CITGO Timeline - The 1940s

Lake Charles Refinery Constructed

1940	Ernest Hemingway writes For Whom the Bell Tolls.
1940	W.Alton Jones becomes President of Cities Service.
1940	Cities Service begins stripping itself of 166 utility subsidiaries in compliance with the Public Utilities Holding Act of 1935.
1940	The now famous sign is erected in Kenmore Square in Boston. The sign, which was replaced with the CITGO logo after its creation in 1965, has become a landmark, familiar to Boston Marathon participants and Boston Red Sox fans.
1940	Engineer Peter Carl Goldmark introduces the first television that successfully produces clear color images.
1941	Cities Service buys the remaining shares of the Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company.
1941	The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, plunging the United States into World War II.
1942	Construction begins on the Cities Service Refinery at Lake Charles, LA, at an estimated cost of $72 million.
1942	The "Rosie the Riveter" publicity campaign persuades millions of American women to join the workforce.
1942	SS Cities Service Empire, an oil tanker owned by Cities Service, is sunk by a German U-boat off the Florida coast.
1943	French naval officer and marine explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau and French engineer �mile Gagnan perfect the aqualung-the predecessor to scuba tanks.
1943	Cities Service completes construction of "the Big Inch"-the biggest, longest pipeline ever-to help supply petroleum products to the war effort.
1944	Congress passes the GI Bill, a bill guaranteeing various benefits, including education allowances and home, farm, and business loans, for military service veterans.
1944	Lake Charles Refinery goes into full operation-the world's largest high octane aviation gasoline refinery.
1944	Cities Service refineries process 53 million barrels of crude oil to fuel the war effort.
1945	By the end of World War II, Cities Service fleet of oil tankers had delivered 32 million barrels of oil to military forces around the globe.
1945	First atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
1945	World War II ends.
1946	The 80-feet long and 8-feet high computer ENIAC is built.
1946	Cities Services partners with other oil companies to form joint exploration and production company in the Gulf of Mexico.
1947	Tennessee Williams writes A Streetcar Named Desire.
1948	Milton Berle becomes the first major American television star as Uncle Miltie.
1949	The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is formed.
1949	The Cit-Con Lubricants and Wax Refinery, a joint venture between Cities Service and Conoco is built. It is 65 percent owned and operated by Cities Service.