Historical Events
Events 401 - 500 of 698
- 1941-01-02 World War II: The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program to build freighters in support of the war effort.
New Fourth Army Incident
1941-01-07 New Fourth Army Incident: Chinese Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek fire on surrounded Communist New Fourth Army at Maolin, Anhui Province, killing or capturing 7,000 troops
- 1941-01-10 World War II: The Greek army captures Kleisoura.
- 1941-01-16 War Department forms first Army Air Corps squadron for black cadets
- 1941-03-02 World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joined the Axis Pact.
- 1941-03-04 The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands, during World War II.
- 1941-04-17 World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
- 1941-06-25 Finland declares war on Soviet Union
Executive Order 8802
1941-06-25 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 8802, which forbids racial discrimination in the defense industry
- 1941-06-30 World War II: Operation Barbarossa - Germany captures Lviv, Ukraine
- 1941-07-07 World War II: Beirut is occupied by Free France and British troops
- 1941-07-13 World War II: Montenegrins start popular uprising against the Axis Powers (Trinaestojulski ustanak).
- 1941-09-17 World War II: A decree issued by the Soviet State Committee of Defense, restoring Vsevobuch "Universal compulsory military training of the citizens of the USSR" in the face of the "Great Patriotic War"
- 1941-10-27 Chicago Daily Tribune editorialize there will not be war with Japan
- 1941-11-29 Passenger ship Lurline sends radio signal of sighting Japanese war fleet
- 1941-12-08 US and Britain declare war on Japan, US enters World War II
- 1941-12-09 China declares war on Japan, Germany & Italy
- 1941-12-11 Axis powers Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declare war against the United States
- 1941-12-11 Dutch government in London declares war on Italy
- 1941-12-15 The American Federation of Labor adopts a no-strike policy in war industries.
- 1941-12-17 World War II: Beginning of the Siege of Sebastopol.
- 1941-12-20 World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
- 1942-01-02 World War II: The 28 nations at war with the Axis powers pledge to make no separate peace deals
- 1942-01-12 US National War Labor Board created to mediate labor disputes
- 1942-01-13 Allied Conference on war trials at St. James's Palace, London
- 1942-01-13 World War II: First use of aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter
- 1942-02-02 US auto factories switch from commercial to war production
- 1942-02-08 Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort
- 1942-02-09 Daylight Savings War Time goes into effect in US
'I Shall Return'
1942-02-22 World War II: President Franklin Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapse
- 1942-03-29 Bombing of Lübeck in World War II was the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city
- 1942-05-10 World War II: The Thai Phayap Army invades the Shan States during the Burma Campaign
- 1942-05-22 Mexico declares war on Nazi-Germany & Japan
- 1942-06-05 USA declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary & Romania
- 1942-06-13 The United States opens its Office of War Information, with Elmer Davis as head
- 1942-06-23 World War II: Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales
- 1942-07-18 Test flight of German Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jet engines for the first time
- 1942-07-23 World War II: Operation Edelweiss (a German plan to gain control over the Caucasus) begins
- 1942-08-22 Brazil declares war on Germany, Japan & Italy
- 1942-08-23 World War II: last cavalry charge in history takes place at Isbushenskij, Russia; the Italian Savoia Cavalleria charges Soviet infantry
- 1942-08-27 Cuba declares war on Germany, Japan & Italy
- 1942-09-12 Free-Poland & Belgium asks pope to condemn nazi-war crimes
- 1942-11-12 WWII Naval Battle of Guadalcanal begins between Allied and Japanese forces in Solomon Islands
- 1942-11-15 World War II: First flight of the Heinkel He 219.
- 1942-12-17 Allies in London sentence German war criminals
V-2 Rocket Ordered
1942-12-22 World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon
- 1943-02-09 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order setting a minimum 48-hour work week in a number of critical war industries
- 1943-02-16 World War II: The USSR reconquers Kharkov
- 1943-02-20 American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
- 1943-04-08 U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, in an attempt to check inflation, freezes wages and prices, prohibits workers from changing jobs unless the war effort would be aided thereby, and bars rate increases to common carriers and public utilities.
- 1943-04-30 Dutch strike against forced labor in Nazi Germany's war industry
- 1943-05-17 World War II: the Dambuster Raids by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams
- 1943-07-28 Operation Gomorrah: RAF bombing over Hamburg causes a firestorm that kills 42,600 German civilians
- 1943-08-05 World War II: at around 11 A.M during the Battle of Troina, Mount Etna erupts sending ash and lava miles into the sky
- 1943-09-17 World War II: Soviet city of Bryansk is liberated from Nazi control
- 1943-10-13 Italy declares war on former Axis partner Germany
- 1943-10-26 World War II: First flight of the Dornier Do 335 "Pfeil".
- 1943-10-31 World War II: F4U Corsair accomplishes the first successful radar-guided interception.
- 1943-11-16 WW II: American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway
Flying Ace Shot Down
1944-01-03 World War II: Top US flying ace Major Pappy Boyington shot down in his Corsair by Japanese Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero (survives as POW)
- 1944-01-22 Allied forces begin landing at Anzio on the Italian mainland
- 1944-01-29 World War II: About 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland
- 1944-01-29 World War II: The Battle of Cisterna takes place in central Italy
- 1944-01-30 World War II: United States troops land on Majuro, Marshall Islands
- 1944-02-02 Baseball meets in NYC to discuss postwar action
- 1944-02-03 World War II: United States troops capture the Marshall Islands.
- 1944-02-20 World War II: The "Big Week" began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers
- 1944-02-21 "War As It Happens" news show premieres on NBC-TV, in New York City only
- 1944-04-05 World War II: 270 inhabitants of the Greek town of Kleisoura are executed by the Germans
- 1944-06-10 World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops
- 1944-06-19 Day one of the two-day Battle of the Philippine Sea, US naval forces defeat the Japanese fleet in World War II
- 1944-06-26 Yanks, Dodgers & Giants play unique 6 inn game for War Bonds, each playing successive innings, final score Dodgers-5, Yanks-1 & Giants-0
- 1944-06-30 World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces
- 1944-07-09 In World War II, US troops secure Saipan as Japan falls
- 1944-07-25 World War II: Operation Spring - one of Canada's bloodiest days, 18,444 casualties and 5,021 killed
- 1944-09-08 Russians march into Bulgaria; Bulgaria declares war on Germany
- 1944-11-01 World War II: Units of the British Army land at Walcheren in the Netherlands
- 1944-11-19 World War II: U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling $14 billion USD in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.
- 1944-11-25 World War II: A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's store in Deptford, United Kingdom, killing 160 shoppers.
- 1944-12-03 The Greek Civil War breaks out in a newly-liberated Greece, between communists and royalists
- 1944-12-31 World War II: Hungary declares war on Germany.
- 1945-01-12 The Soviets begin a large offensive against the Nazis in Eastern Europe
Operation Hannibal
1945-01-23 World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal to evacuate German soldiers and civilians from Prussia by sea
- 1945-02-14 World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans.
Bombing of Dresden
1945-02-14 World War II: Prague is bombed probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.
- 1945-02-16 Venezuela declares war on Nazi Germany
- 1945-02-21 Dutch Archbishop of Utrecht Johannes de Jong calls to the Allies for help with war casualties following the Nazi occupation of Netherlands
- 1945-02-24 Egypt & Syria declare war on nazi-Germany
- 1945-02-25 WWII: Turkey declares war on Germany
- 1945-03-04 Finland declares war on Nazi Germany
- 1945-03-05 World War II: The Battle of the Ruhr begins.
- 1945-03-27 World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.
- 1945-03-29 World War II: Last day of V-1 flying bomb attacks on England
- 1945-03-30 World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to Americans
- 1945-04-09 World War II: The Battle of Königsberg, East Prussia, ends.
- 1945-04-26 World War II: Battle of Bautzen - last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht
- 1945-04-27 World War II: The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication
- 1945-05-05 World War II: Admiral Karl Dönitz, leader of Germany after Hitler's death, orders all U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases
- 1945-05-06 World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941).
- 1945-05-09 The Soviet Union celebrates Victory Day in World War II