60 today

I can't believe it but I am 60 today. (How did that happen?) So I thought I would look at what happened in the year of my birth 1948.

I found that there were a lot of events that occurred in 1948 that have shaped our present day. The National Health was created and the railways were nationalised. The first supermarket in Britain was opened and world's first computer ran its first programme. The treaty of Brussels was signed and the first comprehensive school was opened. ( see full list of events below)

Things that I have not had time to find out are as follows and I would like help with are:

1. The average cost of a house

2. The average wage

3. What it would cost to feed a family of four.

4. How much it would cost to buy a car

5. How much it would cost to travel to Wigan or Manchester from Ashton

And anything else. Please feel free to contribute any fact about that year.

1948


• 1 January - British Rail created when the government nationalises the railway industry.[1]
• 4 January - Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.[2]
• 12 January - The London Co-operative Society opens Britain's first supermarket, in Manor Park, London.[3]
• 30 January–8 February - Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and win 2 bronze medals.
• 4 February - Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.[4] King George VI becomes King of Ceylon.
• 17 March - Britain signs the Treaty of Brussels with Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.[5]
• 14 May - The murder of a three-year-old girl in Blackburn leads to the fingerprinting of more than 40,000 men in the city in an attempt to find the murderer.
• 21 June - Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, the world's first stored-program computer, ran its first program.[5]
• 22 June
o the ship Empire Windrush arrives in Britain with 500 Jamaican immigrants.[1]
o An order in council removes the title of Emperor of India from the Royal Style and Titles, recognising the independence of India in 1947.
• 5 July - The National Health Service is founded, giving Britons the right to universal healthcare, free at point of use.[1]
• 15 July - First London chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous.[5]
• 25 July - End of Post-War bread rationing.[3]
• 29 July–14 August
o 1948 Summer Olympics held in London.[1]
o Great Britain and Northern Ireland win 3 gold, 14 silver and 6 bronze medals at the London Olympics.
• 30 July - Gas Boards created as the government nationalises the gas industry.[3]
• 18 August - Jockey Lester Piggott, aged 12, wins his first race at Haydock Park Racecourse.[5]
• September - The first comprehensive schools open in Potters Bar and Hillingdon.[3]
• 6 September - Flying the de Havilland DH 108, John Derry becomes the first British pilot to break the sound barrier.[5]
• October - The Morris Minor and Land Rover both go on sale.[3]
• 8 November- The King issues Letters Patent granting the title of Prince or Princess of the United Kingdom, with the style Royal Highness, to the children of The Duke of Edinburgh and The Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh.
• December - Patrick Blackett wins the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his development of the Wilson cloud chamber method, and his discoveries therewith in the fields of nuclear physics and cosmic radiation".[6]
• 10 December - T. S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry".[7]