In 1940 Hitler invades Norway, Denmark (April 9), the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg (May 10), and France (May 12). Churchill becomes Britain's prime minister. U.S. trades 50 destroyers for leases on British bases in Western Hemisphere. Selective Service Act signed. The first official network television broadcast is put out by NBC.
On 1st jan1942, Declaration of United Nations signed in Washington. Nazi leaders attend Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "final solution to the Jewish question," the systematic genocide of Jews known as the Holocaust. Women's military services established. Enrico Fermi achieves nuclear chain reaction. More than 120,000 Japanese and persons of Japanese ancestry living in western U.S. moved to "relocation centers," some for the duration of the war.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 4, 1941, killing more than 2,300 Americans, U.S. isolationism came to an abrupt halt. A day later, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) guided the country into World War II. Unemployment virtually vanished as men were drafted and sent off to fight, and for the first time, women were thrusted into the workforce.
The Nazis surrendered on May 8, 1945, ending the war in the West. Also in 1945, the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, forcing its surrender and ending the war Asia. On Aug. 14, 1945, the U.S. celebrated "V-J Day," or "Victory over Japan Day." The end of the decade saw the formation of the United Nations and the "Baby Boom." In non-war related events, FDR died (1945), the "Big Bang" Theory was formulated (1948) and the North Atlantic Tra de Association (NATO) was established (1949).
The 1940 census indicated a United States population of 132,164,569. This represented an increase of 7.3% since 1930, the lowest rate of increase in the 20th century. The center of the United States population was geographically placed two miles southeast by east of Carlisle, Indiana.
December 2, 1942 - The first nuclear chain reaction is produced at the University of Chicago in the Manhattan Project, creating fission of the Uranium U-235, under the direction of physicists Arthur Compton and Enrico Fermi.
In 1941, land-lease passed, with the war going badly for the British, it was clear that great Britain would require assistance from the united states. The British were running out of money to pay for the arms they were buying. President Roosevelt therefore went before the country in a "Fireside chat", in which he called for America to become an "arsenal of democracy".
Roosevelt then introduced a bill to Congress on January 8 1941, providing the President with the power to lend military equipment to countries that the President believed were in need. By the end of the war the United States had provided the following aid: the amount totaled: $48,601,365,000.
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