The following events occurred in October 1948:
- Bukken Bruse disaster: A Short Sandringham flying boat crashed during a landing attempt in the bay near Hommelvik, Norway, killing 19 of the 45 aboard. British philosopher Bertrand Russell was among the survivors.
- The Soviet Union asked the United Nations General Assembly for a resolution to outlaw the atomic bomb and establish international control of atomic energy.
- Born: Avery Brooks, actor, director, singer and educator, in Evansville, Indiana; Donna Karan, fashion designer, in Queens, New York; Persis Khambatta, model and actress, in Bombay, India (d. 1998); Chris LeDoux, country musician and rodeo champion, in Biloxi, Mississippi (d. 2005)
- Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery was named head of the Western European defense organization, with French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, British Air Marshal Sir James Robb and French Vice Admiral Robert Jaujard as his aides.
- 300,000 French coal miners went on a Communist-directed strike.
- The 1948 American League tie-breaker game was played between the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The Indians won 8-3 to advance to the World Series.
- The radio series The Railroad Hour premiered on ABC.
- Born: Iain Hewitson, chef, restarauteur and television personality, in Ã
Âtaki, New Zealand; Linda McMahon, professional wrestling magnate and politician, in New Bern, North Carolina
- Died: Jan Savitt, 41, American bandleader (cerebral hemorrhage)
- The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake occurred in Turkmenistan near Ashgabat. Due to Soviet government censorship the event was not widely reported, and estimates of casualties vary from 10,000 to as many as 110,000.
- The UN Security Council voted 9-2 to place the question of the Berlin Blockade on its agenda, over the protests of the Soviet and Ukrainian delegates who declared they would not participate in any discussions on the matter.
- The Taiyuan Campaign began during the Chinese Civil War.
- Born:
- Russell Mael, American rock singer (Sparks), in Los Angeles
- Delroy Wilson, ska, rocksteady and reggae musician, in Kingston, Jamaica (d. 1995)
- Died: Rupert Gould, 57, British Navy officer
- Cuba, Egypt and Norway were elected to two-year terms on the UN Security Council, replacing Belgium, Colombia and Syria.
- Israel announced the signing of contracts with the Shell and Socony-Vacuum oil companies, guaranteeing the new country an adequate oil supply.
- Born: Gottfried Helnwein, visual artist, in Vienna, Austria; Johnny Ramone, guitarist of the punk band the Ramones, as John Cummings in Forest Hills, Queens, New York (d. 2004); Baldwin Spencer, 3rd Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda
- At a Conservative Party conference in Llandudno, Wales, Winston Churchill urged the United States not to destroy its reserve of nuclear weapons. "The Western nations will be far more likely to reach a lasting settlement without bloodshed if they formulate their just demands while they have the atomic power and before the Russian Communists have got it too," Churchill said.
- "A Tree in the Meadow" by Margaret Whiting topped the Billboard singles charts.
- Born: Jackson Browne, singer-songwriter, in Heidelberg, Germany; Ciaran Carson, poet and novelist, in Belfast, Northern Ireland (d. 2019); Oliver Hart, economist and Nobel Prize laureate, in London, England
- Died: Joseph Wedderburn, 66, Scottish mathematician
- 29 crewmen of the British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious drowned in Portland Harbour when a pinnace capsized and sank in rough seas.
- Born: Robert Jordan, fantasy author, as James Rigney Jr. in Charleston, South Carolina (d. 2007); Margot Kidder, actress, in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada (d. 2018); George Wendt, actor, in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2025)
- The Battle of Beersheba was fought, resulting in Israeli victory.
- Operation Avak ended when a land corridor was created between the Negev and the rest of Israel.
- The George Bernard Shaw play Buoyant Billions had its world premiere at the Schauspielhaus in Zürich, Switzerland.
- Born: Tom Everett, actor, in Portland, Oregon; Allen Henry Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit, in Mount Clemens, Michigan; Bill Russell, baseball player, in Pittsburg, Kansas
- Died: Elissa Landi, 43, Italian-born American actress (cancer)
- 2,000 French troops seized seven of the nation's largest coal mines after three days of strike-related violence.
- Born:
- Feisal Abdul Rauf, Egyptian-American Sufi imam, author and activist, in Kuwait
- Gerry Robinson, business executive and television presenter, in Dunfanaghy, Ireland (d. 2021)
- The Soviet Union announced a massive fifteen-year land reclamation project covering almost 300 million acres of land in western Russia and Siberia.
- Pope Pius XII promulgated In multiplicibus curis, an encyclical expressing concern at the danger of destruction of holy sites during the Arab-Israeli War.
- Died: Franz Lehár, 78, Austro-Hungarian composer
- Non-Communist French coal miners resumed work after accepting a 15% pay raise and increased family benefits. Members of the Communist-led General Confederation of Labour remained on strike.
- Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey ended his campaign with a speech before 19,000 in Madison Square Garden.
- The Eilabun massacre took place when 14 men from the Christian village of Eilabun were executed by Israeli forces after the village had surrendered.
- A luzzu fishing boat which was overloaded with passengers capsized and sank in the Gozo Channel off Qala, Gozo, Malta, killing 23 of the 27 people on board.
- Born: Garry McDonald, actor and comedian, in Glen Innes, New South Wales, Australia
References