Fads & Innovations

Events In History, Fads and Innovations during WWII

Prepared by: Kim Cox

1939: On September 1st, Germany invaded Poland, and by the 3rd of September, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The British passenger ship, Athenia, was sunk by the Germans, killing thirty Americans on board on September 3rd.

Due to the war in Europe, the economy surged forward. Twenty -five cents per pound was paid for coffee. Admission at movie theaters in America ranged from twenty-two cents to fifty-five cents, where Americans averaged seeing one movie per week. "Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With The Wind" played at the theaters.

The helicopter was invented. The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flight began by Pan Am with its airliner, the "Dixie Clipper."

Thirty-two million people attended the New York World’s Fair, held in Flushing, Long Island from April through October. The New York Yankees won the World Series, victorious over the Cincinnati Reds.

A national fad became popular among college students. One student swallowed forty-three live goldfish.

1940: War continued as Germany occupied Norway and Denmark on April 19th. Then on May 10th, a little over a month later, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands was invaded by Germany. Italy declared war on France and Britain on June 10th and on June 21st, France was defeated and surrendered. In August "The Battle of Britain" started. Germany attacked Great Britain by air, but aided by airborne radar, British RAF defeated the German planes two to one.

Due to increasing factory orders induced by the war, unemployment dropped as the forty hour work week was adopted nationwide.

Axis powers, a form of economic and military alliance between Germany, Italy and Japan was formed. And the first peacetime draft was conducted by the United States. The belief that marriage would defer men from service caused a speed up of engagements.

Because of the war in Europe, the Olympic games were cancelled.

The chain known today as McDonalds was opened and by Richard and Maurice McDonald in Pasadena, Californian. This was the first drive-in restaurant. M&M candy bars were also developed.

In the World Series, the Cincinnati Reds beat the Detroit Tigers. The movie star, Tom Mix died in a car crash.

1941: Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22nd. The U.S. destroyer, Ruben James was sunk by a German submarine. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked, sinking the California, Utah, Oklahoma and Arizona and heavily damaging others. Three thousand Americans were killed. Japan also attacked Guam, Wakes Island and the Philippines. On December 8th, the United States declared war on Japan. Then Italy and Germany declared war on the United States on December 11th. Cities throughout the United States, blackout and air raid tests were staged.

On December 27th, the rationing of rubber went into effect.

The New York Yankee’s first basement, Lou Gehrig, died at thirty-seven on June 22nd. In the World Series, the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1942: In the Pacific, the United States suffered numerous defeats, especially in the Philippines and Manila Bay. But in May, the defeat of the Japanese in the "Battle of the Coral Sea" and again in the "Battle of Midway" in June, thereby turning the tables. Japan lost 17 ships, 275 planes and 4,800 men in Midway. Major General James Doolittle and his squadron of sixteen B-25s infiltrated Japan, bombing Tokyo and other cities on April 18th. The US morale was boosted by the attack.

The American and Japanese forces started a battle for supremacy when the Marines landed on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands on August 7th.

More rations began in the US; sugar on May 5th and gas on May 15th. National gas rationing didn’t begin until December 1st.

In Boston, on November 28th the Coconut Grove nightclub fire killed 492 people.

The most decorated soldier in WWII, Audie Murphy, joined the army at the age of sixteen.

The St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series, beating the New York Yankees.

1943: Twenty-two Japanese ships were sunk and fifty Japanese planes were downed by the Americans in the "Battle of the Bismarck Sea" on May 24th. British forces captured Tunis, and the U.S. captured Tunisia on May 7th.

John F. Kennedy and ten crew members swam to safety and were marooned on an island for days after their PT boat was rammed and cut in two by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands.

In May, in the surrender of North Africa 250,000 Axis troops were taken prisoner. On July 10th, allied forces invaded Sicily and allied planes bombed Rome on July 19th. In the fight for Sicily, Axis forces lost 167,000 men. On August 17th, the allied forces were triumphant. Italy surrendered to allies on September 8th.

On December 24th, Dwight Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied forces for the invasion of Europe.

Americans were limited to 3 pairs of shoes per year as of February 7th, when shoe rationing went into affect. March 17th, canned goods were rationed and on March 29th meat and cheese were rationed.

St. Louis Cardinals lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series.

1944: On January 22nd, Allied forces landed at Anzio, Italy. On March 6th, eight hundred U.S. flying fortresses bombed Berlin.

In Operation Overlord, the most massive military operation in history, Allied forces invaded Normandy, France on June 6h, D-Day, involving over five thousand ships, three thousand planes and close to four million troops.

On June 13th, Germany began to use V-1 rocket bomb and in the fall, the larger V-2s.

In the battle of Saipan, the U.S. forces were victorious and twenty-five thousand Japanese soldiers were killed. On September 24th, Lieutenant George Bush’s plane is shot down by the Japanese over Chi Chi Jima, during a bombing run on the island, but he was quickly rescued by an Allied submarine. U.S. takes Guam and seventeen thousand soldier were killed on August 9th.

On August 25th, Paris was liberated. And on September 12th, U.S. forces infiltrate Germany for the first time. The Japanese adopted suicide bomber tragedy out of desperation. At the massive naval battle of Lete, Philippine Islands on October 23-26, Kamikaze pilots and their suicide dives were seen for the first time.

December 16th, Battle of the Bulge began.

Assassination attempt on Hitler failed on July 20th.

Ringlin Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus tent in Hartford, Connecticut caught fire during a performance on July 6th and one hundred, sixty-seven people were killed and nearly five hundred injured.

In the U.S., twenty thousand cases of polio were reported. Franklin D. Roosevelt was reelected for a record fourth term as president, Harry Truman elected his vice-president.

In World Series, St. Louis Cardinals were victorious over the St. Louis Browns.

1945: From February 13th to the 14th, allied planes bomb Dresden. In the resulting firestorm, an estimated seventy thousand refugees died.

In the battle of Iwo Jima, the Japanese lost over twenty thousand men. Over one thousand were killed when two hundred seventy-nine U.S. B-29s napalm-bomb Tokyo on March 9th through 10th. On April 1st, the United States invaded Okinawa.

On April 28th, Mussolini and his mistress were killed by a firing squad and Adolph Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun committed suicide in Berlin on April 30th.

By May 3rd, British forces occupied Hamburg. On May 8th, V-E, Victory in Europe day begins. The war in Europe ended.

Before the Japanese surrendered on June 21st, one hundred thousand Japanese soldiers died at Okinawa. On July 5th, the Philippine Islands were liberated.

On July 16th, the first atomic bomb was test-detonated near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Colonel Paul Tibbets dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in the Enola Gay on August 6th. Eighty thousand perished. On August 8th, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. Forty thousand perished when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9th.

V-J, Victory in Japan, day, was established on August 15th and the War in the Pacific ended. The Japanese officially signed the surrender document on U. S. S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay pm September 2nd.

A B-25 bomber crashed into the 78th and 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing thirteen people during a blinding fog on July 28th.

Twenty-one war criminals were put on trial for various atrocities during Nuremberg war crime trials.

At the age of sixty-three, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, and Harry Truman assumed the presidency.

October 30th, the shoe rationing ended. Meat and butter rationing ended on November 23rd. Tire rationing ended on December 20th.

In Atlantic City, Bess Myerson won Miss America title. And the Detroit Tigers were victorious over the Chicago Cubs in the World Series.

The End