1947 — The Diary of a Young Girl, written by Anne Frank during the Nazi persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands, is published.

• Ohio chiropractor Herbert Reaver is sentenced to 6 months in prison for practicing medicine without a license.
• The wartime draft in the United States ends.
• Tennessee Williams publishes the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Streetcar Named Desire.
• The now-independent British India divides into two independent states: India, which is Hindu, and Pakistan, which is Muslim.
• American test pilot Captain Charles Yaeger breaks the sound barrier, reaching a speed of 670 miles per hour at an altitude of 42,000 feet.