The
1940s(
the forties) ran from January
1, 1940, to 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 China
, 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.
Significant events

Atomic bombing of Imperial Japan
- Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Benelux, and France from 1940 to 1941
- Germany loses the Battle of
Britain 1940
- 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
- Germany and Japan suffer defeats at Stalingrad
, El Alamein
, and Midway
in 1942 and
1943
- D-Day landing of Allied forces on the
beaches of Normandy France (June 6, 1944)
- Iceland
declares
independence from Denmark
.
(June 17, 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 Josef 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) 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.
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. By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims is between 11 million
and 17 million people.
- Germany surrenders May 7, 1945
- Establishment of the United
Nations Charter (June 26, 1945) effective (October 24,
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
- Beginning of Greek Civil War,
which extends from 1946 to 1949.
- Pakistan
gains
independence from Britain
August 14,
1947.
- India
gains
independence from Britain
August 15,
1947.
- Establishment of the State of
Israel
May 14, 1948
- Establishment of the defense alliance
NATO
April 4, 1949.
- Victory of Chinese Communist
Party led by Mao Zedong in the
Chinese Civil War.
World leaders
Military leaders

General Eisenhower speaks with troops
prior to D-Day
Technical innovations
Entertainment
Film
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 England, France, Italy, Russia and
elsewhere in Europe.
Akira Kurosawa
and other directors managed to produce significant films during the
40s in Japan as well.
Some of Hollywood's best 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 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.
In France during the war the tour de force
Children of Paradise directed by
Marcel Carné 1945, was shot in
Nazi occupied Paris. 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.
Entertainers
Musicians
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, 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.
Boxing
Baseball
Activists and religious leaders
See also
References