Starting in early 1947: A collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents are found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea at Khirbet Qumran in the British Mandate for Palestine. These Scripture fragments are collectively called the Dead Sea Scrolls.

January 15, 1947. Communists take power in Poland with the support of the Soviet Union.

February 21, 1947. In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first “instant camera”, his Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

March 12, 1947. The Truman Doctrine, a policy set forth by U.S. President Harry S Truman in a speech on this date, states that the U.S. will support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent their falling into the Soviet (communist) sphere. Historians often consider Truman’s speech to be the start of the Cold War.

June 5, 1947. U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall reveals his plan for the reconstruction of war-torn Europe. Called the Marshall Plan, the goal was to make Europe prosperous again through monetary aid to European economies. Over the next four years, the U.S. will give $13 billion to the countries of Western and Central Europe, including Germany. More aid goes to France and to The United Kingdom than to any other nations.

August 7, 1947. Thor Heyerdahl’s balsa wood raft, the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101 day, 4,300 mile, voyage across the Eastern Pacific Ocean, proving that pre-historic peoples could hypothetically have traveled to the Central Pacific islands from South America.

August 15, 1947. The British Raj in India is replaced with the independent countries of India and East and West Pakistan. East Pakistan later (1971) becomes the independent nation of Bangladesh. In September in the newly partitioned states, violence between Hindus and Muslims kills thousands.

August 31, 1947. The communists seize power in Hungary, with the military support of the Soviet Union.

October 14, 1947. American pilot Chuck Yeager becomes the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.

November, 1947. The United Nations votes in favor of the partition of Palestine and the creation of a new Jewish state, Israel.

December, 1947. The first transistor is patented by American physicist William Shockley.