1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957   BBC cuts dialect voices from its announcers, leaving eight people instead of 19 Afrikaner Nationalist majority in the South African Parliament votes to remove coloureds from electoral register, introducing Apartheid Donald MacLean and Guy Burgess defect to the Soviet Union Japan signs peace treaty with 48 other nations, putting an official end to World War II Churchill Prime Minister again at 77 Austin and Morris to merge, creating the world's fourth largest car manufacturer, after the US giants     Copyright © 1998, NHS