Timeline August 1949

Events in August 1949 5

• 1900 – 1949 Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949) Died 16 August 1949, aged 48 Margaret Mitchell was the American author of Gone with the Wind, the only novel she published, which won the Pulitzer Prize and became one of the best-selling books ever written. She died in Atlanta after being struck by a car.
• 1949 US Championships 1949 Men: Pancho González · Women: Margaret Osborne duPont
• 1949 – present J. K. Rowling British author Rowling created the Harry Potter series, one of the most influential fantasy franchises in modern literature.
• 1949 Geneva Conventions signed Four treaties set modern rules for humanitarian conduct in war Diplomats signed a revised set of four Geneva Conventions establishing international standards for the humane treatment of the wounded, prisoners of war, and civilians in armed conflict. They remain the foundation of international humanitarian law.
• 1949 Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb RDS-1 detonated at Semipalatinsk The Soviet Union secretly detonated its first nuclear device, codenamed RDS-1 or "First Lightning," at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan. The test ended the American nuclear monopoly four years after Hiroshima and triggered the Cold War arms race.