Diary

1941
I cant believe that the year of 1941 has come to an end. So many things happened this year. A
lot of good things happened like CheeriOats being invented and the first Jeep being made. There were
also a lot of bad things that happened like when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United
States declared war on Japan.
I was very lucky and got to see the armys new 4-wheel-drive vehicle called the Jeep.
Apparently the army needed a vehicle that was four wheel drive and but that was light enough that it
could be picked up by four men and moved when in trouble. I guess when the army realized they were
going to war the army needed a vehicle like the jeep. The army contacted 135 companies. Only two
companies responded to the request, American Bantam Car Company and Willys over land. The army
only gave them 49 days to get a prototype jeep put together and they succeeded with only two days to
spare. The Jeep met all their needs but the army thought that bantams factory could not make all of the
jeeps the army needed. So Willys, Bantam, and Ford teamed up and put their own designs together to
make the armys Jeep that they used in WWII.
I also discovered my new favorite cereal called CheeriOats which were introduced on May 1,
1941, by General Mills. They are made in Buffalo, New York. I hear that they might change their name
to Cheerios but no matter what they call the cereal it tastes really good! Lots of other people must agree
because General Mills has become highly successful.
I have to say that the worse day of the year was on the morning of December 7, 1941, the
Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. After just two
hours of bombing, more than 2,400 Americans were dead, 21 ships had either been sunk or damaged,

and more than 188 U.S. aircraft destroyed. The next day United States officially declares war on Japan
and eventually enters WWII.
Those are some of the major events that happened in 1941. Thats how America started off the
new decade with CheeriOats (Cheerios) being made, a tough vehicle we all know and love the Jeep, and
the down side of having a huge naval base being destroyed and entering WWII.
1945
One important thing happened in 1945 and it was D-day. I remember when the country of the
United States of America was told the plans of D-day. In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, the
Allies launched an attack by sea, landing on the beaches of Normandy on the northern coast of Nazioccupied France. The first day of this major undertaking was known as D-Day; it was the first day of
the Battle of Normandy (code-named Operation Overlord) in World War II. We sent about 5,000 ships
and 156,000 allied troops in the English channels. Even though we lost many of our American troops we
broke through German forces to have a second way to get to France. Why we lost so many people is
because the Nazis new that we were coming so they set up camp on the Normandy beach they had
bombes set up every were bunkers for the soldiers to hide and many machine guns what caused a big
problem is they put spikes every were so the ships could not jet on the beach so we had to drop all of our
soldiers in the water and most of them drowned. We had help from other countries like Canada and the
British. Thats what happened in the year 1945.
1946
Unfortunately the United States is still fighting in WWII but in America Im excited to say that
we have started to build casinos in the heart of Las Vegas by building the Flamingo hotel.

On December 26, 1946, in Las Vegas, Nevada, mobster Benjamin Bugsy Siegel opened The
Pink Flamingo Hotel & Casino at a total cost of $6 million. The 40-acre facility wasnt complete yet but
Mr. Siegel was hoping to raise some more money with the grand opening.
I couldnt believe that well-known singer and comedian Jimmy Durante would be headlining the
entertainment, with music by Cuban band leader Xavier Cugat. Some of Mr. Siegels Hollywood friends,
including actors George Raft, George Sanders, Sonny Tufts and George Jessel were also planning to be
in attendance.
But Mr. Siegel ran into to some bad luck. The grand opening was a flop. Bad weather kept many
other Hollywood guests from arriving. And because gamblers had no rooms at the hotel, they took their
winnings and gambled elsewhere. The casino lost $300,000 in the first week of operation.
I really hope Mr. Siegel can get the Flamingo hotel in a state where everyone can enjoy it. I
really have good feeling about how great Las Vegas is going to be in the future.

1949
In the year of 1949 I will talk about two unbelievable events. China becomes a communists
country and the first ever nonstop trip around the world happened.
Much to the dismay of the American people, on October 1, 1949, Chinese Communist
leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The announcement
ended the costly full-scale civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist
Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), which broke out immediately following World War II and had been
preceded by on and off conflict between the two sides since the 1920s. The creation of the PRC also
completed the long process of governmental upheaval in China begun by the Chinese Revolution of

1911. The fall of mainland China to communism in 1949 as led the United States to suspend
diplomatic ties with the PRC. I hope for the Chinese people that they wont be communist for long.
On a happier note, the Lucky Lady II is a United States Air Force Boeing B-50 Super fortress
that became the first airplane to circle the world nonstop when it made the journey in 1949, assisted by
in-flight refueling. The aircraft started its round-the-world trip with a crew of 14 under the command of
Capt. James Gallagher at 12:21 PM on February 26, 1949, from Carswell Air Force Base near Fort
Worth, Texas, heading east over the Atlantic Ocean. After flying 23,452 mi, the aircraft passed the
control tower back at Carswell AFB on March 2 at 10:22 AM, marking the end of the round the world
trip, and landed there at 10:31 AM after having been in the air for 94 hours and one minute, landing two
minutes before the estimated time of arrival calculated at take-off.
During the trip, the aircraft was refueled four times by KB-29M Superfortresses near Lajes Air
Force Base in the Azores, Dhahran Airfield in Saudi Arabia, Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, and
Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii, using the soon-to-be obsolete grappled-line looped-hose technique.
The aircraft flew at altitudes between 10,000 to 20,000 feet and completed the trip around the world at
an average ground speed of 249 mph. I cant believe we have come so far in aviation to succeed at such
as amazing adventure. I cant wait to see what we can do next!