1947

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• The United Nations special committee on Palestine proposes partitioning the country into a Jewish state, a Palestinian state and an internationally administered zone.

• On 5 June, in a speech at Harvard University, US secretary of state George C Marshall introduces the Marshall Plan, aimed at helping the economic recovery of Europe. The US eventually contributes $5.3 billion.

• In July, Dutch troops brutally suppress Achmad Sukarno's Indonesian Nationalist Party.

• On 15 August, India is partitioned into India and Pakistan, two independent countries. By October, they are at war over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

• The first supersonic flight is carried out by a US plane.

• Bell Laboratories produce the first transistors.

• The Diary of Anne Frank, a classic account of Jewish life under the German occupation of World War II, is published in Holland.

• French designer Christian Dior introduces the 'New Look', which defines the fashions of the postwar years.

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