1940+-+1949+(These+paragraph+topics+are+not+available.)

1. Literature & Art


 * Diary of Anne Frank written - became best seller - translated all over the world

2. Music & Dance


 * "Chatanooga Choo Choo" first gold record

3. Fashion & Interior Design


 * early 1940's - Zoot Suit style developed - deliberately oversized suits during a time when fabric was being rationed due to war; 2-tone colors were popular, the duck tail hair style for guys was popular; African American and Hispanic youths adopted this style, and were stereotyped by police as troublemakers, so wearing zoot suits made you a police target - some cities prohibited the style - there were actually zoot suit riots in Los Angeles in 1943
 * 1942 - t-shirts came into use as undergarment to absorb sweat - soldiers and others began wearing them alone in hot tasks, so European civilians who observed this began to emulate the style
 * 1946 - French designers wanted to create the world's smallest swimsuit, which became known as the Bikini
 * 1948 - Velcro invented

4. Sports & Leisure Activities


 * 1940 - First McDonald's opened - hamburgers only 15 cents!
 * 1941 - Major League Baseball Player Joe Dimaggio had a hitting streak that STILL hasn't been broken to this day!
 * 1943 - Slinky toy invented
 * 1945 - frozen TV dinner invented
 * 1947 - Jackie Robinson broke the race barrier in professional baseball; dealt with segregation in all aspects of team travel, etc. - nonetheless won MVP, all star status every year from 1949-1954, 6 national league pennants, and a World Series - every year, players honor him on his day by wearing his number (42)

5. Science & Technology
 * 1940 - color television invented
 * 194 - animal bombs experimented with - strapping bombs to bats, cats, dogs, etc.
 * 1943 - silly rubber invented - Silly Putty use found for it in 1949
 * 1945 - first atomic bomb tested in New Mexico by the Manhattan Project - nicknamed Trinity
 * 1949 - Frederick M. Jones invented the refrigeration techniques for trucks transporting food to use to keep it from spoiling

6. Architecture & Transportation


 * 1940 - Jeep invented by American company Willy's MB for U.S. Army - produced by Ford, who nicknamed it GP (for General Purpose)

7. Cinema, Theater, & Mass Media 8. Regional/National/International Events of Historic Importance


 * 1941 - Mt. Rushmore completed in South Dakota
 * 1941 (December 7) - Pearl Harbor - Japanese attacked, which brought us into WWII
 * 1942 - US Army Rangers, an elite fighting force, created
 * 1942 - Battle of the Midway - US won; Japan never recovered from this defeat
 * 1942 - Bataan Death March in the Philipines
 * 1944 - G.I. Bill of Rights
 * 1947 - US Air Force founded
 * 1947/8 - Marshall Plan to help Europe recover from WWII
 * 1948 - Mohandas Gandhi assassinated

Wikipedia overview of the 1940's

Rare Footage of Demagogue Mussolini Giving Speech 1:12 min vid

Black People in Nazi Germany 1:40 min video

Last Surviving Nuremberg Prosecutor Talks Futility of War 1:10 min vid

Lodz Ghetto Pictures 1940-4

Netflix: Five Came Back 3-part WWII directors documentary

Five Came Back documentary IMDb entry

American Cultural History 1940-1949

10 Most Famous Pin Up Girls of WWII

ReVamp - Vintage Reproduction Clothes by decade

The People History - News, Events, Technology, Prices and Popular Culture of the 1940's

The Ultimate 40's JuKeBoX

Lisa's Nostalgia Cafe - the 1940's