Overview:
Britain:
Europe:
America:
Asia:
Australia:
New Zealand:
Africa:
Science & Technology:

The 20th Century - 2nd quarter

Overview:

dominated by the Wall St Crash followed by the Great Depression then Hitler & the devastating World War II terminated by the 1st use of the atomic bomb which ushered in the “Cold War” of communism vs capitalism and the creation of Israel as a Jewish state.
the “silent generation” (a term used by Time magazine in 1951):
- Western people born 1931-1946 (some say 1925-42) aka depression generation or “conservatives”
- stereotypically cautious, retiring people, raised on the uncertainty of war & depression.
- their marriages and jobs were for life & their prolonged thriftiness has provided many with a healthy income in retirement
- suffered privations early in life which made them frugal.
- defining movie: Rebel without a cause
- icons: James Dean, Marilyn Monroe
- motto: “save it for a rainy day”
- fashion faux pas: girdle
the age of:
- the Fascist states of Italy & Germany & the consolidation of Russian & Chinese communism;
- movies with sound, development of pharmaceutical industry vitamins, insulin and early antibiotics
literature:
- Ernest Hemingway; A.A. Milne; D.H.Lawrence;Remarque; Bertrand Russell; Max Planck; Aldous Huxley; Grahame Greene; Arthur Koestler; George Orwell;
- 1925: Gertrude Stein The Making of American; Virginia Woolf Mrs Dalloway;
- 1926: A.A. Milne Winnie the Pooh;
- 1927: Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse;
- 1928: A.A. Milne The House at Pooh Corner; D.H.Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover;
- 1929: William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury; Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms;
- 1930: Henry Richardson Richard Mahony; Daniel Hammett The Maltese Falcon;
- 1931: Virgina Woolf The Waves;
- 1932: William Faulkner Light in August; Aldous Huxley Brave New World;
- 1934: Agatha Christie Murder on the Orient Express; Henry Miller Tropic of Cancer; James Cain The Postman always ring twice; Robert Graves I Claudius; James Hilton Goodbye Mr Chips;
- 1935: Enid Bagnold National Velvet;
- 1937: John Tolkien The Hobbit; John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men;
- 1939: Flan O'Brien At Swim-two-birds; James Joyce Finnegan's Wake; John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath; Richard Llewellyn How Green was my Valley;
- 1940: Graham Greene The Power and the Glory; Arthur Koestler Darkness at Noon; Ernest Hemingway For Whom the Bell Tolls; Christina Stead The Man who loved Children;
- 1941: Virginia Woolf Between the Acts;
- 1946: Anais Nin Ladders to Fire; Robert-Penn Warren All the King's Men;
- 1945: Evelyn Waugh Brideshead Revisoted; George Orwell Animal Farm
- 1947: Malcolm Lowry Under the Volcano; Tennessee Williams A Streetcar named Desire;
- 1948: Graham Greene The Heart of the Matter;
- 1949: Paul Bowles The Sheltering Sky; George Orwell 1984; Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman;
art:
- Salvadore Dali, surrealism;
music:
- “classical music” - Bartok; Shostakovich; Ravel; Stravinsky; Rachmaninoff; Richard Strauss;
- popular music:
  - jazz - Duke Ellington; “Jelly Roll” Morton; Al Jolson; Cole Porter;
  - blues
  - swing (1935-)
  - war songs
- musicals - Irving Berlin; George Gershwin; Rodgers & Hammerstein; Leonard Bernstein;
- dance - foxtrot (1927); rumba (1935); Lambeth Walk (1938); Lindy hop; jitterbug (1943); bebop (1945); samba (1949);
films:
- Walt Disney - Mickey Mouse, etc.
- Alfred Hitchcock
- actors: Charlie Chaplin; Clark Gable; Dick Van Dyke; Marx Brothers; Orson Welles; Bing Crosby; Lawrence Olivier;
- actresses: Greta Garbo; Marlene Dietrich; Shirley Temple; Katherine Hepburn; Mae West; Ingrid Bergman; Ginger Rogers; Rita Hayworth;

Britain:

1925: Unemployment Insurance Act enacted; Q. Alexandra dies; British troops evacuate Cologne;
1926: general strike;
1928: women's suffrage reduced from age 30 to 21;
1932: Huxley's “Brave New World”;
1934: road traffic driver tests introduced; Depressed Areas bill introduced; Churchill warns govt of German air menace;
1936: K.George V dies, succeeded by his son Edward VIII; Britain, US & France sign London Naval Convention; Edward VIII abdicates after relationship with Mrs Wallis Simpson, succeeded by his brother George VI;
1937: Royal Commission on Palestine recommends establishment of Arab & Jewish states; Britain signs naval agreements with Germany & USSR; Lord Halifax visits Hitler, beginning of policy of appeasement; Hindenburg dirigible disaster;
1938: Orson Welles's radio production of H.G.Wells' “War of the Worlds” causes considerable panic; gas masks issued to British public during the Munich crisis; Hutton scores 364 runs against Australia;
1939: conscription adopted; K. George VI & Queen Elizabeth visit US; England & Poland sign treaty of mutual assistance; women & children are evacuated from London;
1940: food rationing; Chamberlain resigns & Churchill becomes PM; Home Guard formed; George Cross instituted;
1941: utility clothing & furniture encouraged;
1942: songs: “The white cliffs of Dover”; Malta awarded George Cross; wartime “National Loaf”;
1945: Churchill, Truman & Stalin confer at Potsdam after VE Day; Labour landslide, Attlee becomes PM; George Orwell's “Animal Farm”; family allowances introduced;
1946: Churchill gives his “Iron Curtain” speech; London Airport opened (new terminal in 1955);
1947: British coal industry nationalised; most severe winter since 1894;
1948: Brit. Citizenship Act grants British passports to all Commonwealth citizens; Brit. railroads nationalised; bread rationing ends;
1949: Republic of Eire proclaimed in Dublin & its independence recognised by Britain; Britain devalues pound from $US4.03 to $US2.80, most European nations follow suit; George Orwell's “1984”; British gas industry nationalised; clothes rationing ends;

Europe:

see also:
- Chronology of the Holocaust
- a brief chronology of the Romani (Gypsy) Holocaust
- genocide
1925: Christiania, Norway capital, renamed Oslo; Hitler reorganises Nazi Party & publishes 1st volume of “Mein Kampf”; jazz Chicago style arrives in Europe;
1926: Pilsudski's coup d'etat in Poland; Germany admitted to League of Nations; Ger. ministers take office in Czech govt; Trotsky & Zinoviev expelled from USSR; reforms in Turkey - abolition of polygamy/modernisation of female attire/prohibition of fez/adoption of Latin alphabet;
1927: “Black Friday” in Germany as its economic system collapses; Socialists riot in Vienna;
1928: USSR's 1st 5yr plan; Ravel's “Bolero”;
1929: after nearly 60 years of dispute following the creation of the Unified kingdom of Italy in 1870, and the refusal of successive popes to recognize the Italian government and who declared themselves voluntary “prisoners of the Vatican” (before 1870, the popes ruled a massive territory across central Italy known as the Papal States), Mussolini and Cardinal Pietro Gasparri (representing Pope Pius XI) signs the Lateran Ttreaty creating the independent Vatican City on 44 hectares, guaranteeing the Pope absolute political independence from any secular government.
1929: dictatorship established in Yugoslavia by King Alexander I; Lateran Treaty establishes independent Vatican City; name of Serbo-Croat-Slovene Kingdom changed to Yugoslavia; Remarque's “All quiet on the western front”; Trotsky leaves Soviet Russia;
1930: Constantinople changed to Instabul; Britain, US, Japan, France & Italy sign naval disarmament treaty; last Allied troops leave Rhineland;
1930: Stalin's forced collectivization of Soviet peasants and the resulting the great Soviet famine of 1932–1933 which many considered to be a genocidal act against the Ukraines in particular
1932: USSR's 2nd 5yr plan starts; Nazi's win elections; Hitler refuses Hindenburg's offer to become Vice Chancellor; Austrian-born Hitler receives German citizenship; USSR famine; Ibn Saud renames his kingdom Saudi Arabia; drainage of Pontine marshes in Italy;
1933: Hitler appointed German chancellor; Goering named Prussian Prime Minister; Chancellor Dollfuss suspends parliamentary govt in Austria; Goebbels named Hitler's Minister of Propaganda; Hitler granted dictatorial powers (Enabling Law); 1st German concentration camps erected; boycott of Jews begins in Germany; German labour unions suppressed; non-Nazi political parties suppressed; 92% of German electorate vote for Nazi's; 60,000 artists (authors, actors, painters, musicians) emigrate from Germany (-1939); USSR's famine reaches disastrous proportions;
1934: Austrian revolution overturns Social Democrats; general strike in France; Hitler & Mussolini meet in Venice; Hitler promotes bloodbath in Germany with many assassinated; German plebiscite votes Hitler as Fuhrer; USSR admitted to League of Nations; King Alexander of Yugoslavia assassinated, replaced by Prince Paul; German Labor Front founded;
1935: Nazis repudiate Versailles Treaty & reintroduce compulsory military service; Nuremberg Laws against Jews; show trials take place in Russia; USSR concludes treaties with France, Czech., US & Turkey; Mussolini invades Abyssinia; anti-Hapsburg laws abolished in Austria; German Luftwaffe formed; Moscow subway opened; Kemal adopts Swiss standards, abolishing polygamy, allowing women to vote & then adopting Latin alphabet for Turkey;
1936: German troops occupy Rhineland; Italy, Austria & Hungary sign Rome Pact; Abyssinian war ends with Italy annexing Abyssinia; Spanish civil war; France devalues franc; Italy devalues lira; Mussolini & Hitler proclaim Rome-Berlin Axis;
1936-38: Soviet's Great Purge or Great Terror¹⁾ and their Kulak Operation to repress and kill oppositional intelligentsia, wealthy peasants (kulaks) and ethnic minorities, killing 680,000 - 1.2 million people and constituted 75% of Gulag sentences; The political purge was primarily an effort by Stalin to eliminate challenge from past and potential opposition groups, including the left and right wings led by Leon Trotsky (who had been expelled in 1929) and Nikolai Bukharin (arrested in 1937 and executed in 1938), respectively.
1937: Italy & Yugoslavia sign Belgrade Pact; Italy withdraws from League of Nations;
1938: anti-Jewish legislation enacted in Italy; US recalls their ambassador to Germany; Kemal “Ataturk”, the father of modern Turkey dies;
1939: Germany occupies Bohemia & Moravia, places Slovakia under “protection”, annexes Memel, renounces non-aggression pact with Poland & naval agreement with Britain, concludes both 10-yr alliance with Italy & non-aggression pact with USSR; Britain & France recognise Franco's govt as Spanish Civil War ends; Spain leaves League of Nations; Italy invades Albania; Hungary quits League of Nations; earthquake in Anatolia, Turkey claims 45,000 victims;
- world war II:
  - Germany invades Poland on 1st Sept 1939 and annexes Danzig
  - Britain & France declare war on Germany as part of the Anglo-Polish and Franco-Polish treaties of alliance, although they did little to help Poland, hence called the Phoney War; Roosevelt declares US neutral;
  - Germans overrun western Poland & reach Brest-Litovsk & Warsaw;
  - Soviet USSR invades Poland from the east on 17th Sept 1939 in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and imprisons 8000 Polish officers
  - Brit. Expeditionary Force (158,000 men) sent to France;
  - Britain & France reject Hitler's peace feelers;
  - USSR invades Finland & is expelled from the League;
1940:
- world war II:
  - Finland signs peace treaty with USSR
  - Germany invades Norway & Denmark, then Holland, Belgium, & Luxembourg;
  - Churchill's “blood, sweat & tears” speech;
  - Dutch army surrenders; Belgium capitulates; Brit. forces (340,000) evacuated from Dunkirk;
  - Italy declares war on France & Britain; Germans enter Paris; France concludes armistice with Germany;
  - Royal Navy sinks Fr. fleet; RAF begins night bombings of Germany; 90 Ger. bombers shot down over England;
  - Battle of Britain; Japan, Germany & Italy sign military & economic pact; 180 Ger. planes shot down;
  - US sell destroyers to Britain; Germany intensifies U-boat warfare;
  - Katyn massacre - Soviet leaders Josef Stalin, Mikhail Kalinin, Kliment Voroshilov and Lazar Kaganovich were behind the 1940 execution carried ot by the NKVD (“People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs”, the Soviet secret police) in April and May 1940 of some 22,000 of Poland’s top military officers, policemen, and academics seen as likely to resist Soviet communist rule. Government of Nazi Germany announced the discovery of mass graves in the Katyn Forest in April 1943, this was denied by the Soviets until accepted in 1990 ²⁾
1941:
- world war II:
  - Brit. invade Abyssinia; Ger. counter-offensive in north Africa;
  - Rommel attacks Tobruk; Stalin undisputed head of Russian govt; Hess lands in Scotland;
  - Ger. invades Crete; US freezes German & Italian assets in US;
  - Ger. invade Russia capturing Minsk, Smolensk, Tallinn & enter Ukraine;
  - Churchill & Roosevelt meet & sign Atlantic Charter;
  - Ger. advance to outskirts of Leningrad & continue towards Moscow, taking Kiev, Orel, Odessa & Kharkov;
  - RAF bombs Nuremberg; Brit. begin attack on western desert; Russian counter-offensive launched;
  - Roosevelt warned of possible Jap. attack; Jap. bomb Pearl Harbour; US & Britain declare war on Jap.
  - Jap. invade Phillipines; Ger. & Italy declare war on US; Rommel retreats in north Africa;
  - Churchill visits Washington & Ottawa; Brit. gain control of Cyrenaica; HK surrenders to Jap.;
1942: Albert Camus “L'Etranger”;
- world war II:
  - the 26 Allies pledge not to make separate peace treaties with the enemies;
  - Rommel launches new offensive;
  - Brit. raid St Nazaire, bomb Lubeck & Cologne;
  - Czech. patriots assassinate Gesta leader Heydrich & in return, Nazis burn village of Lidice in Bohemia;
  - Rommel takes Tobruk; Ger. counter-attack near Kharkov & take Sebastopol; Ger. reach Stalingrad;
  - battle of El Alamein begins; 400,000 US troops land in French North Africa;
  - Rommel in full retreat loses Tobruk & Benghazi; Fr. navy scuttled in Toulon;
  - Ger. work on V-2 rocket; the Ger. murder of millions of Jews in Nazi gas-chambers begins;
1943:
- world war II:
  - Ger. withdraws from Caucasus; Casablanca Conf. b/n Roosevelt & Churchill; new Ger. air attacks on London;
  - Brit. 8th army reaches Triploi; Russians destroy Ger. army southwest of Stalingrad & recapture Rostov & Kharkov;
  - Hitler orders “Scorched earth” policy; Allied armies in Nth Africa placed under Eisenhower's command;
  - RAF raid on Berlin; Brit. & US armies in Nth Africa link up; Rommel retreats; massacre in Warsaw ghetto;
  - US recaptures Aleutians;
  - Allies land in Sicily, occupy Palermo, destroying public morale and confidence in the fascist government resulting in the Fascist Grand Council voted Mussolini out of power on July 25, 1943, and the King had him arrested. On September 8, 1943, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies and officially switched sides.
  - Ploesti oil fields in Rumania bombed by US; US troops enter Messina; Allies land in Salerno Bay & invade Italy;
  - Eisenhower announces Italy's unconditional surrender - Italy declares war on Germany;
  - Germany immediately invaded northern and central Italy, rescuing Mussolini and installing him as the puppet leader of the Italian Social Republic (Salò Republic).
  - a massive Italian partisan resistance movement emerged in the north, fighting a bloody civil war against Italian fascists and Nazi occupiers
  - Russians take Smolemsk then Kiev; US 5th army takes Naples;
  - Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt hold Teheran Conference; USSR-Czech treaty for post-war cooperation;
  - Allied around-the-clock bombing of Germany begins;
1944:
- world war II:
  - the Cassino front in Italy stopping the Allied armies from reaching Rome from the south
    - Germany had established the “Gustav Line”, a heavily fortified defensive wall cutting across Italy that blocked the Allied advance to Rome - the only way from the south was via Highway 6 in the steep Liri Valley, but the Germans created a strong defensive position at Monte Cassino which overlooked the highway while the freezing Rapido River and mines blocked access to Monte Cassino
    - the first three Allied attacks — primarily led by American, British, New Zealand, and Indian troops—were disastrous failures
    - believing that the Germans were using the ancient Benedictine monastery as an observation post, Allied commanders ordered a massive aerial bombardment destroying the monastery which in fact the Germans were not using out of religious respect, but ironically, the destruction then created an even better defensive site for the Germans
    - the battle was notable for its immense international diversity. Troops from dozens of countries fought under the Allied banner, including French-Moroccan colonial troops (Goumiers), the U.S. “Nisei” 100th Infantry Battalion (composed of Japanese-Americans), and soldiers from Canada and South Africa
    - the 4th assault finally succeeded, while British and French forces bypassed the mountain to cut off German supply lines in the valley, the Polish II Corps launched a fierce, costly final assault directly up the mountain. On May 18, 1944, Polish troops finally captured the ruins and raised their flag over Monte Cassino
    - many of the Polish II Corps had been deported to Soviet camps or labor sites after USSR took control of eastern Poland in 1939, while Germany had invaded western Poland. After the 1941 German-Soviet split, Polish forces were allowed to form under General Władysław Anders and these troops and civilian evacuees moved out through Central Asia and Persia, then into British-controlled Middle Eastern bases, the Polish II Corps were transferred to Italy in late 1943 and moved up to the Cassino front in spring 1944.
    - the victory finally broke the Gustav Line and allowed Allied forces to liberate Rome on June 4, 1944—just two days before the D-Day landings in Normandy
    - the five-month campaign resulted in ~55,000 Allied casualties and 20,000 German casualties
  - Allied landings at Nettuno & Anzio; Leningrad relieved;
  - heavy air raids on London; Russian offensives in Crimea & Ukraine;
  - 800 Flying Fortresses drop 2000 tons of bombs on Berlin; Sebastopol liberated;
  - Monte Cassino & Rome in Allied hands;
  - D-Day June 6: landings in Normandy; 1st flying bomb (V-1) dropped on London;
  - Allies take Orvieto & Cherbourg; Russia captures 100,000 Ger. at Minsk;
  - Ger. officers attempt to assassinate Hitler; Russians at Brest-Litovsk; Warsaw uprising;
  - Florence, then Brussels liberated; V-2 rockets dropped on London;
  - Russians & Yugoslavs enter Belgrade; Red Army occupies Hungary;
  - Rommel commits suicide;
1945:
- world war II:
  - Russian offensive in Silesia; Russia takes Warsaw, Cracow, Tilsit & reach Oder River;
  - Budapest falls; Brit. troops reach Rhine; last of 1050 V-2 rockets fall on Britain;
  - Russians reach Berlin; Bologna falls; US & USSR troops meet at Torgau;
  - League of nations holds last meeting in Geneva & signs assets over to United Nations;
  - Bremen, Genoa, Verona, & Venice taken; Allies cross the Elbe;
  - Mussolini killed by Italian partisans; Hitler commits suicide Apr 30; Ger. army on Italian front surrenders;
  - Berlin surrenders to Russians; Germany surrenders; “V.E” day ends war in Europe May 8;
  - war dead est. at 35m + 10m in Nazi concentration camps
- “Black markets” for food, clothing, & cigarettes develop throughout Europe;
- Allied Control Commission splits divides Germany into 4 zones and Berlin into 3-power occupation;
- Arab League founded to oppose creation of Jewish state;
- De Gaulle elected president of French provisional govt; Women's suffrage becomes law in France;
- Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals begin;
- Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia proclaimed with Tito chief of state;
- International Bank for Reconstruction & Development (the UN “world bank”) founded with auth. share cap. of $US27,000m;
1946: one of the coldest winters in Europe makes the coal (and thus electricity) and food shortages a critical issue driving civil unrest in Italy and Greece in particular, increasing a communistic spread threat, and by 1947, UK had to withdraw its military support in Greece and Turkey due to financial desperation
1946: Albania, Hungary, Transjordan, & Bulgaria become independent states; Britain & France evacuate Lebabon; E.German Social democrats merge with Communists;
1947: the US has emerged from WWII relatively unscathed with an economy accounting for half of global GDP but in a world which cannot afford to buy its good and risked dragging the US down - enter the Marshall Plan to help rebuild and rejuvenate a devastated Europe, restore its industries and agriculture, supply coal and food, address severe unemployment, address spiralling inflation, and at the same time mitigate the threat of spread of Communism, embed US financial dominance over Europe
- the 1945 Bretton Woods conference of 44 nations established the IMF, and the World Bank, and stamped the gold-backed $US as the currency for post-war rebuild - every other currency would be pegged to the $US - this would give the US an extraordinary privilege of being able to print money and sell it globally, while the US had disproportionate voting power in the new IMF and World Bank - both based in Washington DC
- but there was a dollar trap - Europe needed $US to buy US goods so they can make exports to get $US
- Marshall's trip to Russia revealed that Stalin was hoping western Europe would fail economically so they could expand into it - enter the Marshall Plan of $US13.3b financial assistance which was also offered to Stalin (which he refused)³⁾
1947: US Secretary of State, Gen. Marshall calls for European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan); Brit. proposal to divide Palestine rejected by Arabs & Jews, & thus deferred to UN which announces plan for partition; “The diary of Anne Frank” published;
1948: Communist coup d'etat Czech; US Congress passes Marshall Plan & $US17b aid to Europe; Jewish state founded; USSR stops road/rail traffic b/n Berlin & the West, airlift begins; 1st World Health Assembly meeting;
1949: US Foreign Assistance Bill grants $US5.4b to Europe; Israel admitted to UN; Berlin blockade officially lifted; Ger. Federal Republic founded with Bonn as capital; Transjordan renamed Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Berlin airlift ends; Democratic Republic established in E. Germany;

America:

1925: F.Scott Fitzgerald's “The Great Gatsby”; popular song: “Show me the way to go home”;
1926: Houdini dies;
1927: Holland Tunnel opens linking NY & New Jersey; Great Moffat Tunnel through Rocky Mtns opened; Harlem Globetrotter's basketball team founded; great flood disaster in Lower Mississippi Valley; slow foxtrot becomes fashionable;
1928: Lawrence's “Lady Chatterley's Lover”; 1st Mickey Mouse films; Brazil's economy collapses due to over-production of coffee; Garconne-style female fashion;
1929: Cascade Tunnel opens; Empire State Building construction starts; Wall St crash; St Valentine's Day Massacre - six notorious Chicago gangsters machine-gunned to death by a rival gang;
1930: Argentinian & Brazilian revolutions; Congress creates Veterans Administration; Federal Bureau Narcotics organised; Jehovah's Witnesses formed; Clark Gable begins Hollywood career;
1931: building of Rockefeller Centre begins (-1947); Empire State completed; George Washington Bridge NY completed; “Minnie the Moocher”; “Star spangled banner”;
1932: Golden Gate Bridge construction starts; Johnny Weissmuller in his 1st Tarzan film; Shirley Temple's 1st film; song - “Night and Day”;
1933: 1st US aircraft carrier launched; F.D.Roosevelt inaugurated as 32nd President of US; US goes off the gold standard; US recognises USSR & resumes trade; 21st amendment repeals prohibition; film “Little Women”;
1934: songs - “Blue Moon”
1935: Wealth Tax Act passed; jazz becomes swing; songs - “It aint necessarily so”; “Begin the Beguine”; rumba dance fashionable; Alcoholics Anonymous organised in NY;
1936: - song “Pennies from heaven”; Hoover Dam completed;
1937: Steinbeck's “Of mice & men”; films: “Snow White”; “Life of Emile Zola”; Carl Orff's “Carmina burana”; songs: “The lady is a tramp”; Golden Gate Bridge opens; men finally able to go topless although law that nipples were indecent had not changed but was now no longer enforced;
1938: US recession; song: “A Tisket, A Tasket”; 40hr work week; Lambeth Walk a fashionable dance; 32,000 people die in motor vehicle accidents in US;
1939: Roosevelt asks Congress for $552m for defense & demands assurances from Hitler/Mussolini that they wont attack 31 named states; films “ Gone with the wind”, “The wizard of Oz”; songs: “Beer Barrel Polka”, “Over the rainbow”; WWII breaks the US recession of 1938 by creating demand for supplies to Europe;
1940: US mobilises military; Grahame Greene “The power & the glory”; Hemingway “For whom the bell tolls”; Koestler “Darkness at noon”; film: “Fantasia”; songs: “You are my sunshine”, “Blueberry hill”, “When you wish upon a star”
1941: US enter WWII after Pearl Harbour; films: “Citizen Kane”, Marx Brothers, “Suspicion”; songs: “Chatanooga Choo-Choo”; Rainbow Bridge over Niagara Falls opens; Joe DiMaggio hits safely in 56 consecutive baseball games; restrictions of work for 16-18yr olds;
1942: US govt transfer 100,000 Niseis (Jap-Americans) from west coast to inland camps; FBI capture 8 Ger. saboteurs who landed in Florida & NY; films: “Bambi”, “Holiday Inn”; songs: “Paper Doll”; 487 die in Coconut Grove Nightclub fire as doors opened inwards; sugar & petrol rationing;
1943: 1300-mile long oil pipeline from Texas to Penn.; Uranium pile built; new cyclotron completed; Roosevelt freezes wages, salaries & prices to forestall inflation; polio epidemic kills 1200, cripples thousands more; rationing - shoes, then meat, cheese, fats, canned foods; US War Labor Board orders coal mines be taken over by govt when 0.5m miners strike; Pay-as-you-go tax system instituted; Zoot suit popular among hepcats; Lindy hop yields to jitterbugging; films: “Jane Eyre”; plays: “Oklahoma!”; songs: “Oh what a beautiful morning”
1944: Roosevelt re-elected; cost of living rises almost 30%; songs: “Don't fence me in”; 165 killed & 175 injured in a circus fire;
1945: Franklin D Roosevelt dies & succeeded by vice-President Harry Truman; bebop becomes fashionable; Empire State Building hit by B52 bomber at floors 78-79;
1946: Juan Peron elected President of Argentina; Warren's “All the King's Men”; “Annie get your gun”; US Navy tests atomic bomb at Bikini;
1947: “New Look” dominates fashion; Blizzard in NY almost 28inches; 1m war veterans enroll in colleges under US “G.I. bill of rights”; Al Capone dies;
1948: songs: “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth”; films: “Hamlet”, “Macbeth”, “Oliver Twist”; Cole Porter's “Kiss Me Kate”;
1949: 11 US communists found guilty of conspiracy to overthrow govt; Arthur Miller's “Death of a salesman”; samba becomes fashionable; songs: “Diamonds are a girl's best friend”, “Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer”;

Asia:

China:
- 1936: Chiang Kai-shek enters Canton & then declares war on Japan;
- 1937: after Japanese victories, Chiang Kai-shek joins with communists, led by Mao Tse-tung & Chou En-lai; China govt makes Chungking its capital;
- 1943: Chiang Kai-shek meets with Churchill & Roosevelt in Cairo & agree to liberate Korea after Jap. defeat;
- 1945: fighting b/n Nationalists & Communists in north China;
- 1946: truce declared in Chinese Civil War;
- 1949: Tientsin falls to Communists; Chiang Kai-shek resigns as President of China; Communist army resumes offensive against Nationalists; Chiang Kai-shek moves forces to Formosa; Communist People's Republic proclaimed under Mao Tse-tung, with Chou En-lai as Premier;
India:
- 1932: Indian Congress declared illegal; Gandhi arrested;
- 1934: Gandhi suspends civil disobedience campaign;
- 1935: Anglo-Indian trade pact signed;
- 1942: Gandhi demands independence for India & is arrested;
- 1943: famine strikes Bengal;
- 1947: India is proclaimed independent & partitioned into Hindu India & Moslem Pakistan;
- 1948: Gandhi assassinated;
- 1949: India adopts constitution as federal republic; Pandit Nehru becomes PM;
Japan:
- 1925: growing rise in Japanese Shinto ultra-nationalism supporting the Emperor and Japanese imperialism and anger towards Western countries following the humilation they felt from the YAP treaty and the lack of respect for their assistance to the Allies in WWI.
- 1925: Japan introduces general suffrage for men;
- 1926: Hirohito succeeds his father Yoshihito as Emperor of Japan;
- 1930: Premier Hamaguchi assassinated;
- 1930s: Japan's economy in particular hit hard by the global Great Depression compounded by US tariffs which severely impacted Japan's main export industries which primarily exported to the US (the silk industry dropped by almost 80%) resulting in social unrest and perceived further imperialistic necessity similar to that occurring in Germany.
- 1931: Japan's right-wing “Young Officers” in the military who believed Japanese were racially superior to other Asians, initially in opposition to the Japanese Govt, targeted Manchuria which had coal and minerals and start a war.
- 1932: Japan takes Manchuria and renames it Manchukuo despite opposition from the weak League of Nations (which did not include US) which resulted in Japan becoming isolated from international politics.
- 1932: Stimson Doctrine protests against Jap. aggression in Manchuria; US declares it will not recognise gains made by armed force; Japan begins its conquest of world markets by undercutting prices and heavily investing in infrastructure and military, especially in Manchuria which by 1943 it had transformed it into an economic powerhouse (it would produce 50% of Chinese coal, 78% of electricity, 87% of pig iron, 93% of steel, 66% of concrete and 99% of its oil and a per capita income 50% higher than rest of China).
- 1933: Japan withdraws from League of Nations;
- 1934: Japan renounces Washington treaties of 1922 & 1930;
- 1936: The “Young Officers” assassinated a range of Japanese govt officials and business leaders and attempt a military coup.
- 1937: Japanese Govt now controlled by Shinto military loyalists
- 1937: the Marco Polo Bridge incident ignites a full scale war - the Second Sino-Japanese War as the Japanese seek to broaden their Manchurian successes. However, the leaders in the decade long Chinese civil war, agree to jointly fight Japan. This would end up being a far more prolonged war than Japan had hoped for, although they had managed to take most of China's cities, including Shanghai and Nanking, and committing major civilian atrocities, it continued until Japan's defeat by the US in 1945.
- 1937: Prince Konoye named Jap. Premier & begins aggressive war policy, seizing Peking, Tientsin, Shanghai, Nanking & Hangchow; Jap. planes sink US gunboat in Chinese waters;
- 1938: Jap. enter Tsingtao, install Chin. puppet govt in Nanking; withdraw from League & take Canton & Hankow;
- 1939: Jap. occupy 1/3rd of China and most of its industries, including Hainan, & blockade British concession at Tientsin; at this stage, Japan had lost 600,000 soldiers in China and their reliance on imported oil rose from 67% in 1935 to 90% in 1939 which created a major vulnerability. US renounces trade agreement of 1911 and sends money and aid to support China;
- 1939: with the Western powers now in a war with Germany, Japan realised their Asian and Indonesian colonies would be a much easier target than further Chinese targets.
- 1940: US places trade embargo on Japan reducing exports of oil, steel, etc to Japan in an attempt to deter Japan but instead pushed Japan to join with Germany and sign the Tripartite Pact in Sept 1940 with Germany and Italy designed to warn the US not to join WWII.
- 1940: when Germany invades Russia, Japan considered also invading Russia but was concerned it would bring US into the war, so it went for the easier targets of southern Asia where they could access oil.
- 1941: with France captured by Germany, Japan take French Indo-China without firing a shot, which pushed the US to place a complete embargo on Japan trade and freeze their assets - this limited Japan's oil to only 12-18 months supply - this would force them to take the western colonies for their oil if diplomatic negotiations headed by PM Prince Konoe failed to get oil. The Japanese correctly believed a war with the US would fail. However, the US aimed to use the diplomacy to stall Japan so they could build naval fleet. On 21st Aug 1941, Japan offered to withdraw from Indo-China and a range of other measures to comply with the drastic US principles they had demanded, however, the US had cracked Japanese military codes and feared this was a deception. The US then placed a further demand of Japan's withdrawal from China at once instead of a gradual withdrawal which ended any chance of diplomacy and forced PM Konoe to resign with his War Minister, Tojo appointed to replace him and with orders from the Emperor to re-try diplomacy but the Japanese military set a deadline of 1st Dec 1941 for this to be achieved. The Japanese offered major concessions but was scorned by the US.
- 1941: 7th Dec 1941, Japan bomb Pearl Harbour, then invade Phillipines;
- 1942:
  - Jap. invades Dutch East Indies, take Kual Lumpur, invade Burma;
  - Jap. capture Singapore, Java & Rangoon;
  - Jap. occupy Bataan, force march (“Bataan Death March”) of US & Phil. prisoners, many die;
  - Tokyo bombed by US; US win battle of Coral Sea; Jap. in Mandalay & Corregidor;
  - US defeat Jap. at Midway;
  - Brit. & Indian troops advance on Burma;
- 1943:
  - Jap. driven from Guadalcanal;
  - 22 Jap. ships destroyed by US planes in Battle of Bismark Sea
  - US forces regain islands in Pacific;
- 1944:
  - southern Japan bombed by US;
  - US troops take Saigon;
  - Premier Tojo of Japan & his Cabinet resign;
  - US capture Guam; US troops in Phillipines;
  - Battle of Leyte Gulf results in heavy Jap. losses; Nth Burma cleared of Japanese;
- 1945:
  - US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima (Aug 6) & Nagasaki (Aug 9)
  - Japan surrenders Aug 14 ending WWII
  - Shintoism abolished in Japan;
- 1946: power transferred from Emperor to an elected assembly;
Other Asian:
- 1944: Vietnam declares herself independent of France under Ho Chi Minh;
- 1945: independent republic of Vietnam formed with Ho Chi Minh as President;
- 1947: Burma declared independent republic;
- 1949: Vietnam state established at Saigon; US completes withdrawal of troops from South Korea; UN warns of danger of civil war in Korea; Holland transfers sovereignty to Indonesia & France to Vietnam;

Australia:

see Australian history 1925-1950

New Zealand:

Africa:

1929: term “apartheid” used for 1st time;
1935: longest bridge in world opened over the lower Zambesi;
1949: apartheid program established in Sth Africa;

Science & Technology:

see also history of photography
1925: Logie Baird transmits TV; Bosch's hydrogen manufacture process; synthetic oil; quantum mechanics for atoms; 1st Leica camera; cosmic rays in upper atmosphere; Pauli exclusion principle; 1st International Congress of Radiologists; rhenium; NY solar eclipse is 1st in 300yrs; US schoolteacher goes on trial for teaching theory of evolution;
1926: Goddard's 1st liquid fuel rocket; vitamin B isolated; Kodak's 16mm movie film; liver extract to Rx pernicious anaemia; urease enzyme; Lufthansa airline founded; Brit. Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) founded; permanent wave invented for hair;
1927: Pavlov's conditioned reflexes; “Iron lung”; airplanes used as crop dusters;
1928: Baird's color TV; penicillin; Geiger counter; radiochemistry; Eastman's color motion pictures; 1st scheduled TV broadcasts in NY;
1929: talkie films kill the silent films; vitamin K; estrone; vitamin B1; quartz crystal clocks; Hubble measures red shifts; EEG; aluminium furniture; Graf Zeppelin airship flies around world in 20 days;
1930: Xrays to Ix molecular structure; theory of oscillation; pluto; acetylene-based fabrics; Schmidt makes 1st coma-free 14“ mirror telescope; yellow fever vaccine;
1930: mandatory pasteurization of milk was finally widely adopted across the United States
1931: vitamin A isolated; cyclotron; neoprene; deuterium; Swedish artistSundblom illustrates Santa Claus wearing the Coca Cola Company colours of red and white for a series of ads creating the image of Santa Claus as we know today.
1932: positron; polyamide; neutron; synthetic light polariser; sulphonamide; Piccard reaches 17.5miles high in his stratosphere balloon; balloon tyre for tractors; vitamin D;
1933: electronic television; vitamin C synthesised; vitamin B2; Campbell's motor car speed recod of 272mph;
1934: androsterone isolated; refrigeration process for meat cargoes devised; phthalocyanine dyes;
1935: radar to detect aircraft; Prontosil, 1st sulphonamide for Rx streptococci;
1935: Hammond invents the tone wheel electronic organ as a substitute for very expensive church pipe organs, it would soon also be used for jazz and in 1944 popularised by Ethel Smith
1936: artificial heart
1937: insulin to control diabetes; vitamin A & K concentrates; nylon; jet engine; Coca Cola on sale in Australia;
1937: superfluidity of helium
1938: perlon; ballpoint pen; vitamin B6 isolated; Howard Hughes flies around world in just under 4 days;
1939: possibility of splitting the atom; DDT; polyethylene; helicopter; Rh factor; FM radio; BOAC founded; nylon stockings;
1940: penicillin as a practical antibiotic; electron microscope; neptunium; Leslie organ speaker;
1941: portable military bridge; underwater photography; “Manhatten Project” begins; dacron; plutonium; “Mosquito” fighter aircraft;
1942: Fermi splits atom; 1st electronic computer; magnetic recording tape; device for clearing fog from airfields (FIDO); turbo-prop engine; 1st US jetplane tested; technique for building 10,000 ton Liberty Ships in 4 days;
1943: streptomycin;
1944: quinine synthesised; 1st non-stop flight from London to Canada;
1945: vitamin A synthesised; 1st atomic bomb detonated July 16;
1946: sun spots emit radiowaves; carbon-13; pilotless rocket missile; xerography; Byrd's South Pole expedition;
- pop: China 455m; India 311m; USSR 194m; US 140m; Japan 73m; W.Germ. 48m; Italy 47m; Britain 46m; Brazil 45m; France 40m;
1947: Dead Sea scrolls from 22BC-100AD discovered; supersonic flight; Heyerdahl sails on raft from Peru to Polynesia to prove prehistoric immigration; transistor; Odom flies around world in 73hrs; Cobb's record motorcar speed 394mph; “Flying Saucers” in US; 19thC Nippur excavations results in reconstruction of the laws of Hammurabi from 18thC BC;
1948: aureomycin; chloromycetin; LP record; chemogenetics; 1st port radar system; rocket missiles reach 78 miles high & 3000mph; 200in Mt Palomar telescope; Kinsey's “Sexual behaviour in the human male”; Polaroid Land camera;
1949: cortisone; neomycin; USSR tests its 1st atomic bomb; US airforce jet flies across US in 3h 46m; US launches guided missile 250miles;
1949: Hammond produces the 1st spinet electronic organ for use in homes which became extremely popular in the 1950s as it was so versatile in the types of sounds it could produce, augmented by the Leslie speaker which was critical for its sound

¹⁾

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge

²⁾

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre

³⁾

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQsYM2pGzCs

Table of Contents

The 20th Century - 2nd quarter

Overview:

Britain:

Europe:

America:

Asia:

Australia:

New Zealand:

Africa:

Science & Technology: