Historical Events 1940 Lascaux caves discovered in France. Winston Churchill becomes prime minister.
Evacuation of Dunkirk. Battle of Britain begins. Leon trotsky assassinated
in Mexico.
Orson Wells directs Citizen Kane, F.D.R. elected to third term. Walt Disney
releases Fantasia. 1941 Germany invades Soviet Union. Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.
"Chatanooga Choo–Choo" becomes a hit song. Manhattan Project under
way.
Joe DiMaggio hits safely fifty–six consecutive games. 1942 Battle of Midway. Marines land at Guadacanal.
Irving Berlin composes "White
Christmas." Casablanca wins Oscar. 1943 Fall of Mussolini. Jackson Pollock has first
one–man show. Oklahoma opens
on Broadway.
Zoot suit popular among jitterbuggers. Penicillin introduced as
antibiotic. 1944 Allies invade Europe on D–Day, June 6. Germans hit London with V–2 rockets.
F.D.R. elected to fourth term. 1945 F.D.R. dies. United Nations founded. VE Day on May 8 ends war in Europe.
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6. VJ Day on August 14 ends war
in Pacific.
Sergei Eisenstein directs Ivan the Terrible. Satre writes No Exit. 1946 Nuremberg war trials held. Dr. Benjamin Spock publishes Baby and Child
Care.
O'Neil writes The Iceman Cometh. "Zip–a–dee–doo–da" becomes a hit
song. 1947 India and Pakistan achieve independence. The
Diary of Anne Frank published. Dead Sea scrolls discovered. LeCorbousier's Marseille
Apartment Block constructed.
Transistor invented at Bell Labs. Thor Hyerdahl sails Kon–Tiki across Pacific.
Jackie Robinson first black man in major leagues. First supersonic flight.
Al Capone dies. 1948 Gandhi assassinated. United States inaugurates Marshall Plan. Israel established.
Berlin airlift, Vittorio De Sica directs The Bicycle Thief. Peter Goldmark
invents the LP.
Kinsey Report Published. 1949 NATO established. George Orwell writes 1984. Miller writes Death of a Salesman.
"Rudolph, the Red–Nosed Reindeer" becomes hit. Apartheid established
in South Africa.
People's Republic of China established. 1950 Korean War begins. Rashomon, first
major Japanese film, shown in the United States. 1951 J.D. Salinger writes The Catcher in the
Rye. William Randoplh Hearst dies.
Electric power produced from atomic energy in Acron, Idaho. 1952 George VI dies; Elizabeth II crowned. First
H–bomb exploded. Contraceptive pill developed.
Samuel Beckett writes Waiting
for Godot. Rocky Marciano wins
heavyweight boxing crown.
Agatha Christie writes The Mousetrap. 1953 Stalin dies. Sir Edward Hillary and Tenzing Norkay scale Mount Everest.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg executed as spies. DNA structure discovered.
Korean War ends. 1954 U.S. Supreme Court rules against segregated schools. McCarthy hearings
begin.
Federico Felini directs La Strada. J.R. Tolkien writes The Lord of the Rings.
Dylan Thomas's Under Milkwood published. Dr.Jonas Salk develops polio vaccine.
Roger Bannister runs mile in 3:39.4 minutes. U.S.S. Nautilus becomes first
atomic sub. 1955 Kay Thompson writes Eloise. Paddy Chayevsky's Marty wins Oscar.
Bill Haley's band records "Rock Around the Clock." Charlie "Bird" Parker
dies. 1956 Khruschchev denounces Stalin period. Leonard Bernstein composes Candide.
Ingmar Bergman directs The Seventh Seal. Egypt seizes Suez Canal, war erupts.
Hungarian uprising smashed by Soviets. Elvis Presley records "Blue Suede
Shoes."
John Osborne writes Look Back in Anger. 1957 Soviets launch Sputnik to begin space age. Arturo Toscanini dies.
Humphery Bogart dies. Jack Kerouac publishes On the Road. 1958 Treaty of Rome begins European Common market. Vladimir Nabokov writes
Lolita.
Little Rock, Arkansas, closes schools over desegregation.
Lorraine Hansberry writes A Raisin in the Sun. 1959 Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba. De Gaulle
becomes president of France.
Frank LLoyd Wright dies. Hawaii becomes fiftieth
state. Billie Holiday dies.
Alain Renais directs Hiroshima Mon Amour. Eugene Ionescao writes Rhinoceros.
Literature
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986)
Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
Albert Camus (1913–1960)
John Cheever (1912–1982)
Jean Genet (1910–1986)
Alien Ginsberg (1926–1997)
Lillian Hellman (1905–1984)
William Inge (1910–1973)
Eugene lonesco (1912–1994)
Jack Kerouac (1922–1969)
Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
Norman Mailer (b.1923)
Andre Malraux (1901–1976)
Marianne Moore (1897–1972
Arthur Miller (b. 1915)
Alberto Moravia (b. 1907)
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
George Orwell (1903–1950)
Jean–Paul Sartre (1905–1980)
Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
Tennessee Williams (1911–1985)
Music
Samuel Barber (1910–1981)
Luciano Berio (b.1925)
Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990)
Benjamin Britten (1913–1976)
Pierre Boulez (b.1925)
Elliott Carter (b.1908)
Alberto Ginastera (1916–1983)
Aram Kachaturian (1903–1978)
Francesco Malipierro (1882–1973)
Gian Carlo Menotti (b.1911)
Oliver Messiaen (1908–1992)
Luigi Nono (1924–1990)
Gunter Schuller (b.1925)
William Schuman (1910–1992)
Stefan Wolpe (1903–1972)
Fine Arts
Karel Appel (b.1921)
Francis Bacon (1910–1992)
William Baziotes (1912–1963)
Willem de Kooning (1904–1991)
Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)
Michael Goldberg (b 1924)
Arshile Gorky (1905–1948)
Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974)
Philip Guston (1913–1980)
Grace Hartigan (b.1922)
Hans Hofmann (1880–1966)
Jasper Johns (b. 1930)
Franz Kline (1910–1962)
Lee Krasner (1908–1984)
Alfred Leslie (b 1927)
Joan Mitchell (b.1926)
Robert Motherwell (1915–1991)
Barnett Newman (1905–1971)
Ben Nicholson (1894–1982)
Isamu Noguchi (1904–1998)
Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)
Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925)
Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967)
Mark Rothko (1903–1970)
David Smith (1906–1955)
Clyfford Still (1904–1980)
Graham Sutherland (1903–1980)
Bradley Walker Tomlin (1899–1954)
Graphic Arts
Auguste Théophile Ballmer (1902–1965)
Saul Bass (1920–1996)
Max Bill (1908–1994)
Aaron Burns (1922–1991)
Tom Carnase (b.1939)
Lou Dorfsman (b.1918)
Gene Federico (1918–1999)
Adrien Frutiger (b.1928)
Bob Gage (b.1921)
Karl Gerstner (b.1930)
William Golden (1911–1959)
Morton Goldsholl (b.1911)
Armin Hofmann (b 1920)
Max Huber (b.1919)
Art Kane (b.1925)
Ernst Keller (1891–1968)
Alexander Liberman (1912–1999)
Herb Lubalin (1918–1981)
Alvin Lustig (1915–1955)
Josef Muller–Brockmann (b.1914)
George Nelson (1907–1986)
Emil Ruder (1914–1970)
Willem Sandberg (1897–1994)
Bert Stern (b 1929)
Otto Storch (b.1913)
Hermann Zapf (b.1918)
