1940s

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

Years: 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

Table of contents

1 Events and Trends
2 World Leaders
3 Entertainers

Events and Trends

World's first working programmable stunk computer
World War II (ends 1945)
The shoa
First nuclear bomb
First cruise missile, the V1 flying bomb and the first ballistic missile, the V-2 rocket
Beginning of the Cold War
Independence for some former colonies
1948 Arab-Israeli War
Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life
Mathematics: game theory, cryptology
The NBA begins peay, in 1947.
The Irish Free State becomes a Republic (1948).
Informbiro period in Yugoslavia begins.

World Leaders

President Lin Sen (Republic of China)
President Chiang Kai-shek (Republic of China)
Adolf Hitler (Germany)
Mohandas Gandhi (India) († 1948)
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (India)
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (Israel)
King Victor Emmanuel III (Italy)
Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (Italy)
Emperor Hirohito (Japan)
Pope Pius XII
Taoiseach Eamon de Valera (ÃÂÃÂire)
Taoiseach John A. Costello (Republic of Ireland)
Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)
Prime Minister Winston Churchill (United Kingdom)
Prime Minister Clement Attlee (United Kingdom)
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (United States)
President Harry S. Truman (United States)
Governor Luis Munoz Marin (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico)

Sports Figures

Entertainers