Events January January 1 The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British Railways. January 4 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President, and U Nu its first Prime Minister. January 5 Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game). The first Kinsey Report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, is published in the United States. January 7 – Mantell UFO incident: Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of an unidentified flying object. January 12 – Mahatma Gandhi begins his fast-unto-death in Delhi, to stop communal violence during the Partition of India. January 17 – A truce is declared between nationalist Indonesian and Dutch troops in Java. January 22 – British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin proposes the formation of a Western Union between Britain, France, and the Benelux countries, to stand up against the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Brussels is signed March 17 as a consequence, a predecessor to NATO. January 26 – Teigin poison case: a man masquerading as a doctor poisons 12 of 16 bank employees of the Tokyo branch of Imperial Bank and takes the money; artist Sadamichi Hirasawa is later sentenced to death for the crime, but is never executed. January 29 – A DC-3 aircraft crash at Los Gatos Creek, near Coalinga, California, kills 4 US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a protest song (Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)) by Woody Guthrie. January 30 Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is shot by Nathuram Godse in New Delhi. The 1948 Winter Olympics open in St Moritz, Switzerland. January 31 – The British crown colony of the Malayan Union, Penang and Malacca form the Federation of Malaya. February February 1 The Soviet Union begins to jam Voice of America broadcasts. The Federation of Malaya is proclaimed. February 4 – Ceylon (later known as Sri Lanka) becomes an independent kingdom, within the British Commonwealth. February 11 – General Douglas Gracey becomes Commander-in-chief of Pakistan Army. February 16 – Miranda, innermost of the large moons of Uranus, is discovered by Gerard Kuiper. February 18 – Éamon de