1940s

This is a timeline of events that occurred during the 1940s.

After the 1930s

• The superhero comic book genre fades away in world populated by living crime fighters, largely forgotten except among older readers who recall the fictional adventures of Superman and other heroes in the 1930s. In their place, pirate comics grow increasingly popular, including such titles as Pirate and X-Ships.

1940

• Marcus Abar is born in Harlem.

January

• Sylvia Kovacs’ boyfriend Charlie leaves her while she is pregnant with his son.

3rd

• Byron Lewis records a diary entry expressing doubts about the Minutemen, which he has come to regard as an unimportant publicity stunt, and describes Hooded Justice as personifying the worst kind of hatred—the kind that needs to hide behind a mask and describes his fear of the Comedian, since his indiscretions are borne of high intelligence.

March

21st

• Walter Kovacs is born.

After March 21, 1940

• With debts mounting, Sylvia Kovacs turns to prostitution to pay her bills.
• Sylvia Kovacs is arrested on charges of prostitution.

May 26 to June 4, 1940

• During World War II’s Battle of Dunkirk, more than 330,000 Allied soldiers are evacuated after a Nazi advance on the French city is delayed.

• Hans von Krupp, a top official under Adolf Hitler, falls out of favor with the Nazi Party for failing to act on intelligence that could have prevented the Allied Forces’ escape.

After June 4, 1940

• Hans von Krupp flees for his life and ends up in the United States. Though marked for death by the Third Reich, he remains fanatically loyal to Adolf Hitler. Allying with fifth columnists in America, he takes on the role of a master saboteur known as Captain Axis, hoping to redeem himself in the eyes of the Führer.

June 1940 to 1945

• As Captain Axis, Hans von Krupp becomes a famous saboteur, threatening factories, military installations, propagandistic war films, and USO events.

Mid-1940

• Hooded Justice breaks an arm while battling the Screaming Skull.
• Rolf Müller misses a month’s performances at the Shriner’s Circus.
• After interviewing Hooded Justice, the New York Post publishes an article describing his accent as “different, faintly Bavarian”.

September

• Larry Schexnayder discovers Nelson Gardner's secret relationship with Hooded Justice. Though Larry has no issue with this, he decides the public would not react well to the news. He writes a note to Sally Jupiter and suggests that she, when in the presence of photographer, snuggle up to the strongman so the press will infer romance.

18th

• Dan Dreiberg is born.

Before October 2, 1940

• Sally Jupiter begins posing as Hooded Justice's girlfriend, while also bolstering her own publicity. Hollis Mason notices that HJ seems uninterested in her romantically and that they never kiss.

October

2nd

• Scientists name the first artificial element "plutonium".
• Newspaper headline: Scientists Make First Artificial Wonder Element: Plutonium.
• After a group photo is taken of the Minutemen, Edward Blake sexually assaults Sally Jupiter. Will Reeves intervenes and severely beats Blake.

After October 2, 1940

• Larry Schexnayder convinces Sally Jupiter not to press charges against Eddie Blake, for the good of the Minutemen, though the team unanimously votes to expel him.
• Eddie Blake's exit from the Minutemen comes with a minimum of publicity, other than Larry Schexnayder issuing a press release announcing that the Comedian has resigned to fight crime in Washington, D.C..
• Zelda Gotfried's "About the Town" column publishes a blurb about Sally Jupiter, and her "romantic" involvement with Hooded Justice.
• Captain Metropolis makes several derogatory statement regarding black and Hispanic Americans that are viewed as racially prejudiced and inflammatory.

21st

• For Whom the Bells Toll by Ernest Hemingway is published.

Between October 1940 and 1941

• Hooded Justice battles Moloch the Mystic on several occasions, leading some to view the two as archenemies.

In or After 1940

• Hollis Mason's parents both die, leaving him regretful that he never let them know they did right by him.

1941

• The pact between Germany and the Soviet Union was terminated when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union.
• The Comedian is stabbed, causing him to start wearing a more protective suit of leather armor.
• During an interview, Hooded Justice describes Moloch as a "ringmaster".

May

24th

• Bob Dylan is born.

December

7th

• Attack on Pearl Harbor; United States enters World War II.

1942

• While fighting with Japanese smugglers, Eddie Blake is approached by Agent Kaufax who recruits him.
• Norman Rockwell paints Silk Spectre with Adolf Hitler.
• Captain Metropolis puts his crime fighting career on hold to serve in the Marines during World War II.
• The Comedian joins the war effort to make himself a hero and is sent to the South Pacific, beginning a long career as a government agent and super soldier.
• The Manhattan Project, a research and development venture during World War II, is formed and begins producing the United States' first nuclear weapons. The project is overseen by Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer designing the bombs.
• The members of Minutemen remaining in the United States foil numerous sabotage attempts by the Screaming Skull and Captain Axis.

January

• While performing covert duties in Manila, Philippines, he sustains a knife wound from an angry civilian, puncturing his right kidney. Dr. Edward Ross tends to his injury.

6th

• Major G. Holland reactivates Nelson Gardner's military service, ordering him to report to North Carolina's Fort Bragg.

March

9th

• John Cale is born.

November

• Pulp fiction magazine Black Mask publishes an issue containing short stories by Robert Reeves, Dale Clark, and Norbert Davis.

1943

• The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is published.

January

23rd

• Casablanca is released in the United States.

March

31st

• The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! premieres on Broadway.

April

14th

• While serving in the U.S. Navy, John F. Kennedy commands Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 in the South Pacific.

July

26th

• Mick Jagger is born.

August

1st

• A race riot takes place in Harlem, New York City after a white police officer, James Collins, shot and wounded Robert Bandy, an African-American soldier.

2nd

• Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 collides with Japanese destroyer Amagiri, killing two of John F. Kennedy's crew.

October

12th

• The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is launched.

November

• While performing covert duties in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, Eddie Blake sustains a punctured eardrum due to a Japanese mortar burst, causing a permanent ten percent hearing loss. Dr. Edward Ross tends to Blake's injuries.

1945

• Jon Osterman learns how to repair watches from his father, Hans Osterman.
• While performing covert duties in Tokyo, Japan, Eddie Blake contracts syphilis. Dr. Edward Ross tends to Blake's injuries.
• The Minutemen engage in a battle with Captain Axis on an Allied submarine near the Arctic Circle. Hooded Justice tosses the super-villain into the ocean, and he never surfaces.
• Adrian Veidt enters public school where he proves to be exceptionally bright, scoring perfectly on early test papers. When his teachers accuse him of cheating, his father, Friedrich Werner Veidt, tells his son to maintain a low profile so no one will realize how smart he is or consider him abnormal.

June

5th

• Eddie Blake is court martialed for killing seven Japanese POWs. To keep his identity a secret, his trial is conducted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

August

2nd

• King Taylor sends a letter to Laurence Schexnayder concerning Silk Swingers of Suburbia.

6th

• The atomic bomb, code-named "Little Boy", is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan as ordered by Harry S. Truman.

7th

• New York Times headline: "Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima".
• In Brooklyn, Jon Osterman studies clock cogs. His father, Hans Osterman, learns of the Hiroshima bombing and throws his old pocket watch out of a window and pushes his son towards becoming a nuclear physicist rather than a watchmaker.

9th

• The second atomic bomb, code-named "Fat-Man", is dropped on Nagasaki.

September

2nd

• World War II ends.

December

• The National Bank of New York releases an advertising campaign reporting that Dollar Bill is returning home from service in World War II, and that criminals show thus beware since the crimefighter will again protect National Bank's investments.

1946

• Adrian Veidt decides to follow the journey of Alexander the Great.

July

26th

• Dollar Bill dies while stopping a bank robbery.

October

1st

• Silhouette is reported to have a lesbian lover and is expelled from the Minutemen.

November

12th

• Silhouette and her lover are murdered by the Liquidator.

1947

• Sally Jupiter marries her agent, Laurence Schexnayder.
• Moloch the Mystic becomes a major figure in the criminal underworld.
• Jon Osterman enrolls at Princeton University.

April

21st

• James Newell Osterberg Jr., better known as Iggy Pop, is born.

June

• The Doomsday Clock is invented.

September

1st

• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is released in the United States.

After September 1st

• Cyclops tests a new film projector at a screening of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in Harlem. Will Reeves, investigating, sees a projector loaded into a truck labeled “F.T. & Sons. W. Washington Market, New York, NY.” Reeves follows the truck, kills “F.T.” and everyone in his warehouse, steals their technology, and burns it to the ground.
• June Abar leaves New York City with her son, Marcus, and moves back to Tulsa. She tells Will Reeves to stay away from them.

1948

• Jon Osterman begins attending Princeton University to pursue an education in atomic science.
• Eddie Blake has a consensual sexual encounter with Sally Jupiter.

February

3rd

• Larry sends a letter to Sally Jupiter expressing his concerns about the Minutemen and proposes her to cooperate together.

May

15th

• Nelson Gardner racially insults a black cab driver for parking in front of a puddle outside Minutemen headquarters. Angered by Gardner's racist comments, Byron Lewis punches him in the face, and police are called in to break up the fight. Throughout the melee, Hooded Justice stands nearby, laughing.

16th

• The Harlem Teetotaler publishes an article about the fight between Mothman and Captain Metropolis regarding the racial slurs that Metropolis said. The New York Gazette covers the incident as well. Despite at least twenty-five people having overheard the conversation, the mainstream press fails to report Gardner's racial slurs.

1949

• Problems between Sally Jupiter and Larry Schexnayder begin to emerge.
• The New Frontiersman is established by Pioneer Publishing, Inc.
• Okinawa Dawn, a war film staring Eddie Blake based on his adventures in the Pacific War during World War II, is released by Stellar Studios.
• "You're My Thrill" by Billie Holiday is released.

March

• With most villains in prison or moved to less glamorous activities, the Minutemen disband.

August

• The New York Gazette runs a front page story about the supervillain Moloch, titled "Mystic's Reign of Terror Spreads".

September

23rd

• Bruce Springsteen is born.

December

1st

• Laurie Juspeczyk is born.

15th

• Judd Crawford is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.