1949

From top to bottom, left to right: The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., creating NATO as a Western defense alliance; Apartheid is formally instituted in South Africa, enforcing racial segregation; Mao Zedong proclaims the People's Republic of China, ending the Chinese Civil War and establishing communist rule; the Soviet Union detonates RDS-1, ending the United States’ nuclear monopoly; the 1949 Armistice Agreements end the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, setting new borders; the debut of South Pacific becomes a landmark in American theater and cultural history; the EDSAC runs its first program in Cambridge, advancing digital computing; the Superga air disaster kills the Torino F.C. team, shocking Italy; and Howard Unruh commits a mass shooting in Camden, New Jersey, killing 13.