La Palma begins. July 27 The de Havilland Comet, the world's first jet-powered airliner, makes its first flight, in England. Rhodesia beats the New Zealand national rugby union team (the All Blacks) 10–8, in an exhibition match in Bulawayo, the only non-Test nation ever to achieve this feat. July 30 – Legal aid in England and Wales begins. July 31 – Captain Kerans of HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall, under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army on both sides of the Yangtze River, and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day. August August 3 – The Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League finalize the merger that will create the National Basketball Association. August 5 – In Ecuador, the 6.8 Ambato earthquake kills more than 5,000, and destroys a number of villages. August 8 – Bhutan signs a Treaty of Friendship with newly independent India, agreeing non-interference in internal affairs, but allowing India to "guide" its foreign policy (similar to the previous arrangements with the British administration in India). August 10 – the Avro Canada C102 Jetliner makes its first flight; it is the first jet airliner to fly in North America. August 12 – The Fourth Geneva Convention is agreed to. August 14 The Salvatore Giuliano Gang explodes mines under a police barracks, outside Palermo, Sicily. A military coup in Syria ousts the president. August 21 The Vatican announces that bones uncovered in its catacombs could be those of the apostle Peter; 19 years later, Pope Paul VI announces confirmation that the bones belong to this first Pope. Deportivo Saprissa enters Costa Rican soccer's first division. The 1949 Queen Charlotte Islands earthquake is Canada's largest earthquake since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake. August 24 – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is established. August 29 The Council of Europe meets for the first time. The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, RDS-1 ("Joe 1"). Its design imitates the American plutonium bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945. August 31 The retreat of the Greek Democratic Army to Albania, after its defeat at Mount Grammos, marks the end of the Greek Civil War. Six of the last sixteen surviving veterans of the Union Army, in the American Civil War, meet in Indianapolis. September September 2 – Film noir The Third Man, with screenplay by Graham Greene and set in