1940
The average life expectancy of an American was 64 years.
Hitler's conquests in Europe were softening America's isolationist stand as World War II continued. Italy declared war on England and France and invaded the Balkans. The 1940 Olympics were canceled due to the international ill will.
Harry James left Benny Goodman's Orchestra to form his own band and hired a then-unknown Frank Sinatra as lead singer.
Walt Disney released Pinocchio, which included the hit When You Wish Upon A Star. Disney's animated spectacular, Fantasia, was previewed in New York on November 13th.
NBC conducted the first telecast of an opera in New York. CBS demonstrated its bulky color television system using New York experimental station W2XAB, Channel 1.
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1941
Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated for his third term in office.
Yankees centerfielder Joe DiMaggio set a record by safely hitting his 56th consecutive game.
Baseball great Lou Gehrig died of the neurological disease that would be named after him.
The National Gallery Of Art was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
The Grand Coulee Dam in central Washington State opened two years ahead of schedule.
The Japanese attacked the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7th. The next day, President Roosevelt announced a declaration of war against Japan. Japanese allies Italy & Germany declared war on the U.S.
Popular movies included Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, Walter Pidgeon & Maureen O'Hara in How Green Was My Valley, and Gary Cooper in Meet John Doe, Suspicion, and Sergeant York.
Jazz piano pioneer Jelly Roll Morton died of liver failure.
The year's most-popular song was Chatanooga Choo Choo by Glenn Miller & His Orchestra.
1942
Early in the year, the U.S. began moving west coast Japanese Americans into inland internment camps.
World War I ace pilot Eddie Rickenbacker crashed during a secret mission. He and seven soldiers were rescued from a raft in the South Pacific after a 25-day search.
Due to the World War II effort, rationing was placed in effect on dozens of items, ranging from sugar to gasoline.
U.S. Marines landed at Guadacanal, starting the bloody effort to remove the Japanese from the island.
Bell introduced the XP-59, the first American jet aircraft.
491 people perished when Boston's Coconut Grove night club caught fire.
Pepsi Cola made significant gains against competitor Coca Cola after an extensive radio advertising campaign.
Hit songs included Praise The Lord And Pass the Ammunition!
1943
Because copper was needed for the war effort, U.S. pennies produced this year were made from steel & zinc.
As Anglo-American forces made progress in Germany, Italy's Benito Mussolini was removed by the king. Italy withdrew its declaration of war against the U.S. and declared war on Germany. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of the European invasion forces on Christmas Eve.
Eight Nazi spies and saboteurs were captured attempting to land on the east coast. All were convicted and executed by electric chair.
The "WACS" - the Women's Army Corps - was organized. Other branches of the service formed similar organizations.
Wage earners began having a 20 per-cent flat income tax deducted from their wages on July 1st.
Cigarette companies used World War II to promote their products.
Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore were America's most popular singers.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma! - containing the hit Oh! What A Beautiful Morning - opened on Broadway.
1944
DDT was developed to wipe out lice, which had been carrying typhus among the troops of the Allied Forces.
The Normandy Invasion took place on D Day, June 6th.
An American police dog was given the Distinguished Service Medal for charging a machine gun nest in the invasion of Sicily.
President Franklin Roosevelt was elected to his fourth term, defeating Republican candidate Thomas Dewey.
160 persons died - 94 of them children - when a Barnum & Bailey circus tent caught fire in Hartford, Connecticut.
155 people died when a series of tornadoes ripped through Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
America's most popular bandleader, Glenn Miller, became a major in the Air Force. Leading the Air Force band, Miller made several pro-Ally broadcasts from London, which were beamed into Nazi Germany. Miller's plane disappeared on a flight from Paris to London on Christmas Eve. In the 1990s, documents would show that Miller's plane crashed into the English Channel after it was accidentally hit by friendly fire from the Royal Air Force.
Casablanca was named motion picture of the year at the Academy Awards ceremony.
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1945
The federal minimum wage was raised to 40¢ per hour.
95 days after his inauguration to a fourth term, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died of a brain hemorrhage. Harry Truman was sworn in as America's 33rd president April 12th.
The Philippines were recaptured. Marines landed at Iwo Jima, and after 36 days of bloody battle, the Japanese gave up the island. 4,000 Americans and 20,000 Japanese had been killed. General George Patton's Third Army invaded Germany and crossed the Rhine. Russian forces captured the Reichstag in Berlin. As the Nazi regime fell, Adolph Hitler committed suicide. Deposed Italian Premier Benito Mussolini was captured and executed by a firing squad.
In August, President Truman ordered the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese surrendered aboard the U.S.S. Missouri on September 1st.
General George Patton died at age 60, after crashing his motorcycle in Heidelberg, Germany.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel opened on Broadway.
Big band swing and zoot suits started becoming popular, reflecting the spirit of hit songs like Dig You Later - A Hubba Hubba Hubba! and You're My Meat.
The Federal Communications Commission allocated channels 2 through 13 for commercial television. Channel 1 was designated as "experimental".
1946
Honoring an 1898 treaty, President Truman declared that the Philippines would be independent as of July 4th.
The first digital computer was introduced at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering in Philadelphia. The ENIAC was 30 by 60 feet and weighed 60,000 pounds.
130 people died when elevator shafts and stairways were consumed with fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta.
The League Of Nations disbanded and assigned its assets to the newly-formed United Nations. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated an $8,500,000 block of property to the UN for its headquarters on Manhattan's east side.
Yugoslavia shot down two unarmed U.S. Army transports. Belgrade apologized after the U.S. threatened war.
One-story, spit-level homes became the trend. Americans dubbed the style "ranch houses."
Actor, comedian, billiards pro and writer W.C. Fields died of liver dysfunction which was linked with his heavy drinking.
Hit songs included There's No Business Like Show Business and Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah.
1947
Virtually the entire city of Texas City, Texas was destroyed when a French freighter carrying nitrate exploded and touched off further explosions at the Monsanto chemical plant. Pieces from the blasts were found as far as 50 miles away. Over 500 persons died and 2,100 suffered injuries.
80 died when a blizzard dropped 70 inches of snow on the New England states and New York.
170 people perished when a series of tornadoes swept through Texas and Oklahoma. More than 1,500 were injured and over 10,000 homes were destroyed.
Republicans - who controlled the congress for the first time in 14 years - refused to seat Mississippi Senator-elect Theodore Bilbo on the grounds he campaigned on a platform of white supremacy. He was never seated and died six months later.
Oregon Governor Earl Snell died in a plane crash in the Cascades mountain range. The state's senate president and attorney general were also killed.
Unidentified flying objects - known as UFOs or "flying saucers" - were reported throughout the summer in various parts of America. The government confirmed to a local newspaper that a saucer crashed near Roswell, New Mexico and that alien bodies had been recovered from the site, but later recanted all accounts of the crash, saying the object was just a weather balloon.
The Bickersons, a comedy about an always-arguing couple, became radio's number one hit show. It starred Don Ameche & Frances Langford. Danny Thomas played Blanche Bickerson's shady brother.
While 31,000,000 radios were in regular use in America, another medium was slowly being built by the radio companies - television. By the end of the year, America had 139 commercial broadcast TV stations, but only an estimated 9,000 TV sets.
Popular movies included Great Expectations and Miracle On 34th Street.
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1948
As the Soviet Union grew larger, America's "Cold War" with the Communists grew more intense. The House Un-American Activities Committee announced that sensitive microfilm documents had been stolen from the State Department by Communist spies. The microfims were found in a pumpkin at the farm of magazine editor Whit Chambers.
Voice Of America was established to beam shortwave radio programming into countries that could only receive Soviet propaganda. The Soviets countered with "jammers" - multi-million-watt stations that broadcast the endless drone of a war plane - in an attempt to block Voice Of America signals.
Despite the predictions of pundits, polls and a now-infamous incorrect newspaper headline, incumbent Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey for the U.S. presidency.
The Sultan of Swat - Babe Ruth - died of cancer at age 53, shortly after attending the movie premiere of The Babe Ruth Story.
Our Miss Brooks, starring Eve Arden and Gale Gordon, began its highly successful nine-year run on radio.
By the end of the year, America had four television networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and Dumont Television. Talk Of The Town, later renamed The Ed Sullivan Show, began its 23-year run on June 20th. The Milton Berle Show premiered on NBC a few nights later. TV sets in homes increased from 9,000 to 125,000 during the year. TV's first Emmy awards were held, with local stations garnering more awards than the networks.
1949
The Justice Department filed a suit in an attempt to break up AT&T and its manufacturing arm, Western Electric.
A truck illegally carrying explosives blew up in the Holland Tunnel between New York and New Jersey, killing the driver, injuring 64 commuters, and destroying 20 vehicles.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded. The treaty was ratified in the U.S. Senate by a vote of 82 to 13.
The U.N. Building in New York was dedicated.
The U.S. Air Force began Operation Haylift to get food to 2,000,000 cattle and sheep that were stranded by heavy blizzards in the west.
Jackie Gleason introduced his Honeymooners segment on Dumont TV's Cavalcade Of Stars. Gleason's low-budget variety & sketch show became so popular, CBS lured him away in 1952.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific opened on Broadway. Hit songs from the musical included Happy Talk, Some Enchanted Evening, Bali Ha'i, and There Is Nothing Like A Dame.
