1943 Albert Hofmann test LSD for the first time on himself PT-109 sinks and a young JFK helps save his crew “Oklahoma!” opens on Broadway

1944 D-Day

1944 FDR elected to a 4 th term Battle of the Bulge begins Paris liberated by the Allies

1945 FDR dies on April 12th Truman takes oath as 33 rd president

1945 Mussolini and his mistress are executed Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide Berlin falls to Soviet forces May 7 th – Germany signs unconditional surrender May 8 th – V-E Day

1945 Truman signs the order to drop atomic bombs on: Hiroshima – Aug.6 th Nagasaki – Aug. 9th

1945 Sept. 2 nd – Formal Japanese surrender. World War II officially ends Japan announces its surrender August 15 th - V-J Day

1946 The War Brides Act allows foreign-born wives of US citizens who served in the US military to enter the US The world begins to enter the Cold War as the US and Russia begin constructing nuclear arms

1947 Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into law, creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council. The House Un-American Activities Committee investigates the Red Scare in Hollywood

1947 Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington. This starts a an interest in the subject nationwide Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose, the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in an X-1 rocket- powered research plane

1948 Truman abolishes racial segregation in the armed forces Truman wins re-election against Dewey