Decade retrospective

The 1940s

The 1940s was a decade that began on January 1, 1940, and ended on December 31, 1949.

Years covered

10

Featured people

12

Starts

Jan 1, 1940

Ends

Dec 31, 1949

Year by year

Each year in the 1940s

1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949

People of the decade

Born in the 1940s

Donald Trump 1946– American businessman, television personality, 45th and 47th President of the United States George W. Bush 1946– American businessman and politician, 43rd President of the United States Steven Spielberg 1946– American director, producer, and screenwriter, co-founded DreamWorks Arnold Schwarzenegger 1947– Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor, and politician, 38th Governor of California Abbas Kiarostami 1940–2016 Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, and photographer (born 1940) Abdurrahman Wahid 1940–2009 Indonesian journalist and politician, fourth President of Indonesia (born 1940) Adly Mansour 1945– Egyptian lawyer, judge, and politician, President of Egypt Ahmed Zewail 1946–2016 Egyptian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1946) Al Kooper 1944– American singer-songwriter and producer Al Michaels 1944– American sportscaster Alain Bashung 1947– French singer-songwriter and actor (died 2009) Alan García 1949–2019 Peruvian lawyer and politician, twice President of Peru (born 1949)

Step through

Adjacent decades

The 1930s 1930s The 1950s 1950s

Keep going

More to explore

Middle of the decade 1945 The most notable person of the 1940s Donald Trump What came next The 1950s