1942

America 1942 - 1953

  • Japanesee Internment

    Japanesee Internment
    The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II was the forced relocation and incarceration in concentration camps in the western interior of the country.
  • Sugar and gasoline rationed

    Sugar and gasoline rationed
    When the United States declared war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government created a system of rationing, limiting the number of certain goods that a person could purchase. Supplies such as gasoline, butter, sugar, and canned milk were rationed because they needed to be diverted to the war effort.
  • Congress of Racial Equality

    Congress of Racial Equality
    The Congress of Racial Equality is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about equality for all people regardless of race, creed, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or ethnic background.
  • Battle of the Coral Sea

    Battle of the Coral Sea
    The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy and the naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the battle is historically significant as the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other and the first in which the opposing ships neither sighted nor fired directly upon one another.
  • The Battle of Midway

    The Battle of Midway
    The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on 4–7 June 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea.
  • The Doolittle Raid

    The Doolittle Raid
    The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first air operation to strike the Japanese archipelago. It demonstrated that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to American air attack,
  • The Office of Price Administration

    The Office of Price Administration
    The Office of Price Administration was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA were originally to control money (price controls) and rents after the outbreak of World War II.
  • The Detroit Race Riot

    The Detroit Race Riot
    The 1943 Detroit race riot took place in Detroit, Michigan, from the evening of June 20 through the early morning of June 22. It occurred in a period of dramatic population increase and social tensions associated with the military buildup of U.S. participation in World War II, as Detroit's automotive industry was converted to the war effort.
  • The Tehran Conference

    The Tehran Conference
    The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy in Tehran, Iran. It was the first of the World War II conferences of the "Big Three" Allied leaders.
  • The G.I. Bill

    The G.I. Bill
    The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, but the term "G.I. Bill" is still used to refer to programs created to assist U.S. military veterans.
  • D Day

    D Day
    The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France (and later western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.
  • The Battle of the Bulge

    The Battle of the Bulge
    The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, was a major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II and took place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region in Belgium and Luxembourg towards the end of the war in Europe.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt

    Franklin D. Roosevelt
    The 1944 United States presidential election was the 40th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 1944. The election took place during World War II. Incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Thomas E. Dewey to win an unprecedented fourth term.
  • Labor Strikes

    Labor Strikes
    The strike wave of 1945–1946 was a series of massive post-war labor strikes after World War II from 1945 to 1946 in the United States spanning numerous industries and public utilities. In the year after V-J Day, more than five million American workers were involved in strikes, which lasted on average four times longer than those during the war.
  • Harry S. Truman

    Harry S. Truman
    Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the United States (1945–53), who led his country through the final stages of World War II and through the early years of the Cold War, vigorously opposing Soviet expansionism in Europe and sending U.S. forces to turn back a communist invasion of South Korea.
  • The Potsdam Conference

    The Potsdam Conference
    The Potsdam was held in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945. The participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, represented respectively by Premier Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill, and Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman. They gathered to decide how to administer Germany, which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier on the 8th of May.
  • President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Dies

    President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Dies
    On April 12, 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passes away after four momentous terms in office, leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power.
  • The United Nations

    The United Nations
    The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations.
  • Germany Surrenders

    Germany Surrenders
    On May 7, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies in Reims, France, ending World War II and the Third Reich.
  • Atomic Bomb

    Atomic Bomb
    On August 6, 1945, during World War II, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”
  • The Nuremberg trials

    The Nuremberg trials
    The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals held after World War II by the Allied forces under international law and the laws of war. The trials were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany, who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in the Holocaust and other war crimes.
  • Iron Curtain Speech

    Iron Curtain Speech
    In one of the most famous orations of the Cold War period, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill’s speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War.
  • UFO's

    UFO's
    The Roswell UFO incident in popular lore refers to the rumors and speculation regarding a July 1947 United States Army Air Forces balloon crash at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico.
  • Social Security Act

    Social Security Act
    The National Security Act of 1947 was a law enacting major restructuring of the United States government's military and intelligence agencies following World War II. The majority of the provisions of the Act took effect on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense.[1]
  • Taft–Hartley Act

    Taft–Hartley Act
    The Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft–Hartley Act, is a United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. It was enacted by the 80th United States Congress over the veto of President Harry S. Truman, becoming law on June 23, 1947.
  • The Marshall Plan

    The Marshall Plan
    The Marshall Plan was an American initiative passed in 1948 for foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred over $12 billion in economic recovery programs to Western European economies after the end of World War II.
  • The Berlin Blockade

    The Berlin Blockade
    The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Soviets offered to drop the blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche Mark from West Berlin.
  • The Truman Doctrine

    The Truman Doctrine
    The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy with the primary goal of containing Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. It was announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, and further developed on July 4, 1948, when he pledged to contain the communist uprisings in Greece and Turkey.
  • Dewey Defeats Truman

    Dewey Defeats Truman
    The 1948 United States presidential election was the 41st quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 1948. In one of the greatest election upsets in American history, incumbent President Harry S. Truman, the Democratic nominee, defeated Republican Governor Thomas E. Dewey.
  • NATO

    NATO
    The North Atlantic Treaty Organization also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 European and North American countries. The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949. NATO constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.