The Greatest Generation

THE GREATEST GENERATION

Born During or right after WW I, the Greatest Generation came of age during Roaring Twenties, suffered through the Great Depression, saved the world from facism during WW II and started new families in a "Cold War" world.

Time Line

1920

Women win the vote

...by the stockmarket crash and the beginning of a gueling 10 years of depravation and hardship known as The Great Depression. Banks closed and millions of people lost their jobs and life's savings. This was a world wide situation that was one of the direct causes of WW II.

The world went to war. Freedom loving countries battled the threat from facisits dictators in Europe and Asia. The Allies (U.S., Great Britian, The Soviet Union et. al.) fought the aggressive Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan). After extreme difficulties the Allies won.

The Soviet Union, having been recently a member of the "Allies" during the war, quickly began pursuing their own expansionist agenda once the war was over. This agenda reulted in the division of Europe into East and West. The East became satelites of the communist U.S.S.R. while the West mainted their democracies. Thus this "Cold War" continued with the East in isolation until the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

The war began in Europe in 1939. The U.S. did not enter until Dec. 7, 1941 after an unprovoked Japanese air attack on U.S. naval forces in Pearl Harbor, HI.

The greatest turing point of the war in Europe was the miraculous success of the Allied invasion of the Normandy coast which has become known as D-Day.

The Roaring Twentieswas a time of reckless abondon for many. A rapid degeneration of the culture was underway as it is today. The exuberance was soon to be overshadowed...

1930

1929 U.S. stock market crashes: depression sets in

1940

1941 Japan bombs Pearl Harbor: U.S. enters World War II

1945

1948

Horrors of Nazi Holocaust, concentration camps exposed

1949 Mao Tse-tung establishes Peoples Republic of China: Nationalists flee to Formosa (Taiwan)