Explore 4728 historical events from 1940–1949.
Animal Farm is a satirical allegorical dystopian novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It follows the mistreated an…
The novella Animal Farm by George Orwell is first published.
Chris Hani was a South African military commander, politician and revolutionary. He served as the leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and chief of staff of uMkhonto …
Chris Hani, South African politician (died 1993)
Bernard Mannes Baruch was an American financier and statesman.
American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch first described the post–World War II tensions between the So
Pekka Antero Vasala is a retired Finnish middle-distance athlete who won an Olympic gold medal in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Vasala had a brilliant three-month period in 1…
Pekka Vasala, Finnish runner
The Potsdam Conference was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from 17 July to 2 August 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding …
World War II: The Potsdam Conference ends.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and air…
Second World War: British and Canadian forces concluded the Liberation of Arnhem in the Netherlands from German occupati
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a German politician, convicted war criminal, and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Germany. Appointed Deputy to the Führer in 1933, Hess held tha…
World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland to try to negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Nazi
A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles.
World War II: Over 1,000 bombers attack the small island of Heligoland, Germany
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and air…
World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya are bombed
The Battle of Poljana took place outside of Poljana, near the town of Prevalje in Yugoslavia between the Yugoslav Army and a column of 30,000 retreating Axis soldiers, which consis…
World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued interm…
Chinese Civil War: Establishment of the People's Liberation Army Navy
Aeroflot Flight 17 was an aviation accident involving an Ilyushin Il-12 aircraft operated by Aeroflot on May 13, 1949 near Novosibirsk. The crash resulted in the deaths of all 25 p…
Aeroflot Flight 17 crashes on approach to Severny Airport in Novosibirsk, killing 25
Eric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social cr…
George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published in the United States
The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, and the U.S. House of Representatives is the lower house. Together, the Senate…
The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.
The 1949 Queen Charlotte Islands earthquake struck Haida Gwaii and the Pacific Northwest coast at 8:01 p.m. PDT on August 21. The earthquake had a moment magnitude of 8.0 and a sur…
The Queen Charlotte earthquake is Canada's strongest since the 1700 Cascadia earthquake.
The Soviet atomic bomb project was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during and after World War II.
Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at…
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h…
Paul Robeson performs a second concert in Peekskill, New York eight days after the Peekskill riots.
SS Noronic was a Canadian passenger ship that was destroyed by fire in Toronto Harbour in September 1949 with the loss of at least 118 lives.
The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives.
Veronica Cartwright is an English actress based in Los Angeles, California. She appeared in science fiction and horror films, and has three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Her yo…
Veronica Cartwright, English-American actress
Toller Shalitoe Montague Cranston was a Canadian figure skater and painter. He won the 1971–1976 Canadian national championships, the 1974 World bronze medal and the 1976 Olympic b…
Toller Cranston, Canadian-Mexican figure skater and painter (died 2015)
The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 is an Act of the Oireachtas which declares that the description of Ireland is the Republic of Ireland, and vests in the president of Ireland the po…
The Republic of Ireland Act comes into force, declaring Éire to be a republic and severing Ireland's "association" with
The Amethyst incident, also known as the Yangtze incident, was a historic event that occurred on the Yangtze River for three months in the summer of 1949, during the late phase of …
Amethyst incident: The People's Liberation Army attacks HMS Amethyst (F116) travelling to the British embassy in Nanjing
The Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon, better known by the abbreviation Hukbalahap, was a Filipino communist guerrilla movement formed by the farmers of Central Luzon. They were origina…
The Hukbalahap are accused of assassinating former First Lady of the Philippines Aurora Quezon, while she is en route to
Torino Football Club, colloquially referred to as Toro, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont that currently plays in the Serie A, the highest football …
The entire Torino football team (except for two players who did not take the trip: Sauro Tomà, due to an injury and Rena
Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress and photographer. With a career spanning over five decades, she is known for her roles on stage and screen. Her accolades include two A…
Jessica Lange, American actress
Patti Ann LuPone is an American actress and singer. After starting her professional career with The Acting Company in 1972, she soon gained acclaim for her leading performances on …
Patti LuPone, American actress and singer
Spencer Haywood is an American former professional basketball player and Olympic gold medalist. Haywood is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted…
Spencer Haywood, American basketball player
The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. Inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, the machine wa…
EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, runs its first operation
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc …
Cold War: The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin
The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA…
In the United States, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the predecessor to the National Security Agency, is established
The entirety of Germany was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II, from the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949.…
Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of G
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, and formerly known as Siam until 1939, is a country located in Mainland Southeast Asia. It shares land borders with Myanmar to the wes…
Thailand elects Orapin Chaiyakan, the first female member of Thailand's Parliament
Sir Paul Collier, is a British development economist who serves as the Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford an…
Paul Collier, English economist and academic
David Cross is an English electric violinist and keyboardist best known for playing with progressive rock band King Crimson from 1972 to 1974.
David Cross, English violinist