A look at some of the events that shaped the world during the decade.

Nazi Germany invades Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.

The London Blitz begins.

Thomas Wolfe publishes You Can't go Home Again

The world's first helicopter takes flight.

German warship Bismark sunk.

Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.

Joe DiMaggio hits safely in 56 consecutive games.

100,000 Japanese-Americans interred in camps

America wins battles of the Coral Sea and Midway over Japan.

British defeat Rommel at the battle of El Alamein.

The Holocaust begins.

Mahatma Ghandi arrested in India for demanding independence from England.

Walt Disney releases Bambi.

Enrico Fermi splits an atom for the first time.

Japanese driven from Guadalcanal.

Russians turn back the German army at Stalingrad.

Italy surrenders, then declares war on Germany.

Penicillin goes into common use for chronic diseases and streptomycin is invented.

D-Day invasion of France launched on June 6.

Rome liberated by allied forces.

An assassination attempt on Hitler fails.

President Roosevelt elected for 4th term.

American forces hold at Battle of the Bulge.

Jean Paul Sartre publishes No Exit.

Vice-President Harry Truman becomes president after death of Roosevelt.

League of Nations holds final meeting, and United Nations begins.

Mussolini killed and Hitler commits suicide.

War in Europe ends with German surrender. Berlin divided into four zones by Allies.

Frank Lloyd Wright designs Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

First Atomic Bomb detonated.

Atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

Japan surrenders and WW II ends.

Nuremberg trials sentence 12 Nazi leaders to death.

U.N locates permanent home on land donated by John D. Rockefeller in New York City.

Dr. Benjamin Spock publishes Baby & Child Care.

India gains independence from England.

A U.S. plane first breaks the supersonic barrier.

The transistor is invented by Bell Laboratories.

Jackie Robinson becomes first Black major league baseball player.

Ghandi assasinated.

U.S. Congress enacts Marshall Plan.

Israel comes into existence as first Jewish state.

World Council of Churches organized.

Long-playing record invented.

Communist China formed as Chiang Kai-shek takes forces to Formosa.

Republic of Ireland formed as independent nation.

William Faulkner receives Nobel Prize for Literature.

Journalist Miles Tager born in New York City.