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Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; also attack the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, Malaya, Thailand, Shanghai and Midway.
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U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan.
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China declares war on Japan.
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British surrender at Hong Kong
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Japanese bomb Manila
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Manila and U.S. Naval base at Cavite captured by the Japanese
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Enrico Fermi conducts the world's first nuclear chain reaction test at the University of Chicago
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Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives permission to his troops to withdraw from Guadalcanal after five months of bloody fighting
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U.S. victory over Japanese in the Battle of Bismarck Sea.
March 2-4 -
U.S. began submarine warfare against Japanese shipping
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Japanese begin their last offensive in China, attacking U.S. air bases in eastern China
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The U.S. Army Air Force begins preparations for dropping the Atomic Bomb
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15sq miles of Tokyo erupts in flames after it is fire bombed by 279 B-29s
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President Roosevelt dies, succeeded by Harry S. Truman.
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1,000 bomber raids against Japan begin.
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The first U.S. Naval bombardment of Japanese home islands.
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First Atomic Bomb is successfully tested in the U.S.
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First Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima from a B-29
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Second Atomic Bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.
Hirohito and Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki then decide to seek peace with the the U.S and Britain. -
Formal Japanese surrender ceremony on board the MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay as 1,000 carrier-based planes fly overhead; President Truman declares VJ Day
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The United Nations is born
