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1940s Decade Quiz

Do you have what it takes to guess these facts about the 1940s?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: February 10, 2020
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First submittedFebruary 17, 2015
Times taken47,001
Average score65.0%
Rating4.27
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Answer
What the E stands for in V-E day
Europe
Movie in which Sam played the song "As Time Goes By"
Casablanca
City where Anne Frank hid from the Nazis
Amsterdam
Leader who said "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat"
Winston Churchill
Film genre exemplified by "Double Indemnity" and "The Maltese Falcon"
Film noir
Leader who was assassinated in New Delhi in 1948
Mahatma Gandhi
French fashion designer and perfumer suspected of being a Nazi spy
Coco Chanel
French region in which Omaha, Juno, and Gold beaches were located
Normandy
Newly-formed country led by David Ben-Gurion
Israel
University at which J.R.R. Tolkien taught
Oxford
Name of the American effort to develop an atomic bomb
Manhattan Project
Director of the movie "Citizen Kane"?
Orson Welles
Playwright who wrote "Death of a Salesman"
Arthur Miller
The Japanese name for a suicide pilot, literally meaning "divine wind"
Kamikaze
U.S. program that gave massive amounts of aid to help rebuild Europe
Marshall Plan
Bebopping saxophonist known as "Bird"
Charlie Parker
Broadway musical which featured the songs "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Bali Ha'i"
South Pacific
Island to which Chiang Kai-shek fled
Taiwan
Brutal leader who was called "Uncle Joe" in an attempt to soften his image
Joseph Stalin
Unusual item that could be found on Carmen Miranda's hats
Fruit
21 Comments
+4
Level 36
Jan 20, 2017
I am so nostalgic for that time, even though I hadn't been born as yet, my parents made it seem so REAL and EXCITING! - So much

more so than the dull history books depicting the era.

+22
Level 67
Nov 28, 2017
I don't know that I'd characterize the period dominated by the bloodiest conflict in recent history as "exciting."
+24
Level 75
Nov 29, 2017
Well it certainly wouldn't have been boring
+5
Level 36
Dec 18, 2017
My parents did! - Given the mundane existence of the '30s, the '40s came alive! Yes, there was, sadly, danger and death but living on the edge is a particular high for some.
+3
Level 51
Dec 19, 2020
"Exciting" does not necessary mean good.
+1
Level 69
Nov 19, 2024
What a horrible thing to say.
+4
Level 74
Nov 30, 2017
My brothers were born during the war, and my parents made it seem real, too, talking about sugar and gasoline rationing, working in a torpedo factory, friends missing in action - but I don't think they ever felt nostalgia or excitement for those years. Their tone was more one of weariness when they remembered those times. But I think I understand what you're saying - it was a very unique time in our history and the men and women who lived through it had amazing stories to tell.
+4
Level 74
Jun 9, 2020
Wow, reading that comment now makes me wonder why I was so negative when I wrote it. Yes, my parents did talk about the hard times during the war, but they also had good memories of the decade when they married and started their family.
+3
Level ∞
Jan 3, 2020
No doubt for many, especially in the United States or Great Britain, the 1940s were the most exciting and purpose-filled decade of their lives.
+14
Level 74
Jun 15, 2018
Unsurprisingly, I got every history-related question and not a single pop-culture one.
+1
Level 68
Jan 16, 2024
There were actually a fair number of cultural questions.
+7
Level 21
Feb 10, 2020
I might just be a little too critical, but I feel like accepting "Bird" as an answer to the question, "What bebopping saxophonist was known as 'Bird'?" may just be a bit too easy...
+1
Level ∞
Feb 10, 2020
Auto type-ins are to blame. This has been fixed, thank you.
+2
Level 80
Nov 29, 2021
I got the 'Death of a Salesman' question by guessing 'Miller' (as in Glenn Miller) for the saxophonist question!
+8
Level 83
Mar 5, 2022
Lucky, especially since Glenn Miller was a trombonist.
+1
Level 46
Mar 23, 2024
Hilarious!
+2
Level 75
Jun 4, 2020
Dang, that sucks many don't know the talented Charlie Parker. This man is a legend!
+1
Level 64
Jun 19, 2022
They named an important nightclub after him, "Birdland" in New York.

I wrote a paper about Bird and Dizzy Gillespie for History of Music in high school.

+4
Level 64
Jun 4, 2020
I could only remember Arthur Miller's first name :-(
+1
Level 77
Jun 17, 2022
A bit too pop culture-heavy for a quiz about the decade with humanity's greatest war and genocides, in my opinion.
+4
Level 77
Jun 17, 2022
there are plenty of quizzes on those things though and too many can get a bit bleak. this quiz is a good balance of different things that happened in different fields