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Today is September11, 2026 Friday.

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The World in 1948 the year a city was fed from the air

West Berlin lived on cargo planes for almost a year. At the busiest stretches one landed every few minutes, day and night, carrying coal, flour and powdered milk for two million people.

Life back then

Three years after the fighting stopped, British shoppers were still tearing coupons out of ration books for meat, sugar and sweets. Rationing now covered bread too, which it had not during the war itself. In June a ship called the Empire Windrush brought about 500 people from the Caribbean to work in Britain, many of them men who had served in the war. American shoppers had it easier, pushing wire carts through self service supermarkets on the edge of town, and in California two brothers reopened their drive-in with a short menu and a 15 cent hamburger.

The year in 8 events

• 🕯️Jan 30 Mohandas Gandhi is shot and killed in New Delhi on his way to a prayer meeting.
• 🌍May 14 David Ben-Gurion declares the State of Israel in Tel Aviv. Fighting with neighbouring states follows.
• 🏛️May 26 White voters in South Africa elect the National Party, which begins writing apartheid into law.
• 🛫Jun 24 The Soviet Union cuts road and rail links to West Berlin. Allied planes begin flying supplies in.
• 🏥Jul 5 Britain's National Health Service opens, paid for by taxes rather than by patients.
• ⚖️Jul 26 President Truman orders an end to segregation in the American armed forces.
• ⚾Aug 16 Babe Ruth dies in New York. Thousands file past his coffin at Yankee Stadium.
• 🗳️Nov 2 Harry Truman wins the election after nearly every newspaper had given it to Thomas Dewey.

Who Was in Charge?

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