1940

The physical education requirement is raised to three full years.

1941

Southeast Missouri State Teachers College does its part to support the United States in World War II. The school participates in drives to collect materials such as aluminum, paper and iron for the war effort.

The college establishes the Civilian Pilot Training program. The school also helped construct model airplanes for the Bureau of Aeronautics and was chosen to participate in the Navy’s V-1, V-5 and V-12 training programs.

May 1941
The American Association of University Women grants membership to the Teachers College.

1942

Summa cum laude and magna cum laude honors are established.

1946

May 1946
The student body forms its own government.

September 21
The institution is renamed Southeast Missouri State College by permission of the Missouri General Assembly, and the College is allowed to grant master’s degrees.

1948

February 17
Houck Field House is destroyed by fire.

October 12-13
The College celebrates its 75th (Diamond) anniversary with class reunions, dinners, a football game versus Maryville, parade, Jubilee Ball and dinner finale.

1949

Fraternity Delta Kappa holds its first meeting.

A tornado destroys the north wall of Wildwood.

World Events

1940
McDonald’s is founded in California.

Disney’s Pinocchio is released.

1941
Wonder Woman first appears in All Star Comics #8.

Attack on Pearl Harbor.

Construction of Mt. Rushmore ends.

1942
The Battle of Midway.

Beginning of the Manhattan Project.

Disney releases Bambi.

1943
ABC is founded.

1944
First electric computer is created.

D-Day Landings in Normandy

1945
Death of Anne Frank.

Franklin D. Roosevelt dies. Vice President Harry Truman becomes president of the United States.

World War II ends in Europe.

Holocaust ends.

United Nations is founded.

The United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

End of World War II in Asia.

The microwave oven is patented.

1946
First images of earth are taken from space.

Nuremberg Trials end.

1947
The sound barrier is broken.

The Truman Doctrine to contain the expansion of communism is established.

1948
The Marshall Plan takes effect.

The World Health Organization is founded.

North and South Korea are divided.

1949
George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is published.

NATO is created.