The Decade of the ‘40s
World War II was the obvious dominant event of the 1940s. For the first half of the decade the headlines of newspapers and the radio news broadcasts focused primarily on the ebbs and flows of the war. However, once the war ended, a new tension and concern grew: the rapid spread of communism, which was as determined to rule the world as Hitler had been before his downfall.
Since the Soviet Union had participated in the fight against Hitler and Japan, it claimed the right to control some of the territories which had been freed from the dominion of the Axis powers. Among the areas allowed to fall under Soviet communist power were the northern region of Korea above the 38th parallel and the eastern portion of the conquered nation of Germany. However, the largest conquest of communism in the decade of the ‘40s, in terms of population numbers, was the country of China.
The Pivotal Year of 1949
The success of communism in the era of the ‘40s was most visible in 1949. On January 21, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek resigned as president of China, in effect surrendering to the communist takeover after the communists took Tientsin on January 15. Later that year, on October 1, the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed with Mao Tse-tung as chairman in Peking.
The communist country of East Germany was formally established under Soviet control on October 7, 1949. It was called the German Democratic Republic, as if skunk-spray by any other name could smell better.
In the meantime, the tension between Soviet-administered northern Korea and capitalist-oriented southern Korea was growing every day. This tension would erupt into outright warfare with the communist forces crossing the 38thparallel in June of 1950, a war which was actively fought into 1953 and for which a peace treaty has yet to be signed.
The concern about expansion of communist control in the world became even greater when Soviet physicists developed their first atomic bomb, which they test-exploded in October, 1949. The Cold War now took on a new dimension of bomb shelters, air raid sirens and school/workplace drills.
Even in the presence of such tension, life still went on. March 2, 1949, marked the landing in Fort Worth, Texas, of the first nonstop around-the-world flight. US Air Force pilots had flown Lucky Lady II, a B-50 Superfortress, 23,452 miles in 94 hours and 1 minute.
George Orwell, who would die months later in January, 1950, published Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1949. On April 7, 1949, the musical South Pacific opened its run on Broadway. It was in 1949 that Silly Putty was introduced with great success by an entrepreneurial advertising salesman, after being considered useless by those who developed it. That same year, prepared cake mixes were introduced to the world by both General Mills and Pillsbury (not the college!).
Billy Graham became a national figure in 1949 as a result of his Los Angeles tent crusade. Volkswagen began commercial production of cars that same year, introducing its “beetle” to the United States. The strange appearance of the car didn’t go over too well at first—only two cars were sold that year!
In 1949, the typical price for a new Cadillac was $5000, for a 2-bedroom house was $10,000, and for a 5-bedroom New York apartment the rent was $110 per month. A gallon of gas averaged $.25, and a 10-inch tabletop TV set (black and white only) was $250. A pound of pork cost $.57, while a pound of lamb chops could be purchased for $1.15. A bottle (no cans available yet) of Coca-Cola went for a nickel, a quart of milk would take $.21, a loaf of bread cost $.15, and the charge for a dozen eggs was $.80.
The Joyous Day of January 18, 1949
Tuesday, January 18, 1949, marked the 171st anniversary of James Cook’s “discovery” of the Hawaiian Islands. That is something I have yet to figure out, with no apologies to Columbus or Cook—how can he be credited with discovering a place where he found people already living?! One year to the day after Cook’s “discovery” Peter Mark Roget was born, an event for which writers the world over are still thankful.
January 18, 1949, was the 36th birthday of Danny Kaye and the 57th birthday of Oliver Hardy. The day also marked the 38th year since the first aircraft landed on a ship, being piloted by Eugene Ely as he safely alighted on the US cruiser Pennsylvania in the San Francisco Bay.
January 18, 1949, was 25,929 days ago. Since that day, a person averaging 8 hours of sleep per day has slept the equivalent of 8,643 days, or 23.66 years! The first billion-second milestone since that day was reached on September 26, 1980.
Makes for an interesting day, but where’s the joyous part in all this? That aspect of the day took place in the hospital in Tyler, Minnesota, when Carmen Rae Odens was born, bringing much joy into the lives of her parents, Arthur and Marie, and her three siblings, even though Don had been hoping for a brother. Carmen was the youngest child in the family for 27 months, and ultimately ended up as the middle child.
The joy Carmen brought continues and has grown to this day.
Happy birthday, Carmen! You are loved and appreciated more than you know.
Jim, Thanks for letting me know all that was happening the year Carmen was born. There is no doubt that in the midst of all that action her birth had the greatest impact on my life.