360The 1940s: the Second World War and the United Nations
The Second World War, the deadliest conflict in history, ended in 1945. Nations founded the United Nations that October to keep the peace. King Abdulaziz met President Roosevelt in 1945, and Saudi oil production grew. Penicillin became a mass-produced medicine, and the first electronic computers and the transistor were built.
The Second World War, which began in 1939, spread across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. An estimated 70 to 85 million people died, including six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The war in Europe ended on 8 May 1945. In August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japan surrendered.
On 24 October 1945, the United Nations was founded, with 51 member states, to maintain international peace and cooperation. Saudi Arabia was one of the founding members.
In February 1945, King Abdulaziz met US President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard the USS Quincy, a historic meeting that began close relations between the two countries. In the Kingdom, the oil company took the name Arabian American Oil Company, or Aramco, in 1944, and production expanded after the war.
Penicillin was mass-produced from the early 1940s, saving countless lives.
Computing was born. ENIAC, one of the first general-purpose electronic computers, was unveiled in 1946. In 1947, scientists at Bell Labs invented the transistor, the building block of all modern electronics.
In 1947, India and Pakistan became independent nations.
- 1944
- Aramco takes its name
- Feb 1945
- King Abdulaziz meets President Roosevelt
- 1945
- Second World War ends; United Nations founded
- 1946
- ENIAC unveiled
- 1947
- Transistor invented
Sources: Britannica · United Nations · Saudi Aramco.