Notable People of the 1940s
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in office from March 4, 1933 to April 12, 1945. He served the longest term a president has ever served in the USA.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
General Dwight D. Eisenhower was assigned to the General Staff in Washington after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He served until June 1942 with responsibility for creating the major war plans to defeat Japan and Germany.
Joe Louis
Joe Louis was an American professional boxer and the World Heavyweight Champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. Louis was also a focal point of anti-Nazi sentiment leading up to and during World War II.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party. He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany. Hitler was at the center of Nazi Germany, WWII in Europe, and the Holocaust. After fighting in WWI, he worked his way up in political prowess to become appointed the chancellor. His aggressive foreign policy is considered the main cause of WWII in Europe.
General Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general during WWII and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign. He was one of only five men ever to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the U.S. Army, and the only man ever to become a field marshal in the Philippine Army.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity. He was visiting the United States when Hitler came to power in 1933 and did not go back. He became an American citizen in 1940 and helped alert President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany might be developing an atomic weapon and recommended the US do the same. This effort led to the Manhattan Project. This project ended in 1943, with the invention of the atomic bomb.