1948: The Year in People

Baby Boomers · Year of the Rat 🐀 · Born in 1948 turn 78 in 2026

The year in numbers

Gas, per gallon

$0.26

Median home

$7,450

Minimum wage

$0.40/hr

Movie ticket

$0.36

US population

2.52B

US president

Harry S. Truman

Top song

"Twelfth Street Rag" — Pee Wee Hunt

Top film

The Red Shoes

Top TV show

Texaco Star Theatre

Best Picture

Hamlet

In the news: Israel declares independence; Berlin Blockade begins

What happened in 1948

1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1948th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 948th year of the 2nd millennium, the 48th year of the 20th century, and the 9th year of the 1940s decade.

Summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Born in 1948

266 people in our data · most viewed first

Christopher Guest

b. 1948 · February 5

American and British director and actor

Christa McAuliffe

1948–1986 · September 2

American teacher and astronaut

Alice Cooper

b. 1948 · February 4

American rock singer

Frank Abagnale

b. 1948 · April 27

American security consultant and convicted fraudster

Al Gore

b. 1948 · March 31

Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001

Barbara Hershey

b. 1948 · February 5

American actress

Andrew Lloyd Webber

b. 1948 · March 22

English theatre composer

Billy Crystal

b. 1948 · March 14

American comedian and actor

Cat Stevens

b. 1948 · July 21

British musician

Clarence Thomas

b. 1948 · June 23

US Supreme Court justice since 1991

Brian Eno

b. 1948 · May 15

British musician

Dianne Wiest

b. 1948 · March 28

American actress

Carl Weathers

1948–2024 · January 14

American actor and football player

Jean Reno

b. 1948 · July 30

French and Spanish actor

Bonnie Bedelia

b. 1948 · March 25

American actress

Berry Berenson

1948–2001 · April 14

American actress

Bernadette Peters

b. 1948 · February 28

American actress and singer

Cassandra Harris

1948–1991 · December 15

Australian actress

Elaine Paige

b. 1948 · March 5

English singer and actress

Charles Taylor (Liberian politician)

b. 1948 · January 28

President of Liberia from 1997 to 2003

A Martinez

b. 1948 · September 27

American actor and singer (b. 1948)

Avery Brooks

b. 1948 · October 2

American actor and director

Chris de Burgh

b. 1948 · October 15

Irish singer

Jerry Mathers

b. 1948 · June 2

Former American actor

Died in 1948

Babe Ruth1895–1948 · American baseball player
D. W. Griffith1875–1948 · American filmmaker
Folke Bernadotte1895–1948 · Swedish diplomat
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria1861–1948 · Prince/Tsar of Bulgaria from 1887 to 1918
Charles Evans Hughes1862–1948 · Chief Justice of the United States from 1930 to 1941
Carole Landis1919–1948 · American actress
Antonin Artaud1896–1948 · French artist, writer and actor
Edvard Beneš1884–1948 · Czechoslovak politician
Manuel Roxas1892–1948 · President of the Philippines from 1946 to 1948
Aldo Leopold1887–1948 · American conservationist
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller1874–1948 · American socialite and philanthropist
Arshile Gorky1904–1948 · Armenian-American painter