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Everyone knows it now as World War II, but was that always going to be the case?

 

28 April 1942: World War II gets its name

 

There’s a great little gag in an episode of time-travelling British sci-fi show ‘Doctor Who’ where Peter Capaldi’s Doctor is speaking to a World War I soldier and refers to it as such. “What do you mean World War One?” the soldier asks, horrified.

While in the show, the Doctor apologises for giving away historical spoilers, it also points out an interesting question about the two World Wars. When did they start being referred to as World Wars I and II? One theory puts the official naming of World War II on this day in history.

 

In Europe, the First World War was generally referred to as “The Great War”, both during and in the subsequent decades after. Over in the US, it was originally referred to as the “European War”, until they joined the fray in 1917.

I think the term WW2 was coined in 1939.

 

It was at the same time the Great War was renamed  WW1, after the start of hostilities