• Mahatma Gandhi was killed in January, aged 79.
• In the Near East, the Yom Kippur War breaks out following Israel's Declaration of Independence or al-Nakba on May 15.
• The Republic of Ireland is declared as an independent state, independence from Britain was already achieved in 1921.
• Negotiations to reunify Korea end. The south holds elections for a new president. In September, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was formed in the north with Kim Il Sung as its leader.

• Summer Olymics at London, England with 4,000 athletes participated, representing 59 countries, the first Games since 1936 due to WWII.
• Winter Olympics at St. Moritz, Switzerland.

• On July 1, the Bell Laboratories unveiled the transistor, a joint invention by William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain.
• IBM announces the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC), their first large-scale digital calculating machine. The SSEC is the first computer that can modify a stored program, and featured 12,000 vacuum tubes and 21,000 electromechanical relays.
• Peter Carl Goldmark invented the LP record.
• Bar codes were invented by Bernard Silver and Norman Woodland

Literature

• George Orwell wrote 1984 in this year. (The title was created by swapping the last two digits, it was first released in 1949)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics: Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation
• Chemistry: Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius, for his research on electrophoresis and adsorption analysis, especially for his discoveries concerning the complex nature of the serum proteins
• Medicine: Paul Hermann Müller, for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods
• Literature: Thomas Stearns Eliot, for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry

• Best Picture: Gentleman's Agreement (Darryl Francis Zanuck, producer)
• Best Actor in a Leading Role: Ronald Colman for A Double Life
• Best Actress in a Leading Role: Loretta Young for The Farmer's Daughter
• Best Director: Elia Kazan for Gentleman's Agreement

• The HMS Furious, the worlds first aircraft carrier was scrapped.