| 4th January 1949 | ‘RMS Caronia’ of the Cunard Line departs Southampton for New York on her maiden voyage. |
| 26th January 1949 | Australian citizenship comes into being. |
| 1st February 1949 | The rationing of clothes ends in Britain after the Second World War. |
| 1st March 1949 | World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires. |
| 2nd March 1949 | The B-50 Super fortress ‘Lucky Lady II’ lands in Fort Worth in Texas under Captain James Gallagher. It had completed the first ever non-stop around-the-world aeroplane flight, refuelling four times. |
| 31st March 1949 | The former British colony of Newfoundland and Labrador joins Canada as its tenth province. |
18th April 1949 | Éire is formally renamed the Republic of Ireland. |
| 5th May 1949 | The Council of Europe is founded, as the Treaty of London is signed. |
| 9th May 1949 | Rainier III of Monaco is given the title Prince of Monaco upon the death of his maternal grandfather, Louis II. |
| 8th June 1949 | George Orwell's book “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is published. The novel has a large impact on the English language, as terms such as ‘Big Brother’ and ‘Room 101’ become commonly used. The book also becomes famous for its prophetic insight into an increased presence of governmental surveillance and control. |
| 29th June 1949 | Dock workers strike in the United Kingdom. |
| 6th September 1949 | Allied military authorities hand control of former Nazi Germany assets back to Germany. |
| 19th September 1949 | The United Kingdom government devalues the pound sterling from $4.03 to $2.80, leading to many other currencies dropping value. |
| 1st October 1949 | The People's Republic of China is officially proclaimed. |
| 7th October 1949 | The Democratic Republic of Germany (DDR) is officially established. |
| 15th November 1949 | Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi. |