Part 2: 1926 – 1950
This, the second part of an extremely condensed history of the 20th century, was published (along with Part 1) in the 1999 Elfin Diary. I think that Caroline Heaney wrote it herself; if I’m wrong, please let me know so that I can credit the author. The third & fourth parts (1951 -1999) were held back for lack of space and appeared in the 2000 Elfin Diary.
1926
A.A.Milne writes Winnie the Pooh, the first liquefied fuel rocket is launched by R.H.Goddard and reaches a height of 56 miles at 60 mph. Americans Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett are the first to fly over the North Pole. Heisenberg further develops his quantum theory. Kodak develops 16mm movie film, the velocity of light is measured, and pop-up toasters are invented. Films – Fritz Lang makes Metropolis, Rudolph Valentino makes The Son of the Sheik and dies of a burst appendix after finishing the film (fans riot at his funeral) and the film The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolsen is the first talking picture. In Britain Queen Elizabeth II is born, the Electricity Board and ICI are founded, Reading University is opened and a General Strike is called. D.H.Lawrence writes The Plumed Serpent, T.E.Lawrence writes The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, the Book-of-the-Month club is founded, the Permanent Wave hairstyle is invented by Antonio Buzzacchino. Everyone whistles Bye Bye Blackbird.
1927
The first Exhibition for Space Flights opens in Moscow, the deepest well in the world (8,000ft), is sunk in California and Georges Lamaitre from Belgium proposes that the universe came into being due to a concentration of energy and matter exploding, he called this the ‘Cosmic Egg’, this was the first version of the Big Bang theory. Lindberg makes the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic from New York to Paris in his monoplane Spirit of St. Louis in 33.5 hours, in Canada aeroplanes were first used to dust crops with insecticide (they tested it on forest trees – tsk). ‘Black Friday’ in Germany as the economic system collapses, in Vienna, riots, as Nazi are acquitted of political murder. In the US the 15 millionth Model T Ford is made, Garbo stars in Flesh and The Devil, Hemingway writes the short story collection Men Without Women and baseball star Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs for the New York Yankees. The ‘Iron Lung’ is developed for mechanical artificial respiration. Rex Whistler paints frescos in the Tate Gallery restaurant, people dance the slow foxtrot and sing My Blue Heaven.
1928
Chiang Kai-shek is elected President of China, Mussolini writes his autobiography, Herbert Hoover is elected president of the US, Albania is proclaimed a kingdom and Zog I is elected as king. Penicillin is discovered in moulds but not put into clinical use until the 1940s. W.Muller and H. Geiger make a geiger counter, Little America is established on the ice shelf of Antarctica by R.E.Byrd who flies from this base to explore the South Pole, Edwin P. Hubble estimates that the Crab Nebula is 900 years old and the Minnesota Mining Company introduce Scotch Tape to the world. Walt Disney (a Sagittarian) makes the first Mickey Mouse film, and the first colour motion pictures are exhibited by George Eastman in New York. D.H.Lawrence writes Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Aldous Huxley writes Point Counterpoint, Evelyn Waugh writes Decline and Fall, Ravel composes Bolero and popular songs are Makin’ Whoopee and Button Up Your Overcoat. Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. An abnormally high tide at London causes the River Thames to burst its banks and overflow, Brazil’s economy collapses due to overproduction of coffee, and in Fleetwood, England the first machine for boning and cleaning kippers makes its debut.
1929
The Arabs attack the Jews in Palestine after arguments about the use of the Wailing Wall. In the US a rival gang machine-gun to death six notorious gangsters in Chicago in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. In Germany Hitler appoints Himmler as Reichsfuhrer of the S.S.. Hemingway writes Farewell to Arms, and Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet On The Western Front is a best seller. Salvador Dali joins the Surrealist group, the Museum of Modern Art opens in New York exhibiting Gaugin, Cezanne and Van Gogh. ‘Talkies’ kill silent movies, Alfred Hitchcock makes Blackmail, Kodak introduces 16mm. colour film and it’s Black Friday in New York when the stock exchange crashes on October 28th and a world economic crisis begins. Quartz crystal clocks are introduced, Dunlop makes the first foam rubber, Tootal’s of St.Helens make the first crease resisting fabric and songs around were Tiptoe Through The Tulips and Singin’ in the Rain. Einstein wrote his Unified Field Theory, the astronomer Edwin Hubble establishes that the more distant a galaxy is, the faster it is receding from the Earth thus confirming that the universe is expanding and Robert Goddard launches the first rocket to carry instruments – a camera, barometer and thermometer. M. Matuyama shows that rocks of different strata have their magnetic fields reversed in some instances, so he concludes that the Earth’s magnetic field reverses itself every few hundred thousand years.
1930
Revolution in Brazil, revolution in Argentina, the Japanese premier is assassinated, the Nazis gain 107 seats in the German elections and Ras Tafari becomes Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. In America they’re having he Teapot Dome government scandal, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics is organised, Deadwood Dick (Richard W.Clarke) the English born American frontiersman died and Clyde William Tombaugh (b. 1906) from Illinois discovered Pluto, following earlier calculations of its position by Percival Lowell. D.H.Lawrence died (b.1885), Arthur Conan Doyle died (b.1859). Evelyn Waugh writes Vile Bodies, John Dos Passos writes 42nd Parallel, Dashiell Hammett writes The Maltese Falcon, Leon Trotsky publishes his autobiography (Boston promptly banned it along with all his other works). In the movies Howard Hughes made Hells Angels, All Quiet on the Western Front won an Academy Award and it was estimated there were 250 million weekly movie visitors worldwide. Amy Johnson flies solo from London to Australia in 19 and-a-half days, British engineer Frank Whittle files his first patent for the jet engine and Andrew Elliot Douglas determines the date of an American Indian site by counting tree rings in wooden artifacts from the site, thereby inventing the science of dendrochronology.
1931
The Kinetic Chemical Corporation produce the first Freon gases (now better known as CFCs, and which have ultimately helped destroy the ozone layer). In Germany: there are 5.66 million unemployed, the Danatbank declares itself bankrupt, this triggers a nationwide banking crisis and economic instability, and the wealthiest German tycoons and industrialists pledge money to the 800,000-strong Nazi Party in the hope their policies will strengthen the economy. The British naval force at Invergordon mutinies over pay cuts. Brazil begins an official destruction of surplus coffee. Radio emissions are discovered coming from the Milky Way. The Czech shoe company Bata produces 75,000 pairs of shoes a day. Australian explorer G.H.Wilkins navigates his submarine Nautilus under the Arctic Ocean. World car production is 36 million. World film production is 1000 films(2,500,000 miles of film!), Boris Karloff is Frankenstein. Bonnard, Chagall, Dali, Paul Klee and Matisse were painting. In America: Clarke Gable begins his Hollywood career, the Empire State Building is completed and popular songs are Minnie the Moocher and Goodnight Sweetheart.
1932
Gandhi is arrested in India – again – and the Indian Congress party that he leads is declared illegal by the British Government. There is famine in the U.S.S.R., Eamon de Valera is elected president of Ireland, Ibn Saud renames his kingdom Saudi Arabia, Japan begins its conquest of world markets by undercutting prices and Aldous Huxley writes Brave New World. Auguste Piccard (1884-1962) becomes the first human boldly going into the stratosphere when his balloon climbs 9.8 miles, the neutron is discovered by James Chadwick and Werner Heisenberg gets the Nobel Prize for physics for the creation of the matrix theory of quantum mechanics. Amelia Earhart is the first women to fly solo across the Atlantic – 13.5 hours. In America: Hattie Wyatt Caraway of Arkansas becomes the first woman elected to the US Senate, there are 13.2 million people unemployed, the Lindberg baby is kidnapped (or was he? later investigations point to a prank-gone-horribly-wrong by his father). Garbo gets an Academy Award for Grand Hotel , work begins on the Golden Gate Bridge and Brother Can You Spare A Dime is on the radio.
1933
In Germany: Hitler is elected Chancellor on 92 per cent of the vote (in an election where all opposition parties are banned), he chooses Goebbels as his Minister of Propaganda, the first concentration camps are built (by 1945 8-10 million people have been interned and at least half of them killed), all books by non-Nazi and Jewish authors are burnt and 60,000 artists (authors, actors etc.) leave the country. In the US: FD Roosevelt is inaugurated as President, Prohibition is repealed, the best selling book is James Hilton’s Lost Horizon, and King Kong introduces delighted cinema-goers to monster horror movies. The US resumes trade with the USSR where people are starving, Tolstoy writes The History of the Russian Revolution. In Britain H.G.Wells writes The Shape of Things to Come, Malcolm Campbell achieves the world land speed record – 272.46 mph – and British aeroplanes fly over Mt. Everest. CG Jung writes Modern Man in Search of a Soul. Songs – Smoke Gets in Your Eyes , Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Wolf. The last known Tasmanian Wolf dies in a zoo (unverified sightings continue).
1934
The FBI shoots America’s Public Enemy No I – John Dillinger. Japan renounces the treaties signed with the US in 1922 and 1930. In Rome, Enrico Fermi splits the atom but without realising it – he thinks he has created a new element but he has actually created the beginnings of the atom bomb. In Germany Hitler has most of his opposition assassinated in the ‘Night Of The Long Knives’. Salvadore Dali paints William Tell – surrealism. Three composers – Delius, Holst and Elgar all die, Agatha Christie writes Murder in Three Acts, Scott Fitzgerald writes Tender is the Night, Robert Graves gives us I Claudius, Goodbye Mr. Chips is another best-seller for James Hilton. People watched the first of the Thin Man movies. Popular songs – Blue Moon, The Continental. Evangeline Booth, daughter of the Salvation Army founder William Booth, is elected General of the Salvation Army. Driving tests are introduced in Britain. William Beebe and Otis Barton set a depth record by diving in their Bathysphere, (a tethered sphere) to 3,038 feet, off the coast of Bermuda, a German engineer develops a liquefied fuel rocket that achieves a height of 1.5 miles and Churchill warns the British Parliament of the German air threat.
1935
The first worldwide antibacterial wonder drug Prontosil Red, a sulphonamide originally developed as a dye, arrives; discoverer Gerhard Domagk used it on his daughter to prevent her death from a streptococcal infection (and won a Nobel prize for it in 1939). The prefrontal lobotomy was developed as a wonder-cure for mental illness (it wasn’t) by Antonio Egas Moniz, and Vitamin K is discovered. The longest bridge in the world is opened over the Lower Zambezi river, the subway is opened in Moscow and Alcoholics Anonymous is organised in New York. The effect of the Moon’s gravitation on Earth’s atmosphere is determined by Sydney Chapman. Charles Francis Richter develops the Richter Scale for measuring the strength of earthquakes based on seismographs. The German Luftwaffe is formed, Radar equipment is built by Robert Watson Watt to detect aircraft and Sir James Chadwick of Britain wins the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the Neutron. Films: Mutiny on the Bounty with Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps. Everyone is singing It Ain’t Necessarily So and dancing the Rumba (not necessarily at the same time). Persia changes its name to Iran, Campbell drives Bluebird at 276.8 mph., and Dali paints Giraffe on Fire.
1936
The Queen Mary passenger liner crosses the Atlantic in 3 days, 27 hours, 57 minutes, the Hindenburg Dirigible lands safely in New Jersey after its first transatlantic flight, the largest reservoir in the world is created by building the Boulder Dam on the Colorado River in Nevada and Arizona, an artificial heart is developed, Sigmund Freud publishes The Autobiography of Sigmund Freud, Margaret Mitchell writes Gone With the Wind and Penguin Books launches its distinctive paperbacks. Rudyard Kipling dies (b. 1865). In Germany there s a Nazi exhibition of Degenerate Art , elections give Hitler 99 percent of the vote and Mussolini and Hitler proclaim Rome-Berlin Axis, Mussolini appoints his son-in-law Foreign Minister. The Spanish Civil War begins in July and in October Franco is appointed Chief of State by the insurgents, the Seige of Madrid starts and the government moves to Valencia. Chiang Kai-shek, president of the Chinese executive, declares war on Japan. In Britain King George V dies and is succeeded by his son Edward VIII, who chooses to abdicate to be with Mrs. Wallis Simpson. His brother George VI succeeds him on December 11th, he is given the title Duke of Windsor. Song: Pennies from Heaven. Films: Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, San Francisco with Clark Gable, Spencer Tracey.
1937
The Duke of Windsor marries Mrs. Simpson; they settle in France and in October they go to Germany at the invitation of that nice Mr Hitler – he is delighted to receive the couple, especially when the Duke greets him with a Hitler salute. Billy Butlin opens his first holiday camp, in Skegness. In America the stock market decline signals serious economic recession, statistics show one and a half million Americans were involved in sit-down strikes from September 1936 to May 1937, four people are killed and 84 hurt in a steelworkers strike in Chicago. The Spanish Civil War continues: German bombers aidng General Franco destroy Guernica, Picasso paints his Guernica mural for the World Exhibition in Paris. Joan Miro paints Still Life with Old Shoe, Disney makes Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Garbo is Camille and Sabu is Elephant Boy. The first jet engine is built by Frank Whittle, the British build a string of 20 radar stations and there’s a London bus strike. Peter Pan writer J.M.Barrie dies (b.1860), George Orwell writes The Road to Wigan Pier, Hemingway pens To Have and to Have Not, Steinbeck gives us an American classic – Of Mice and Men. Amelia Earhart disappears on her flight over the Pacific, the Hindenburg dirigible bursts into flame and crashes when landing at Lakehurst in New Jersey killing most of its passengers. In the world of medical science, antihistamine is developed, shock treatment (ECT) is introduced for the treatment of schizophrenia, vitamin A is discovered and insulin is used to control diabetes.
1938
Germany mobilises, Roosevelt sends an appeal to Hitler and Mussolini to settle European problems amicably, France calls up its reservists and Hitler appoints himself Minister of War. In the US Orson Welles’ radio version of H.G.Well’s War of the Worlds causes much panic amongst its listeners as people thought it was really happening, Howard Hughes flies round the world in 3 days, 19 hours, 17 minutes, Nylon goes on sale, and 32,000 people die in automobile accidents. G.S.Callender compiles temperature measurements from the last century and discovers that increasing temperatures correlate to the increase in the amount of human-produced carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. Lazlo Biro patents the first ballpoint pen. The first stainless steel artificial hip is developed. Austrian-Swedish physicist Lise Meitner flees from Hitler-controlled Austria taking the problem of uranium atom splitting with her to Sweden; there she determines that she and Otto Hahn had indeed been splitting uranium – he 1939r paper on this starts the drive to develop an atomic bomb. The German engineer Ferdinand Porsche introduces the prototype of the Volkswagen Beetle.
1939
Germany mobilises, Roosevelt sends an appeal to Hitler and Mussolini to settle European problems amicably, France calls up its reservists and Hitler appoints himself Minister of War. In the US Orson Welles’ radio version of H.G.Well’s War of the Worlds causes much panic amongst its listeners as people thought it was really happening, Howard Hughes flies round the world in 3 days, 19 hours, 17 minutes, Nylon goes on sale, and 32,000 people die in automobile accidents. G.S.Callender compiles temperature measurements from the last century and discovers that increasing temperatures correlate to the increase in the amount of human-produced carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. Lazlo Biro patents the first ballpoint pen. The first stainless steel artificial hip is developed. Austrian-Swedish physicist Lise Meitner flees from Hitler-controlled Austria taking the problem of uranium atom splitting with her to Sweden; there she determines that she and Otto Hahn had indeed been splitting uranium – he 1939r paper on this starts the drive to develop an atomic bomb. The German engineer Ferdinand Porsche introduces the prototype of the Volkswagen Beetle.
1940
The so-called Phoney War ends, the London Blitz begins with all-night air raids. The Germans enter Paris on June 14th. British Fascist leader Oswald Mosley is imprisoned under Defence Regulations. The Battle of Britain in August – 180 German planes are shot down on August 15th. Night bombing raids on Germany, U-boat warfare in the North Sea. Food rationing begins in Britain. Chamberlain resigns, Churchill becomes Prime Minister and the fighting goes on. 17,000-year old cave paintings are discovered in France. Songs: When You Wish upon a Star, Blueberry Hill. In the US, Hitchcock’s Rebecca gets an Academy Award, Roosevelt is re-elected for a third term of office as US President, the Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge – nicknamed Galloping Gertie – breaks up under high winds and falls 200 ft, the only casuality is a three-legged Cocker Spaniel named Tubby. The US discover plutonium, penicillin is developed as an antibiotic and freeze drying, developed in America for medicines, is used for food preservation. Hemingway writes For Whom The Bell Tolls, F. Scott Fitzgerald dies (b.1896).
1941
The Japanese attack Pearl Harbour on December 7th; the day before, Roosevelt had signed an order that lead to the development of the nuclear-fission bomb (that eventually finishes the war). World War II continues in Europe and North Africa, Rommel attacks Tobruk, the Germans advance towards Moscow. The US and Britain declare war on Japan, the Japanese invade the Philippines, Hong Kong surrenders to them. Germany and Italy declare war on the US and vice-versa and they all fight on. In Britain clothes rationing starts, in the US rubber rationing. A monument is built over a sealed Time Capsule, not to be opened until 6939, on the site of the 1939 New York World Fair. Orson Wells is Citizen Kane, Garbo makes her last film (Two-Faced Woman, a box-office disaster), Chattanooga Choo Choo and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered are playing on the radio and the word antibiotic comes into being to describe substances that kill bacteria without injuring other forms of life. Henry Moore draws the refugees in London’s air raid shelters, Noel Coward writes the stage play Blithe Spirit and the BBC’s Brains Trust is first broadcast.
1942
World War II – The 26 Allies pledge not to make individual peace treaties with the enemies, the words United Nations are heard in the world. In America Enrico Fermi builds the first nuclear reactor (a small experimental plant, in Chicago), and all 100,000 Japanese immigrants living in the US are put into inland camps away from the West Coast. Rommel and his Afrika Korps take Tobruk in North Africa, the Germans take Sebastopol in Crimea and reach Stalingrad. 400,000 US troops land in French North Africa and Montgomery’s 8th Army take back Tobruk along with El Alemain, the Germans work on their V-2 rocket and millions of Jews are murdered in the Nazi gas chambers. In India Gandhi is arrested yet again for demanding independence for India. Petrol, coffee and sugar are rationed in America. US Army Engineers build a road 1519.3 miles long between Alaska and the rest of the US, the first electronic brain or automatic computer is developed and an American chemist develops Napalm, as a weapon of war with no other use. The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (now known as Oxfam) is founded by Gilbert Murray in response to a famine in Greece. Magnetic recording tape is invented. Britain introduces a Wartime National Loaf. At the movies Greer Garson is Mrs. Miniver, Disney makes Bambi, songs: The White Cliffs of Dover, That Old Black Magic. A buried hoard of Roman silverware is discovered in Mildenhall, Suffolk.
1943
WW II continues, Allied round-the-clock bombing of Germany, students Hans and Sofie Scholl are caught distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in Munich and executed. Rationing in the US – shoes, meat, cheese, canned foods, half a million miners go on strike, race riots flare in several major cities, the world’s first working nuclear reactor (producing plutonium) is activated in Tennessee and in Mexico a volcano, later to be known as Mt. Paricutan, begins to grow out of a cornfield. In Bletchley Park, Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic computer (using vacuum tubes) is developed by GPO engineer Thomas Flowers; used for cracking codes, Alan Turing helps with the programming. The American troops bring the Jitterbug dance with them to Britain. The song Oh What A Beautiful Mornin‘ was top of the pops -it came from the musical play Oklahoma, which ran for 2,248 consecutive nights in New York. Casablanca with Bogart and Bacall wins an Academy Award. The word Hepcats arrives in the US to describe young people wearing Zoot Suits (with reet pleat!). Arthur Stoll and Albert Hofman discover lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Hofman, after accidentally ingesting a small amount, experiences the world’s first acid trip; intrigued by his ‘visions’ he deliberately experiments with larger doses, going on to research other psychoactive substances.
1944
WW II. Heavy air raids on London, 800 Flying Fortress aeroplanes drop 2,000 tons of bombs on Berlin, D-Day landings in Normandy with over 700 ships and 4,000 landing crafts. German officers try to assassinate Hitler who was out of his head most of the time on cocaine by now, however they failed. Rommel commits suicide; although not involved directly in the assassination plot, he was part of the growing anti-Nazi military resistance. Early in the year the Germans sends the VI flying bomb propelled by a jet engine and controlled by an autopilot and later the V2, a liquid-fuelled rocket propelled bomb; they also produced a rocket-powered aeroplane – the Komet, but this kept exploding spontaneously and so was no good as a weapon. In the US Roosevelt is elected to a forth term as President. Vietnam declares herself independent of France with Ho Chi Minh as president. Picasso paints The Tomato Plant, Georges Braque paints A Pumpkin. Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace is on in Moscow, Aldous Huxley writes Time Must Have a Stop, H.E.Bates writes Fair Stood the Wind for France. Popular songs: Swingin’ on a Star and Don’t Fence Me In.
1945
WW II not going well for Germany, Hitler commits suicide April 30th, German army on Italian front surrenders, Berlin surrenders to Russia May 2nd, Germany capitulates May 7th. May 8th is declared VE Day. War ends in Europe and a flourishing black market for cigarettes and clothing develops. In America Roosevelt dies (b.1882) and is succeeded by his Vice-President Harry S. Truman. On July 16th, the US detonate the first atomic bomb in New Mexico, tAugust 8th they drop a uranium based fission bomb on Hiroshima, and a plutonium based one on Nagasaki the next day. Japan (what’s left of it) surrenders. This uses up the US supply of atom bombs, but they keep this secret. August 14th marks the end of World War II. There are an estimated 35 million war dead plus 10 million in the concentration camps. The Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals begins, the ones that don’t get away that is. A B-25 bomber accidentally flies into the 78/79th floors of the Empire State Building in New York – 14 people die. In Britain, Labour wins the elections with a landslide, John Betjeman publishes a poetry collection entitled New Bats in Old Belfreys, George Orwell writes Animal Farm. The Atomic Research Centre is established at Harwell in the UK. America establishes the White Sands rocket research centre in New Mexico. Robert Goddard, rocket pioneer, dies August 10th, and the science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke proposes the idea of stationary communication satellites above the Earth; 20 years later they’re the principal means of intercontinental communication. The first radar signals are reflected from the moon by the US Army Signal Corps.
1946
Work begins on the Jodrell Bank radio telescope, collecting radar reflections from meteor trails, and it is discovered that sunspots emit radio waves. US chemist Vincent Schaefer discovers cloud seeding by accident, when he notices that dry ice causes water vapour to turn into ice; on November 13th he drops 2.5 kg of dry ice into a cloud from a plane and creates the first artificial snowfall. 10 senior Nazis are sentenced to death, Goering, Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe committed suicide on the eve of his execution. London Airport (renamed Heathrow in 1966) opens, Picasso founds the Pottery at Vallauris in the South of France, Chagall paints Cow With Umbrella, Hitchcock makes Notorious and in Italy the Pope creates 32 new Cardinals – just like that! – and Italian women are given the right to vote (no connection). Popular song: Zip-a-dee-doo-da.
1947
The Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish religious documents from around the time of Christ are found in a cave near Khirbet Qumran by two shepherd boys. Thor Heyerdahl sails on a raft for 101 days from Peru to Polynesia to prove prehistoric immigration across the Pacific from South America (genetic research later disproves his theory, showing that the Polynesians actually originated in SE Asia). The most severe winter in Britain since 1894, the Queen gets married and the first atomic pile is established at Harwell, Oxfordshire. In America 28 inches of snow falls in one day in December, Henry Ford dies leaving a fortune of $625million, Al Capone – gangster dies (b.1899). The Roswell Incident – debris from a military balloon is mistaken for a crashed flying saucer; the balloon was actually part of a top secret program, so the US military stay silent and let the rumours flourish; the nearby town of Roswell is very happy with the tourist boom. The transistor is invented, the first microwave cooker goes on sale, the first aeroplane flies at supersonic speed and Lyman Spitzer Jr., astrophysicist from Ohio, speculates that astronomers might have telescopes orbiting the Earth on artificial satellites. The basic concept of holography is developed and British physicist Edward Appleton wins the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the ionosphere layer in the atmosphere.
1948
A stored program electronic computer starts operating at Manchester University. Legend has it that computer pioneer Grace Hopper, working at Harvard, coins the term ‘bug’ when finding that a computer malfunction was caused by a moth in the circuitry; however, the term had been used for mechanical malfunctions for several decades. In the US Harry S. Truman is elected president, rocket tests in New Mexico reach 78 miles high at 3,000 mph, the long playing record is developed by Peter Mark Goldmark, Orville Wright, aircraft pioneer dies (b. 1871). Lawrence Olivier gets an Academy Award for his Hamlet, Orson Wells IS Macbeth, James A. Michener writes Tales of the South Pacific and 135 million paperback books are sold throughout the US in the year. In India, Gandhi is assassinated (b. 1869), in Czechoslovakia there s a communist coup. Israel comes into existence. The USSR stops all rail and road traffic between Berlin and the West; the Western Allies organise the Berlin Airlift, dropping daily food and fuel supplies onto the city from 26 June 1948 to 30 September 1949. George Gamow, Ralph Alpher and Hans Bethe develop the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, Edwin Land invents a camera that develops its pictures inside itself within a minute, and after walking in the woods in Switzerland with his dogs George deMestral invents Velcro after observing how the cockleburrs stuck in his socks and in the dogs’ coats – nowadays however people tend to prefer to believe the myth that the Velcro was an idea we got from the Aliens. (Maybe George deM. was abducted!) In Germany Ferdinand Porche builds the Porche 356 car, in Britain the British Electricity Authority is established, the railways are nationalised, Prince Charles is born and bread rationing ends.
1949
Chiang Kai-shek resigns his presidency of China and the Communist People’s Republic is proclaimed under Mao Tse-tung. The Republic of Ireland is proclaimed in Dublin and Britain recognises Eire’s independence. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, is formed as a common defence amongst Western nations against the Soviet Union. Germany divides into East and West. A Vietnamese State is established at Saigon. Nehru becomes Prime Minister of India. In America eleven US Communists go on trial and are found guilty of conspiracy to overthrow the government. Fred Lawrence Whipple suggests that comets are dirty snowballs formed of ice or ammonia ice and rock dust, a radio source in the Crab Nebula is identified, Neptune’s smaller moon Nereid is discovered, also the asteroid Icarus. A rocket testing ground is established at Cape Canaveral in Florida whilst at White Sands New Mexico a small rocket is built and put on top of a captured German V 2 rocket, the first rocket with more than one stage is created and goes 240 miles up, well beyond the atmosphere and the highest altitude reached by man at that time. The US Airforce jet flies across America in 3 hours 46 minutes and the USSR tests its first atomic bomb. In Britain clothes rationing ends, Geoffrey de Havilland designs the Comet aeroplane, George Orwell writes 1984, and EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Computer) goes into operation at Cambridge University. English biochemist Dorothy Crowfoot (b. 12 May, Cairo, Egypt. 1910) is the first to use an electronic computer to work out the structure of an organic chemical, penicillin. South Pacific is on Broadway, Orson Wells is in The Third Man, Richard Strauss dies (b. 1846) (composer of ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’ – used in ‘2001’ 19 years later). The Samba is the dance and Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend, Some Enchanted Evening and Riders in the Sky are the songs.
1950
The world population is approximately 2.3 billion, the U.N. reports that out of the 800 million children in the world 480 million are undernourished. In June, North Korea invades South Korea, the United Nations intervenes and the Korean War starts. The US recognises Vietnam and supplies arms, and instructors in their use. President Truman directs the US Atomic Energy Commission to develop the hydrogen bomb, an assassination attempt is made on him by two Puerto Rican nationalists, one is killed and one imprisoned for life. The USSR and Communist China sign a 30-year pact. Communist China s forces occupy Tibet. Tibet appeals to the UN but China ignores the UN’s appeal for a cease fire. In Johannesburg, riots against apartheid. In the UK Klaus Fuchs is found guilty of betraying British Atomic secrets and jailed whilst Harry Gold, his American confederate, is sentenced to 30 years in prison. Einstein writes his General Field Theory, an attempt to expand his Theory of Relativity. Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan dies (b. 1875), Ray Bradbury writes The Martian Chronicles. 30,000 varieties of roses are catalogued. A computer , ENIAC, makes the first computerized 24-hour weather forecast. Diners Club introduce the first charge card, the precursor of the credit card, commercial colour TV begins in America and a world record crowd of 199,854 people attend the World Cup football game in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil v. Uruguay). Songs: If I Knew You Were Comin I’d Have Baked A Cake, Goodnight Irene, Ç est Si Bon.