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Vichy France Begins
Vichy France, Vichy regime, or Vichy government, are common terms used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944. This government, which succeeded the Third Republic, officially called itself the French State (État Français), in contrast with the previous designation, "French Republic." Marshal Philippe Pétain proclaimed the government following the military defeat of France by Nazi Germany during World War II and the vote by the National Assembly on 10 July 1940. -
Battle for Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command. The name derives from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the House of Commons: "The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin." -
Hitler breaks non-agression pact & invades Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km (1,800 mile) front. It was the largest military offensive in history. -
Pearl Harbor gets attacked!!
Aircraft and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy began an attack on the U.S. The Americans had deciphered Japan's code earlier and knew about a planned attack before it actually occurred. However, due to difficulty in deciphering intercepted messages, the Americans failed to discover Japan's target location before the attack occurred. -
Germany and Italy declare war on US
Germany and Italy announced they were at war with the United States. America immediately responded by declaring war on the two Axis powers. -
MacArthur's Promise
President Franklin Roosevelt commanded him to leave the Philippines, MacArthur considered resigning and fighting on as a civilian, but ee didn’t want to leave his men or the Filipino people to face the overwhelming might of the enemy alone. March 11, 1942, he obeyed the order and made his way to Australia. But he made this promise to the Filipinos: “I shall return.” -
Bataan death march
The 60-mile (97 km) march occurred after the three-month Battle of Bataan, part of the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42), during World War II. -
Battle of Coral Sea
A major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States (U.S.) and Australia. It was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other. It was also the first naval battle in history in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was the most decisive single naval battle in US history. After having so little to show for the efforts until the Battle of the Coral Sea, Midway was finally a day with significant results for the US. Four large Japanese carrier's were sunk in one day. Equally important, the Japanese lost 332 planes and experienced pilots as well.
The US lost one carrier, 1 destroyer and 147 planes. -
Guadalcanal
The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by Allied forces, was fought between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre of World War II. Fiercely contested on the ground, at sea, and in the air, the campaign was the first major offensive launched by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan. -
General Eisenhower and his forces land in North Africa
Operation Torch (initially called Operation Gymnast) was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started 8 November 1942. -
End of Battle of Stalingrad
The battle of Stalingrad was one of the largest battles in human history. It raged for 199 days. Numbers of casualties are difficult to compile due to the vast scope of the battle and the fact that the Soviet government did not allow estimates to be made, for fear the cost would be shown to be too high. In its initial phases, the Germans inflicted heavy casualties on Soviet formations; but the Soviet encirclement by punching through the German flank, mainly held by Romanian troops. -
Sicily Falls
Husky began on the night of July 9, 1943, and ended August 17. Strategically, Husky achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners. The Allies drove Axis air and naval forces from the island; the Mediterranean's sea lanes were opened and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was toppled from power. It opened the way to the Allied invasion of Italy. -
U-boats sink merchant vessels
Type IXC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine built for service during World War II. She was captured on 4 June 1944 by United States Navy Task Group 22.3 (TG 22.3). Codebooks and other secret materials from U-505 assisted Allied code breaking operations. She is one of six U-boats that were captured by Allied forces during World War II, and one of four large German World War II U-boats that survive as museum ships. -
The Normandy Landings (D-Day)
The Normandy Landings were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, also known as Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 (D-Day), beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time (UTC+2). In planning, D-Day was the term used for the day of actual landing, which was dependent on final approval. -
MacArthur returns
General Douglas MacArthur keeps his promise and returns to the people. -
Kamikaze attacks begin
suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Ardennes Offensive (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive (die Ardennenoffensive), launched towards the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium (and more specifically of Wallonia: hence its French name, Bataille des Ardennes), France and Luxembourg on the Western Front. The Wehrmacht's code name for the offensive was Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (in English: "Operation Watch on the Rhine"), after the German patriotic hymn -
US flag raised on Mt. Suribachi
The American flag was first raised atop Suribachi soon after it was captured early in the morning of February 23, 1945. 2nd Battalion Commander Chandler Johnson ordered Captain Dave E. Severance to send a platoon to go take the mountain. -
Okinawa taken
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II.The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June, 1945. -
Harry Truman Becomes President
Truman was the 33rd President of the United States. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice-president and the 34th Vice President of the United States, he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his fourth term. -
Hitler Commits Suicide
The generally accepted cause of the death of Adolf Hitler on 30 April 1945 is suicide by gunshot[1] and cyanide poisoning. -
Victory over Europe
World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. On April 30 Hitler committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin, and so the surrender of Germany was authorized by his replacement, President of Germany Karl Dönitz. The administration headed up by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg government. The act of military surrender was signed on May 7 in Reims, France, and May 8 in Berlin, Germany. -
Hiroshima
first city in history destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15am on August 6, 1945, near the end of World War II.[1] Hiroshima gained municipality status on April 1, 1889, and was designated on April 1, 1980, by government ordinance. -
Nagasaki
target of the world's second atomic bomb attack at 11:02 a.m., when the north of the city was destroyed and an estimated 40,000 people were killed by the bomb nicknamed "Fat Man." According to statistics found within Nagasaki Peace Park, the death toll from the atomic bombing totaled 73,884, as well as another 74,909 injured, and another several hundred thousand diseased and dying due to fallout and other illness caused by radiation. -
Victory Over Japen
initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made in the afternoon of August 15, 1945 in Japan and to August 14, 1945 where it is observed as V-J Day in the United States when it was announced because of time zone differences in the Western Europe, the Americas, the Pacific Islands, and Australia and to September 2, 1945 when the formal signing of the surrender was made. The name V-J Day had been selected by the Allies after they named V-E Day for the victory in Europe. -
Japan Surrenders
Surrender ceremony was held on September 2 aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri, at which officials from the Japanese government signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, officially ending World War II.
