-
World War II: the 28 nations at war with Axis powers pledge to make no separate peace deals
-
Hitler's Operation Sealion, the invasion of England, is cancelled
-
World War II: President Franklin Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapse
-
The "Battle of Los Angeles" takes place, a series of anti-aircraft engagements over the city in response to a rumored but false Japanese attack. It would last until the morning of the following day.
-
"Stars & Stripes" paper for US armed forces starts
-
Nazis require Dutch Jews to wear a Jewish star
-
US Navy 1st permitted black recruits to serve
-
Hitler orders 10,000 Czechs murdered
-
Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich is shot and mortally wounded by Czech rebels in Prague during Operation Anthropoid
-
Battle of Midway ends: Admiral Chester Nimitz wins 1st World War II naval defeat of Japan
-
Japanese submarine in mouth of Columbia River, Oregon
-
Major General Dwight Eisenhower appointed commander of US forces in Europe
-
The 'Manhattan Project' commences, under the direction of US General Leslie Groves: its aim - to deliver an atomic bomb
-
1st bombing on continental US soil at Mount Emily, Oregon during WWII by Japanese planes
-
Gasoline rationed in US
-
Hitler declares "Total War"
-
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.
-
FDR becomes 1st US President to visit a foreign country during wartime
-
World War II: United States troops land on Majuro, Marshall Islands
-
Operation-Overlord (D-Day) postponed until June
-
Eisenhower, Montgomery, Churchill & George VI discuss D-Day plan
-
Operation Overlord: D-Day begins as the 150,000 strong Allied Expeditionary Force lands in Normandy, France, during World War II
-
US President Franklin Roosevelt signs "GI Bill of Rights" (Servicemen's Readjustment Act)
-
1st Japanese kamikaze attack, US fleet near Iwo Jima
-
Franklin D. Roosevelt is re-elected President of the United States for a record fourth term, defeating Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey
-
Admiral Chester Nimitz begins planning assaults on Okinawa and Iwo Jima in Japan
-
The Manhattan Project's G-5 Group, headed by Physicist's Donald Kerst and Seth Neddermeyer, take their first betatron pictures of a nuclear implosion at the Los Alamos Laboratory
-
334 US B-29 Superfortresses attack Tokyo with 120,000 fire bombs
-
Battle of Okinawa: US Navy ships bomb the Japanese island of Okinawa in preparation for the Allied invasion; it would become the largest battle of the Pacific War in World War II
-
Battle of Okinawa: US ground forces invade Okinawa during World War II in the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific theatre
-
US President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office and Vice President Harry Truman is sworn in as 33rd US President
-
Adolf Hitler commits suicide along with his new wife Eva Braun in the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin as the Red Army captures the city
-
1st test detonation of an atomic bomb, Trinity Site, Alamogordo, New Mexico as part of the US Manhattan Project
-
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay"
-
V-J Day, Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone)
-
V-J Day, formal surrender of Japan aboard USS Missouri marks the end of WW II (US date, 2nd September in Japan)
-
Hideki Tojo, Japanese Prime Minister during most of World War II, attempts suicide rather than face war crimes tribunal but fails - later he is hanged
-
US President Harry Truman establishes Atomic Energy Commission (AEC
-
1st US commemorative coin of an African American, Booker T. Washington (half dollar)
-
John F. Kennedy (Democrat, Massachusetts) elected to US House of Representatives
-
US President Harry Truman introduces Truman-doctrine to fight communism
-
Harry Truman makes the 1st Presidential address televised from the White House
-
Groundbreaking ceremony for the Hollywood sign in Hollywood, Los Angeles; old Hollywoodland sign torn down, reconstruction of a replacement begins with just Hollywood
-
Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo sentenced to death by war crimes tribunal
-
US President Harry Truman publicly announces support for the development of a hydrogen bomb
-
Albert Einstein warns against hydrogen bomb
-
North Korean troops reach Seoul, UN asks members to aid South Korea, Harry Truman orders US Air Force & Navy into Korean conflict
-
ames Dean begins his career with an appearance in a Pepsi commercia
-
United States Air Force flag officially adopted by President Harry S. Truman
-
US President Harry Truman asks Congress to formally end state of war with Germany
-
Supreme Court rule "clear & present danger" of incitement to riot is not protected speech & can be a cause for arrest
-
WW II Pacific peace treaty takes effect
-
US Marines take part in an atomic explosion training in Nevada
-
Richard Nixon makes his "Checker's" speech
-
American fast food restaurant chain "KFC" [Kentucky Fried Chicken] opens its first franchise in Salt Lake City, Utah
-
US President Harry Truman announces American development of the hydrogen bomb
-
Albert Einstein announces revised unified field theory
-
North Korea and the United Nations sign armistice to stop fighting and divide Korea at the 38th parallel
