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Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, literally, "Night of Crystal," is often referred to as the "Night of Broken Glass." The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938, throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops. -
Germany invaded Poland
Nazi Germany invaded Poland, the act that started World War II. -
Japan last week set up at Nanking
Through Secretary of State Hull, stingingly denied recognition to a puppet government which Japan last week set up at Nanking to rule over Central China (where U. S. and most other foreign investments in China are concentrated). Ordered masters of vessels to lock up all cameras while passing through the Panama Canal; entertained as overnight guests Dr. Rafael A. Calderon Guardia, President-elect of Costa Rica, and his wife. Declared President-elect Guardia: the defense of the Canal is Costa R -
French and German delegates
French and German delegates meet to negotiate peace at the 1918 Armistice site at Compiègne, France. -
Pearl Harbor
was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 -
D-Day
Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. -
IWO Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields, to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands.[2] This month-long battle included some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II. -
The bombing of Tokyo,
The bombing of Tokyo, often referred to as a "firebombing", was conducted as part of the air raids on Japan by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. The U.S. mounted a small-scale raid on Tokyo in April 1942, with large effects on morale. -
Roosevelt suffered a massive stroke and died.
In February 1945, Roosevelt traveled to Yalta in the Soviet Union to meet with Russian leader Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to discuss the postwar world. Roosevelt returned from these intense meetings drawn and sick. He vacationed in Warm Springs, Georgia, but the rest did not lead to recuperation. On April 12, 1945, he suffered a massive stroke and died. -
Ernie Pyle killed at Okinawa
Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima off the coast of Okinawa. Extremely popular, especially with the average GI, whose life and death he reported on (American infantrymen braved enemy fire to recover Pyle's body), Pyle had been at the London Blitz of 1941 and saw action in North Africa, Italy, France, and the Pacific. A monument exists to him to this day on Ie Shima, describing him simply as "a buddy." -
Adolf Hitler commits suicide
Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler's dreams of a "1,000-year" Reich. -
Victory in Europe Day
Hermann Göring surrenders to Allied troops. He will become, along with Admiral Dönitz, the highest-ranking Nazi to face trial at Nuremberg. -
After World War Two
After World War Two, the Potsdam Declaration or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender clarified Japan’s sovereignty. -
USS Indianapolis
the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in the Philippine Sea and sank in 12 minutes. Of 1,196 men on board, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remainder, about 900 men, were left floating in shark-infested waters with no lifeboats and most with no food or water. The ship was never missed, and by the time the survivors were spotted by accident four days later only 316 men were still alive. -
world's first atom bomb,
an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. -
newspapers
newspapers in the US were reporting that broadcasts from Radio Tokyo had described the destruction observed in Hiroshima. -
second atomic bomb
three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. -
World War 2 ended
World War 2 ended on this date. The Japanese had been surrendering for five days but officially it ended on this date. -
surrender
The surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, brought the hostilities of World War II to a close.
