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Period: to
The Years of the War
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Congress Passes Neutrality Act
It was designed to keep the United States out of a possible European war by banning shipment of war material to people engaged in war at the discretion of President Roosevelt and by forbidding U.S. citizens from traveling on belligerent vessels except at their own risk. -
Roosevelt announces neutrality.
President Roosevelt announces that the U.S. will remain neutral in the war. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. -
U.S. Declares War
President Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress Declare War on Japan after they attacked Pearl Harbor only one day prior. -
U.S. finds out about Nazis killing Jews
The New York Herald Tribune reports that the Nazi Party in Germany had begun executing a plan to murder Jews in Europe. -
Battle of Midway
Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated an Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) attack against Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet. -
Battle of El Alamein
The Battle of El Alamein, fought in the deserts of North Africa, is seen as one of the decisive victories of World War Two. The Battle of El Alamein was primarily fought between two of the outstanding commanders of World War Two, Montgomery, who succeeded the dismissed Auchinleck, and Rommel. The Allied victory at El Alamein lead to the retreat of the Afrika Korps and the German surrender in North Africa in May 1943. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad is considered to have been the turning point in World War Two in Europe. The battle at Stalingrad bled the German army dry in Russia and after this defeat, the Germany Army was in full retreat; it ended on February 2, 1943. -
Allied Troops land in France on D-Day
D-Day: Allied landings in Normandy on the coast of northern France. 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. -
Battle of the Bulge
Allied defenses there had been thinned to provide troops for the autumn defensive. Hitler's intention was to drive through Antwerp and cut off and annihilate the British 21st Army Group and the U.S. First and Ninth Armies north of the Ardennes.By the end of January 1945, American units had retaken all ground they had lost, and the defeat of Germany was clearly only a matter of time. In the east the Red Army had opened a winter offensive that was to carry, eventually, to and beyond Berlin. -
Korematsu v. United States
Early in World War II, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, granting the U.S. military the power to ban tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed critical to domestic security, thus forcing some 110,000 people into temporary imprisonment. In the 1944 case before Supreme Court, ruling was that military necessitated justified internment. -
Bombing of Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945, an American plane dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima killing over 130,000 people. On August 9, 1945, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki killing nearly 35,000 people. -
V-J Day
At last, on August 14, 1945, the emporer of Japan announced that the nation would surrender. That day became known as V-J Day. On September 2, 1945, General MacArthur formally accepted Japan's surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri, anchorded in Tokyo Bay. WWII was finally over.
