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1940s
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1940s


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{{Redirect|'40s|decades comprising years 40–49 of other centuries |List of decades}}{{Article issues|prose =February 2010|expand =January 2010|globalize =January 2010}}{{Cleanup-list|date=January 2010}}







factoids
The 1940s was the decade that started on January 1, 1940 and ended on December 31, 1949. 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 decolonialisation and emergence of new states and governments, with India, Pakistan, Israel, Vietnam and others declaring independence, rarely without bloodshed. The decade also saw 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.

Wars and Conflicts

Wars

File:Infobox image for WWII.png|thumb|300px|World War II, images of different aspects of the major event (the war) of the 1940s. From top left: Marching German police during Anschluss, emaciated Jews in a concentration camp, Battle of Stalingrad, Capture of Berlin by Soviets, Japanese troops in China, Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945]]
* Nazi Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Benelux, and the French Third Republic from 1940 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: ', Latinized ha'shoah; Yiddish: ', 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


* 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

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

Internal conflicts

Decolonization and Independence

File:Declaration of State of Israel 1948.jpg|thumb|right|David Ben-GurionDavid Ben-Gurion

Economics

{{Expand section|date=January 2010}}

Science and Technology

{{Expand section|date=January 2010}}

Technology

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- Two women operating ENIAC.gif -
ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer.

Science

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- Kon-Tiki.jpg -
Kon-Tiki, 1947

Popular Culture

Film

File:Orson Welles-Citizen Kane1.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane in "Citizen KaneCitizen KaneFile:It's A Wonderful Life.jpg|thumb|150px|"It's a Wonderful LifeIt's a Wonderful Life 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 40s.In France during the war the tour de force Children of Paradise directed by Marcel Carné 1945, was shot in Nazi occupied Paris.(5)weblink Gio MacDonald, Edinburgh University Film Society program notes,
1994-95(6) 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

{{Expand section|date=January 2010}}{{See also|Timeline of musical events#1940s}}
  • The most popular music style during the 1940s was the swing which prevailed during the World War II.

Literature

Sports

During the 1940s Sporting events were disrupted and changed by the events that engaged and shaped the entire world. 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 baseball players (including well known stars) who served during World War II were Moe Berg, Joe Dimaggio, Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, Stan Musial, 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.

Fashion

{{See also|1930–1945 in fashion|1945–1960 in fashion}}{{Expand section|date=January 2010}}

People

World leaders

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- Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S62600, Adolf Hitler.jpg -
Adolf Hitler during the 1940s
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- Jalta 1945.jpg -
Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt
and Joseph Stalin in the Yalta ConferenceYalta Conference

Military leaders

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1973-012-43, Erwin Rommel.jpg|right|thumb|100px|Erwin Rommel, German Field Marshal who lead the North African CampaignNorth African Campaign

Activists and religious leaders

{{See also|List of individuals and groups assisting Jews during the Holocaust|Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust}}
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- MKGandhi.jpg -
Mohandas Gandhi during the 1940s

Entertainers

{{col-begin}}{{col-3}} {{col-3}} {{col-3}}
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- Humphrey Bogart by Karsh (Library and Archives Canada).jpg -
Humphrey Bogart, 1946.
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- Rita Hayworth in Blood and Sand trailer.jpg -
Rita Hayworth as Doña Sol des Muire in Blood and Sand (1941)
{{col-end}}

Musicians

{{col-begin}}{{col-2}} {{col-2}}
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- Perry Como - Here Comes Heaven Again in Doll Face.png -
Perry Como as Nicky Ricci performing "Here Comes Heaven Again" in 1946 Doll Face.
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- BennyGoodmanStageDoorCanteen.jpg -
Benny Goodman performing in 1943 Stage Door Canteen.
{{col-end}}

Sports figures

Baseball

{{See also|History of baseball in the United States#The war years|All-American Girls Professional Baseball League}}
missing image!
- Ted Williams swearing into the Navy 1942 .jpg -
upTed Williams being sworn into the military on May 22, 1942.

Boxing

missing image!
- Poster-Joe-Louis.jpg -
upWorld War II recruiting poster featuring Louis
{{See also|Ring Magazine fighters of the year|List of The Ring world champions}}

References





  1. "Holocaust," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this "the final solution to the Jewish question ..."


  2. Niewyk, Donald L. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, p.45: "The Holocaust is commonly defined as the murder of more than {{formatnum:5000000}} Jews by the Germans in World War II." Also see "The Holocaust", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007: "the systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women and children, and millions of others, by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. The Germans called this "the final solution to the Jewish question".


  3. Niewyk, Donald L. and Nicosia, Francis R. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, pp. 45–52.


  4. Donald Niewyk suggests that the broadest definition, including Soviet civilian deaths, would produce a death toll of 17 million. weblink Estimates of the death toll of non-Jewish victims vary by millions, partly because the boundary between death by persecution and death by starvation and other means in a context of total war is unclear. Overall, about 5.7 million (78 percent) of the 7.3 million Jews in occupied Europe perished (Gilbert, Martin. Atlas of the Holocaust 1988, pp. 242–244). Compared to five to 11 million (1.4 percent to 3.0 percent) of the 360 million non-Jews in German-dominated Europe. Small, Melvin and J. David Singer. Resort to Arms: International and civil Wars 1816-1980 and Berenbaum, Michael. A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis. New York: New York University Press, 1990


  5. DeWitt Bodeen, Les Enfants du Paradis, filmreference.com


  6. Quoted by Roger Ebert, Children of Pardise, Chicago Sun-Times, 6 January 2002 review oif the Criterion DVD release




External links

{{Commons category|1940s}}ملحق:عقد 1940(zh-min-nan:1940 nî-tāi)(be-x-old:1940-я)1940teDècada del 19401940-19491940au1940'erne1940er1940. aastadΔεκαετία 1940Años 19401940-aj jaroj1940ko hamarkadaAnnées 19401940idí1940an1940년대1940-ih1940-anAnnos 19401941-1950Anni 1940שנות ה-40 של המאה ה-201940-an1940-იანები1940 жж.Decennium 1951940. gadiXX amžiaus 5-as dešimtmetis1940-es évek1940-тиइ.स.चे १९४० चे दशक1940-an1940s1940-19491940年代1940-årene1940-larLata 40. XX wiekuDécada de 1940Anii 19401940 watakuna1940-еVitet 19401940s40. roky 20. storočia1940.1940е1940-an1940-luku1940-talet1940கள்1940. yıllar1940ýý1940-ві1940ער(zh-yue:1940年代)1940年代

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- time: 11:40am EST - Fri, Mar 12 2010