualify for the playoffs.


1946 Buffalo Bisons season
The team's statistical leaders included quarterback George Terlep with 574 passing yards, fullback Vic Kulbitski with 605 rushing yards, and end Fay King with 466 receiving yards. Right halfback Steve Juzwik and fullback Lou Zontini tied for the team scoring lead with 42 points each.


1946 Buffalo Bisons season, Roster
Players shown in bold started at least one game at the position listed as confirmed by contemporary game coverage.


1946 Buffalo Bulls football team
The 1946 Buffalo Bulls football team was an American football team that represented the University at Buffalo as an independent during the 1946 college football season. In its eighth season under head coach Jim Peele, the team compiled a 7–2 record. The team played its home games at Civic Stadium in Buffalo, New York.


1946 Bulgarian Constitutional Assembly election
Constitutional Assembly elections were held in Bulgaria on 27 October 1946. The elections served to elect members to the 6th Grand National Assembly, tasked with adopting a new constitution. The Fatherland Front, an anti-fascist coalition dominated by the Bulgarian Communist Party, had come to power in 1944 following a coup. Now that the Second World War was over and the monarchy abolished the communists wanted to adopt a new constitution. The Communists won a large majority, with 53.5 percent of the vote and 278 of the 465 seats. Voter turnout was 92.6%. This would be the lowest vote share that the Communists or the Fatherland Front would claim during the 43 years of the People's Republic of Bulgaria. In subsequent years, the Fatherland Front would claim to win elections with unanimous or near-unanimous support.


1946 Bulgarian Cup
The 1946 Bulgarian Cup was the 6th season of the Bulgarian Cup (in this period the tournament was named Cup of the Soviet Army). Levski Sofia won the competition, beating Chernolomets Popovo 4–1 in the final at the Yunak Stadium in Sofia.


1946 Bulgarian Cup Final
The 1946 Bulgarian Cup Final was the 6th final of the Bulgarian Cup (in this period the tournament was named Cup of the Soviet Army), and was contested between Levski Sofia and Chernolomets Popovo on 6 May 1946 at Yunak Stadium in Sofia. Levski won the final 4–1.


1946 Bulgarian Republic Football Championship
Statistics of Bulgarian Republic Football Championship in the 1946 season.


1946 Bulgarian Republic Football Championship, Overview
It was contested by 16 teams, and Levski Sofia won the championship.


1946 Bulgarian republic referendum
A referendum on becoming a republic was held in Bulgaria on 8 September 1946. The result was 95.6% in favour of the change, with voter turnout reported to be 91.7%. The country was declared to be the People's Republic of Bulgaria on 15 September 1946, formally putting an end to the Kingdom. On the following day the de jure head of state, King Simeon II and his mother, Queen Queen Giovanna, were forced to leave the country, although the queen wanted to leave Bulgaria after the execution of Prince Kiril on 1 February 1945. After the referendum, a republican constitution (known as the Dimitrov Constitution) was introduced the following year.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier
The C-53 Crash on the Gauli Glacier in the Bernese Alps, (Switzerland) on 19 November 1946 was a turning point in alpine rescue and an international media event. The aircraft, coming from Tulln, Austria (near Vienna), bound for Pisa, Italy, collided with the Gauli Glacier in poor visibility. On board were eight passengers (among them two high-ranking officers of the U.S. armed forces, four women, and one 11-year-old girl) and four crew. Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier
The aircraft was found by a Lancaster bomber of 7th Squadron ( pathfinders) piloted by Flt Ltd Geoffrey Douglas Head. The initial sighting was made by his rear gunner. They were searching further north than the initial search area. The Americans initially claimed they found the aircraft first but later made a statement to the press to credit the RAF for finding it first.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Flight
On 18 November 1946 the C-53 Skytrooper military transport aircraft, (serial no. 42-68846) – a military, passenger-only, variant of the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner – took off from Tulln Air Base near Vienna, Austria, bound for Pisa, Italy. The route planning was affected by bad weather, so they chose a route (950 km) via Munich, Strasbourg, Dijon and Marseille-Istres, to arrive in Pisa two days later.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Flight
Having already avoided several alpine peaks in instrument meteorological conditions, near Innsbruck, the crew became disoriented, and on 18 November at 2.45 PM, the aircraft crash-landed on the Gauli Glacier with a speed of 174 mph (280 km/h) at an altitude of 10,990 ft (3,350 m) because of the sudden onset of a Katabatic wind, the aircraft sliding over ice and snow upwards, slowing down rapidly.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Search
The crew thought the aircraft had crashed in the French Alps. An hour after the crash, the crew was able to send emergency radio messages which were received at Orly Airport and at the Istres-Le Tubé Air Base near Marseille, tri-angulating their position in the Airolo-Sion-Jungfrau triangle. A large search and rescue operation began immediately.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Search
Two days later, the control tower at Swiss Air Force Base Meiringen, 12.7 km (8 mi) away, received their radio calls, giving a new radio bearing, narrowing the search area to the Gauli Glacier.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Search
At 0931 hours on 22 November an RAF Lancaster, piloted by F/L G. Head, spotted the aircraft through a break in the cloud cover. The crew managed to plot the location by using radio plots. Later that day when the clouds cleared, search aircraft were sent to this location.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Search
A Boeing B-29 Superfortress sighted the aircraft by chance from an altitude of 16,000 ft (5 km) whilst en route to Munich, later confirmed by the crew of a Swiss Air Force (SwAF) EKW C-36.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Rescue
After the accident location was known, a large alpine rescue operation was begun. The United States Army (US Army) arrived on a train carrying equipment in Interlaken, where the normal gauge railway track ends. The U.S. response units were equipped with Willys MB jeeps and snowcats (some accounts describe the "snowcats" as being the amphibious-hulled versions of the American M29 Weasel tracked vehicles) but these were potentially useless in the alpine conditions (despite their intended design for wintertime use). The potentially cumbersome use of military gliders was contemplated but was not considered further, so rescue teams had to proceed on foot.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Rescue
On 23 November at 2:20 PM, two Swiss soldiers on skis reached the stricken aircraft and its passengers after a 13-hour ascent from Innertkirchen, but as it was too late for a descent on the same day, it was decided to wait at the wreck over night, enduring temperatures of −15 °C (5 °F). The next day, everyone descended towards the Alpine Club's Gauli hut at 7,234 ft (2,205 m), failing to make radio contact with the coordinators in the valley. At 10.20 AM, SwAF pilots Captain Victor Hug and Major Pista Hitz, managed to land two Fieseler Storch aircraft on the glacier beside the rescuers, and with eight flights, everyone was flown to safety. The Swiss army had tested snow landings and starts during the winter of 1944/45.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Aftermath
After World War II, the diplomatic relationship between Switzerland and the United States was uncertain. But after the successful rescue, the political climate improved, in part because the rescue work was prominently covered by the international media.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Aftermath
The rescue operation would have repercussions a decade later when the Swiss were asked to support the rescue and salvage efforts after the 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Aftermath
A more lasting impact of the incident was that the rescue of aircraft passengers in alpine terrain became seriously considered by authorities. The crash on the Gauli glacier is seen as the birth of Swiss air rescue, and in 1952, the Swiss Air Rescue Guard (Rega) was founded.


1946 C-53 Skytrooper crash on the Gauli Glacier, Aftermath
In 2012 & in 2018 remains of the machine that crashed in 1946 emerged on the Gauli Glacier, and subsequently the Swiss Army has been working to recover the wreck and clean up the site.


1946 CCCF Championship
The third edition of the CCCF Championship was held in Costa Rica.


1946 CCNY Beavers football team
The 1946 CCNY Beavers football team was an American football team that represented the City College of New York (CCNY) as an independent during the 1946 college football season. In their second season under head coach Louis Gebhard, the team compiled a 1–7 record.


1946 CCUNC Owls football team
The 1946 CCUNC Owls football team was an American football team that represented represented the Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina or CCUNC (now known as the University of North Carolina at Charlotte) as an independent during the 1946 college football season. In their first season under head coach Arthur Deremer, the team compiled a 2–4 record. The Owls moniker was chosen by the players from the inaugural squad.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India
The Cabinet Mission came to India aiming to discuss the transfer of powers from the British government to the Indian leadership, with the aim of preserving India's unity and granting its independence. Formulated at the initiative of Clement Attlee ( the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) the mission had Lord Pethick-Lawrence ( the Secretary of State for India) Sir Stafford Cripps (President of the Board of Trade) and A.V. Alexander (the First Lord of the Admiralty). Lord Wavell( the Viceroy of India)  did not participate in every step but was present. It proposed to divide into three administrative groups: A, B and C clusters.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Background
Towards the end of their rule, the British found that their temporary patronage of the Muslim League conflicted with their longstanding need for Indian unity. The desire for a united India was an outcome of both their pride in having politically unified the subcontinent and the doubts of most British authorities as to the feasibility of Pakistan. This desire for Indian unity was symbolized by the Cabinet Mission, which arrived in New Delhi on 24 March 1946, sent by the British government, in which the subject was the form of a post-independent India. The three men who constituted the mission, Stafford Cripps, Pethick-Lawrence and A.V. Alexander favoured India's unity for strategic reasons.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Background
Upon arriving in the subcontinent the mission found both parties, the Indian National Congress and Muslim League, more unwilling than ever to reach a settlement. The two parties had performed well in the elections and emerged as the two main parties in the subcontinent, the provincial organisations having been defeated. This was because of the separate electorates system. The Muslim League had been victorious in approximately 90 percent of the seats for Muslims. After having achieved victory in the elections Jinnah gained a strong hand to bargain with the British and Congress. Having established the system of separate electorates, the British could no longer reverse its consequences in spite of their genuine commitment to Indian unity.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Plan
The mission made its own proposals, after inconclusive dialogue with the Indian leadership, seeing that the Congress opposed Jinnah's demand for a Pakistan comprising six full provinces. The mission proposed a complicated  system for India with three tiers: the provinces, provincial groupings and the centre. The centre's power was to be confined to foreign affairs, defence, currency and communications. The provinces would keep all the other powers and were allowed to establish three groups. The plan's main characteristic was the grouping of provinces. Two groups would  be constituted by the mainly-Muslim western and eastern provinces.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Plan
The third group would comprise the mostly-Hindu areas in the south and the centre. Thus provinces such as UP, CP, Bombay, Bihar, Orissa and Madras would make Group A. Group B would comprise Sind, Punjab, Northwest Frontier and Baluchistan. Bengal and Assam would make a Group C. Princely States will retain all subjects and powers(non central government's powers) other than those ceded to the Union.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Reactions
Through the scheme, the British expected to maintain Indian unity, as both they and Congress wanted, and also providing Jinnah the substance of Pakistan. The proposals almost satisfied Jinnah's insistence on a large Pakistan, which would avert the moth-eaten Pakistan without the mostly non-Muslim districts in Bengal and Punjab being partitioned away. By holding the full provinces of Punjab and Bengal, Jinnah could satisfy the provincial leaders who feared losing power if their provinces were divided. The presence of large Hindu minorities in Punjab and Bengal also provided a safeguard for the Muslim minorities remaining in the mostly-Hindu provinces.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Reactions
Most of all, Jinnah wanted parity between Pakistan and India. He believed that provincial groupings could best secure this. He claimed that Muslim India was a 'nation' equally entitled to central representations as Hindu India. Despite his preference for only two groups, the Muslim League's Council accepted the mission's proposals on 6 June 1946 after securing a guarantee from Wavell that the League would be placed in the interim government if the Congress did not accept the proposal.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Reactions
The onus was now on Congress. It accepted the proposals, understanding it to be a repudiation of the demand for Pakistan, and its position was that the provinces should be allowed to stay out of groups that they did not want to join, in light of both NWFP and Assam being ruled by Congress governments. However, Jinnah differed and saw the grouping plan as mandatory. Another point of difference concerned the Congress position that a sovereign constituent assembly would not be bound to the plan. Jinnah insisted it be binding once the plan was accepted. The groupings plan maintained India's unity, but the organisation's leadership and, most of all Nehru, increasingly believed that the scheme would leave the centre without the strength to achieve the party's ambitions. Congress' socialist section led by Nehru desired a government able to industrialize the country and to eliminate poverty.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Reactions
Nehru's speech on 10 July 1946 rejected the idea that the provinces would be obliged to join a group and stated that the Congress was neither bound nor committed to the plan. In effect, Nehru's speech squashed the mission's plan and the chance to keep India united. Jinnah interpreted the speech as another instance of treachery by the Congress. With Nehru's speech on groupings, the Muslim League rescinded its previous approval of the plan on 29 July.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Interim government and breakdown
Concerned by the diminishing British power, Wavell was eager to inaugurate an interim government. Disregarding Jinnah's vote, he authorised a cabinet in which Nehru was the interim prime minister. Sidelined and with his Pakistan of "groups" refused, Jinnah became distraught. To achieve Pakistan and impose on Congress that he could not be sidelined, he resorted to calling for his supporters to utilize "direct action" to demonstrate their support for Pakistan, in the same manner as Gandhi's civil disobedience campaigns, though it led to rioting and massacres on religious grounds in some areas. Direct Action Day further increased Wavell's resolve to establish the interim government. On 2 September 1946, Nehru's cabinet was installed.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Interim government and breakdown
Millions of Indian Muslim households flew black flags to protest the installation of the Congress government. Jinnah did not himself join the interim government but sent Liaquat Ali Khan into it to play a secondary role. Congress did not want to give him the important position of home minister and instead allowed him the post of finance minister. Liaquat Ali Khan infuriated Congress by using his role to prevent the functioning of Congress ministries, demonstrating (under Jinnah's instructions) the impossibility of a single government for India.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Interim government and breakdown
Britain tried to revive the Cabinet Mission's scheme by sending Nehru, Jinnah and Wavell in December to meet Attlee, Cripps and Pethick-Lawrence. The inflexible arguments were enough to cause Nehru to return to India and announce that "we have now altogether stopped looking towards London." Meanwhile, Wavell commenced the Constituent Assembly, which the League boycotted. He anticipated that the League would enter it as it had joined the interim government. Instead, the Congress became more forceful and asked him to drop ministers from the Muslim League. Wavell was also not able to obtain a declaration from the British government that would articulate their goals.


1946 Cabinet Mission to India, Interim government and breakdown
In the context of the worsening situation, Wavell drew up a breakdown plan that provided for a gradual British exit, but his plan was considered fatalistic by the Cabinet. When he insisted on his plan, he was replaced with Lord Mountbatten.


1946 Cal Aggies football team
The 1946 Cal Aggies football team represented the Northern Branch of the College of Agriculture in the 1953 college football season. The team was known as either the Cal Aggies or California Aggies, and competed in the Far Western Conference (FWC).


1946 Cal Aggies football team
The Aggies did not play in the 1943 to 1945 seasons due to World War II. In this first post-war season, the Aggies were again led by head coach Vern Hickey in his seventh season. They played home games at A Street field on campus in Davis, California. The Aggies finished winless, with a record of zero wins, five losses and two ties (0–5–2, 0–1–1 FWC). They were outscored by their opponents 54–113 for the 1946 season.


1946 Cal Aggies football team, NFL Draft
No Cal Aggies players were selected in the 1947 NFL Draft.


1946 Cal Poly Mustangs football team
The 1946 Cal Poly Mustangs football team represented California Polytechnic School during the 1946 college football season.


1946 Cal Poly Mustangs football team
Cal Poly competed in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). This was the first year Cal Poly had competed in the CCAA, and they only played two conference games during the season. They played two games against non-collegiate military teams (San Diego NTS and El Toro Marines).


1946 Cal Poly Mustangs football team
The team was led by tenth-year head coach Howie O'Daniels and played home games at Mustang Stadium in San Luis Obispo, California. They finished the season with a record of six wins, two losses and one tie (6–2–1, 1–1 CCAA). Overall, the Mustangs outscored their opponents 152–88 for the season.


1946 Cal Poly Mustangs football team, Team players in the NFL
No Cal Poly Mustangs were selected in the 1947 NFL Draft.


1946 Calgary Stampeders season
The 1946 Calgary Stampeders finished in 1st place in the W.I.F.U. with a 5–3 record. They were defeated in the W.I.F.U. Finals by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.


1946 California Golden Bears football team
The 1946 California Golden Bears football team was an American football team that represented the University of California, Berkeley during the 1946 college football season. Under head coach Frank Wickhorst, the team compiled an overall record of 2–7 and 1–6 in conference.


1946 California Golden Bears football team, After the season
The 1947 NFL Draft was held on December 16, 1946. The following Golden Bears were selected.


1946 California gubernatorial election
The 1946 California gubernatorial election was held on November 5, 1946.


1946 California gubernatorial election
It is notable for the incumbent Governor, Earl Warren, being nominated by both the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as the Progressive Party. Subsequently, Warren won re-election effectively unopposed, receiving more than 90% of the vote.


1946 California gubernatorial election, Primaries, Republican primary
The Republican primary occurred on June 5, 1946. Incumbent Governor Earl Warren won 91.10% of the vote.


1946 California gubernatorial election, Primaries, Democratic primary
The Democratic primary occurred on June 5, 1946. Despite being a Republican, Earl Warren won 51.93% of the vote and won the Democratic nomination.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election
An election for a seat in the United States House of Representatives took place in California's 12th congressional district on November 5, 1946, the date set by law for the elections for the 80th United States Congress. In the 12th district election, the candidates were five-term incumbent Democrat Jerry Voorhis, Republican challenger Richard Nixon, and former congressman and Prohibition Party candidate John Hoeppel. Nixon was elected with 56% of the vote, starting him on the road that would, almost a quarter century later, lead to the presidency.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election
First elected to Congress in 1936, Voorhis had defeated lackluster Republican opposition four times in the then-rural Los Angeles County district to win re-election. For the 1946 election, Republicans sought a candidate who could unite the party and run a strong race against Voorhis in the Republican-leaning district. After failing to secure the candidacy of General George Patton, in November 1945 they settled on Lieutenant Commander Richard Nixon, who had lived in the district prior to his World War II service.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election
Nixon spent most of 1946 campaigning in the district, while Voorhis did not return from Washington D.C. until the end of August. Nixon's campaign worked hard to generate publicity in the district, while Voorhis, dealing with congressional business in the capital, received little newspaper coverage. Voorhis received the most votes in the June primary elections, but his percentage of the vote decreased from his share in the 1944 primaries. At five debates held across the district in September and October, Nixon was able to paint the incumbent as ineffectual and to suggest that Voorhis was connected to communist-linked organizations. Voorhis and his campaign were constantly on the defensive and were ineffective in rebutting Nixon's contentions. The challenger defeated Voorhis in the November general election.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election
Various explanations have been put forward for Nixon's victory, from national political trends to red-baiting on the part of the challenger. Some historians contend that Nixon received large amounts of funding from wealthy backers determined to defeat Voorhis, while others dismiss such allegations. These matters remain subjects of historical debate.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, District and campaigns
Since its creation following the 1930 census, the 12th district had been represented by Democrats. The 12th stretched from just south of Pasadena to the Orange and San Bernardino county lines, encompassing such small towns as Whittier, Pomona and Covina. The area has since been entirely absorbed into the Los Angeles megalopolis, but at the time it was principally agricultural. The freeway system had barely touched the 12th district; only a small segment of the Pasadena Freeway cut across its northwest corner.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, District and campaigns
In 1932, John Hoeppel was elected to represent the 12th district. In 1936, Hoeppel was vulnerable as he had been convicted for trying to sell a nomination to West Point. Voorhis defeated Hoeppel in the Democratic primary and easily won the general election. Voorhis, who gained a reputation as a respected and hard-working representative, nicknamed "Kid Atlas" by the press for taking the weight of the world on his shoulders, was loyal to the New Deal.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, District and campaigns
The 12th district leaned Republican, the more so after 1941 when the Republican-dominated California State Legislature attempted to gerrymander Congressman Voorhis out of office by removing strong Democratic precincts in East Los Angeles from the district during the decennial redistricting. The revamped 12th district had little industry and almost no union influence. Voorhis was left with such Republican strongholds as San Marino, where he did not campaign, concluding that he would receive the same number of votes whether he visited there or not.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, District and campaigns
Despite the maneuvers of the Republicans in the legislature, Voorhis was re-elected in 1942, receiving 57% of the vote, and won with a similar percentage two years later. Voorhis had not faced strong opposition prior to 1946. In his initial election, Voorhis benefited from the Roosevelt landslide of 1936. His 1938 opponent was so shy that Voorhis had to introduce him to the crowd at a joint appearance. In 1940, he faced Captain Irwin Minger, a little-known commandant of a military school, and his 1942 opponent, radio preacher and former Prohibition Party gubernatorial candidate Robert P. Shuler, "embarrassed GOP regulars". In 1944, the 12th district Republicans were bitterly divided, and Voorhis easily triumphed.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, Republican search for a candidate
As Voorhis served his fifth term in the House, Republicans searched for a candidate capable of defeating him. Local Republicans formed what became known as the "Committee of One Hundred" (officially, the "Candidate and Fact-Finding Committee") to select a candidate with broad support in advance of the June 1946 primary election.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, Republican search for a candidate
This move caused some editorial concern in the district: The Alhambra Tribune and News, fearing the choice of a candidate was being taken away from voters in favor of a small group, editorialized that the committee formation was "a step in the wrong direction" and an attempt to "shove Tammany Hall tactics down our throats".


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, Republican search for a candidate
The Committee initially wooed State Commissioner of Education (and former Whittier College president) Walter Dexter. Dexter was reluctant to give up his state post to run and sought a guarantee that he would receive another job if his candidacy failed. He continued to consider running for several months without reaching a decision, frustrating local Republicans. As Dexter dithered, Republicans tried to get General George Patton to run, though they were not certain if the general was a Republican.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, Republican search for a candidate
However, a day after the Los Angeles Times speculated on the run, Patton announced from Germany his intent to "keep completely out of politics". The Committee also contacted Stanley Barnes, a rising young Republican attorney and former football star at the University of California, Berkeley. Barnes declined to be considered, skeptical of the chances of defeating Voorhis.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, Republican search for a candidate
With little progress made on securing a high-profile candidate, Committee working groups held interviews. Of the eight men who applied, the most prominent was former congressman John Hoeppel, who promised to keep "the Jews and the niggers" out of the district. On October 6, 1945, the Monrovia News Post reported that while Dexter seemed the likely candidate, "of course anything can happen in politics and generally does". The News Post stated that other names discussed by the Committee included "Lt.   [sic] Richard Nixon, U.S.N.R., of Whittier."


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, Republican search for a candidate
Congressman Voorhis wrote his father and political adviser, Charles Voorhis, on October 15, "I understand the General has decided not to run in the 12th district. Dr. Dexter would, in my opinion, be hard to beat. But at least it would be a clean, decent campaign, and I'm not so sure I wouldn't prefer that even if I lost." Herman Perry, Whittier Bank of America branch manager and Nixon family friend, wrote to Nixon, who was then a lieutenant commander in the Navy, telling him he should apply for the Committee's endorsement. Nixon replied enthusiastically. When Dexter finally turned the Committee down, he recommended Nixon, his onetime student. Dexter died only days later of a heart attack, and Patton died in an auto accident before the 1946 campaign began.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, Republican search for a candidate
At the time, Nixon was stationed in Baltimore, Maryland, using his legal training to deal with military contract terminations. On November 1, 1945, he flew to California to meet influential Republicans and give a speech at a Committee meeting. The meeting was advertised throughout the district and was open to any potential candidate. However, the advertisements for the meeting noted that Nixon would be flying in to speak. A number of potential rivals also showed up at the meeting on November 2, 1945, including a local judge and assemblyman. Nixon, who spoke last, was  "electrifying", according to one Committee member. When the Committee met to vote on November 28, Nixon received over two-thirds of the vote, which was then made unanimous. Committee chairman Roy Day immediately notified the victor of the Committee's endorsement.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, Republican search for a candidate
Nixon was already arranging to research Voorhis's record and to meet with Republican leaders in Washington, including House Minority Leader (and future Speaker) Joseph W. Martin, Jr. The newly minted candidate wrote to Day regarding Voorhis, "His 'conservative' reputation must be blasted. But my main efforts are being directed toward building up a positive, progressive group of speeches which tell what we want to do, not what the Democrats have failed to do ... I'm really hopped up over this deal, and I believe we can win." However, "wheelhorse" Republicans deemed Nixon's campaign hopeless.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Background, Republican search for a candidate
Nixon was a virtual unknown outside of his hometown of Whittier and was facing a popular and respected incumbent. Charles Voorhis wrote his son that the Republicans had endorsed a Quaker named Richard Nixon, but hoped that his son would retain a large part of the Quaker vote. The elder Voorhis was confident that his son would triumph again, writing, "It is just another campaign that we have to go through ... In any event, we have nothing to worry about now."


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
Nixon was discharged from the Navy at the start of 1946. Within days, he and his wife Pat Nixon, the latter almost eight months pregnant, returned to Whittier. They initially moved in with the candidate's parents, Frank and Hannah. Nixon returned to his old law firm, but spent most of his time campaigning. Roy Day, chairman of the now-dissolved Committee, appointed himself as Nixon's campaign manager. This self-appointment dismayed the candidate somewhat, and Nixon unsuccessfully sought to replace Day.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
Voorhis had been in Washington since August 1945, attending to congressional business. He did not return to the district until August 1946, well after the June primary. By his own account, he was busy dealing with:


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
[ The a]mendment of the Social Security Act, the Case Labor bill, the British loan, terminal leave pay for soldiers, and several appropriation bills [and] the most important problem our country had ever faced in all its history—the problem of what to do about atomic energy. I felt sure that the people of the district would rather have me stay on the job than come home to campaign.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
Beginning in February, the Republican hopeful began a heavy speaking schedule, addressing civic groups across the 400 square miles (1,000 km2) district. Nixon's efforts to get publicity were aided by the birth of his daughter Tricia in late February. The new father was extensively interviewed and photographed with his infant daughter. Congressman Voorhis's office sent the Nixons a government pamphlet entitled Infant Care, of which representatives received 150 per month to distribute to their constituents. When Richard Nixon sent his rival a note of thanks in early April, the congressman responded with a letter proposing that the two debate once Congress adjourned in August.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
In mid-March, Nixon was approached by former congressman Hoeppel, who hated Voorhis. Hoeppel offered to enter the Democratic primary in exchange for a payment of several hundred dollars plus the promise of a civil service job once the Republican was elected. After consulting with his aides, Nixon turned him down. Subsequently, Hoeppel filed as a Prohibition Party candidate. Voorhis was privy to these events through an informant close to the former representative, and was convinced that Roy Day had arranged to pay Hoeppel's filing fee.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
The congressman feared that Hoeppel would serve as a stalking horse for Nixon, sparing the Republican from any "mudslinging". Voorhis responded to Hoeppel's filing with a letter to his campaign manager, Baldwin Park realtor Jack Long, stating that "it would be worthwhile for us to try our level best to beat him in the Prohibition primary by a write-in campaign".


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
On March 18, two days before the filing deadline, Nixon filed in both the Republican and Democratic primaries under California's cross-filing system. Voorhis also filed in the two major party primaries. Under cross-filing, if the same candidate won both major party endorsements, he would be effectively elected, with only minor party candidates to stand against him. Day advanced the $200 (the current equivalent of $2,230) for Nixon's filing fees, later noting that he had great difficulty being reimbursed.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
By late March, Nixon's stock speeches to civic groups were becoming worn. Day hired political consultant Murray Chotiner for $580 for the primary campaign, and the consultant warned that unless new life came into the campaign, it was in serious danger. In the following years, Chotiner was to become Nixon's campaign manager, adviser, and friend in an association that lasted until Chotiner's death a few months before President Nixon's 1974 resignation.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
Chotiner arranged for stories in local papers alleging that Voorhis had been endorsed by "the PAC", hoping that voters would take that to mean the Congress of Industrial Organizations's Political Action Committee (CIO-PAC). The CIO was a labor federation which later merged with the American Federation of Labor to form the AFL-CIO. It had been organized in 1943 and took left-wing stands; its PAC was seen as a communist front organization by some. A second PAC, the National Citizen's Political Action Committee (NCPAC) was also affiliated with the CIO, but was open to those outside the labor movement.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
Among the 1946 members of the NCPAC were actors Melvyn Douglas and Ronald Reagan. Both PACs had been headed by the late labor leader, Sidney Hillman, and the two organizations shared office space in New York City. While the CIO's national leadership decried communism; some of the local CIO-PAC branches were dominated by Communist Party members. The CIO-PAC, which had endorsed Voorhis in 1944, refused to back him again. The Southern California chapter of the NCPAC endorsed Voorhis on April 1, 1946. Chotiner's strategy was to conflate the two PACs in the public eye.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
Nourished by the PAC controversy, the Republican campaign gained new life as Nixon returned to the lecture circuit. After Nixon spoke to a Lions Club meeting on May 1, a worried Voorhis supporter wrote to the congressman, "He carried the group by storm. He is dangerous. You will have the fight of your life to beat him."


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, Primary campaign
The primary was held on June 4, 1946. Both Voorhis and Nixon won his own party's primary, with Voorhis garnering a considerable number of votes in the Republican poll. When all the votes from all primaries were added together, Voorhis outpolled Nixon by 7,000 votes. Voorhis's total percentage of the vote decreased from 60% in the 1944 primaries to 53.5% in 1946. Hoeppel survived the write-in campaign to advance to the general election.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, General election
Following a two-week vacation in British Columbia after the primary, Nixon returned to the 12th district. The Republican began the general election campaign by replacing Roy Day with South Pasadena engineer Harrison McCall as campaign manager. As Chotiner was increasingly distracted by his position as Southern California campaign manager for the (successful) reelection bid of Republican Senator William Knowland, the Nixon campaign added publicist William Arnold. Voorhis, on the other hand, remained in Washington, dealing with Congressional business and generating little publicity. He corresponded with his father and with his campaign manager, Jack Long, by letter.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, General election
Voorhis hoped to return to California in mid-August but while returning from Washington in August, he was forced to have surgery for hemorrhoids in Ogden, Utah. Voorhis spent two weeks in an Ogden hotel recuperating from the operation and did not return to the district until the end of August. Voorhis wrote later, "I can't say I was exactly 'ready for the fray'. But the 'fray' was certainly ready for me."


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, General election, South Pasadena debate
Nixon did not reply to Voorhis's April debate proposal. In May, the congressman wrote to Long as Nixon's campaign initially made the alleged PAC endorsement an issue. Voorhis suggested that Nixon be challenged to debates as a matter of urgency. Long responded in June, saying that though Nixon was known as a champion debater during his Whittier College days, "with your age and experience the general public might not take kindly to your challenging a boy like Nixon". Long advised awaiting a challenge from Nixon.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, General election, South Pasadena debate
By August, the two campaigns had settled on a debate to be held before a veteran's group in Whittier on September 20. However, the "Independent Voters of South Pasadena" (IVSP), headed by future Voorhis biographer Paul Bullock, announced a September 13 town meeting on campaign issues at South Pasadena Junior High School. The IVSP's actual purpose in having the meeting was to get a vulnerable Republican assemblyman (who declined his invitation) to debate his Democratic rival, but Senate and 12th district Republican and Democratic candidates were invited.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, General election, South Pasadena debate
Given that the debate sponsors were liberals, some of Nixon's aides advised him to refuse, but he overrode them. Voorhis also accepted; when it was suggested to him later he should have sent a spokesman, he responded, "I suppose so, but I just couldn't bring myself to refuse." Both Senate candidates declined their invitations, with Senator Knowland sending Chotiner in his place, while Democratic candidate Will Rogers, Jr. sent Representative Chester E. Holifield of the neighboring 19th district.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, General election, South Pasadena debate
The town meeting attracted a packed crowd of over a thousand, with Nixon supporters distributing anti-Voorhis literature at the door. The Senate proxies spoke first for their candidates, followed by Voorhis. Nixon, who had notified organizers that he would be late due to another commitment, arrived during Voorhis's speech, and remained backstage until the congressman had completed his talk. He then came onstage, shook hands with Voorhis, and delivered a fifteen-minute address. A question-and-answer period then followed, with a Nixon supporter asking Voorhis about his onetime Socialist registration, and about his views on monetary policy.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, General election, South Pasadena debate
After the representative responded, a Voorhis supporter asked Nixon why he was making "false charges" about the supposed Voorhis CIO-PAC endorsement. In response, Nixon reached into his pocket and pulled out a copy of a Southern California NCPAC bulletin mentioning the group's endorsement of Voorhis. The congressman was unaware of the endorsement; those of his aides in the know had "completely forgotten" to tell him. Nixon walked halfway across the stage and displayed it to Voorhis, asking him to read it for himself.


1946 California's 12th congressional district election, General election, South Pasadena debate
Voorhis came from his seat and took it, and (according to Bullock, who served as timekeeper at the debate) "mumbled" that this seemed to be a different organization from the CIO-PAC. Nixon reclaimed the document, and began to read out names of the members of the boards of directors of the two groups, "It's the same thing, virtually, when they have the same directors." The crowd began to cheer Nixon, who later wrote, "I could tell by the audience reaction that I had made my point", and to jeer Voorhis, who wrote, "They'd boo and laugh at my remarks, and this disturbed me."