The 20th Century - 2nd quarter

• Overview
• Britain
• Europe
• America
• Asia
• Africa
• Science & technology
• see also:
  • History of the world
  • History of Australia
  • The 17th century
  • The 18th century
  • The 19th century
  • The 20th century - 1st quarter
  • The 20th century - 3rd quarter
  • The 20th century - 4th quarter
  • The 21st century
  • History of religion
  • History of Western Philosophy
  • History of Music

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: 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";
• 1930: Constantinople changed to Instabul; Britain, US, Japan, France & Italy sign naval disarmament treaty; last Allied troops leave Rhineland;
• 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; 
• 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 & annexes Danzig
    • Britain & France declare war on Germany, Roosevelt declares US neutral;
    • Germans overrun western Poland & reach Brest-Litovsk & Warsaw;
    • USSR invades Poland from the east;
    • 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; 
• 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 Siciliy, occupy Palermo; Mussolini dismissed;
    • 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;
    • 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:
    • US 5th army launches attack east of Cassino; 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: Albania, Hungary, Transjordan, & Bulgaria become independent states; Britain & France evacuate Lebabon; E.German Social democrats merge with Communists; 
• 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;
• 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: Japan introduces general suffrage for men;
  • 1926: Hirohito succeeds his father Yoshihito as Emperor of Japan;
  • 1930: Premier Hamaguchi assassinated;
  • 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;
  • 1933: Japan withdraws from League of Nations;
  • 1934: Japan renounces Washington treaties of 1922 & 1930;
  • 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 Hainan & blockade British concession at Tientsin; US renounces trade agreement of 1911;
  • 1941: Jap. bomb Pearl Harbour, 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:
  • 1927: Parliament House, Canberra opened;
  • 1928: poor sales of newly introduced Vegemite resulted in name change to Parwill in hope it would piggyback on success of Britain's Marmite. Name changed back in 1937 & new free sample program resulted in Aussies getting hooked on it.
  • 1929: ALP wins govt; Bradman hits world record score 452 not out;
  • 1931: Aust. explorer Wilkins captains "Nautilus" submarine, navigating it under Arctic Ocean to lat. 82deg.;
  • 1934: Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester visits Victoria to celebrate Victoria's centenary.
  • 1935: Qld govt make enormous mistake in introducing the cane toad hoping to reduce the grey-backed beetle. 
  • 1937: 
    • Aboriginal assimilation policy:
      • Aboriginal affairs authorities officially agree on policy of assimilation (although some practices were already occurring). By 1951, all Aust. govts claimed a policy of 'assimilating' Aboriginals into the wider society but interpretations & agendas differed. Many were subject to surveillance, esp. those living privately in houses in towns. District welfare officers assessed how well Aboriginal mothers were looking after their children according to standards of house-keeping set by non-Aboriginal male bureaucrats. This surveillance continued until 1960's & 1970's.
      • the penalties for non-conformity with white society's mores were harsh with children being removed from their parents - the "Stolen Generation".
  • 1942: Japanese planes bomb Darwin; The Battle of the Coral Sea cemented Australia's ties with the USA.
  • 1948: cricket legend Sir Donald Bradman needing only 4 runs to achieve 7000 runs at average of 100 in his last innings is bowled out for a duck leaving him with an average of 99.94.
• 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:

• 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;
• 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;
• 1936: artificial heart
• 1937: insulin to control diabetes; vitamin A & K concentrates; nylon; jet engine; Coca Cola on sale in Australia;
• 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;
• 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;