We have collected together a selection of trivia from the 1940s and 1950s from websites and books to provide an overview of the two decades and to provide some key pointers for ideas when planning a themed event.
You can very easily see how diverse and interesting these two decades were and how much they have shaped today.
Some of the trivia you will already know but there are a lot of items that many people did not realize happened in the 1940s and 1950s.
To compliment your themed event we can provide custom 1940s and 1950s fun quizzes based on history, music, sport, news, inventions and other themes. The quizzes are carefully collated and put together specifically for your event and can be supplied to you in PDF format for you to print out or can be printed out prior to the event ready to be distributed to your guests.
We can use our PA system to announce the questions and answers and can also mix in music and video for a truly interactive experience. The quizzes can also be tailored to include an easy quiz, an intermediate and an expert quiz with some really tough questions guaranteed to sort out the guests that know their stuff!
Call us for details of different options. We will be happy to help and advise.
- 1940
- Battle of Britain
- Leon Trotsky Assassinated
- Nylons on the Market
- Stone Age Cave Paintings Found in France
- 1941
- Konrad Zuse invented the computer
- Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor
- Jeep Invented
- Manhattan Project Begins
- Mount Rushmore Completed
- Nazi Rudolf Hess Flies to Britain on a Peace Mission
Siege of Leningrad
- 1942
- Battle of Midway
- Battle of Stalingrad
- Japanese-Americans Held in Camps
- Nazis Raze Town in Retaliation for Reinhard Heydrich's Death
- T-shirt Introduced
- 1943
- French Resistance Leader Jean Moulin Killed
- Grave of Katyn Forest Massacre Found
- Italy Joins the Allies
- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
- 1944
- Ballpoint Pens Go On Sale
- D-Day
- First German V1 and V2 Rockets Fired
- Hitler Escapes Assassination Attempt
- 1945
- Slinky invented
- FDR Dies
- First Computer Built
- Germans Surrender
- Hitler Commits Suicide
- Microwave Oven Invented
- United Nations Founded
- U.S. Drops Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- 1946
- Microwave oven invented
- Bikinis Introduced
- Dr. Spock Publishes The Common Book of Baby and Child Care
- Juan Pern Becomes President of Argentina
- Nuremberg Trials
- Winston Churchill Gives His "Iron Curtain" Speech
- 1947
- Polaroid Camera invented
- Britain Nationalises Coal Mines
- Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier
- Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered
- Jewish Refugees Aboard the Exodus Turned Back by British
- Marshall Plan
- Polaroid Cameras Invented
- 1948
- Long Play Records Introduced
- Berlin Airlift
- "Big Bang" Theory Formulated
- "Dewey Defeats Truman" in the Paper
- Gandhi Assassinated in New Delhi
- Policy of Apartheid Begun
- State of Israel Founded
- 1949
- China Becomes Communist
- First Non-Stop Flight Around The World
- George Orwell Publishes Nineteen Eight-Four
- NATO Established
- Soviet Union Has Atomic Bomb
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- 1950
- First Modern Credit Card Introduced
- First Organ Transplant
- First Peanuts Cartoon Strip
- Korean War Begins
- Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt
- U.S. President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb
- 1951
- Color TV Introduced in the US
- South Africans Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race
- Truman Signs Peace Treaty with Japan, Officially Ending WWII
- Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister of Great Britain
- 1952
- Hovercraft Invented
- Car Seat Belts Introduced
- Jacques Cousteau Discovers Ancient Greek Ship
- Polio Vaccine Created
- Princess Elizabeth Becomes Queen at Age 25
- 1953
- DNA Discovered by Francis Crick and James Watson
- Hillary and Norgay reach summit of Mt. Everest
- Joseph Stalin Dies
- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Executed for Espionage
- 1954
- First Burger King opens
- Britain Sponsors an Expedition to Search for the Abominable Snowman
- First Atomic Submarine Launched
- Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer
- Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile
- Segregation Ruled Illegal in U.S
- 1955
- Velcro Invented
- Hair Spray Invented
- Disneyland Opens
- James Dean Dies in Car Accident
- McDonald's Corporation Founded
- Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus
- Warsaw Pact Signed
- 1956
- Elvis stars on Ed Sullivan's Show
- Grace Kelly Marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
- Hungarian Revolution
- Khrushchev Denounces Stalin
- Suez Crisis
- T.V. Remote Control Invented
- 1957
- Bubble Wrap Invented
- Edsel Motor Car introduced
- Little Richard leaves Music to be a preacher
- Dr. Seuss Publishes The Cat in the Hat
- European Economic Community Established
- Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age
- Laika Becomes the First Living Animal to Orbit Space
- 1958
- Elvis Joins the US Army as Private 53310761
- Boris Pasternak Refuses Nobel Prize
- Chinese Leader Mao Zedong Launches the "Great Leap Forward"
- Hope Diamond is donated to the Smithsonian
- Hula Hoops Become Popular
- Lego Toy Bricks First Introduced
- NASA Founded
- 1959
- Motown Records is launched
- Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Big Bopper die in plane crash
- Castro Becomes Dictator of Cuba
- International Treaty Makes Antarctica Scientific Preserve
- Kitchen Debate between Nixon and Khrushchev
- The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway
- U.S. Quiz Shows Found to be fixed
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