In Tokyo, on August 14, 1945, Emperor Hirohito tells the Japanese people, "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage," and informs them that he has accepted terms of surrender. It is the first public speech ever made by an emperor of Japan. In Washington, President Truman tells a crowd gathered outside the White House, "This is the day we have been waiting for since Pearl Harbor. This is the day when fascism finally dies, as we always knew it would." In New York, at 7:03 p.m., an electric sign in Times Square beams the words: "Official — Truman Announces Japanese Surrender." By 10 p.m., Times Square is closed to traffic and 2 million people have gathered in delirious celebration, as similar celebrations erupt worldwide. In Tokyo Bay on September 2, General Douglas MacArthur accepts the surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, and World War II is officially over.

Sheer Delight

DuPont brings nylon to market in 1940, focusing production of its wondrous synthetic alternative to silk on ladies' stockings. The hosiery is met with rapturous acclaim and $25 million in sales. Six months later, the government diverts all nylon production to the war effort, needing it for parachutes, airplane tires, glider tow ropes, flak vests, and blood plasma filters.

 

Instant Darkroom

Edwin H. Land introduces the "instant darkroom" camera — the Polaroid Land Model 95 — in 1947 and credits his 10-year-old daughter for the idea. Little Jennifer couldn't understand why she couldn't view daddy's snapshots right away. The camera incorporates a film/paper pack that releases chemicals as the film is pulled through rollers, producing a 3¼-by-4¼-inch sepia print in 60 seconds. Demand is instant. In Manhattan, Macy's sends a squad of shoppers across the street to Gimbel's to buy out the rival's stock. Sales exceed $5 million the first year.

Intensely Abstract

Trying to "stay away from any recognizable image," Jackson Pollock pushes the bounds of abstract expressionism in "drip paintings" such as Number 8 (1949). He paints by dropping paint from above, without touching brush to canvas. Pollock sells Number 8 for $800 and purportedly uses the proceeds to heat his house for the winter.

 

Life-saving Mold

A dozen years after British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming returned from a vacation in 1928 and found that a blob of moldy fungus had destroyed some of his samples of a bacteria called staphylococcus, the mold proves its worth in a lab experiment. Some lab rats infected with the bacteria are injected with penicillin — or not treated at all. The half injected with the new drug live; the other half die. In 1941, an English policeman suffering from a serious bacterial infection improves dramatically with penicillin treatment, but when the limited supply runs out, the officer dies. The war-hammered British pharmaceutical industry cannot meet demand, but a patriotic wartime effort in the U.S. ramps up production of the miracle antibiotic, which particularly proves its worth against such battlefield scourges as gangrene, septicemia, pneumonia, and, not inconsequentially, syphilis. Penicillin is credited in part for the Allied war victory. Its developers — Fleming, Howard Florey, and Ernst Chain — win the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1945, while that same year Fleming cautions that microbes can become "educated" to resist penicillin. But by midcentury, antibiotics will have helped to add more than a decade to American life expectancy.

Other Memorable Moments

1940 The 40-hour workweek goes into effect.

1941 President Roosevelt signs a bill designating the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day.

1942 Maxwell House instant coffee is introduced when General Foods supplies it to U.S. troops..

1943 Hilton Hotels adds the Roosevelt and the Plaza in New York to become the nation's first coast-to-coast hotel chain.

1945 The United Nations is established after a group of 50 countries meets to draft its charter.

1947 The National Security Act creates the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

1948 Swiss mountaineer George de Mestral invents Velcro after observing burrs sticking to his dog's coat.

1948 Cable television is introduced as an alternative for homes with poor over-the-air reception.