Explore 1392 historical events from 1940–1949.
Witold Pilecki, known by the codenames Roman Jezierski, Tomasz Serafiński, Druh and Witold, was a Polish World War II cavalry officer, intelligence agent, and resistance leader.
Witold Pilecki, Polish officer and Resistance leader (born 1901)
Torsten Lars Herman Jamte Bergström was a Swedish film director and theater and film actor.
Torsten Bergström, Swedish actor and director (born 1896)
Dame Mary Louise Webster, known professionally as May Whitty and later, for her charity work, Dame May Whitty, was an English stage and film actress. She was one of the first two w…
May Whitty, English actress (born 1865)
József Klekl was a Slovene Roman Catholic priest from Prekmurje and politician in Hungary, writer, governor of the Slovene People's Party (Slovenska lüdska stranka), later a delega…
József Klekl, Slovene-Hungarian priest and politician (born 1874)
Alex Gard was a Russian American cartoonist. He was a regular cartoonist for newspapers, magazines and books, but is most well known for his celebrity caricatures at Sardi's restau…
Alex Gard, Russian-American cartoonist (born 1900)
Viktor Hermann Brack was a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS), a convicted Nazi war criminal and one of the prominent organisers of the involuntary euthanasia programme Aktion T4; th…
Viktor Brack, German physician (born 1904)
Karl Brandt was a German physician and Schutzstaffel (SS) officer in Nazi Germany. Trained in surgery, Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and became Adolf Hitler's "escort doctor…
Karl Brandt, German SS officer (born 1904)
Karl Franz Gebhardt was a German physician and a war criminal. Gebhardt was the main coordinator of a series of medical atrocities performed on inmates of the concentration camps a…
Karl Gebhardt, German physician (born 1897)
Waldemar Hoven was a Nazi physician at Buchenwald concentration camp, and convicted war criminal for conducting human experiments regarding typhus which led to the deaths of many c…
Waldemar Hoven, German physician (born 1903)
Wolfram Sievers was a Nazi and convicted war criminal for medical atrocities carried out while he was managing director of the Ahnenerbe from 1935–1945. He was convicted of war cri…
Wolfram Sievers, German SS officer (born 1905)
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world t…
The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, headquartered in Paris, was founded
The 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine was the first phase of the 1948 Palestine war. It broke out after the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution on …
Civil War in Mandatory Palestine: The Jewish paramilitary group Haganah captured Haifa from the Arab Liberation Army
High Explosive Research (HER) was the British project to develop atomic bombs independently after the Second World War. This decision was taken by a cabinet sub-committee on 8 Janu…
The United Kingdom publicly announced that it was independently developing nuclear weapons, after the US Atomic Energy A
David Ben-Gurion was the primary national founder and first prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency …
David Ben-Gurion publicly read the Israeli Declaration of Independence at a building later called Independence Hall in T
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civi…
Arab–Israeli War: After five days of fighting, Egyptian forces captured the Israeli community of Yad Mordechai after the
A levee, is an elevated ridge alongside the banks of a river, often intended to protect against flooding of the area adjoining the river. Alternatively, it is called a dike, dyke, …
A dike holding the Columbia River broke, causing a flood that destroyed Vanport, Oregon, U
Bernard Mannes Baruch was an American financier and statesman.
Bernard Baruch first applies the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet U
Thor Heyerdahl KStJ was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in biology with specialization in zoology, botany and geography.
Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to demonstrate that Peruvian natives could have set
The Portella della Ginestra massacre refers to the killing of 11 people and wounding of 27 others during May Day celebrations in Sicily on 1 May 1947, in the municipality of Piana …
Portella della Ginestra massacre against May Day celebrations in Sicily by the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Gi
The Texas City disaster was an industrial accident that occurred on April 16, 1947, in the port of Texas City, Texas, United States, located in Galveston Bay. It was the deadliest …
An explosion on board a freighter in port causes Texas City in the state of Texas, United States, to catch fire, killing
Operation Big Bang or British Bang was the explosive destruction of bunkers and other military installations on the island of Heligoland. The explosion used 7400 tons of surplus Wo…
The Operation Big Bang, the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion to that time, destroys bunkers and military installat
Gerald Rafferty was a Scottish singer-songwriter. He was a founding member of Stealers Wheel, whose biggest hit was "Stuck in the Middle with You" in 1973. His solo hits in the lat…
Gerry Rafferty, Scottish singer-songwriter (died 2011)
George Nigel Hannington Emslie, Lord Emslie is a retired judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland. He is the son of former Lord President George Emslie, Baron Emslie, and older brot…
Nigel Emslie, Lord Emslie, Scottish lawyer and judge
Sir Richard Alan Field is a British judge of the High Court of England and Wales.
Richard Field, English lawyer and judge