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Harry S. Truman (READ COVER STORY)1939: First big air battle on Western Front.
1939: The Gestapo rounds up 183 professors of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and sends them to Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. In Soviet occupied Poland, Ukrainian peasants murder 200 Polish refugees after offering them food and accommodation.
Gene Tierney*1940: Under-Secretary for War announces measures to give Home guard more permanent shape and better equipment without changing its ‘local and friendly character’.
1940: Royal Canadian Navy destroyer Ottawa and Royal Navy destroyer Harvester sink Italian submarine Faa di Bruno off Ireland.
1940: Britain promises financial assistance to Greece, starting with £5 million advance.
Gene Tierney1941: The German blockade runner 'Odenwald' which is disguised as a US merchant, is captured by the US cruiser Omaha and the destroyer Somers.
1941: US gives Russia $1,000m interest free loan.
1941: Finnish advance halted on the Northern Front.
1941: Stalin claims Axis casualties on Eastern Front now 4.5 million, when actually less than 700,000. First cases of frostbite in the German Army recorded.
Gene Tierney1941: The Japanese Southern Army is ordered to prepare detailed operational plans for the up and coming offensive.
1942: Halted before Ordshonikidse in the Caucasus, the 13th Panzer Division is fighting to prevent itself being cut off by superior Soviet forces attacking its flanks and rear. In a speech to the Congress of Soviet Deputies, Stalin warns the United States and Britain that 'the absence of a second front against Fascist Germany may end badly for all freedom loving countries, including the Allies themselves'. He declares that 'the aim of the coalition is to save mankind from reversion to savagery and mediaeval brutality'.
1942: Further progress made by the Eighth Army with 20,000 further Axis prisoners being claimed.
Gene Tierney1943: The Russians take Kiev and split the Fourth Panzer Army into three.
1943: The Japanese land reinforcements North of Empress Bay.
1944: Middelburg is surrendered by the 2,000 Germans.
Gene Tierney1944: Tito’s forces take Monastir in southern Yugoslavia and now control the whole border with Greece.
1944: The Chinese 22nd Division crosses the Irrawaddy in northern Burma.
1945: Foreign Commissar Molotov announces that Russia will soon have the atomic bomb.
1945: The first landing of a jet on a carrier takes place on USS Wake Island when an FR-1 Fireball touches down.
*Gene Tierney was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 19, 1920, to well-to-do parents. Her father was a very successful insurance broker and her mother was a former teacher. Her childhood was lavish indeed. She also lived, at times, with her equally successful grandparents in Connecticut and New York. She was educated in the finest schools on the East Coast and at a finishing school in Switzerland. After two years in Europe, Gene returned to the US where she completed her education. By 1938 she was performing on Broadway in What a Life! and understudied for The Primerose Path (1938) at the same time. Her wealthy father set up a corporation that was only to promote her theatrical pursuits. Her first role consisted of carrying a bucket of water across the stage, prompting one critic to announce that "Miss Tierney is, without a doubt, the most beautiful water carrier I have ever seen!" Her subsequent roles Mrs O`Brian Entertains (1939) and RingTwo (1939) were meatier and received praise from the tough New York critics. Critic Richard Watts wrote "I see no reason why Miss Tierney should not have a long and interesting theatrical career, that is if the cinema does not kidnap her away". After being spotted by the legendary Darryl F. Zanuck during a stage performance of the hit show The Male Animal (1940), Gene was signed to a contract with 20th Century-Fox. Her first role as Barbara Hall in Hudson`s Bay (1941) would be the send-off vehicle for her career. Later that year she appeared in The Return of Frank James (1940). The next year would prove to be a very busy one for Gene, as she appeared in The Shanghai Gesture (1941), Sundown (1941), Tobacco Road (1941) and Belle Starr (1941). She tried her hand at screwball comedy in Rings on Her Fingers (1942), which was a great success. Her performances in each of these productions were masterful. In 1945 she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Ellen Brent in Leave Her to Heaven (1945). Though she didn`t win, it solidified her position in Hollywood society. She followed up with another great performance as Isabel Bradley in the hit The Razor`s Edge (1946). In 1944 she played what is probably her best-known role (and, most critics agree, her most outstanding performance) in Otto Preminger`s Laura (1944), in which she played murder victim named Laura Hunt. In 1947 Gene played Lucy Muir in the acclaimed The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947). By this time Gene was the hottest player around, and the 1950s saw no letup as she appeared in a number of good films, among them Night and the City (1950), The Mating Season (1951), Close to My Heart (1951), Plymouth Adventure (1952), Personal Affair (1953) and The Left Hand of God (1955). The latter was to be her last performance for seven years. The pressures of a failed marriage to Oleg Cassini, the birth of a daughter who was mentally retarded in 1943, and several unhappy love affairs resulted in Gene being hospitalized for depression. When she returned to the the screen in Advise & Consent (1962), her acting was as good as ever but there was no longer a big demand for her services. Her last feature film was The Pleasure Seekers (1964), and her final appearance in the film industry was in a TV miniseries, "Scruples" (1980). Gene died of emphysema in Houston, Texas, on November 6, 1991, just two weeks shy of her 71st birthday.
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