December 23

Abraham Joshua Heschel, theologian and author of works on Jewish spirituality and ethics, died at his home in New York City.

Swami Shraddhananda, an Arya Samaj reformer, educator, and founder of Gurukul Kangri, died at Delhi.

At Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain demonstrated the first working point-contact transistor, the solid-state amplifier that would transform electronics.