explosion kills more than 400 coal miners in Bergkamen, West Germany. February 24 – Juan Perón is elected president of Argentina. March March 2 British troops withdraw from Iran according to treaty; the Soviets do not. Ho Chi Minh is elected President of North Vietnam. March 4 – C. G. E. Mannerheim resigns as president of Finland. March 5 – In his speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill talks about the Iron Curtain. March 6 – Vietnam War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France, which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union. March 7 – The 18th Academy Awards Ceremony is held. Best Picture goes to The Lost Weekend. March 9 – Juho Kusti Paasikivi becomes the 7th President of Finland. March 19 The Soviet Union and Switzerland resume diplomatic relations. French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion become overseas départements of France. March 22 – The United Kingdom grants the British protectorate of the Emirate of Transjordan (later known as Jordan) its independence by the Treaty of London. March 29 – The Gold Coast has an African majority in its parliament. April April 1 The 8.6 Aleutian Islands earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VI (Strong). A destructive tsunami reaches the Hawaiian Islands, resulting in many deaths, mostly in Hilo. Between 165 and 173 are killed. The Malayan Union is formed. Singapore becomes a Crown colony. April 3 – Japanese Lt. General Masaharu Homma is executed outside Manila in the Philippines, for leading the Bataan Death March. April 5 – A Fleet Air Arm Vickers Wellington crashes into a residential area in Rabat, Malta during a training exercise, killing all 4 crew members and 16 civilians on the ground. April 10 – In Japan, women vote for the first time, during elections for the House of Representatives of the 90th Imperial Diet. April 14 – Sh'erit ha-Pletah members of Nakam, the "Jewish Avengers", poison with arsenic bread baked in Nuremberg for SS prisoners of war, held at Stalag XIII-D by the Americans. April 17 – Syria's independence from France is officially recognized. April 18 The inaugural session of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) takes place at The Hague. The League of Nations, in its last meeting, transfers its mission to the United Nations and disbands itself. The United States recognizes Josip Broz