US President Donald Trump was born in 1946. He shares his birth year with stars such as Cher, Dolly Parton and Steven Spielberg. It’s also a year of many inventions, including a famous festival.
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Four small triangles held together by thin strings caused quite a stir in 1946. French mechanical engineer Louis Reard was inspired to make this garment by the US tests of the atom bomb on Bikini Atall, dubbing his own invention the first “anatomical bomb.” It was presented on July 5, 1946 by Micheline Bernardini, a nightclub dancer.
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Six female mathematicians played a key role in the development of the first fully electronic general-purpose computer, ENIAC, or “Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.” The unwieldy machine took up 170 square meters of floor space and weighed 27 tons. ENIAC could perform about 5,000 calculations per second. Today’s smartphones are billions of times faster.
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The company Piaggio brought a whole new way of life to Italy in 1946, when it launched its affordable scooter. The Vespa represents summer, freedom and “la dolce vita.” But a mandatory helmet requirement introduced in 1986 caused a huge outcry with people saying it was uncool and a hair-do wrecker. In any case, since 2000, the government has shown no mercy: Everyone must wear a helmet.
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Tupperware is more than just a food storage container: Invented in 1946 by male chemist Earl Tupper, Tupperware containers became a cult item thanks to the efforts of a woman. Saleswoman Brownie Wiese launched the famous Tupperware parties and thus became the first woman to appear on the cover of “Businessweek” magazine.
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While working on a radar system, engineer Percy Spencer noticed that radiation had melted a chocolate bar in his pocket. In 1946, he built a prototype of what would later become a microwave. It was 1.8 meters tall, weighed 340 kilograms, and was as expensive as a car. By 1967 the Amana Raderange became the first microwave oven for home use, but it didn’t really catch on until the 1980s.
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Cher isn’t just a singer — she’s a multi-talented artist born in 1946 who always has a sharp comeback ready. In 2018, on her now-defunct Twitter account, she recalled being asked whether she might be getting too old to jump around on stage and sing rock ‘n’ roll. Her reply: “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask Mick Jagger?”
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Lucky Luke has been riding through the Wild West since 1946. He has a talking horse named Jolly Jumper who provides regular commentary with dark humor. Created by Morris, a Belgian artist, the cowboy encounters versions of historical figures from the US, including Billy the Kid, Calamity Jane and Jesse James. Lucky Luke became a cult figure in Europe and shaped the image of the Wild West abroad.
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When the first Cannes Film Festival took place in 1946, hotels were so overbooked that some guests had to sleep on yachts (poor them!). Today, it’s considered the most glamorous film festival in the world. The prestigious Palme d’Or has launched numerous careers, while the red carpet generates almost as many headlines each year as the films themselves.
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From a small electronics company, Sony grew into one of the best-known technology conglomerates. Founded in 1946 in a war-torn department store in Tokyo, the company’s greatest success was the Walkman, in 1979. Experts at the time considered the idea of a portable cassette player that lacked a recording function to be absurd. The public proved them wrong — Sony sold over 200 million units.
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