In the 1940's Franklin Delano Roosevelt was at the end of his second term and would be elected to a third term by the end of the year. WWII was raging around the world, but the United States had not yet officially entered (it would take the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor to be the catalyst). One can only imagine what the mood must have been like; probably many discussions of the time revolved around whether or not the U.S. should get involved. In other, far less important news, the first McDonald's restaurant opened that year, in San Bernardino, California.

Popular music of that year included Woody Guthrie ("This Land Is Your Land") and Glenn Miller ("In the Mood"). People were reading Ernest Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' The economy was still not in great shape -- it would be improved by the entry in to the war the following year -- but people still went to the movies to forget their troubles. And what a good year it was. Some people say that 1939 was the pinnacle of Hollywood entertainment, but my money is on 1940.

In his controversial masterpiece The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin offers both a cutting caricature of Adolf Hitler and a sly tweaking of his own comic persona. Chaplin, in his first pure talkie, brings his sublime physicality to two roles: the cruel yet clownish “Tomainian” dictator and the kindly Jewish barber who is mistaken for him. Featuring Jack Oakie and Paulette Goddard in stellar supporting turns, The Great Dictator, boldly going after the fascist leader before the U.S.’s official entry into World War II, is an audacious amalgam of politics and slapstick that culminates in Chaplin’s famously impassioned speech.

Claudette Colbert, Paulette Goddard and Veronica Lake.

The three very different Paramount Pictures actresses are brought together to star in one of my favorite 1940s films, “So Proudly We Hail” (1943).

The birth of jazz music is often accredited to African Americans but expanded and modified to become socially acceptable to middle-class white Americans. White performers were used as a vehicle for the popularization of jazz music in America. Even though the jazz movement was taken over by the middle class white population, it facilitated the mesh of African American traditions and ideals with the white middle class society. Cities like New York and Chicago were cultural centers for jazz, and especially for African American artists.

This swing bands list ranks the best swing music artists by votes. This list of top swing bands and musicians let’s you see who swing fans think are the best swing music groups. For the better part of the 1930s and 1940s, swing music and swing bands were among the most popular musicians in the world. Using brass instruments and percussion, the best swing music consisted of arrangements that were easy to dance to and was considered the hippest sound, even surpassing jazz music. Soloists in swing bands were the rock stars of their time. Their bouncy music that had rhythm and a beat that could get even the most conservative of person to swing their hips. While many of the best swing music featured these soloists, the best featured memorable singers as well.

The United States emerged as a world leader during the 1940s. President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew that World War II (1939–45) would bring an end to the British Empire and reduce British influence. He managed America's involvement in the war so that the United States could replace Britain in world affairs after 1945.

On February 26, 1935, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs a secret decree authorizing the founding of the Reich Luftwaffe as a third German military service to join the Reich army and navy. In the same decree, Hitler appointed Hermann Goering, a German air hero from World War I and high-ranking Nazi, as commander in chief of the new German air force.