1940s

Events and trends

The 1940s were dominated by World War II, the most destructive armed conflict in history. So consequential was this event and its aftermath that it laid the foundation for other major world events and trends for decades to follow.

The post-war period saw 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.

Technology

• First nuclear bomb that dramatically altered international relationships
• First cruise missile, the V1 flying bomb and the first ballistic missile, the V-2 rocket
• First transistor
• Colossus, the world's first totally electronic computer. See History of computing hardware
• First supersonic flight by Chuck Yeager on October 14, 1947

Science

• Quantum electrodynamics developed by Feynman, Dyson, Schwinger, and Tomonaga
• Mathematics: game theory, cryptology
• TRIZ

War, peace and politics

• World War II ends in 1945
• The shoah (Holocaust)
• United Nations established in 1945
• Beginning of the Cold War
• Independence for some former colonies
• 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
• Informbiro period in Yugoslavia begins
• Indian independence and Independence of Pakistan
• US Air Force civilian auxiliary the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) formed

Economics

• The Marshall Plan is implemented by the United States, giving billions of dollars in aid to reconstruct the war-devastated economies of Europe
• International Monetary Fund
• World Bank

Culture, religion

• Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life
• The NBA begins play, in 1947
• Rhythm and blues emerges

Others

People

World leaders

• Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King (Canada)
• President Lin Sen (Republic of China)
• President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China)
• Marshal Henri Petain (Vichy France)
• Adolf Hitler (Germany)
• Mohandas Gandhi (India) († 1948)
• Mohammad Ali Jinnah (Pakistan)
• Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)
• King Victor Emmanuel III (Italy)
• Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (Italy)
• Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
• Pope Pius XII
• Taoiseach Eamon de Valera (Éire)
• Taoiseach John A. Costello (Republic of Ireland)
• Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
• 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)

Sports figures

• Joe Louis
• Sugar Ray Robinson
• Ted Williams
• Jackie Robinson
• Joe DiMaggio
• Sammy Baugh
• Steve Van Buren
• Satchel Paige

Entertainers

• Abbott and Costello
• Bette Davis
• Bing Crosby
• Bob Hope
• Cary Grant
• Clark Gable
• Frank Sinatra
• Humphrey Bogart
• Ingrid Bergman
• James Cagney
• Jimmy Stewart
• Katharine Hepburn
• Lauren Bacall
• John Wayne
• Orson Welles
• Spencer Tracy
• Duke Ellington