The 1940s (pronounced “nineteen-forties” and commonly abbreviated as “the 40s”) was a decade that began on January 1, 1940, and ended on December 31, 1949.
Most of World War II took place in the first half of the decade, which had a profound effect on most countries and people in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. The consequences of the war lingered well into the second half of the decade, with a war-weary Europe divided between the jostling spheres of influence of the Western world and the Soviet Union, leading to the beginning of the Cold War. To some degree internal and external tensions in the post-war era were managed by new institutions, including the United Nations, the welfare state, and the Bretton Woods system, facilitating the post–World War II economic expansion, which lasted well into the 1970s. The conditions of the post-war world encouraged decolonization and the emergence of new states and governments, with India, Pakistan, Israel, Vietnam, and others declaring independence, although rarely without bloodshed. The decade also witnessed the early beginnings of new technologies (such as computers, nuclear power, and jet propulsion), often first developed in tandem with the war effort, and later adapted and improved upon in the post-war era. (Wikipedia)
Girls running at speed, Winnipeg, Canada, 1945.The salute in WWII, 1940s.Hitler war fund, WWII.Ginza Street corner, Tokyo, Japan, 1948.A couple in 1945.Central Park, New York City, 1942.Beware of the dog, 1940sA snowy street in Parkersburg, West Virginia, February 1940.Recycling Household Waste in Hornsey, London, due to shortages caused by the war, 1943.Nash Ambassador 600 4-door Sedan 1941.London Metropolitan Police Officers during WWIICentral Park, New York, 1940s.Women in helmets, Café de Flore, Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris, 1948.Marlon Brando in 1948Vera Zorina, 1946.Freedom fighter with rifle at the Carlsberg Breweries, Denmark. May 1945.Looking east from the rear of Temple Street apartments, Los Angeles, 1946.LaSalle Street and Amsterdam Avenue, Harlem, New York, 1946.Shower in Raizeux, France, 1949.Woman in pantsuit, 1941.Sorority sisters at the University of Texas, 1944.Jones Drug Store, Hastings, Nebraska, 1943.Heavy fog in the early afternoon, Chicago, Illinois, December 1942.Parkersburg, West Virginia, February 1940.Lana Turner, 1940.Hedy Lamarr in the 1944 movie “The Heavenly Body.”Omaha Beach, 1947.Boys on bicycle hitching ride on Pontiac Woody, 1940s.Lady in the rain, Main Street, Norwich, Connecticut, November 1940.French tourist, Normandy, 1947.Early modeling photo of Norma Jeane at Castle Rock’s beach in 1945.A breathtaking Gene Tierney as ‘Zia’ in the film, “Sundown” 1941.Vivien Leigh was hand-picked to play the lead role in “Caesar and Cleopatra” 1945.Clark Gable, 1942.Shirley Temple doing her homework on the set of the film, “Since You Went Away” in 1944.Children with gifts from the Berlin Airlift, 1948.Blythedale convalescent home for children. Valhalla, New York. 1948.Teens protesting the high school dress code that banned slacks for girls in Brooklyn, 1940.Workers smoking on a Chrysler Building gargoyle, New York City, 1940.Paris from the tower of Notre Dame, looking out over the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower, 1949.Empire State Building, NYC, 1947.Workmen during lunch period, across the street from the Consolidated Aircraft factory, San Diego, California, December 1940.Looking north on Broadway from Bowling Green, New York, 1941.Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles and Marlene Dietrich announce Japan’s surrender at a Los Angeles radio station in 1945.Betty Grable’s legs imprinted in concrete at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, 1943.Kids line up their wagons to deliver groceries in 1942.Maureen O’Hara in a scene from the classic film, “How Green Was My Valley” 1941.Soldiers say goodbye to New York on their way to France during WWII.Impasse trainee, Paris, 1949.Boulevard Saint-Germain, Paris, France, 1948.
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