Timeline of 1944

However inappropriate it may be to weigh the significance of one era over another, from a contemporary vantage point, the first half of the twentieth century appears particularly dense with events of historical and lasting importance.  In 1920, after campaigns for women’s suffrage had suceeded in other western nations, the US Congress finally ratified the Nineteenth Amendment and granted women the right to vote.   In Eastern Europe, the rise of the Bolsheviks to power after the Russian Revolution resulted in the creation of the Soviet Union, a project which augmented the role communism would play in global politics.  These early decades also bore witness to the rise of staunch nationalism amongst world superpowers and resulted in World War I, which in turn radically reorganized the boundaries of Eastern Europe with the creation of many new countries.  Following close on the heels of World War I was the Great Depression of the 1930s, which created an atmosphere that fostered fascism and Nazism. Hitler’s 1939 invesion of Poland led France and Great Britain to declare war, beginning World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, in December 1941 the US entered the war. Talley's Folly takes place in July 1944. Here are some notable events of that year: