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President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066 allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast.
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The first nuclear chain reaction is produced at the University of Chicago in the Manhattan Project, creating fission of the Uranium U-235, under the direction of physicists Arthur Compton and Enrico Fermi.
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Ralph Bunche appointed 1st African American official in US State Department.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn-in for an unprecedented 4th term as US President.
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President Roosevelt dies suddenly; Vice President Harry S. Truman assumes the presidency and role as commander in chief of World War II.
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President Harry S. Truman gives the go-ahead for the use of the atomic bomb with the bombing of Hiroshima. Three days later, the second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
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President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan, which authorizes $15 billion in aid for 16 countries.
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The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower(R) is sworn in as the 34th President of the United States.