In the photo to the left, Alexander Fleming is being awarded the Nobel Medicine Prize in 1945, by none other than the Swedish king himself, Gustaf V. During the 1920's, Fleming invented a new medicine known as penicilin. This antibiotic developed from a fungus and proved to be effective in the treatment of bacterial infections.
Penicilin is one of the most important inventions in history. It provided a very easy way to treat diseases. Before it was invented, even the slightest infected scratch could kill you. Now, you can visit a doctor and he can fix it. It would make sense that Fleming was honored for his work.
1945: Fleming, Penicilin, and the Medicine Prize
Anne Frank: A Young Girl’s View on World War II
Sir Churchill: A Leader’s View on World War II
Anne Frank was a Jewish girl that hid with her family during the Holocaust in World War II. Between 1942 and 1944, she wrote a collection of journals which she kept to herself. Shortly after, the Nazis captured her and her family and took them to concentration camps. Only her father, Otto, survived, and after discovering her late daughter’s journal, he decided to publish it.
Diary of a Young Girl, published in 1947, remains one of the most realistic chronicles of World War II. It is told from the perspective a young, innocent girl that was forced to hide and that heard of the terrible accounts of the war. Her tales of survival shone a light and served as a prime example in the postwar world.
Along with Anne Frank’s chronicles, came another account of World War II: Winston Churcill’s World War II chronicles. The first volume, The Gathering Storm, was published in 1948. At that time, Sir Winston Churchill was still Prime Minister.
These books were very powerful memoirs of one of the darkest catastrophes in human history. They’re even more realistic as they’re told from the perspective of a leader who lived these events and led his country to victory through dark times. Like Anne Frank’s diary, these books help keep a record of the barbarie of such terrible world conflicts and create conscience for posterity.
Cars greatly changed during this period. Companies started to look for alternatives to make more luxurious automobiles. Cadillac, a company known for its creativity, introduced many of the first changes on car's anatomy: The V-8 engine, the safety glass, and the tailfin. As time went by, the tailfins became bigger and flashier. Tailfins were very popular during the 1950’s, but as time passed by, the idea seemed to lose popularity. In the actual day, it’s less common to see cars with flashy tailfins on them.
Cadillac is one of the most important car manufacturers in the postwar world. As seen in the example above, their inventions created a totally new image for automobiles. They became fancier, and everyone wanted one of them. Such innovations helped create a new image for transportation during the postwar world.