1940S

The '1940s' decade ran from 1940 to 1949.

Contents

Events and trends

Technology

War, peace and politics

Culture

Art

Film

Literature

People

Sports figures

Entertainers

Musicians

Events and trends

The 1940s were seen as a transition period between the radical 1930s and the conservative 1950s, which also leads the period to be divided in two halves:
The first half of the decade was dominated by World War II, the widest and most destructive armed conflict in human history. So consequential was this event and its brutal aftermath that it laid the foundation for other major world events and trends for decades to follow. This war was also the first modern civilian war.
The second half marked the beginning of the East-West conflict and the Cold War, together with major social upheaval caused by the destruction of the war, the large number of refugees, and soldiers returning home and demanding government recognition for their sacrifice, especially in colonies of European countries, many of which gained independence.

Technology

★
The first nuclear weapon is built and tested in 1945.

★ First cruise missile, the V-1 flying bomb (in 1940 or 1942), and the first ballistic missile, the V-2 rocket (in 1942) are invented.

★ Colossus, the world's first totally electronic and digital computer is built in 1944.

★ Chuck Yeager, a U.S. Air Force pilot, breaks the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 rocket-powered aircraft in 1947.

★ Plutonium discovered in 1941 by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Dr. Michael Cefola, Edwin M. McMillan, J. W. Kennedy, and A. C. Wahl.

War, peace and politics

★ Muslim League's 1940 Lahore Resolution calls for an autonomous Muslim state, eventually leading the formation of Pakistan in the Partition of India.

★ Nazi Germany loses the Battle of Britain 1940

★ Nazi Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Benelux, France, and the Soviet Union from 1940-1941.

★ The United States enter World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

★ Germany and Japan suffer defeats at Stalingrad, El Alamein, and Midway in 1942 and 1943.

★ D-Day (June 6, 1944)

★ Germany surrenders May 7, 1945

★ Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and August 9, 1945); Japan surrenders on August 15.

★ World War II officially ends on September 2, 1945.

★ The Holocaust (the shoah)

★ United Nations established in 1945

★ In 1946, former British PM Winston S. Churchill gives his famous "Iron Curtain" speech with US President Harry S Truman present.

★ Beginning of the Cold War (generally thought of as somewhere from 1946-1949)

★ Independence for some former colonies (including India and Pakistan in 1947, Israel in 1948, and Indonesia in 1949)

★ 1948 Arab-Israeli War

★ The Irish Free State becomes a republic in 1948

★ NATO founded in 1949

★ The Chinese Civil War ends in victory for the Communists in 1949. The Nationalists government retreat to Taiwan.

★ The Berlin blockade in 1948.

★ Informbiro period in Yugoslavia begins

★ Truman Doctrine is created.

★ Soviets test their first nuclear bomb in 1949 (Soviet atomic bomb project). This is seen by some as the beginning of the Cold War.

Culture

Art

There were many changes in film when it came to the 1940s. More women showed up in films, and better storylines and plots began to show up. This also lead into more women turning their interests toward fashion, or at least the women who could afford it. People who had exceptional riches often showed up in films, because they were the ones who actually watched them most regularly. Thus, people who were not rich viewed the films as an amazing treat.

Film

★ ''The Philadelphia Story'' (1940)

★ ''Rebecca'' (1940)

★ ''Fantasia'' (1940)

★ ''The Great Dictator'' (1940)

★ ''Pinocchio'' (1940)

★ ''Sergeant York (1941)

★ ''Dumbo'' (1941)

★ ''Casablanca'' (1942)

★ ''Road to Morocco'' (1942)

★ ''Bambi'' (1942)

★ ''Lassie Come Home'' (1943)

★ ''The Ox-Bow Incident'' (1943)

★ ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' (1944)

★ ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' (1944)

★ ''A Tree Grows In Brooklyn'' (1945)

★ ''Mildred Pierce'' (1945)

★ ''Anchors Aweigh'' (1945)

★ ''My Darling Clementine'' (1946)

★ ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946)

★ ''The Best Years of Our Lives'' (1946}

★ ''Duel in the Sun'' (1947)

★ ''Miracle on 34th Street'' (1947)

★ ''Anna Karenina'' (1948)

★ ''The Treasure of the Sierra_Madre'' (1948)

★ ''The Three Musketeers'' (1948)

★ ''Sands of Iwo Jima'' (1949)

★ ''All the King's Men'' (1949)

★ ''Twelve O' Clock High'' (1949)

Literature

People

★ President İsmet İnönü (Turkey)

★ Prime Minister Winston Churchill (United Kingdom)

★ Prime Minister Clement Attlee (United Kingdom)

★ President Franklin D. Roosevelt (United States)

★ President Harry S. Truman (United States)

★ Governor Luis Muñoz Marín (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico)

★ President Getúlio Vargas (Brazil)

★ President Juan Peron (Argentina)

★ Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canada)

★ Fuhrer Adolf Hitler (Germany)

Sports figures

★ Alec Bedser

★ Denis Compton

★ Don Bradman

★ Joe Louis

★ Jackie Robinson

★ Joe DiMaggio

★ Keith Miller

★ Len Hutton

★ Ray Lindwall

★ Sammy Baugh

★ Satchel Paige

★ Stan Musial

★ Steve Van Buren

★ Sugar Ray Robinson

★ Ted Williams

★ Jeff Miller

★ Cool Papa Bell
Zack Drake

Entertainers

★ Carl Stuart Hamblen ★ Rita Hayworth ★ Katharine Hepburn ★ Bob Hope ★ Lena Horne ★ Veronica Lake ★ Dorothy Lamour ★ Vivien Leigh ★ Carole Lombard ★ Vera Lynn ★ Danny Kaye ★ Gene Kelly ★ Ginger Rogers ★ Mickey Rooney ★ Jimmy Stewart ★ Spencer Tracy ★ Lana Turner ★ John Wayne ★ Orson Welles

Musicians

★ Louis Armstrong ★ Gene Autry ★ Count Basie ★ Mills Brothers ★ Les Brown ★ Nat King Cole ★ Perry Como ★ Bing Crosby ★ Duke Ellington ★ Ella Fitzgerald ★ Dizzy Gillespie ★ Benny Goodman ★ Dick Haymes ★ Betty Hutton ★ Harry James

★ Al Jolson ★ Sammy Kaye ★ Peggy Lee ★ Johnny Mercer ★ Glenn Miller ★ Charles Mingus ★ Vaughn Monroe ★ Charlie Parker ★ Bud Powell ★ Max Roach ★ Artie Shaw ★ Dinah Shore ★ Frank Sinatra ★ Kate Smith ★ Ink Spots ★ Ernest Tubb ★ Hank Williams ★ Bob Wills