As a little aside, I once read many years ago that the second world war didn't officially end until the 1950's because someone hadn't signed an agreement?
The 1950s was a little premature for ending such a long drawn out affair as the Second World War. As I indicated in an earlier posting on this web, the end came in relatively recent times - 15 March 1991, to be precise, with the coming into force of the Treaty on the Final Settlement of Germany, signed by the Four plus Two.
The problem was that as it was a single Germany that began the War, it could not be ended until there was a single Germany to sign the appropriate document, a provision specifically included in the Potsdam Agreement of 2 August 1945. It was only after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of East Germany into the Federal Republic that the old Four Powers could settle up with Two erstwhile Germanies, and then after formal German re-unification the Treaty on Final Settlement could come into effect.
Always a good question for a quiz - When did the Second World War formally end?
