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The Attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces. Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. -
America Declares War on Japan
27 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. -
America Declares War on Germany
Following the Declaration of War on Japan on December 8, 1941, the other Axis nation of Germany declared war on the United States. Congress responded, formally declaring a state of war with Germany in a Joint Resolution. -
The Jeep was Born
An American icon is born, the Jeep. The Jeep showed the power of American manufacturing. Over the course of the war 600,000 Jeeps were deployed. On the battlefield, the Jeep was fast, nimble and tough. It could handle nearly any terrain, and when it did get stuck, it was light enough for soldiers to lift free. It towed anti-tank weapons that could be deployed quickly, and it could mount a machine gun for fighting infantry. -
America’s Daytime B-17 Bomber Test
America decides to put to use their new aircrafts to test out a bombing run. The B-17 bomber was tough, durable, and found a way to keep going. The target was Rouen, the German’s biggest railway marshaling yard in northern France. America tests bombing by day for the first time in hopes of seeing the targets better and landing more bombs. It was a success, 36,900 pounds of bombs hit the rail yard (50% in the targeted area). -
D-Day
Codenamed Operation Overlord, also known as D-Day, some 156,000 American, British, and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Nearly 126,000 America’s are killed, wounded, or go missing during the battle of Normandy. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. -
The Atomic Bomb Test
The Manhattan Project was the code name for the American-led effort to develop a functional atomic weapon during World War II. In a remote desert location near Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first atomic bomb was successfully detonated creating an enormous mushroom cloud some 40,000 feet high and producing heat that was 10,000 times more than the surface of the sun, instantly turning all of the sand in the desert into glass. -
The Bombing of Hiroshima
On this day, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. -
The Bombing of Nagasaki
On this day, an American B-29 dropped another atomic bomb on Japanese the city of Nagasaki, immediately killing an estimated 40,000 people and tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. -
The Japanese Surrender
Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”