What else happened back in 1948?

Today is my dad's birthday, not that he's aware of such things nowadays.

But, it got me wondering, what else was going on back in 1948.

For instance, I did not know he shared a birthday with some baseball coach named Leo Mazzone. Not exactly the biggest celebrity in the world, I know. George Wendt (Norm from Cheers) was only born a day later.

Some other well-known 48'ers: Kenny Loggins, Ronny VanZant, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Alice Cooper, Bernadette Peters, Mercedes Ruehl, James Taylor, Bobby Orr, Wolf Blitzer, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Steven Tyler, Al Gore, Rhea Perlman, Steve Winwood, Stevie Nicks, Phylicia Rashad, Cat Stevens, Gary Trudeau, Peggy Fleming, Sally Struthers, Janet Reno, John Ritter, Bryant Gumbel, Prince Charles, Howard Dean, John Bolton, Ozzy Osborne, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Pretty eclectic group, huh?

Other events of the year: Hells Angels founded in California; Marshall Plan began rebuilding Europe; Israel declared independence; a peace-time draft was instituted to combat the Cold War; armed forces desegregated; Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Braves in the World Series; and President Harry S. Truman beat some guy named Dewey despite premature newspaper reports to the contrary.

Kinda puts things into perspective.