width is just about 200 meters wide (approximately 218 yards). May 11 – Luigi Einaudi becomes President of the Italian Republic. May 14 – The Israeli Declaration of Independence is made. David Ben-Gurion becomes the first prime minister, a provisional position that will become formalized on February 14, 1949. May 15 1948 Arab–Israeli War: The British Mandate of Palestine is officially terminated; expeditionary forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria and Iraq invade Israel, and clash with Israeli forces. The murder of a 3-year-old girl in Blackburn, England, leads to the fingerprinting of more than 40,000 men in the city, in an attempt to find the murderer. Australian cricket team in England in 1948: The touring Australians set an all-time first-class record, by scoring 721 runs in a day against Essex. May 16 – Chaim Weizmann is elected as the first President of Israel. New York City Fire Department Rescue 5 is founded for Staten Island. May 18 – The first Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China officially convenes in Nanking. May 22 – The Soviets launch Operation Vesna, the largest Lithuanian deportation to Siberia. May 25 – The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) is founded at Ellinwood Malate Church in Manila. May 26 – The United States Congress passes Public Law 557, which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as the auxiliary of the United States Air Force. May 28 – Daniel François Malan defeats Jan Smuts and becomes Prime Minister of South Africa, which starts in the era of apartheid (which is finally dismantled by F. W. de Klerk in 1994). May 29 – The Casimir effect is predicted by Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir. May 30 – A dike along the Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon, within minutes; 15 people die and tens of thousands are left homeless. June June 1 – Puma, a global sports goods brand, is founded in Bavaria, West Germany, by Rudolf Dassler, having split from his brother "Adi". June 3 – The Palomar Observatory telescope is finished in California. June 10 – Hasan Saka forms the new government of Turkey. (17th government; Hasan Saka had served twice as a prime minister) June 11 – The first monkey astronaut, Albert I, is launched into space from White Sands, New Mexico. June 15 – Chinese newspaper Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) is first published in Beijing, China. June 16 – Three armed men