This 1950 Warner Brothers film documents the major American and international events during the first half of the Twentieth Century. Japanese forces invade Manchuria. 93-year-old John D. Rockefeller golfs. Baby Charles Augustus Lindbergh plays in his crib prior to his abduction; viewers see the baby’s famous father and the location where a driver found the baby’s corpse. Kidnapper Bruno Richard Hauptmann goes on trial. The U.S. dirigible Akron is swept away in a gust of wind, carrying away three men—two of whom fall to their death. 15,000 veterans camp in Washington, DC to demand the immediate payment of war bonuses; federal troops drive the veterans away. Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt ride to FDR’s inauguration (02:05); FDR introduces his wife, children, and mother. Americans celebrate the end of prohibition as a bartender serves beer (03:20). Evangelist Billy Sunday fights for continued prohibition. A violent strike breaks out during the Great Depression (04:10)—people fire guns and tear gas during the violence. King Alexander I of Yugoslavia is greeted in Marseille (04:42), where he is then assassinated along with French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou. In Ontario, Canada, A couple gives birth to the first quintuplets to survive (05:20); the film shows the five baby Dionne girls. Joe Lewis practices, then is shown fighting in a boxing ring (06:04). George Bernard Shaw speaks to the camera; politician Huey Long of Louisiana, “The Kingfish,” speaks to a crowd; and dust storms hit the Midwest (07:00). Benito Mussolini oversees Italian men training to be soldiers; the Italian Army invades Ethiopia. Alf Landon runs against FDR (08:20), Nazis march into the Rhineland, and Jesse Owens wins at the Berlin Olympics (08:45). King Edward VIII of England abdicates the throne. Dirigible Hindenburg explodes on 6 May 1937 as it arrives at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. Hitler speaks to Nazi soldiers; he is shown riding a car into Vienna after the fall of Austria. Mussolini, French PM Edouard Daladier, Hitler, and British PM Neville Chamberlain sign the Munich Agreement (10:58); Chamberlain shows the signed agreement upon return to Britain. Nazis move into Czechoslovakia, China is attacked by Japan, and refugees flee the violence of the Spanish Civil War. Fritz Kuhn speaks at the pro-Nazi German American Federation rally at Madison Square Garden (12:52). Lou Gehrig says goodbye to fans at Yankee Stadium (13:28). The German warship Schleswig-Holstein opens fire on Poland. Nazi planes bomb Warsaw; Belgian refugees take to the roads; and Allied troops flee across the English Channel at Dunkirk. Paris falls and Hitler oversees the signing of the armistice in in the Ferdinand Fochs Railway Car (15:00). Firemen fight fires in London after the start of the Battle of Britain. FDR reads the first number drawn in the first wartime draft (17:12). Winston Churchill and FDR meet off the coast of Newfoundland and sign the Atlantic Charter. Japan attacks Pearl Harbor (18:06). General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders the Philippines to Masaharu Homma (18:46). The British 8th Army pushes across the desert at El Alamein. U.S. planes attack the German Luftwaffe and bomb Nazi targets (20:17). Hitler greets Mussolini after rescuing the Italian dictator (21:00). Allied forces liberate Rome. The film shows footage of the D-Day invasion of Normandy and of U.S. troops pushing the Nazis out of San Lo. Paris is liberated and people celebrate (22:38). Allied soldiers march down the Champs-Elysees. GIs cross the Rhine at Remagen. U.S. Marines raise the American Flag on Iwo Jima. U.S. forces liberate Manila (24:05). Joseph Stalin, FDR, and Churchill meet at the Yalta Conference. The film shows the funeral procession for FDR (25:16); mourners line the streets to pay their respects. Harry H Truman stands at funeral as FDR is buried. Damaged U.S. planes crash-land on Navy carriers in Pacific (26:00). Japanese kamikaze fighters crash into U.S. ships, including the USS Franklin (26:40). Secretary of State Edward Stettinius signs the UN Charter in San Francisco (27:15). Aerial footage shows the destruction of Berlin. The atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima (28:02). Japan surrenders aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. People celebrate the end of the war in Times Square. New York City mayor La Guardia reads a Dick Tracy comic on the radio (29:05). War crimes trials are held at Nuremberg for Nazi officials (29:45) and in Tokyo for Japanese (30:02). Men watch the detonation of the atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll (30:55). Princess Elizabeth shows off new son Prince Charles (31:40). Babe Ruth bids farewell to fans at Yankee Stadium (33:00). Harry Truman celebrates winning reelection. Mao’s communist army marches into Shanghai (35:07). Stalin presides over a military parade in Moscow (35:40). The film concludes with the U.S. Capitol Building, Hoover Dam, the Statue of Liberty, a parade, and various shots of the American flag.
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