Remembering 1946

The generation of men who had answered the call of the nation during the War was now home or on their way home to make the transition from being servicemen to veterans. More than a few of these men who had survived the War returned with injuries which would take years to fully recover from and others would have trouble adjusting to the routine of post-War society, but the vast majority were fit, well fed, trained to accomplish great things, and had gained a degree of sober maturity and sense of mission which comes from service in the military.

The economy was poised on the cusp of a huge post-War boom. Many industries and companies were in a transition phase between Wartime and peacetime operations but the first rumblings of the coming boom could be felt as America was getting ready to become a consumer society. The sense of giddy optimism over the economy was also reflected in a spike in marriage rates. Part of this was due to the pent-up passions of young people who had been separated by the War, and naturally, once they were legally wed many of them did what passionate young people do in the privacy of their own bedrooms, touching off the Post-War Baby Boom.

The highest levels of leadership were still tying up the loose ends from the War. One of the first to be dealt with was the establishment of the United Nations whose mission would be to prevent a global war from ever happening again. The General Assembly met for the first time in London on January 19, and the Security Council met a week later. The previous League of Nations, formed in the aftermath of the First World War, dissolved itself in April and turned its duties and assets over to the UN. Two important agencies of the UN are the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), formed on November 4, and the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund established on December 11.

The Nuremberg Trials against Nazi War Criminals began in November of 1945 and would close on October 1. The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal convened on April 29 and would not adjourn until November 1948. The eleven Nazis who were sentenced to death were to be hanged in the gymnasium of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, but just two hours before his sentence was to be carried out, Gestapo founder Hermann Göring committed suicide in his cell. The decision was reached that the executions would be made using the standard drop rather than the long drop method.

Although conventional forces were beginning to draw down after victory in the War, America began to lean more heavily on atomic weapons as the backbone of her security structure, although there was still a good deal to be learned about the weapons and how to use them. Operation Crossroads was to be a series of atomic test detonations at Bikini Atoll, a remote island group in the Marshall Island Group of the South Pacific. The first detonation, Test Able on July 1, used a bomb nicknamed "Gilda" for Rita Hayworth's "bombshell" character. Neither Miss Hayworth nor her husband Orson Welles were amused.

On July 5, Parisian auto mechanic and part-time lingerie store operator Louis Réard first displayed his revolution in women's swimwear, constructed from four triangles of fabric totaling less than 30 square inches of fabric. Réard was unable to find an established model willing to wear his creation in public so he hired an exotic dancer from a local casino. Another French designer released what was advertised as the "the world's smallest swimsuit" called "the atom", but Réard's creation was much smaller and so "explosive" that he named it the Bikini because of the atomic tests.

The power of the atomic bomb still paled in comparison to the power of Mother Nature. On April 1, an 8.6 magnitude earthquake shook the Aleutian Islands. Although the quake had little effect on the Alaskan mainland, it triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami which reached heights of 45-130 feet. Between four and five hours after the tremor, the tsunami wave reached the unsuspecting Hawaiian Island, killing 159 people.

Science continued to advance in man's desire to understand and overcome the forces of Nature. On January 10, technicians from the Army Signal Corp project a radar beam toward the moon, accurately measuring the distance from the Earth to the lunar surface for the first time. The event will be hailed as the opening of the space age. The Bell XS-1 rocket plane gets it first test flight on January 16. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) is introduced on February 14, the ENIAC has been in service for some time, used to calculate artillery ballistic tables and perform calculations for the Manhattan project but this is the first time the public sees what the press calls a "giant brain".  

On October 24, a V-2 rocket which had been assembled by General Electric workers from parts captured in Germany at the end of the War is launched to an altitude of 65 miles above New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range, rather than an explosive warhead this V-2 carries a camera which will expose a frame of film every half second. The rocket and camera were destroyed when it impacted the Earth, but the film cassette survived, yielding the first photographs of the Earth from Space.

By the end of the War, radio had become a fully matured media which helped to keep the nation united in times of crisis and in victory. Reports coming over the radio would never be as detailed or complete as in newspaper of magazines, but the coverage was immediate, heartfelt, and usually comforting to people far from the front lines or the centers of power. Radio as a pure entertainment source was reaching its high point. There was development work being accomplished for something called television, but the notion of pictures with radio stories was still laughably remote to both sponsors and audiences. A continuing program trend is the popularity of "hard-boiled" detective dramas which seem to be a hit with returning vets who miss the excitement of military life, The Fat Man, The Adventures of Sam Spade, and Danger Dr. Danfield all premiere on ABC while Mutual gives us Let George Do It and Crime Club. Quiz shows are rising in the ratings as well, with Twenty Questions and Winner Take All debuting. The Birdseye Open House variety program starring Dinah Shore is canceled on CBS but Dinah is back in the fall using essentially the same format for The Ford Show on NBC.

• The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly held in London on January 10, and the Security Council holds its first session on January 17. The UN Charter was drafted the previous spring in San Francisco which began before VE Day. The organization was mandated during meetings between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin during the War. The UN replaced the failed League of Nations which came out of the Great War and finally dissolved in April 1946. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is established on November 4, and the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was founded on December 11.
• Technicians from the US Army Signal Corps conducted Operation Diana on January 10 using a radar set developed during the War to bounce radio signals off the surface of the Moon, accurately measuring the distance between the Earth and its closest neighbor. The Operation is considered the opening of the Space Age.
• On April 16 the first V-2 rocket (assembled by General Electric employees using captured German rocket parts) launched from White Sands, New Mexico. On October 24 a V-2 carried a camera aloft from White Sands and returned the first photographs of the Earth from outer space.
• An earthquake measuring 8.6 on the Richter Scale hit the Aleutian Islands on April 1, putting into motion a series of tsunami waves reaching heights of 45-130 feet. Between four and a half and five hours after the quake, the tsunami struck the Hawaiian Islands resulting in many deaths on the Big Island..
• Detonation Able opened the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb testing program at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific on July 1. Able was a 23 kiloton yield implosion device nicknamed "Gilda" after Rita Hayworth's movie role.
• Designer revealed his newly designed two-piece women's swimsuit consisting of four triangles of material totaling barely 30 square inches. No mainstream fashion model will wear the tiny suit so he hires a nude dancer from a local casino to model his creation which he dubs the bikini for the atomic test site.
• The Baker detonation on July 25 used a similar implosion device which is suspended 90 feet below a Navy Amphibious Landing ship anchored in Bikini Lagoon. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) is founded on August first, transferring control of the development of atomic energy from military to civilian control.
• The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), hailed by the press as a "Giant Brain", is dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania on February 15, although the room-sized device had been in use since 1944 to calculate artillery firing tables and to conduct calculations for the Manhattan Project.
• The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal convened on April 29 at the former headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army. Leaders who appear before the Court include Hideki Tōjō, Shigenori Tōgō, and Hiroshi ÅŒshima.The Nuremberg Trials of Nazi War Criminals had begun the previous November and the tribunal adjourned on September 1. Ten of the Nazi criminals who were sentenced to death were hung in the gymnasium of the Hall of Justice on October 16, but the 11th, Hermann Göring, committed suicide in his cell two hours before the sentence was to be carried out.
• With the security of the GI Bill, the anticipated general prosperity, and the pent-up passions of the War years, more young people began marrying earlier. Doing what newlyweds do, this trend was matched by an increase in birth rates, touching off the postwar Baby Boom.
• No new cars for civilians have been built or sold for the past four years, but restrictions are now lifted. Plymouth introduces the De Luxe in a four-door sedan, two-door sedan, club coupe, and business coupe body styles, powered by a 95hp inline six cylinder engine, Chevy introduces the top-of-the-line Fleetmaster and base model Stylemaster, both are powered by a 216.5 cu in Straight-six engine driving through a 3-speed manual transmission. Willys builds on the success of the Wartime Jeep scout car by introducing the Jeep Station Wagon, the first all steel mass-production station wagon, powered by the L-134 Go-Devil flathead inline-four engine and featuring four-wheel-drive. The Piaggio Aircraft factory in Italy had been destroyed by Allied bombs so develops the Vespa Scooter to help get the country back on the road.
• Several Eastern European nations become client states of the Soviet Union, including the Peoples Socialist Republic of Albania (January 11), the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (January 31, including the constituent republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia), Czechoslovakia (May 26), and the Romanian People's Republic (November 19). On Christmas Day, Europe's first sustained, artificially created atomic chain reaction is initiated at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow.
• The Fat Man, The Adventures of Sam Spade, Academy Award Theatre, and Let George Do It premiere on network radio. Bing Crosby begins hosting Philco Radio Time which is initially recorded on wax transcription discs, later AMPEX tape decks, so that doing the show will not interfere with Bing's golf game. Dinah Shore's Birdseye Open House on NBC is cancelled in May but Dinah will reappear in the fall on CBS's The Ford Show.