The 1940s
Five real newspaper headlines about the 1940s, printed between 1940 and 1949, with their dates removed. Read each one and guess the year it was published. No multiple choice and no trivia questions, just the headline as it was printed.
There are 6 rounds of five in this topic, and a new one appears whenever the archive has enough for it.
Headline one
The Daily Telegraph
1940
Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on May 10, 1940, the same day Germany launched its Western offensive through Belgium and France. He replaced Neville Chamberlain following a vote of no confidence in Parliament. His subsequent speeches, including the 'We shall fight on the beaches' address, defined British wartime resolve.
Headline two
The New York Times
1942
Enrico Fermi and his team at the University of Chicago achieved the world's first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction beneath the stands of Stagg Field stadium on 2 December 1942. The experiment, codenamed Chicago Pile-1, was a crucial step in the Manhattan Project. The achievement demonstrated that nuclear fission could be controlled and paved the way for both nuclear weapons and power generation.
Headline three
Chicago Tribune
1945
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed 'Little Boy' on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, instantly killing an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people. President Truman announced it as 'the greatest thing in history,' while the blast and subsequent radiation eventually claimed up to 140,000 lives by the end of the year. The bombing, followed three days later by another on Nagasaki, led directly to Japan's surrender and the end of World War II.
Headline four
The Times
1947
On 14 October 1947, US Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager became the first person confirmed to have flown faster than the speed of sound, piloting the experimental Bell X-1 rocket plane over the Mojave Desert in California. The flight was classified by the US military for several months before being announced publicly. Yeager named his aircraft 'Glamorous Glennis' after his wife, and his achievement opened the supersonic age of aviation.
Headline five
The Times
1949
On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong stood atop the Tiananmen gate in Beijing and formally proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The announcement came after the Communist Party's victory in the Chinese Civil War, forcing Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek to flee to Taiwan. The founding of the PRC began one of the most significant political transformations of the twentieth century.
Answer the five above to see your score.
Scoring works as it does in the daily game. Each headline is worth up to 100 points, and you lose two points for every year you are out. Being a decade wrong still earns you 80. A perfect round is 500.
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