1949

1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar.

• January 20 – Harry S. Truman proposes Point Four program to help world's less developed areas.
• February 22 – Grady the Cow, a 1,200-pound cow gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention.
• April 4 – Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
• April 18 - Ireland Act 1949 comes into effect and ceased being in the British Commonwealth.
• May 11 – Siam changes its name to Thailand.
• September 21 – The German Federal Republic (West Germany) established.
• October 1 – The founding of the People's Republic of China is announced by Mao Zedong.
• October 7 – The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) is established.
• December 27 – Indonesia's independence is recognised by the Netherlands.

• January 7 - Aderval Arvani, Brazilian volleyball player
• January 12 – Murakami Haruki, Japanese writer
• January 12 – Ottmar Hitzfeld, German football manager
• February 5 – Kurt Beck, German politician
• February 22 – Niki Lauda, Austrian racecar driver
• February 24 – John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
• March 28 - Kevin Lloyd, British actor (d. 1998)
• April 7 - Wells Kelly, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans) (d. 1984)
• April 11 – Bernd Eichinger, German movie producer
• April 19 – Joachim Sauer, husband of German chancellor Angela Merkel
• April 20 – Jessica Lange, American actress
• May 9 – Billy Joel, American singer
• May 13 – Zoe Wanamaker, actress
• May 23 – Alan Garcia, President of Peru (d. 2019)
• May 26 – Jeremy Corbyn, English politician
• June 6 – Robert Englund, American actor
• June 18 – Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Polish politician
• June 18 – Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland (d. 2010)
• June 20 – Lionel Richie, American singer and musician
• June 22 – Meryl Streep, American actress
• July 4 – Horst Seehofer, German politician
• July 17 - Geezer Butler, English bass guitarist (Black Sabbath)
• July 22 - Alan Menken, American pianist and theatre composer
• July 26 – Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai politician
• July 26 – Roger Taylor, British musician (Queen)
• August 1 – Kurmanbek Bakiyev, former President of Kyrgyzstan
• August 15 – Ivan Boldirev, Russian ice hockey player
• August 20 - Phil Lynott, Irish bass guitarist (Thin Lizzy) (d. 1986)
• August 25 - Gene Simmons, American singer-songwriter and musician (Kiss)
• August 31 – Richard Gere, American actor
• September 9 – Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia
• September 13 - Dennis Pendrith, Canadian bass player
• September 19 – Twiggy, British model
• September 23 – Bruce Springsteen, American singer and musician
• October 3 - Lindsey Buckingham, American guitarist (Fleetwood Mac)
• October 4 - Armand Assante, American actor
• October 8 – Sigourney Weaver, American actress
• October 9 - Bob Leinbach, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans)
• October 13 - Rick Vito, American guitarist (Fleetwood Mac)
• October 21 – Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli politician
• October 25 - Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., American voice actor
• November 14 - James "J.Y." Young, American guitarist (Styx)
• December 1 – Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord (d. 1993)
• December 12 – Marc Ravalomanana, former President of Madagascar
• December 21 – Thomas Sankara, President of Burkina Faso (d. 1987)
• December 22 – Maurice Gibb, singer (Bee Gees) (d. 2003)
• December 22 – Robin Gibb, singer (Bee Gees) (d. 2012)
• December 25 – Sissy Spacek, American actress
• December 26 – Jose Ramos Horta, President of East Timor

• January 6 – Victor Fleming, American director (b. 1883)
• January 11 – Nelson Doubleday, American publisher (b. 1889)
• January 14 – Joaquín Turina, Spanish composer (b. 1882)
• January 28 – Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (b. 1908)
• February 12 – Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (b. 1906)
• March 30 – Friedrich Bergius, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1884)
• April 19 – Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (b. 1877)
• May 6 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
• May 9 – Louis II, Prince of Monaco (b. 1870)
• May 22 – James Forrestal, U.S. Secretary of Navy and Defense (suicide) (b. 1892)
• May 22 – Klaus Mann, German writer (suicide) (b. 1906)
• June 10 – Sigrid Undset, Norwegian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
• June 14 – Russell Doubleday, American writer and publisher (b. 1872)
• July 9 – Fritz Bennicke Hart, English-born composer (b. 1874)
• July 12 – Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland (b. 1860)
• July 18 – Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer (b. 1870)
• August 18 – Paul Mares, American musician (b. 1900)
• August 30 – Arthur Fielder, English cricketer (b. 1877)
• September 8 – Richard Strauss, German composer (b. 1864)
• September 13 – August Krogh, Danish zoophysiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1874)
• September 19 – Will Cuppy, American humorist (b. 1884)
• September 19 – Nikolaos Skalkottas, Greek composer (b. 1901)
• October 27 – Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (plane crash) (b. 1916)
• October 27 – Ginette Neveu, French violinist (plane crash) (b. 1919)
• December 6 – Leadbelly, American musician (b. 1885)
• December 11 – Krishna Chandra Bhattacharya, Indian philosopher (b. 1875)
• December 16 – Sidney Olcott, Canadian movie director (b. 1873)
• December 28 – Hervey Allen, American writer (b. 1889)
• December 28 – Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (b. 1910)

• Adam's Rib
• Kind Hearts and Coronets
• Samson and Delilah
• The Third Man

• The Aleph – Jorge Luis Borges
• Alien Land – Willard W. Savoy
• The Angry Wife – Pearl S. Buck
• Beneath The Sky – Alfred Q. Jarrette
• Beyond Earth's Gates – C. L. Moore
• Bright Leaf – Foster Fitzsimmons
• Cannibal – John Hawkes
• Crooked House – Agatha Christie
• The Dream Merchants – Harold Robbins
• The Egyptian – Mika Waltari
• Father of the Bride – Edward Streeter
• The Golden Sequence – Martha E. Von Almedingen
• The Heat of the Day – Elixabeth Bowen
• King of the Wind – Marguerite Henry
• Let Love Come Last – Taylor Caldwell
• Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford
• Male and Female – Margaret Mead
• The Man with the Golden Arm – Nelson Algren
• Men of Maize – Miguel Angel Asturias
• The Miracles of the Red Altar Cloth – Hermann L. Hunter
• Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
• Pride's Castle – Frank Yerby
• A Rage To Live – John O'Hara
• The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir
• To Hell and Back – Audie Murphy
• Shane – Jack Schaefer
• The Sheltering Sky – Paul Bowles
• A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
• The Trial – Franz Kafka
• Trouble with Harry – Jack Story