WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO AUGUST 1949
Find out what all happened February to August 1949

Fireside Theater debuts on television. (5. April 1949)

The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time. (14. February 1949)

Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first monkey in space. (14. June 1949)

A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joins NATO. (30. March 1949)

Rainier III of Monaco becomes Prince of Monaco. (9. May 1949)

The treaty creating NATO goes into effect. (24. August 1949)

Chaim Weizmann begins his term as the first President of Israel. (17. February 1949)

In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established. (20. May 1949)

The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin Royal Family. (1. July 1949)

Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University. (19. February 1949)

Siam officially changes its name to Thailand for the second time. The name had been in use since 1939 but was reverted in 1945. (11. May 1949)

The extensive deportation campaign known as March deportation is conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to force collectivisation by way of terror. The Soviet authorities deport more than 92,000 people from the Baltics to remote areas of the Soviet Union. (25. March 1949)

The first automatic street light is installed in New Milford, Connecticut. (2. March 1949)

Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. (4. April 1949)

A fire in a hospital in Effingham, Illinois, kills 77 people and leads to nationwide fire code improvements in the United States. (5. April 1949)

The western occupying powers approve the Basic Law for the new German state: the Federal Republic of Germany. (12. May 1949)

The 26 counties of the Irish Free State become Ireland. (1. April 1949)

The Federal Republic of Germany is established and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany is proclaimed. (23. May 1949)

The celebrities Helen Keller, Dorothy Parker, Danny Kaye, Fredric March, John Garfield, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson are named in an FBI report as Communist Party members. (8. June 1949)

The Mann Gulch fire kills 13 firefighters in Montana. (5. August 1949)