Observation — 1940, A Whole lot Of Invading Going On

Winston Churchill became British Prime Minister.  Leon Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico.  The USSR invaded Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Hitler invaded Norway and Demark. U.S. initiated the Draft. McDonalds opened its first hamburger stand. The first social security check was mailed out.  The 40-hour week was established. Plasma began to replace whole blood in transfusions. Superman debuted on radio. Bugs Bunny was born. So were Tom and Jerry. And Woody Woodpecker. Abbott and Costello released their first film.  Frank Sinatra made his singing debut in Indianapolis at the Lyric. The USSR invaded Finland. Germans invaded France. The Japanese attacked French Indo-China. Wilbur Shaw won the Indianapolis 500.  John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and was made into a film. William Saroyan won the Pulitzer for Drama for The Time of Your Life. The Academy Award went to Gone With The Wind. Other movies that pulled in the crowds included His Girl Friday, Pinocchio, Rebecca, The Bank Dick, The Philadelphia Story and Fantasia.  The Billboard Chart was established. According to them, we listened to “I’ll Never Smile Again” by Tommy Dorsey, “Only Yours” by Bing Crosby and “Frenesi” by Artie Shaw. Among the ‘40s books we read were For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, Native Son by Richard Wright, How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn, Kitty Foyle by Christopher Morley, and Night in Bombay by Louis Bromfield. Tom Mix and F. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940. Among those born this year were John Lennon, Al Pacino, Smokey Robinson, Richard Pryor, Frank Zappa, Martin Sheen, Jack Nicklaus, Mario Andretti, Wilma Rudolph and Nancy Pelosi. If you were around, what were you doing during this year of the metal dragon?