1940s

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1910s 1920s 1930s – 1940s – 1950s 1960s 1970s
Years:	1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

The 1940s was the decade that started on January 1, 1940, and ended on December 31, 1949.

Events

• 1940 – Retreat at Dunkirk
• 1944 – Normandy invasion
• 1945 (August 6 and 9) – first use of the atomic bomb in warfare
• 1945 – World War II ends
• 1945 – Start of the Cold War
• 1945-1946 – Nuremberg Trials
• 1946 – baby boom begins
• 1947 – Independence for India and other colonies
• 1947-1949 – Indo-Pakistani War
• 1948-1949 – Arab-Israeli War
• 1949 – Communists take power in China

Important people

World leaders

• Adolf Hitler, German politician
• Pope Pius XII, Pope in the 1930s
• George VI, British king
• Joseph Stalin, leader of the USSR
• Mahatma Gandhi, leader of India
• Hirohito, Emperor of Japan
• Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Party of China
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States of America (until 1945)
• Harry S Truman, President of the United States of America