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Rape of Nanking
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-rape-of-nanking
To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. In what became known as the “Rape of Nanking,” the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male “war prisoners,” massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. -
German Blitzkrieg
history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg, which means “lightning war” in German, had its roots in earlier military strategy, including the influential work of the 19th-century Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz. -
Fall of Paris
history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-enter-paris
Parisians awaken to the sound of a German voice announcing via loudspeakers that a curfew was being imposed for 8 p.m. that evening as German troops enter and occupy Paris. Roosevelt replied that the United States was prepared to send material aid and was willing to have that promise published but knowing that Hitler, as well as the Allies, would take such a public declaration of help as but a prelude to a formal declaration of war. -
Pearl Harbor
history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. -
Wannsee Conference
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/wannsee-con The mass murder of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators required the coordination and cooperation of governmental agencies throughout Axis-controlled Europe.The Wannsee Conference was a high-level meeting of German officials to discuss and implement the so-called “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” (mass killing).The SS envisioned that some 11 million Jews, would be eradicated as part of the Nazi program -
Battle of Midway
history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-midway The Battle of Midway was an epic clash between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy that played out six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Navy’s decisive victory in the air-sea battle and its successful defense of the major base located at Midway Island dashed Japan’s hopes of neutralizing the United States as a naval power and effectively turned the tide of World War II in the Pacific. -
Allied invasion of Italy
history.com/this-day-in-history/allies-invade-italian-mainland
The British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery begins the Allied invasion of the Italian peninsula, crossing the Strait of Messina from Sicily and landing at Calabria–the “toe” of Italy. On the day of the landing, the Italian government secretly agreed to the Allies’ terms for surrender, but no public announcement was made until September 8. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day the day in World War II on which Allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy. resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord -
Battle of the Bulge
history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge Adolf Hitler’s last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front. Hitler’s aim was to split the Allies in their drive toward Germany. The German troops’ failure to divide Britain, France and America with the Ardennes offensive paved the way to victory for the allies. -
Liberation of concentration camps
Liberation Of The Concentration Camps. As the Allies advanced across Europe at the end of the Second World War, they came across concentration camps filled with sick and starving prisoners. The first major camp to be liberated was Majdanek near Lublin, Poland in July 1944. As the Soviet Army advanced from the east, the Nazis transported prisoners away from the front and deep into Germany. Over the course of these death marches, which sometimes lasted weeks -
Battle of Iwo Jima
history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima The Battle of Iwo Jima was an epic military campaign between U.S. Marines and the Imperial Army of Japan in early 1945.In some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II, it’s believed that all but 200 or so of the 21,000 Japanese forces on the island were killed, as were almost 7,000 Marines. But once the fighting was over, the strategic value of Iwo Jima was called into question -
VE Day
history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-in-europe On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine at Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of Sark the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. -
Battle of Okinawa
history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa was the last major battle of World War II, and one of the bloodiest. On April 1, 1945—Easter Sunday—the Navy’s Fifth Fleet and more than 180,000 U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps troops descended on the Pacific island of Okinawa for a final push towards Japan. Though it resulted in an Allied victory, kamikaze fighters, rainy weather and fierce fighting on land, sea and air led to a large death toll on both sides. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasakian American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; -
VJ Day
history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” Coming several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close.
