From Wikipedia:

48 (forty-eight) is the natural number following 47 and preceding 49. It is one third of a gross or four dozens.

Forty-eight is a double factorial of 6, a highly composite number. Like all other multiples of 6, it is a semiperfect number. 48 is the second 17-gonal number.

48 is the first number of the form (24.q) and is in abundance having an aliquot sum of 76. It is the lowest composite number to fall into the 41-aliquot tree having the 7 aliquot number sequence,(48, 76 , 64, 63, 41, 1, 0). 48 is highly abundant with an aliquot sum 158% higher than itself.

48 is the smallest number with exactly ten divisors.

There are 11 solutions to the equation φ(x) = 48, namely 65, 104, 105, 112, 130, 140, 144, 156, 168, 180 and 210. This is more than any integer below 48, making 48 a highly totient number.

Since the greatest prime factor of 482 + 1 = 2305 is 461, which is clearly more than 48 twice, 48 is a Størmer number.

48 is in base 10 a Harshad number. It has 24, 2, 12,and 4 as factors.

48 is the atomic number of cadmium.

The prophecies of 48 Jewish prophets and 7 prophetesses were recorded in the Tanakh for posterity

According to the Mishnah, Torah wisdom is acquired via 48 ways (Pirkei Avoth 6:6)

Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, sat under a bo tree for 48 days attempting to figure life out. Buddhism was the result.

48 is the car number in NASCAR Nextel Cup series of Jimmie Johnson, winner of the 2006 Daytona 500 and Cup champion in 2006 and 2007.

Forty-eight is half way to 96.

In the year 48 BC, Rome is enmeshed in Civil War. Gaius Julius Caesar and Publius Servilius Vatia Isauricus are consuls of Rome. In March of that same year, Mark Antony joins Caesar his fight against Pompey, who – defeated at Pharsullus – escapes to Egypt, where he is assassinated upon the orders of the Egyptian King Ptolemy. In December, Caesar and Cleopatra defeat the forces of Ptolemy and his queen, Arsinoe IV. Part of the great library at Alexandria catches fire.

By 48 AD, Claudius was the emperor of Rome, and Messalina was his wife. She was executed for plotting against him in that same year, and the Senate gave him permission to marry his niece, Agrippina.

No one names their daughter “Agrippina” in the modern, English speaking world. Which is probably all for the best.

Also:

Publius Ostorius Scapula, governor of Britain, announces his intention to disarm all Britons south and east of the Trent and Severn. The Iceni, an independent, allied kingdom within that area, revolt but are defeated. Ostorius then moves against the Deceangli in north Wales, but is forced to abandon the campaign to deal with a revolt among the allied Brigantes.

Gallic nobles are admitted to the Roman Senate. Claudius grants the rights of citizenship to the Aedui.

Which I think – given history’s long lens – was probably a bad idea.

Forty-eight years ago today, our dear, sainted Ma was enjoying her second adult beverage at a baby shower in celebration of our imminent arrival when your correspondent took it upon himself to give her thanks, he’d have no more. Fadder dropped her off for to climb the stairs of the hospital at eleven minutes before 11 PM, reckoning that childbirth was no class of emergency: Women had children every day. At 11:11PM, Fadder – having only just found parking- was there to bear witness as we sprang upon an amazed world. That had the decency to pretend an indifferent equanimity at our arrival.

The rest, as they say, is history. Or numerology. Whichevs.