Above title bar: events during World War II (1939–1945): From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany carried out a programme of systematic state-sponsored genocide, during which approximately six million European Jews were killed; The Japanese attack on the American naval base of Pearl Harbor launches the United States into the war; An Observer Corps spotter scans the skies of London during the Battle of Britain; The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the first uses of nuclear weapons, killing over a quarter million people and leading to the Japanese surrender; Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Government, on board USS Missouri, effectively ending the war.
Below title bar: events after World War II: From left to right: The Declaration of the State of Israel in 1948; The Nuremberg Trials were held after the war, in which the prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany were prosecuted; After the war, the United States carried out the Marshall Plan, which aimed at rebuilding Western Europe; ENIAC, the world's first general-purpose electronic computer.

The 1940s was the decade that started on January 1, 1940, and ended on December 31, 1949. This was the fifth decade of the 20th century.

The Second World War took place in the first half of the decade, which had a profound effect on most countries and people in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. The consequences of the war lingered well into the second half of the decade, with a war-weary Europe divided between the jostling spheres of influence of the West and the Soviet Union. To some degree internal and external tensions in the post-war era were managed by new institutions, including the United Nations, the welfare state and the Bretton Woods system, providing to the post–World War II boom, which lasted well into the 1970s. However the conditions of the post-war world encouraged decolonialization and emergence of new states and governments, with India, Pakistan, Israel, Vietnam and others declaring independence, rarely without bloodshed. The decade also witnessed the early beginnings of new technologies (including computers, nuclear power and jet propulsion), often first developed in tandem with the war effort, and later adapted and improved upon in the post-war era.

Politics and wars[link]

Wars[link]

Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle ever fought, June 1943

• World War II (1939–1945)
  • Nazi Germany invades Poland, Denmark, Norway, Benelux, and the French Third Republic from 1939 to 1941.
  • Soviet Union invades Poland, Finland, occupies Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Romanian region of Bessarabia from 1939 to 1941.
  • Germany faces the United Kingdom in the Battle of Britain (1940). It was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign up until that date.
  • Germany attacks the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941).
  • The United States enter World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It would face the Empire of Japan in the Pacific War.
  • Germany and Japan suffer defeats at Stalingrad, El Alamein, and Midway in 1942 and 1943.
  • Normandy Landings. The forces of the Western Allies land on the beaches of Normandy in Northern France (June 6, 1944).
  • Yalta Conference, wartime meeting from 4 February 1945 to 11 February 1945 among the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin, respectively—for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization, intended to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe.
  • The Holocaust, also known as The Shoah (Hebrew: השואה, Latinized ha'shoah; Yiddish: חורבן, Latinized churben or hurban^[1]) is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, its allies, and collaborators.^[2] Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis' systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including ethnic Poles, the Romani, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, gay men, and political and religious opponents.^[3] By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims is between 11 million and 17 million people.^[4]
  • The German Instrument of Surrender signed (May 7–8, 1945). Victory in Europe Day.
  • Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and August 9, 1945); Surrender of Japan on August 15.
  • World War II officially ends on September 2, 1945.

Crowds celebrating V-J Day in Times Square, New York City, August 1945

• Arab–Israeli conflict (Early 20th century–present)
  • 1948 Arab–Israeli War (1948–1949) – The war was fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours. The war commenced upon the termination of the British Mandate of Palestine in mid-May 1948. After the Arab rejection of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (UN General Assembly Resolution 181) that would have created an Arab state and a Jewish state side by side, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria attacked the state of Israel. In its conclusion, Israel managed to defeat the Arab armies.

Major political changes[link]

• Establishment of the United Nations Charter (June 26, 1945) effective (October 24, 1945).
• Establishment of the defence alliance NATO April 4, 1949.

Internal conflicts[link]

• 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine.
• Victory of Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong in the Chinese Civil War.
• Beginning of Greek Civil War, which extends from 1946 to 1949.

Decolonization and independence[link]

David Ben-Gurion proclaiming Israeli independence from the United Kingdom on May 14, 1948

Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949.

• 1944 - Iceland declares independence from Denmark.
• 1945 - Indonesia declares independence from the Netherlands (effective in 1949 after a bitter armed and diplomatic struggle).
• 1946 - The French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon dissolves to the independent states of Syria and Lebanon. The French settlers are forced to evacuate the French colony in Syria.
• 1947 - Partitioning of the British Raj into a secular Union of India and a Muslim Dominion of Pakistan. British rule in Burma ends in 1948.
• 1948 - Establishment of the State of Israel.
• 1949 - The People's Republic of China is officially proclaimed..

Economics[link]

• US Population is 132,122,000c.
• Unemployed in 1940- 8,120,000c.
• National Debt is $43 Billion
• Average Salary $1299
• Average Teacher Salary $1441
• Minimum Wage $.43 per hour
• 55% of US homes have indoor plumbing
• Life expectancy for women is 68.2
• Life expectancy for men is 60.8
• Auto Deaths 34,500c.

Science and technology[link]

ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer.

Technology[link]

Atanasoff–Berry Computer replica at 1st floor of Durham Center, Iowa State University

• The Atanasoff-Berry computer is considered the first electronic digital computing device built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry at Iowa State University during 1937–1942.
• Construction of the Colossus computer, which was used by British codebreakers to read encrypted German messages during World War II.
• The Z3 as world's first working programmable, fully automatic computing machine was built.
• The first test of technology for an atomic weapon is made (Trinity test) as part of the Manhattan Project.
• The development of radar.
• The development of ballistic missiles.
• The development of jet aircraft.
• The Jeep.
• The development of commercial television.
• The Slinky.
• The microwave oven.
• The invention of Velcro.
• The invention of Tupperware.
• The invention of the Frisbee

Science[link]

Kon-Tiki, 1947

• Physics: the development of quantum theory and nuclear physics.
• Mathematics: the development of game theory and cryptography.
• Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki crossed the Pacific Ocean proving the practical possibility that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
• Willard Libby developed radiocarbon dating - a process that revolutionized archaeology.
• The development of modern evolutionary synthesis.

Popular culture[link]

Film[link]

Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane in "Citizen Kane" (1941)

"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946)

• Oscar winners: Rebecca (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Casablanca (1943), Going My Way (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Hamlet (1948), All the King's Men (1949).

• Some of Hollywood's most notable blockbuster films of the 1940s include: The Maltese Falcon directed by John Huston (1941), It's a Wonderful Life directed by Frank Capra (1946), Double Indemnity directed by Billy Wilder (1944), Meet Me in St. Louis directed by Vincente Minnelli (1944), Casablanca directed by Michael Curtiz (1942), Citizen Kane directed by Orson Welles (1941),"The Great Dictator directed by Charlie Chaplin (1940).",The Big Sleep directed by Howard Hawks (1946), The Lady Eve directed by Preston Sturges (1941), The Shop Around the Corner directed by Ernst Lubitsch (1940), White Heat directed by Raoul Walsh (1949), Yankee Doodle Dandy directed by Michael Curtiz (1942), and Notorious directed by Alfred Hitchcock, (1946). The Walt Disney Studios released the animated feature films Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), Fantasia (1941), and Bambi (1942).

Although the 1940s was a decade dominated by World War II, important and noteworthy films about a wide variety of subjects were made during that era. Hollywood was instrumental in producing dozens of classic films during the 1940s, several of which were about the war and some are on most lists of all-time great films. European cinema survived although obviously curtailed during wartime and yet many films of high quality were made in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Soviet Union and elsewhere in Europe. The cinema of Japan also survived. Akira Kurosawa and other directors managed to produce significant films during the 1940s.

Film Noir, a film style that incorporated crime dramas with dark images, became largely prevalent during the decade. Films such as The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep are considered classics and helped launch the careers of legendary actors such as Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner. The genre has been widely copied since its initial inception.

In France during the war the tour de force Children of Paradise directed by Marcel Carné (1945), was shot in Nazi occupied Paris.^[5][6][7] Memorable films from post-war England include David Lean's Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949), and Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1946) and The Red Shoes (1948), Laurence Olivier's Hamlet, the first non-American film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) directed by Robert Hamer. Italian neorealism of the 1940s produced poignant movies made in post-war Italy. Roma, città aperta directed by Roberto Rossellini (1945), Sciuscià directed by Vittorio De Sica (1946), Paisà directed by Roberto Rossellini (1946), La terra trema directed by Luchino Visconti (1948), The Bicycle Thief directed by Vittorio De Sica (1948), and Bitter Rice directed by Giuseppe De Santis (1949), are some well-known examples.

In Japanese cinema The 47 Ronin is a 1941 black and white two-part Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1945), and the post-war Drunken Angel (1948), and Stray Dog (1949), directed by Akira Kurosawa are considered important early works leading to his first masterpieces of the 1950s. Drunken Angel (1948), marked the beginning of the successful collaboration between Kurosawa and actor Toshirō Mifune that lasted until 1965.

Music[link]

This section requires expansion.

• The most popular music style during the 1940s was swing, which prevailed during World War II. In the later periods of the 1940s, less swing was prominent and crooners like Frank Sinatra, along with genres such as bebop and the earliest traces of rock and roll, were the prevalent genre.

Literature[link]

• For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway in 1940.
• The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus in 1942.
• The Stranger by Albert Camus in 1942.
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in 1943.
• Anti-Semite and Jew by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1943.
• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand in 1943.
• No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1944.
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren in 1945.
• The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank in 1947.
• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller in 1949.
• Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell in 1949.

Fashion[link]

Even with the challenges imposed by shortages in rayon, nylon, wool, leather, rubber, metal (for snaps, buckles, and embellishments) and even the amount of fabric that could be used in any one garment, the fashion industry's wheels kept chugging slowly along, producing what it could. After the fall of France in 1940, Hollywood drove fashion in the United States almost entirely, with the exception of a few trends coming from war torn London in 1944 and 1945, as America's own rationing hit full force, and the idea of function seemed to overtake fashion, if only for a few short months until the end of the war. Fabrics shifted dramatically as rationing and wartime shortages controlled import items such as silk and furs. Floral prints seem to dominate the early 1940s, with the mid-to-late 1940s also seeing what is sometimes referred to as "atomic prints" or geometric patterns and shapes. The color of fashion seemed to even go to war, with patriotic nautical themes and dark greens and khakis dominating the color palates, as trousers and wedges slowly replaced the dresses and more traditional heels due to shortages in stockings and gasoline.

^[8]

This section requires expansion.

People[link]

World leaders[link]

• 

  Adolf Hitler during the 1940s

• 

  Hirohito, Emperor Shōwa c. late 1930s

• 

  Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin in the Yalta Conference, February 1945

• 

  Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949

• Chancellor Adolf Hitler
• Prime Minister Ion Victor Antonescu
• Emperor Hirohito
• Prime Minister Benito Mussolini
• 22x20px General Secretary Joseph Stalin
• President Franklin D. Roosevelt
• President Harry S. Truman
• Prime Minister Winston Churchill
• Prime Minister Clement Attlee
• President Federico Laredo Brú - until late 1940
• President Fulgencio Batista
• President Ramón Grau
• President Carlos Prío Socarrás
• President Charles de Gaulle
• Prime Minister John Curtin
• Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
• Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah
• Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan
• Chairman Mao Zedong
• Chairman Chiang Kai-shek
• Reza Shah Pahlavi - until 1941
• Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
• Prime Minister and President Hồ Chí Minh
• Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion
• Head of state Francisco Franco
• President İsmet İnönü
• Prime-Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
• President Juan Perón
• President Eduardo Santos
• President Darío Echandía Olaya
• President Alberto Lleras Camargo
• President Mariano Ospina Pérez
• General Aung San
• President Getúlio Vargas
• President Romulo Betancourt
• Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Military leaders[link]

• 

  General Eisenhower speaks with troops prior to D-Day

• 

  Isoroku Yamamoto, Japanese Imperial Navy Fleet Admiral responsible for attack on Pearl Harbor.

• 

  Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal who led the North African Campaign.

• 

  The Supreme Commanders on 5 June 1945 in Berlin: Bernard Montgomery, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Georgy Zhukov and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.

• Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
• Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring
• Field Marshal Erich von Manstein
• Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt
• Marshal Ion Victor Antonescu
• General Hideki Tōjō
• General Kuniaki Koiso
• Field Marshal Hajime Sugiyama
• Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
• Fleet Admiral Osami Nagano
• Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov
• Field Marshal Ivan Konev
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower
• General George Marshall
• General Douglas MacArthur
• General Omar Bradley
• General George S. Patton
• Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
• Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King
• Field Marshal Harold Alexander
• Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery
• Général d'Armée Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
• Général d'Armée Charles de Gaulle
• General Henri Winkelman

Activists and religious leaders[link]

• 

  Mohandas Gandhi during the 1940s

• 

  Raoul Wallenberg, c. 1944

• 

  Muhammed Ali Jinnah with Gandhi, 1944.

• 

  Chiune Sugihara c.1940s

• Joel Brand
• Behic Erkin
• Varian Fry
• Mohandas Gandhi
• Billy Graham
• Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog
• Muhammad Ali Jinnah
• Necdet Kent
• Aristides de Sousa Mendes
• Pope Pius XII
• Martha Sharp
• Waitstill Sharp
• Chiune Sugihara
• Raoul Wallenberg

Entertainers[link]

• 

  Humphrey Bogart, 1946

• 

  Rita Hayworth as Doña Sol des Muire in Blood and Sand (1941)

• 

  Betty Grable, famous pin-up girl, 1943.

• 

  Clark Gable with 8th AF B-17 in Britain, 1943

Musicians[link]

Marian Anderson The Andrews Sisters Louis Armstrong Gene Autry Pearl Bailey Benny Carter Charlie Barnet Count Basie Irving Berlin Mills Brothers Les Brown Les Paul Sammy Cahn Cab Calloway Nat King Cole Perry Como Bing Crosby Jimmy Dorsey Tommy Dorsey Billy Eckstine Duke Ellington Ella Fitzgerald Ira Gershwin Dizzy Gillespie Benny Goodman Stéphane Grappelli Dick Haymes Billie Holiday Lena Horne Betty Hutton Mahalia Jackson

Frank Sinatra performing Ol' Man River in 1946's Till the Clouds Roll By Perry Como as Nicky Ricci performing "Here Comes Heaven Again" in 1946 Doll Face. Benny Goodman performing in 1943 Stage Door Canteen. Harry James Al Jolson Danny Kaye Sammy Kaye Gene Krupa Mario Lanza Peggy Lee Johnny Mercer Glenn Miller Charles Mingus Vaughn Monroe Charlie Parker Édith Piaf Cole Porter Bud Powell Django Reinhardt Max Roach Richard Rodgers Paul Robeson Artie Shaw Dinah Shore Frank Sinatra Kate Smith Ink Spots Billy Strayhorn Ernest Tubb Sarah Vaughan Hank Williams Bob Wills Teddy Wilson

Sports[link]

During the 1940s Sporting events were disrupted and changed by the events that engaged and shaped the entire world. The 1940 and 1944 Olympic Games were cancelled because of World War II. During World War II in the United States Heavyweight Boxing Champion Joe Louis and numerous stars and performers from American baseball and other sports served in the armed forces until the end of the war. Among the many baseball players (including well known stars) who served during World War II were Moe Berg, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial (in 1945), Warren Spahn, and Ted Williams. They like many others sacrificed their personal and valuable career time for the benefit and well being of the rest of society. The Summer Olympics were resumed in 1948 in London and the Winter games were held that year in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Baseball[link]

Ted Williams being sworn into the military on May 22, 1942.

Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg

During the early 1940s World War II had an enormous impact on Major League Baseball as many players including many of the most successful stars joined the war effort. After the war many players returned to their teams, while the major event of the second half of the 1940s was the 1945 signing of Jackie Robinson to a players contract by Branch Rickey the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Signing Robinson opened the door to the integration of Major League Baseball finally putting an end to the professional discrimination that had characterized the sport since the 19th century.

• Joe DiMaggio
• Bill Dickey
• Bob Feller
• Josh Gibson
• Hank Greenberg
• Monte Irvin
• Buck Leonard
• Johnny Mize
• Stan Musial
• Satchel Paige
• Branch Rickey
• Jackie Robinson
• Ted Williams

Boxing[link]

During the mid-1930s and throughout the years leading up to the 1940s Joe Louis was an enormously popular Heavyweight boxer. In 1936 he lost an important 12 round fight (his first loss) to the German boxer Max Schmelling and he vowed to meet Schmelling once again in the ring. Louis's comeback bout against Schmelling became an international symbol of the struggle between the USA and democracy against Nazism and Fascism. When on June 22, 1938, Louis knocked Schmelling out in the first few seconds of the first round during their rematch at Yankee Stadium, his sensational comeback victory riveted the entire nation. Louis enlisted in the U.S. Army on January 10, 1942 in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Louis's cultural impact was felt well outside the ring. He is widely regarded as the first African American to achieve the status of a nationwide hero within the United States, and was also a focal point of anti-Nazi sentiment leading up to and during World War II.^[9]

• Buddy Baer
• Ezzard Charles
• Billy Conn
• Rocky Graziano
• Joe Louis
• Sugar Ray Robinson
• Max Schmelling
• Jersey Joe Walcott
• Tony Zale

See also[link]

• 1940s in television
• 1940s in literature

Timeline[link]

The following articles contain brief timelines listing the most prominent events of the decade.

1940 • 1941 • 1942 • 1943 • 1944 • 1945 • 1946 • 1947 • 1948 • 1949

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1940s

• Heroes of the 1940s - slideshow by Life magazine
• 1940s.org