1940's - Sheet1 Flashcards
Carbon-14
A radioactive isotope discovered by two Americans on the Manhattan Project in 1940.
1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge
This large suspension bridge twisted and collapsed on a windy day, its collapse has had a lasting effect on engineering.
Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
AKA the Burke-Wadsworth Act, signed by FDR, this was the first peacetime conscription in American history, required all men aged 21-36 to register. When the US entered WWII all men 18-45 were made subject to military service.
United States presidential election, 1940
Initially reluctant to run again, FDR was elected to a third term defeating moderate Republican challenger Wendell Willkie. FDR began the lend-lease program of aid to Britain during the election. Willkie promised to maintain New Deal programs, perhaps only making them more efficient. Both candidates believed in avoiding war, but the desire to maintain leadership in a time of difficulty won out.
Lend-Lease
This 1941 program, advocated by FDR, was a turn away from WW2 neutrality, as it allowed the president to supply allied nations with materiel. Whereas the previous system of cash-and-carry required allies to pay for materiel, they were now “leased” out, although the “leases” often amounted to gifts.
Citizen Kane
A 1941 American drama film directed by and starring Orson Welles, considered one of the best films ever made. Centering around the rise and fall of a newspaper magnate, the film’s cinematography and dramatic editing were influential.
war bonds
Debt securities issued by the government in times of war. A common propaganda tool during World Wars I and II was to get people to buy war bonds.
Bob Hope
A comedian who worked USO shows, entertaining the troops with a distinctive rapid-fire comic style.
Douglas MacArthur
A WW2 general appointed by FDR as commander of the Southwest Pacific Theatre in World War II. Later, he administered postwar Japan during the Allied occupation, and led U.N. forces during the first nine months of the Korean War. In 1951, Pres. Truman relieved him of command due to insubordination and an unwillingness to conduct a limited war.
Infamy Speech
A speech delivered by FDR to a joint session of Congress in 1941, in which he appealed to them, successfully, to enter WW2.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
December 7th 1941, Japan sneak attacks a Hawaiian naval base successfully, drawing America into WW2. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan. Japan’s invasion of China in 1937, its subsequent alliance with the Axis powers in 1940, and its occupation of French Indochina in July 1941 prompted the United States to respond that same month by freezing Japanese assets in the United States and declaring an embargo on petroleum shipments and other vital war materials to Japan. By late 1941, the United States had severed practically all commercial and financial relations with Japan.
Executive Order 9066
War hysteria sparked FDR’s decision to sign this order, much to his wife’s chagrin, which put all Japanese-Americans on the West coast in internment camps during WW2.
Battle of Midway
Turning point of the WW2 Pacific theater. Battle in which the U.S. crushed the Japanese military, and their hopes of further invading the Pacific. Started the island hopping campaign.
Alaska Highway
Constructed during World War 2 after the Japanese invasion of Alaska revealed how dangerous the territory’s seclusion was. It connected Alaska, Canada, and the contiguous U.S..
Casablanca
A 1942 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman which played on the heightening of American patriotism during WW2 and became a culturally iconic motion picture.
Cocoanut Grove fire
A premier Boston nightclub which was the scene of a 1942 fire which killed 492. The enormity of the tragedy shocked the nation and briefly replaced the events of World War II in newspaper headlines. It led to a reform of safety standards and codes across the country, and major changes in the treatment and rehabilitation of burn victims.
Oklahoma!
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s first musical, it heralded a new era in “integrated” stage musicals, became an instantaneous stage classic, and went on to be Broadway’s longest-running musical up to that time.
ENIAC
The first electronic general-purpose computer, completed by the U.S. Army and UPENN.
PT-109
The boat future president JFK was in, when it was torpedoed, a story which would help him win the election.
D-Day
The Battle of Normandy, part of Operation Overlord, commenced with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland, in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
Hartford circus fire
Over 100 children died in one of the worst fire disasters in American history.
Smokey Bear
This fire safety mascot was created in response to numerous fire disasters.
Tsushima Maru
A Japanese passenger ship carrying over 700 schoolchildren which was torpedoed by the Americans.
United States presidential election, 1944
Roosevelt defeated the Republican Thomas Dewey. This was his fourth election.
