File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II (1939–1945): From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha Beach Beach on "Normandy Landings ; Adolf Hitler visits Paris soon after the Battle of France behind him is the Eiffel Tower The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany carried out a programme of systematic state-sponsored extermination during which a genocide of approximately six million European Jews was carried out; The Japan se Attack on Pearl Harbor launches the United States into the war; An Royal 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 Surrender of Japan on behalf of the Japanese Government, on board USS Missouri (BB-63) effectively ending the war.
Below title bar: events which happened after World War II: From left to right: The Israeli Declaration of Independence 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; The ENIAC the worlds first general-purpose electronic computer |420px|thumb rect 1 1 224 195 Normandy Landings rect 227 1 407 195 Battle of France rect 409 1 572 195 The Holocaust rect 1 198 148 383 Attack on Pearl Harbor rect 151 198 288 383 Battle of Britain rect 291 198 420 383 Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki rect 424 198 572 383 Surrender of Japan rect 0 384 572 411 World War II rect 1 412 125 599 Israeli Declaration of Independence rect 128 412 290 599 Nuremberg Trials rect 294 412 438 599 Marshall Plan rect 441 412 572 599 ENIAC The 1940s was the decade that started on January 1, 1940 and ended on December 31, 1949. The World War II 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 Western world 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 computer , nuclear power and jet engine , often first developed in tandem with the war effort, and later adapted and improved upon in the post-war era.

Politics and wars

Wars

* World War II (1939–1945) File:Infobox image for WWII.png 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 internment Battle of Stalingrad Battle of Berlin Second Sino-Japanese War Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 9, 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 Operation Barbarossa 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 Battle of Stalingrad Second Battle of El Alamein and Battle of 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 of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Premier of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin respectively—for the purpose of discussing Europes postwar reorganization, intended to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. :* The Holocaust also known as The Shoah (Hebrew language {{lang|he|השואה}} Latinized hashoah; Yiddish language {{lang|yi|חורבן}} Latinized churbenor hurbanlt;ref nameBritannica>http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/269548/Holocaust "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 ...") 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 Axis powers and Collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II 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 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". Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the Nazis systematic murder of millions of people in other groups, including Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles the Porajmos Generalplan Ost Extermination of Soviet prisoners of war by Nazi Germany Action T4 History of homosexual people in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and Holocaust victims Niewyk, Donald L. and Nicosia, Francis R. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, pp. 45–52. By this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims is between 11 million and 17 million people.Donald Niewyk suggests that the broadest definition, including Soviet civilian deaths, would produce a death toll of 17 million. http://books.google.ca/books?idlpDTIUklB2MC&pgPP1&dqNiewyk,+Donald+L.+The+Columbia+Guide+to+the+Holocaust&sig4igufxQHRCNrkjwRuMt1if_mf5M#PPA45,M1] 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 (Martin Gilbert Atlas of the Holocaust1988, 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 1816-1980and Michael Berenbaum A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis. New York: New York University Press, 1990lt;/ref> :* 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 * 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

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

Internal conflicts

* 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

File:Declaration of State of Israel 1948.jpg proclaiming Israeli independence from the United Kingdom on May 14, 1948]] File:PRCFounding.jpg 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 Indonesian National Revolution . * 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 Israel * 1949 - The People's Republic of China is officially proclaimed.

Economics

Science and technology

Image:Two women operating ENIAC.gif the first general-purpose electronic computer ]]

Technology

Image:Atanasoff-Berry Computer at Durhum Center.jpg replica at 1st floor of Durham Center, Iowa State University]] * The Atanasoff-Berry Computer is considered the first digital electronic computer 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 first test of technology for an atomic weapon is made (Trinity (nuclear test) as part of the Manhattan Project * The development of the Radar * The development of Ballistic missiles * The development of the 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

Image:Kon-Tiki.jpg 1947]] * Physics: the development of the Quantum mechanics and nuclear physics * Mathematics: the development of the 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 era * Willard Libby developed the radiocarbon dating - a process which revolutionized archaeology * The development of Modern evolutionary synthesis

Popular culture

Film

File:Orson Welles-Citizen Kane1.jpg (1941)]] File:It's A Wonderful Life.jpg (1946)]] * Oscar winners: Rebecca (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Casablanca (film) (1943), Going My Way (1944), The Lost Weekend (film) (1945), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Hamlet (1948), All the King's Men (1949) * Some of Hollywoods most notable Blockbuster (entertainment) of the 1940s include: [[The Maltese Falcon (1941 film)|The Maltese Falcon]]directed by John Huston 1941, [[Its a Wonderful Life]] directed by Frank Capra 1946, [[Double Indemnity (film)|Double Indemnity]]directed by Billy Wilder 1944, [[Meet Me in St. Louis]]directed by Vincente Minnelli 1944, [[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]directed by Michael Curtiz 1942, [[Citizen Kane]]directed by Orson Welles 1941, [[The Big Sleep (1946 film)|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 (1946 film)|Notorious]]directed by Alfred Hitchcock 1946. The Walt Disney Pictures released the animated feature films [[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]1940, [[Dumbo]]1941, [[Fantasia (film)|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 Cinema of the United Kingdom Cinema of France Cinema of Italy the Cinema of 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. Film Noir a film style that incorporated crime dramas with dark images, became largely prevalent during the decade. Films such as The Maltese Falcon (1941 film) 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.http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Dr-Ex/Les-Enfants-du-Paradis.html DeWitt Bodeen, Les Enfants du Paradis filmreference.com]http://www.eufs.org.uk/films/les_enfants_du_paradis.html] Gio MacDonald, Edinburgh University Film Society program notes, 1994-95http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID/20020106/REVIEWS08/201060301/1023 Quoted by Roger Ebert, Children of Pardise Chicago Sun-Times 6 January 2002 review oif the Criterion DVD release] Memorable films from Post-war England include David Lean s [[Great Expectations (1946 film)|Great Expectations]](1946 in film and [[Oliver Twist (1948 film)|Oliver Twist]](1948 in film , Carol Reeds [[Odd Man Out]](1947 in film and [[The Third Man]](1949 in film , and Powell and Pressburger s [[A Matter of Life and Death (film)|A Matter of Life and Death]](1946 in film , [[Black Narcissus]](1946 in film and [[The Red Shoes (1948 film)|The Red Shoes]](1948 in film , Laurence Olivier s [[Hamlet (1948 film)|Hamlet]] the first non-American film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture and [[Kind Hearts and Coronets]](1949 in film 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 Cinema of Japan directed by Kenji Mizoguchi [[The Men Who Tread on the Tigers Tail]] 1945, and the post-war [[Drunken Angel]]1948, and [[Stray Dog (film)|Stray Dog]]1949, directed by Akira Kurosawa are considered important early works leading to his first masterpieces of the 1950s. Drunken Angel1948, marked the beginning of the successful collaboration between Kurosawa and actor Toshirō Mifune that lasted until 1965.

Music

* The most popular music style during the 1940s was swing music 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

* For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway in 1940 * The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus in 1942 * The Stranger (novel) 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 (book) by Astrid Lindgren in 1945 * The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank in 1947 * Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller in 1949 * Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell in 1949

Fashion

People

World leaders

Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S62600, Adolf Hitler.jpg|Adolf Hitler during the 1940s Image:Jalta 1945.jpg|Winston Churchill Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin in the Yalta Conference February 1945 File:PRCFounding.jpg|Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the Peoples Republic in 1949 * hancellor Adolf Hitler * rime Minister Ion Victor Antonescu * mperor Hirohito * rime Minister Benito Mussolini * eneral Secretary Joseph Stalin * resident Franklin D. Roosevelt * resident Harry S. Truman * rime Minister Winston Churchill * rime Minister Clement Attlee * resident Charles de Gaulle * rime Minister John Curtin * rime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King * overnor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah * rime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan * hairman Mao Zedong * hairman Chiang Kai-shek * rime Minister and President Hồ Chí Minh * rime Minister David Ben Gurion * ead of state Francisco Franco * resident İsmet İnönü * rime-Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru * resident Juan Perón * eneral Aung San * resident Getúlio Vargas * resident Romulo Betancourt

Military leaders

Image:Eisenhower d-day.jpg|Dwight D. Eisenhower speaks with troops prior to D-Day Image:Isoroku Yamamoto.jpg|Isoroku Yamamoto Japanese Imperial Navy Fleet Admiral responsible for attack on Pearl Harbor File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1973-012-43, Erwin Rommel.jpg|Erwin Rommel German Field Marshal who lead the North African Campaign * ield Marshal Erwin Rommel * eichs Marshall Hermann Göring * ield Marshal Erich von Manstein * ield Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt * arshal Ion Victor Antonescu * eneral Hideki Tōjō * eneral Kuniaki Koiso * ield Marshal Hajime Sugiyama * Fleet Admiral]] Isoroku Yamamoto * Fleet Admiral]] Osami Nagano * ield Marshal Georgy Zhukov * ield Marshal Ivan Konev * eneral Dwight D. Eisenhower * eneral George C. Marshall * eneral Douglas MacArthur * eneral Omar Bradley * eneral George S. Patton * Fleet Admiral]] Chester W. Nimitz * Fleet Admiral]] Ernest J. King * ield Marshal Harold Alexander * ield Marshal Bernard Montgomery * eneral Charles de Gaulle

Activists and religious leaders

Image:MKGandhi.jpg|Mohandas Gandhi during the 1940s File:Raoul Wallenberg.jpg|Raoul Wallenberg c. 1944 Image:Jinnah Gandhi.jpg|Muhammed Ali Jinnah with Gandhi 1944. * 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

Image:Humphrey Bogart by Karsh (Library and Archives Canada).jpg|Humphrey Bogart 1946 Image:Rita Hayworth in Blood and Sand trailer.jpg|Rita Hayworth as Doña Sol des Muire in [[Blood and Sand (1941 film)|Blood and Sand]](1941 in film File:Clark Gable 8th-AF-Britain1943.jpg|Clark Gable with Eighth Air Force B-17 in Britain, 1943 * Dana Andrews * Jean Arthur * Fred Astaire * Mary Astor * Lauren Bacall * Josephine Baker * Joseph Barbera * Anne Baxter * Jack Benny * William Bendix * Ingrid Bergman * Humphrey Bogart * Charles Boyer * Walter Brennan * James Cagney * Cab Calloway * Lon Chaney Jr. * Charles Chaplin * Montgomery Clift * Claudette Colbert * Ronald Colman * Gary Cooper * Abbott and Costello * Joseph Cotten * Joan Crawford * Bing Crosby * Dorothy Dandridge * Bette Davis * Doris Day * Olivia de Havilland * Marlene Dietrich * Walt Disney * Kirk Douglas * Irene Dunne * Duke Ellington * Alice Faye * Errol Flynn * Henry Fonda * Joan Fontaine * Clark Gable * Ava Gardner * Judy Garland * Greer Garson * Paulette Goddard * Betty Grable * Cary Grant * Sidney Greenstreet * Carl Stuart Hamblen * William Hanna * Rita Hayworth * Katharine Hepburn * Bob Hope * Lena Horne * Walter Huston * Jennifer Jones * Danny Kaye * Gene Kelly * Alan Ladd * Veronica Lake * Hedy Lamarr * Dorothy Lamour * Bert Lancaster * Laurel and Hardy * Charles Laughton * Peter Lawford * Vivien Leigh * Gene Lockhart * June Lockhart * Carole Lombard * Peter Lorre * Myrna Loy * Ida Lupino * Vera Lynn * Fred MacMurray * Fredric March * Ray Milland * Carmen Miranda * Marilyn Monroe * Margaret O'Brien * Maureen O'Hara * Gregory Peck * Walter Pidgeon * Dick Powell * Eleanor Powell * William Powell * Tyrone Power * Anthony Quinn * Claude Rains * Basil Rathbone * Ronald Reagan * Edward G. Robinson * Ginger Rogers * Roy Rogers * Cesar Romero * Mickey Rooney * Rosalind Russell * Joseph Schildkraut * Lizabeth Scott * Barbara Stanwyck * James Stewart (actor) * Elizabeth Taylor * Robert Taylor (actor) * Gene Tierney * Spencer Tracy * Lana Turner * Robert Walker * John Wayne * Orson Welles * Richard Widmark * Cornel Wilde * Jane Wyman * Loretta Young

Musicians

* Marian Anderson * The Andrews Sisters * Louis Armstrong * Gene Autry * Pearl Bailey * Benny Carter * Charlie Barnet * Count Basie * Irving Berlin * Mills Brothers * Les Brown (bandleader) * 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 * Dick Haymes * Billie Holiday * Lena Horne * Betty Hutton * Mahalia Jackson File:Frank Sinatra in Till the Clouds Roll By.jpg performing Ol' Man River in 1946s [[Till the Clouds Roll By]]] Image:Perry Como - Here Comes Heaven Again in Doll Face.png as Nicky Ricci performing "Here Comes Heaven Again" in 1946 [[Doll Face]]]] Image:BennyGoodmanStageDoorCanteen.jpg 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 * 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

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 List of Heavyweight Champions 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

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 Racial integration of Major League Baseball finally putting an end to the professional discrimination that had characterized the sport since the 19th century. Image:Ted Williams swearing into the Navy 1942 .jpg being sworn into the military on May 22, 1942.]] File:Robinson-contract.jpg (left) with Branch Rickey signing the contract for Robinsons 1948 season. On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier which had been tacitly recognized for over 50 years, with his appearance for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field ]] *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

Image:Poster-Joe-Louis.jpg recruiting poster featuring Louis]] 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. Louiss 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. Louiss 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 lt;/ref> *Buddy Baer *Ezzard Charles *Billy Conn *Rocky Graziano *Joe Louis *Sugar Ray Robinson *Max Schmelling *Jersey Joe Walcott *Tony Zale

See also

* 1940s in television * List_of_years_in_literature#1940s

Timeline

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade: 1940 • 1941 • 1942 • 1943 • 1944 • 1945 • 1946 • 1947 • 1948 • 1949

References

External links

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