In 1941, Joe the Hero made his big speech. To read about him >>
January 27
800,000 steel workers join millions already on strike.
January 30
The first session of the United Nations opens.
February 14
The War Department unveils the ENIAC, an early computer comprised of 17,468 vacuum tubes, designed by John Mauchly and John Eckert.
March 5
Churchill says an "iron curtain" has fallen across Europe, dividing West and East.
March 27
Long strikes at General Electric and General Motors end. The workers are promised substantial wage increases.
August 1
U.S. forms the Atomic Energy Commission.
September 13
New Yorkers, it is revealed, are eating horse flesh due to severe meat shortages.
September 15
American Federation of Labor leader WIlliam Green warns blacks not to be seduced by Communism.
October 16
Nine Nazi leaders are hanged at Nuremberg. Hermann Goering, Hitler's right-hand man, takes cyanide hours before the execution.
November 15
John Lewis dares the U.S. to prosecute him for striking at a mine seized by the government.
November 24
American marines seize control of Gilbert Islands in the Tarawa Atoll.
December
The new U.N. condemns Spain for not overthrowing Franco, asks for a ban on the A-Bomb.
5/2/40
Joe the hero's big
speech
11/16/40
Jane the hero's last
stand
Jimmy Stewart sees what life would have been like without him in It's a Wonderful Life.
Director David Leans' whimsical version of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.
Louis Armstrong in New Orleans.
Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care is published, soon becoming the biggest-selling book after the Bible.
In Hiroshima, journalist David Hersey describes what people in the city of Hiroshima were doing the day the bomb exploded.
Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun.
The first record is cut by pianist Lennie Tristano, the first to perform "free jazz."
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