demand for agricultural goods goes up. The Social Security Administration, created by 1930s New Deal legislation, sends out its first checks. Banking and credit industries become stronger after the 1930s.
Congress passes several laws related to national defense, including the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which provides drafting and training men for the army and navy, marines and national guard. More than 16 million men register for the draft, which also allows for conscientious objectors to be employed in non-combat work. Congress authorizes money to build planes and ships, housing for soldiers, and establishes new military bases across the country. The Alien Registration Act requires that all aliens register with the government.
Scientists learn that plasma can be substituted for whole blood transfusions; the Rh factor of blood is discovered. Food is freeze dried for the first time.
CBS demonstrates the first color television in New York City, and WNBT in New York City becomes the country's first regular television station, broadcasting to about 10,000 viewers.
Transportation expands. The first multi-lane superhighway, the Pennsylvania Turnpike opens; and the first Los Angeles freeway opens. Burma Shave roadside ads are set up along the highways, and the first MacDonald's hamburger stand opens in Pasadena, California.
People enjoy an array of popular books, movies and dances. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is popular, and the movie Gone with the Wind wins an Academy Award. Walt Disney releases "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia." Other movies include "The Great Dictator," "The Philadelphia Story," and "The Grapes of Wrath," staring former Nebraskan Henry Fonda. Americans enjoy "Bugs Bunny" cartoons and hear the "Superman" radio show for the first time. Big band music is popular and the Swing Era is in full swing.
1941
Following the 1940 election, Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated for a third term as president and urges that the US become an arsenal of democracy. Iowan Henry Wallace is vice president. The Lend-Lease Act gives the President power to sell or lend war supplies to other countries. Roosevelt sends emergency food aid to the Soviet Union.
US General Leslie R. Groves is appointed to direct the Manhattan Project, a top secret effort to build an atomic weapon before Germany or Japan. General Groves starts engineering and production centers at Los Alamos, New Mexico, directed by physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and at the Hanford Engineer Works in eastern Washington. At the University of Chicago, physicist Enrico Fermi, who had fled the Fascist regime in Italy, supervised related experiments. Under university's football stadium stands in 1942, the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction occurs. At Los Alamos a team of international engineers and scientists races to create atomic weapons for the US.
In Europe, Germany forces 5,000 Jewish people in Paris to labor camps and isolates Jews in Warsaw, Poland, into a walled ghetto. Jews are prohibited from appearing in public without wearing a star and they cannot leave residential areas without police permission. Hitler ignores the German-Soviet nonaggression pact and invades the Soviet Union. Slowed by the bitter Russian winter, the German war machine fails to conquer Moscow.
The Japanese attack the US base at Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941. In the surprise attack, more than 350 Japanese airplanes sink 12 US ships and destroy or damage more than 300 aircraft. More than 2,300 military personnel are killed and 1,100 wounded. More than 1,100 men on the battleship Arizona die and the ship sinks. The Japanese attack nearby Hickam Air Field and destroy nearly 20 bombers and fighters. A few US fighters manage to get into the air during the attack. Twenty-nine Japanese aircraft are shot down by US pilots and by ground fire. The next day, President Roosevelt says that December 7, 1941 is date which "will live in infamy" and
World War II By: Austin cole 1/11/12 World War II was a global conflict that was underway by 1939 and ended in 1945. It involved most of the world’s nations including all of the great power eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilized. In a state of total war, the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the…
before and during World War II lasted from the early 1930's to 1945. During this dark period in modern Asian history, the Japanese military machine was motivated by an uncontrollable desire for aggression, expansion and imperialism. The brutalities and atrocities committed by the Japanese military in China and elsewhere in Asia finally ended with destruction on Japanese soil -- the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945. The victims of the Japanese militarists' aggression included…
Essay World War II (WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people, from over 30 different countries, serving in military units. In a state of "total war", the major participants threw their entire economic…
reserve of troops supplies. Secrecy had to be maintained (Germany expected an attack, but didnt know where or when), Weather had to be clear (paratroop landings behind German lines beach landings critical). This was the largest amphibious invasion in history. From the southern coast of England to the beachheads in northern France. Six out of every ten Americans in the first assault groups were wounded or killed. Six weeks later, the Allies fully secured the 40-mile stretch of beaches. Captured the port…
changes in nearly every country than any other war in history. The number of people killed, wounded, or missing between September 1939 and September 1945 can never be calculated, but it is estimated that more than 55 million people perished. More than 50 countries took part in the war, and the whole world felt its effects. Men fought in almost every part of the world, on every continent except Antarctica. Chief battlegrounds included Asia, Europe, North Africa, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans…
On August 6th in 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb the world has ever seen on a Japanese war industry city, Hiroshima. Three days later came another bomb upon the city of Nagasaki, also a war industry city. Over 100,000 lives were lost to the catastrophic bombs. The decision to drop the bombs is one of the most controversial choices made by a United States president. Historians have argued on what President Truman actually tried to achieve with the two atomic bombs dropped on…
Feminism in Asia Assertions of Self: The Nascent Women's Movement in Central Asia. 1995. Through the lens of modern Chinese literature, Gender Politics in Modern China explores the relationship between gender and modernity, notions of the feminine and masculine, and shifting arguments for gender equality in China. Ranging from interviews with contemporary writers, to historical accounts of gendered writing in Taiwan and semi-colonial China, to close feminist readings of individual authors,…
Atomic Rising Sun “Few issues in American History- perhaps only slavery itself- are charged as the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan”, Robert Freeman. On the 8th of August 1945 on a clear morning sky, the B-29 Superfortress aircraft that was later named “Enola Gay” dropped the atomic bomb “Little Boy” over the skyline of Hiroshima at 8:45 am local time; the bomb would detonate 1,900 ft. above the city, which was the first city in history chosen to be the target of nuclear detonation. “Where…
Decaterina Angel Lopez Mr. Malnic Global Studies 3/3/11 A turning point in history is considered as an event involving a whole country or a substantial amount of people that changes the traditional pattern of behavior or order. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was an important turning point in World War Two. World War Two was a global military conflict between 1939 and 1945. The war was caused by many reasons. These causes consisted of the Treaty of Versailles, the failure of…
In early August 1945 atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These two bombs quickly yielded the surrender of Japan and the end of American involvement in World War II. By 1946 the two bombs caused the death of perhaps as many as 240,000 Japanese citizens1. The popular, or traditional, view that dominated the 1950s and 60s put forth by President Harry Truman and Secretary of War Henry Stimson was that the dropping of the bomb was a diplomatic maneuver aimed…