1940s History Trivia

1. In 1940, the Nazis invaded France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. What event happened on March 1940?

From Quiz 20th-Century History in the 1940s

Answer: Winter War ended

The Winter War fought between USSR and Finland began with the Russians invading Finland on November 30, 1939. The war ended on March 13, 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty. USSR was expelled from the League of Nations, as the attack was considered illegal. Despite having a superior force, USSR suffered 5 times more casualties than Finland, with more than 300,000 casualties. Shanghai fell to the Japanese invaders on November 1937. Singapore fell to Japan on February 1942. The USSR invasion of Manchuria was from August 9-20, 1945.

From Quiz What happened in the 1940s besides WWII

Answer: United Nations

Although the United Nations Charter was signed by over 50 member countries on June 24, 1945, it did not come into effect until October 24, 1945 when ratified by the five original members being China, USA, France, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. This was the founding document of the United Nations as we know it today. NATO ( North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) is a defence alliance which was signed on April 4, 1949. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) came into effect on December 27, 1945. The World Bank Group works towards a world free of poverty and came into effect on July 4, 1944.

From Quiz Where did this Happen?: 1940s Edition

Answer: France

The Lascaux Cave is located near Montignac in the Dordogne region of France. Several versions of how the cave and its ancient art was found have been told over the years (one of which involves a dog getting lost in it), but the initial discovery is generally credited to a French teenager named Marcel Ravidat. The walls of the cave complex are covered in thousands of drawings of people, animals and symbols and are largely painted in black, red and yellow pigments. The content and style of the paintings has led experts to date them to the Magdalenian period of the Upper Palaeolithic era, which began around 17,000 years ago. The cave was opened to the public in 1948 but had to be closed again 15 years later after the number of visitors resulted in changes to its atmosphere that caused significant deterioration of the paintings. It was registered as a World Heritage Site in 1979.

From Quiz 1946ers: What a Year: Part II

Answer: MENSA

MENSA was founded at Lincoln College, Oxford, England and the word means "table" in Latin. This is symbolised by the organisations logo, which represents a round-table and the coming together as equals. It is the oldest and largest high IQ society in the world. The United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was formed in December 1946 to provide long term development and humanitarian assistance to mothers and children in developing countries. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was formed on 16th November 1945. Its purpose is to promote through education, science and cultural the universal respect for justice and human rights. The World Health Organisation (WHO) was established on 7th April 1948 through the United Nations (UN) as an agency to promote international public health.

From Quiz 1946ers: What a Year: Part I

Answer: Clement Atlee

Clement Atlee (1883-1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945-1951. He was preceded and succeeded by Winston Churchill. Ben Chifley (1885-1951) was the Prime Minister of Australia from 1945-1949. William Lyon MacKenzie King (1874-1950) was Prime Minister of Canada from 1921-1926, 1926-1930 and 1935-1948.

From Quiz TWTYTW 1948

Answer: Mohandas Gandhi

Gandhi was nominated for the Peace Prize five times, including 1948. When it came time to award the Nobel Prizes that year, none was given in the Peace category, the Nobel Committee saying there was "no suitable living candidate." In 1999, Gandhi was second to Albert Einstein as Time Magazine's "Person of the Century."

From Quiz A Slice in Time: 1940s History #2

Answer: Jan Christiaan Smuts

De Klerk was the last president of South Aftica before apartheid ended in 1994. P W Botha was the Prime Minister of South Africa from 1978-1984. Barnard was the surgeon who performed the world's first heart transplant. Though very popular after WWII, Smuts narrowly lost his 1948 bid for president of the country, due in large part to his party's support for lessening the race segregation laws.

From Quiz A Slice in Time: 1940s History #1

Answer: Willys

The origin of the name of the Jeep is disputed but may come from one of two sources: the character "Eugene the Jeep" in the cartoon strip "Popeye" and a popular 1930s term for an all-purpose device. Like Eugene, a "jeep" could do anything. Three companies bid for the Army's work - Bantam, Ford and Willys - but only Bantam delivered a prototype as requested by the Army. The Army gave the contract to Willys - the drawings to produce the Jeep were in fact 80% from Bantam's design and 20% from the Army.

From Quiz The 20th Century - 1941-1950

Answer: V

'V' for Victory was painted on walls and German propaganda posters. In the Morse Code V is ...- which can be represented by the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. In fact, the BBC started many of its broadcasts to Occupied Europe with those opening notes - a constant reminder of the cultural heritage that the Nazis had betrayed.

From Quiz 20th-Century History in the 1940s

Answer: Mount Rushmore National Memorial

The sculpture design by Gutzon Borglum started in 1927 was completed in 1941. The sculpture at South Dakota features the 60-ft (18-m) heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The park is about 2 sq. mi (5.17 sq. km) and stands at 5,725 ft (1,745-m) in height.

From Quiz What happened in the 1940s besides WWII

Answer: Polaroid instant camera

Edwin Land(1909-1991) was an American scientist and inventor. He is the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation and it was his invention and the launch in 1948 of the Polaroid instant camera that could take a photo and develop it in 60 seconds or less. Percy Spencer (1894-1970) an American physicist and inventor is credited as the inventor of the microwave oven. He worked at Raytheon ( a contractor to the US Department of Defence) and through his invention Raytheon filed a patent in October 1945. The first commercial microwave oven named "Radarange" went on sale in 1947. It stood six feet tall and weighed 750 pounds and cost about $5,000. Walter Morrison and Warren Franscioni began producing plastic discs (now known as Frisbees) in 1948. The idea had originally come to Morrison in 1937 but due to his WWII service he only got things together after the war. The Slinky ( a precompressed helical spring toy) was invented by a Richard James (1914-1974) who was a US naval engineer. He developed the toy in 1943 and then gave a demonstration in public in Gimbels department store in Philadelphia in November 1945.

From Quiz Where did this Happen?: 1940s Edition

Answer: Soviet Union

From August 1939 to June 1941, the Soviet Union, led by Josef Stalin, had a non-aggression treaty with Nazi Germany known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. That treaty was violated when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa and committed millions of soldiers and a vast array of military equipment to the invasion of the western Soviet Union. This move opened the Eastern Front in Europe, added the Soviet Union to the list of Allied nations and resulted in years of deadly conflict when the invasion stalled and a bitter battle of attrition began. Losses were not just restricted to the armed forces on either side - although there is some dispute over the numbers, it has been estimated that over 20 million Soviet civilians died as a direct result of the war.

From Quiz 1946ers: What a Year: Part I

Answer: Bill Haley

Bill Haley (1925-1981) replaced Kenny Roberts in the Down Homers in April 1946. His stay in the group was fairly short and he achieved greater success with Bill Haley & His Comets in the 1950s with "Rock Around the Clock", "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "See You Later Alligator". Dean Martin (1917-1995) had been a nightclub singer but his career really started in July 1946 when he and Jerry Lewis teamed up together and made their debut at Atlantic City's 500 Club. B.B. King (1925-2015) got his break in 1946 when he followed the American Delta blues guitarist and singer Bukka White to Memphis, Tennessee as White was a cousin. Frankie Laine (1913-2007) released his first chart hit "That's My Desire" in August 1946.

From Quiz TWTYTW 1948

Answer: Dewey Defeats Truman

Truman won three key large states (California, Illinois, and Ohio) by less than one percent in each state, giving him 78 electoral votes which, if Dewey had won them, would have turned the results around. Everyone had assumed that Dewey would win the election, based on polls going back to the summer. Nonetheless, Truman also won the popular vote and took home the grand prize.

From Quiz The 20th Century - 1941-1950

Answer: University of Chicago

Enrico Fermi and his team of scientists conducted their experiments under the stands of the football stadium.

From Quiz 20th-Century History in the 1940s

Answer: June

The naval battle in the Pacific Ocean took place from June 4 to 7. The Japanese naval force lost all four aircraft carriers against one from the American naval force. Six months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese Imperial Army had lost the initiative in the Pacific War.

From Quiz What happened in the 1940s besides WWII

Answer: Lebanon

Lebanon was granted independence by France on November 22, 1943 which is celebrated as Independence Day annually. The region had been part of the Ottoman Empire from 1516-1918. After WWI it became the French Mandate of Lebanon. India was granted independence by Great Britain on August 15, 1947. Israel was declared independence on May 14, 1948 after the UN in 1947 adopted a Partition Plan for Palestine. When the Treaty of Manila was signed on July 4, 1946, it meant that the US relinquished sovereignty over the Philippines and therefore granted it independence.

From Quiz Where did this Happen?: 1940s Edition

Answer: Egypt

El Alamein is a town on Egypt's Mediterranean coastline that was located on an important railway supply line during the Second World War. The First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942 had ended in stalemate but had prevented the Axis forces commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (otherwise known as the Desert Fox) from advancing towards Cairo and the Suez Canal. The Second Battle of El Alamein was launched on October 23, 1942 and over the course of the next three weeks secure an Allied victory against the over-stretched and under-resourced German and Italian armies. The victory at El Alamein provided an important morale boost for both the Allied forces and people back home, as up to that point the war had been progressing in Germany's favour. Winston Churchill, the British war-time prime minister, later wrote that "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat".

From Quiz 1946ers: What a Year: Part I

Answer: The Lost Weekend

"The Lost weekend" won Best Picture (Charles Brackett-Producer), Best Actor (Ray Milland), Best Director (Billy Wilder) and Best Screenplay (Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett). "Spellbound" was an Alfred Hitchcock thriller with six nominations with one Academy Award. "The Bells of St. Mary's" received eight nominations with one Academy Award win. "National Velvet" received five nominations with two Academy Award wins.

From Quiz TWTYTW 1948

Answer: Hamlet

Laurence Olivier had the title role as the Prince of Denmark. Another nominee I did not use as a choice, but which won the Golden Globe that year for Best Picture, was "Treasure of the Sierra Madre, for which John Huston won for Best Director, and his father, Walter, won Best Supporting Actor."

From Quiz What Happened in ...? (1940s edition)

Answer: Frank

Anne Frank died in March 1945 of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, after her family's location in the attic of her father's office building was betrayed to the Nazis. Otto Frank, the only survivor of the family, got his daughter's book ("The Diary of a Young Girl") published in 1947 in Dutch, and it was translated into English in 1952.

From Quiz 20th-Century History in the 1940s

Answer: Tehran

Tehran Conference codenamed Eureka was held from November 28 to December 1, 1943. The conference between Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin was to commit to open a second front against Nazi Germany. A separate protocol was signed to recognize the independence of Iran.

From Quiz What happened in the 1940s besides WWII

Answer: Captained the first non-stop flight around the world

James Gallagher captained the B-50 "Lucky Lady II" to the first non-stop flight around the world from February 26 to March 2, 1949. There were 14 crew members on the flight which had to have four inflight refueling periods which required the looped hose method from support aircraft at different intervals during the voyage. Chuck Yeager became the first pilot to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947. The initial discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls took place between November 1946 to February 1947 by Bedouin shepherds in caves near the Dead Sea which was part of Jordan at the time. It was the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002) who sailed a hand built raft named "Kon Tiki" across 8,000kms from South American to the Polynesian Islands. This expedition was to prove the ancient stories and myths that South American natives had built rafts and sailed and settled in the Polynesian Islands

From Quiz Where did this Happen?: 1940s Edition

Answer: United States of America

A zoot suit is a suit consisting of a long wide-shouldered jacket, paired with baggy trousers that taper in at the ankles. They were popular with teenagers and young men from black and other ethnic minority communities in the USA in the 1940s. The Zoot Suit Riots occurred in the city of Los Angeles and mainly consisted of violence against young Mexican-American men by members of the white community and the armed forces. While essentially racially motivated, the riots also occurred because the zoot suits worn by the victims flouted US rationing policies banning clothing that used excessive amounts of fabric.

From Quiz TWTYTW 1948

Answer: London

The first Olympiad to be held since 1936, the London Games did not include Germany and Japan, who had not been invited, nor the Soviet Union, which had been invited, but chose not to attend. The two biggest athlete stories were those of Fanny Blankers-Koen, a Dutch mother of two, who duplicated the four track victories achieved by Jesse Owens in 1936, and American Bob Mathias, who won the decathlon only two months after graduating from high school.

From Quiz A Slice in Time: 1940s History #2

Answer: Santa Fe

Other hit songs from 1945 were "Sentimental Journey" by Les Brown and "Rum and Coca-Cola" by the Andrews Sisters. Johnny Mercer won his first Acadedmy Award for "Atchison" as well as three additional Oscars for "In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening" from "Here Comes The Groom" (1951), "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961) and "Days of Wine and Roses" from the movie of the same name (1962).

From Quiz A Slice in Time: 1940s History #1

Answer: LSD

Dr. Hofmann lived to the ripe old age of 102. He is also credited with developing the drug methergine, a substance used to treat post-partum hemorrhaging.

From Quiz The 20th Century - 1941-1950

Answer: Harvard University

It was 8 feet high and 51 feet long.

From Quiz 20th-Century History in the 1940s

Answer: Colossus

Colossus was a code breaker developed by the British. It was the world's first programmable electronic computer using switches and plug, not by a stored program. The computer was designed by General Post Office research telephone operator Tommy Flowers. The Mark 1 version was completed in December 1943 and became operational by early 1944 at Bletchley Park. In 1944, an improved version of Mark II using shift registers improving the processing speed by five times was used just in time for Normandy landings

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