-
Nazi Invasion of Poland/ War in European Theater begins
The Invasion of Poland began on September 1,1939 and ended on October 6,1939 was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, The Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union; which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began, one week after signing of the Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, and one day after Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union had approved the pact. -
Pearl Harbor/ War in Pacific
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The surprise attack by some 350 Japanese aircraft sunk or badly damaged eighteen US naval vessels, including eight battleships, destroyed or damaged 300 US aircraft, and killed 2,403 men. the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled or destroyed nearly 20 American ships and more than 300 airplanes. Dry docks and airfields were likewise destroyed. Most importantly, more than 2,000 people died. -
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, May 4,to May 8, 1942 was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia.The battle ended the proposed Japanese sea-borne invasion of Port Moresby. When they attacked the American fleet at Midway the next month, the weakened Japanese were met by a stronger Allied fleet than they had expected, and were defeated. This was the end of Japanese naval power in the Pacific -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II that took place on June 4,1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers while losing only one of its own, the Yorktown, to the previously invincible Japanese navy. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Stalingrad was one of the most decisive battles on the Eastern Front in the Second World War. The Soviet Union inflicted a catastrophic defeat on the German Army in and around this strategically important city on the Volga river, which bore the name of the Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin. -
D- Day
The D-Day operation of June 6, 1944, brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest invasion force in human history. The operation, given the codename , overload and delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. -
Battle of Saipan
The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from June 15 to July 9,1944 as part of Operation Forager.Of the 71,000 U.S. troops that landed, nearly 3,000 were killed and more than 10,000 wounded. Out of the entire Japanese garrison of 30,000 troops, only 921 prisoners were captured; the rest died. The Japanese commanders and some 5,000 others committed suicide rather than surrender. -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved.The battle started on October 23,1944 and ended on October 26, 1944, with U.S. Navy carrier and United States Army Air Force aircraft continuing the attack on the retreating Japanese. Task Force 38 planes sank light cruisers Abukuma, Kino, and Noshiro; destroyers Hayashimo, Uranami, and Nowaki, along with numerous smaller craft -
Battle of Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted for five weeks from December 16 1944 to January 28,1945, towards the end of the war in Europe. -
Auschwitz Discovered by Russian troops
Auschwitz concentration camp a Nazi, concentration camp and extermination camp in occupied Poland where more than a million people were murdered as part of the Nazis' "Final Solution" to the Jewish question was liberated by the Red Army during the Vistula Oder Offensive. -
Death of Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt's physical health began declining during the later war years, and less than three months into his fourth term, He died on April 12, 1945. Vice President Harry S. Truman assumed office as president and oversaw the acceptance of surrender by the Axis powers. -
V-E Day
What was known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day, celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe. The war had been raging for almost five years when U.S. and Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944.After the war, the Allied fighting forces took on the roles of armies of occupation and military government. -
Hiroshima
The first atomic bomb is dropped from an American plane on the 245,000 residents of Hiroshima, Japan. Most of the city is destroyed and thousands of its inhabitants die. Some of its citizens survive and suffer the debilitating effects of terrible burns and radiation illness. -
Nagasaki
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the detonation of two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945 by the United StatesA second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan's unconditional surrender. The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender. -
Numberg Trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.