The following events occurred in September 1947:
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- 31 people were killed in the Dugald rail accident in Dugald, Manitoba, Canada.
- The Federation of American Scientists marked the second anniversary of V-J Day by issuing a statement that read in part: "A strong science will enable us to fight poverty, disease and ignorance. It will also enable us to fight a war effectively. It will not give us national security ... Other nations will soon have atomic bombs. There is no adequate defense against atomic bombs. There will be no defense. Inescapably then, national security lies in world security and that can be attained only by international action. As a nation, we have not learned this lesson."[1]
- Born: Al Green, politician, in New Orleans, Louisiana
- Died: Frederick Russell Burnham, 86, American scout and adventurer
- The Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance was signed by many countries of the Americas in Rio de Janeiro. US President Harry S. Truman addressed the final session of the conference, praising the treaty as a sign of fidelity to the United Nations.[2]
- The London Evening Standard ran an editorial titled "It Is Not Too Late—Call Off the Games," expressing opposition to London hosting the 1948 Summer Olympics. "Sane opinion will marvel only at the colossal thickness of hide which permits its owners, at this time of crisis, to indulge in grandiose and luxurious schemes for an international weight-lifting and basketball jamboree," the editorial argued, going on to say that "a people which has had its housing program and food imports cut, and which is preparing for a winter battle of survival, may be forgiven for thinking that a full year of excessive preparations for the reception of an army of foreign athletes verges on the border of the excessive." An official from Britain's organizing committee for the Olympics replied that hundreds of thousands of Britons were looking forward to the games, and that preparations to insure their smooth running were limited to "the minimum arrangements necessary."[3]
- Mariano Suárez became President of Ecuador when Carlos Mancheno Cajas was ousted after just ten days in power.
- The Greek government avoided a strike by 72,000 Athens civil service workers by agreeing to increase their wages by 20-50%.[4]
- French Upper Volta, which had previously existed from 1919 to 1932, was reestablished by French colonial authorities.
- The US and UK agreed to joint control of the Ruhr mines in occupied Germany.[6]
- Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley announced the sale of all of Australia's gold production to the UK. The move would help cash-strapped Britain to obtain dollars immediately in the United States. The 150,000 ounces (representing two months of production) already sold under the agreement were worth about $5 million AUD.[7][8]
- Born: Buddy Miles, rock drummer, singer, composer and producer, in Omaha, Nebraska (d. 2008); Kiyoshi Takayama, yakuza boss, in Tsushima, Aichi, Japan
- Ex-governor of Minnesota Harold Stassen announced his candidacy for the 1948 Republican presidential nomination.[12]
- The first software bug was recorded, in the Harvard Mark II electromechanical computer. The glitch was quite literally a "bug", as the error was traced to a moth trapped in a relay, which was carefully removed and taped to the log book.
- Born: Freddy Weller, country music singer and songwriter, in Atlanta, Georgia
- Died: Ananda Coomaraswamy, 70, Ceylonese Tamil philosopher and metaphysician
- During a trial run off the Copeland Islands, a crankcase explosion aboard the newly repaired passenger ship Reina del Pacifico killed 28 crew members and injured 23 others in one of the worst engineering disasters in maritime history.[14][15]
- General Eisenhower seemingly ruled himself out of ever running for political office when he said during a visit to Columbia University that "any man who has spent most of his life in the military should not occupy any position in partisan politics, and I can only repeat what I have said many times before—I shall never seek any partisan political office." However, he did not specifically say he would refuse a nomination if drafted, only saying he would have no part in anything "artificial."[16]
- Greek Parliament voted in favor of an unconditional amnesty for guerrillas who surrendered within the next 30 days.[19]
- NBC stations voted unanimously to ban radio broadcasts of crime and mystery shows before 9:30 p.m. EST, to minimize the possibility they would be heard by children.[20]
- Palestine Arab Higher Committee spokesman Husayn al-Khalidi declared that a separate Arab state in a partitioned Palestine would not be economically or politically viable, predicting that partition would result in "border incidents everywhere" and could lead to a tragic "crusade between Jewry and Islam."[30]
- Mohandas Gandhi wrote in his weekly paper Harijan that the Indian government should take action to "banish the English language as a cultural usurper as we successfully banished the political rule of the English usurper."[31]
- Born: Don Felder, musician (Eagles), in Gainesville, Florida; Stephen King, author most associated with the horror genre, in Portland, Maine
- Died: Harry Carey, 69, American film actor
- President of Argentina Juan Perón, on the balcony of the Presidential Palace before a cheering crowd of 100,000, signed a statute giving women the right to vote.[34]
- The UN General Assembly overrode Soviet objections to include the Greek question, Korean independence and the Italian peace treaty on its agenda.[20]
- Jackie Robinson of the Dodgers was honored with "Jackie Robinson Day" at Ebbets Field. He and his wife Rachel were presented with a new Cadillac, a gold wristwatch, a television, an interracial goodwill plaque and cash gifts.[35]
- Born: Mary Kay Place, actress, singer, director and screenwriter, in Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Died: Nikola Petkov, 54, Bulgarian politician (hanged for espionage)
- The Communist conference in Szklarska Poręba concluded with the founding of Cominform, an official forum of the international communist movement succeeding the Comintern which had been dissolved in 1943.[39]
- The Royal Navy intercepted the Jewish refugee ship Af Al Pi Chen which was sailing to Palestine from Italy with 434 passengers. 1 person was killed and 10 injured in the violent resistance during the boarding of the ship.[40][41]
- Born:
"Scientists Bar Any Real A-Bomb Defense; Assert That World's Security Is Key to Ours". The New York Times: 11. September 2, 1947. Leonard, Thomas M. (1977). Day By Day: The Forties. New York: Facts On File, Inc. p. 722. ISBN 0-87196-375-2. Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 661. ISBN 9-780582-039193. Morrow, Edward A. (September 9, 1947). "Token Fight Waged as Jews of Exodus Begin Debarkation". The New York Times: 1. Hurd, Charles (September 10, 1947). "Stassen to Enter Wisconsin Primary". The New York Times: 14. "Warsaw to Execute 9 Poles, Jail 7 Others For Giving Secret Data to Foreign Nations". The New York Times: 8. September 11, 1947. Curtis, Simon (2012). The Law of Shipbuilding Contracts, Fourth Edition. Routledge. p. 177. ISBN 9781317984368. "Ike Rules Himself Out Of '48 Race--or Almost". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn: 1. September 11, 1947. Yust, Walter, ed. (1948). 1948 Britannica Book of the Year. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. p. 12.
Burns, Edward (September 16, 1947). "Sox-Boston Split Clinches Flag for Yanks". Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago: 31. "Bulletins". Madera Tribune. Madera, California: 1. September 16, 1947.
"41 Saved as Airliner Crashes, Burns Here". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn: 1. September 21, 1947. Daniel, Clifton (September 22, 1947). "Palestine State as Mapped in U. N. Is 'Impossible,' Says Arab Leader". The New York Times: 5. Paczkowski, Andrzej (1995). Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 198. ISBN 9780271047539. "British to Quit Zion". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn: 1. September 26, 1947. "British Seize New Jewish Refugee Ship". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn: 1. September 27, 1947. "B'nai B'rith Asks Truman to Back Palestine Plan". Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago: 14. September 29, 1947. Owens, Jim (2016). Television Sports Production, 5th Edition. Focal Press. p. 214. ISBN 9781317671091. Drebinger, John (October 1, 1947). "Yanks' 5 in Fifth Beat Dodgers, 5-3, in Series Opener". The New York Times: 1.