1860–1869
1870–1879
1880–1889
1890–1899
1900–1909
1910–1919
1920–1929
1930–1939
1940–1949
1950–1959

Historical Timeline

American History | African American History
Baseball History | Negro Leagues Baseball History

1940–1949
1940
Booker T. Washington, who died in 1915, becomes the first African American on a postage stamp. He is also placed on the half dollar in 1946.
1940
Surgeon Dr. Charles Drew opens the first blood bank, but can’t give his own blood because he is an African American.
1940
"Bop" music, along with artists Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Charlie Parker, can be heard in Harlem.
1941
Japanese pilots attack Pearl Harbor and draw the United States into World War II.
1941
Navy messman Dorie Miller shoots down four Japanese fighter planes during the attack, having had no weapons training.
1941
Yankee Joe DiMaggio hits safely in 56 consecutive games.
1941
Ted Williams finishes the season with a .406 batting average, the last time anyone has hit over .400 in a season.
1942
Roosevelt orders 110,000 Japanese Americans to be placed in internment camps.
1942
On July 21, in one of the most famous moments in the history of the Negro leagues, Satchel Paige strikes out Josh Gibson on three pitches with the bases loaded, fulfilling a prediction he had made years earlier.
1942
The Congress Of Racial Equality is founded at the University of Chicago, where students learn to fight racial injustice using Gandhi’s nonviolent methods. It stages its first sit-in a year later.
1942
A riot in Detroit occurs when 1,200 armed white residents try to prevent three black families from moving into a federally designated black housing settlement.
1943
East-West All Star Game draws record crowd of 51,723. The West wins 2-1.
1943
340 Major League players serve in the military, and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League is formed in their absence.
1944
The Allied troops invade Normandy on June 6.
1945
The United States drops atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima to end World War II.
1946
Abe Manley dies, making widow Effa Manley sole owner of their Newark Eagles.
1946
The Newark Eagles, led by war veterans Larry Doby and Monte Irvin, defeat the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro League World Series in seven games.
1947
Kansas City Monarch Jackie Robinson and Newark Eagle Larry Doby break the color barrier in both the American and National Baseball Leagues.
1947
1947
Only 12% of African Americans living in the South are eligible to register to vote. CORE Freedom Riders test compliance with the desegregation of interstate buses.
1947
The World Series is televised for the first time.
1948
President Truman ends racial segregation in the armed forces.
1948
Baseball legend and Negro Leagues hero Satchel Paige makes his Major League debut, at 42 years of age. He becomes the first black pitcher to throw in the World Series when he starts Game 5 for the Cleveland Indians.
1948
Television hits the mainstream reaches one million homes, as opposed to the 5,000 only 3 years before.
1949
Jackie Robinson wins the National League batting title (.342) and Most Valuable Player.