The striking non-Communist Berlin railway workers overwhelmingly rejected a compromise wage offer by the Soviet railway management and voted to continue their thirteen-day-old walkout.[3]
The official gazette of King Abdullah cleared up confusion about his country's name by announcing that it had been changed from Transjordan to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The name change had been decided upon in December but international press coverage had continued to refer to the country as Transjordan because it was not known when the change had become official.[6]
Former Vice President and 1948 third-party candidate Henry A. Wallace issued a statement condemning Judge Medina's jailing of the three Communist defendants, claiming it "violates every American concept of fair play, and in my judgement is the use of the power of the court to promote injustice."[9]
Canada and the United States announced a new commercial aviation agreement giving Canadian airlines new routes through the US in exchange for continued American use of the airfield in Gander, Newfoundland for transatlantic flights.[12]
The Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington passed an anti-lynching bill providing a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine or twenty years' imprisonment, or both, for conspiracy to incite, aid or commit a lynching. A lynching victim, or his next of kin, would also be entitled to file civil damage suits against those responsible for the lynching.[14]
The United States launched a primate named Albert II into space; the subject died on impact.[15]
Sale of alcohol became legal in Kansas for the first time in 69 years.[16]
US President Harry S. Truman urged Congress to appropriate $150 million for economic aid to South Korea during the next year, calling Korea "a testing ground in which the validity and practical value of the ideals and principles of democracy which the Republic is putting into practice are being matched against the practices of communism which have been imposed upon the people of north Korea."[17]
Continuing his testimony at the Alger Hiss trial, Whittaker Chambers said that he had perjured himself repeatedly in hearings to protect Hiss and other friends.[18]
The US attempted to break a six-week deadlock in the UN-sponsored Palestine peace talks in Lausanne, Switzerland by urging the Israelis to abandon their opposition to a general return of Palestinian Arab refugees and concede some land to the Arabs.[20]
US Representative Helen Gagahan Douglas condemned the California Senate Subcommittee report and its chairman Jack Tenney, declaring that he was "undermining our form of government when he attempts to make people believe that liberalism and communism are synonymous." Several other persons named in the report also criticized it in the press, including Danny Kaye who said he'd never heard of the committee before but that "it sounds to me like a lot of hooey."[21]
Automobile designer Preston Tucker and seven others connected to his company were indicted by a federal grand jury for fraud. The indictment stated that none of the cars of Tucker Corporation had the engineering features that Tucker claimed they would.[23]
US and Russian authorities reached a tentative agreement on the Berlin railway workers' strike, permitting workers living in West Berlin to receive 60% of their pay in West German marks.[24]
The University of California, Berkeley announced that its Board of Regents would require all 4,000 of its faculty members to swear an oath disclaiming support for "any party or organization that believes in, advocates or teaches the overthrow of the Government of the United States by force or by any illegal unconstitutional methods."[26]
The US, British and French authorities gave West Berlin control over almost all government activities except those involving foreign or security issues.[30]
President Truman criticized the wave of spy trials and loyalty inquiries for producing a nationwide hysteria.[31]
Singer Paul Robeson, returning from a four-month tour of Europe and the Soviet Union, called the New York trial of communist leaders a "type of domestic fascism."[32]
The Chinese Communists reopened the port of Shanghai to international traffic after sweeping the area for mines.[33]
The Manchester Mark 1 reached a new milestone for computers when it completed nine error-free hours running a program written to search for Mersenne primes.
The Hungarian government announced the arrest of former foreign minister László Rajk and 19 other officials accused of being "spies and Trotskyist agents of foreign imperialist powers."[34]
Mao Zedong made a speech at a session of the Political Consultative Conference preparatory commission saying that the war had been won and that he was willing to negotiate with any nation that severed ties with the Nationalist government.[35]
The French Indian enclave of Chandannagar voted to join the Domain of India.[36]
Hungarian Vice Premier Mátyás Rákosi announced a purge of the Communist Party which he attributed to the discovery of a spy ring. 200,000 party members or about 18% of the membership were expelled.[40]
Iran and Iraq signed a treaty of friendship and mutual aid.[41]
Dutch troops began their UN-supervised withdrawal from the Indonesian Republic's capital of Yogyakarta.[42]
The United Nations Security Council failed to agree on the admission of twelve new UN members when Britain and the US refused to approve applications from Mongolia and four Eastern Bloc states.[43]
General elections were held in Belgium, the first since the introduction of universal women's suffrage. The Christian Social Party remained the largest party in both chambers of Parliament.
Alabama Governor Jim Folsom signed a bill into law that prohibited the wearing of masks in public places with only a few exceptions such as Halloween. The bill was in response to a recent wave of Ku Klux Klan-related disturbances in the Birmingham area.[45][46]
An interlocking one-year trade agreement was signed in Moscow between Russia, Czechoslovakia, Finland and Poland. The deal covered $56.4 million US worth of trade in food, timber, coal and sugar.[48]
The radio program Candy Matson, about a female private investigator, premiered on NBC West Coast.
^"Britain Names General To New Post in Germany". The New York Times: 5. June 2, 1949.
^Prince, Gregory A.; Wright, William Robert (2005). David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. University of Utah Press. p. 124. ISBN9780874808223.
^"Strikers In Berlin Reject Soviet Bid". The New York Times: 1. June 3, 1949.
^Conklin, William R. (June 4, 1949). "Chambers Admits Testifying Falsely Before Grand Jury". The New York Times: 1, 2.
^Porter, Russell (June 4, 1949). "Red Case Contempt Jails 3 Of Accused At Stormy Session". The New York Times: 1.
