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Civilians begin to evacuate London.
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German battleship Schleswig-Holstein, under the guise of a goodwill visit to Gdansk, fires on the Polish fort at Westerplatte, starting WWll.
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Neville Chamberlain resigns as British Prime Minister.
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Mussolini declared war on Great Britain and France, but it went completely downhill. On October 28, Italy invaded Greece, only to have their navy bombed at Taranto by the British on November 11. Hitler came to their aid, and in April, 1941 invaded Yugoslavia and took Greece, and later Crete on May 20. But Mussolini needed help in North Africa. A British force raided Libya, and took Tobruk and Tripoli, causing Hitler to once again come to their aid. Mussolini made no gains, and hindered Hitler.
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The first night of the Blitz begins, the start of the nightly bombings in London. London was bombed for a total of 57 nights.
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The Tripartite Pact is signed between Germany, Italy, and Japan.
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The Germans invade Soviet Russia.
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Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
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First experimental use of gas chambers in Auschwitz.
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Nazis murder 33,771 Jews at Kiev.
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Code-named Operation Typhoon, this was an attempt by Hitler to take Moscow, so Russia could be taken next. At first the attack was successful, with 28 Russian divisions out of commission in 3 weeks. But the Germans had suffered heavy losses too, and the winter hard. Despite this, by October 7, all major roads to Moscow were left open to the Germans. But Marshall Zhukov organized the Mozhaysk Line. Germany broke through, but Moscow was heavily defended, and fought back. The operation failed.
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Japan attacks Pearl Harbor with Japanese bombers and fighter planes, causing the U.S. to declare war on Japan the next day and putting the U.S. in World War ll.
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The first 29 Navajo Code Talkers are recruited. Around 400 agents were trained, 300 of whom saw action. The Navajo Code Talkers served in all six Marine divisions, Marine Raider battalions, and Marine parachute units. The idea of using the Navajo language as a code amongst Marines was suggested by Philip Johnson, who grew up on a Navajo Reservation, to Major Clayton B. Vogel, commanding general of Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet, because of its complex syntax, and few speakers.
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A part of every major Marine assault in WWll, the Navajo Code Talkers first saw action when the Marines landed on Guadalcanal.
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Radar was barely invented at the beginning of the war, but was highly developed in a manner of a few years after the war began. Allied bombers would drop tiny strips of tinfoil over enemy lines to disrupt their radar. Radar set the stage for modern technology in the future such as television, or radar navigation to GPS. Radar was used in the war in many ways, such as meteorology, for tracking storms, which was crucial in planning battles like D-Day. Radars were also used for proximity fuses.
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Code-named Operation Overlord, D-Day marked the turning point of the war. Planned for months, Allied troops stormed the beach of Normandy on this day, beginning the Battle of Normandy and the beginning of the liberation of mainland Europe and the victory against the Nazis.
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During WWll, both Germany and America were working to create atomic bombs, but Germany got barely out of the start without the resources America offered their scientists. The bomb was such a complex weapon that the U.S. built two weapons to enhance the chance of getting one right. Oak Ridge, Tennessee was chosen for uranium, and Hanford, Washington to create plutonium. The uranium bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and the plutonium bomb on Nagasaki.
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Merril Sandoval and other Code Talkers who were sent with the Marines that invaded Japan held Iwo Jima. The Code Talkers were allocated among the 3rd, 4th, and 5th divisions. Sandoval stayed behind frontlines and translated reports that came from two-man Code Talker teams on the island, and then sent the messages back to military commanders stationed in Hawaii. He passed orders to the U.S. Marines on the front lines.
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Five Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman raise the flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, with a piece of Japanese pipe as a mast. Three of the men were later killed.
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President Franklin Roosevelt died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage, leaving Truman as president only three months after he'd been sworn into office as the U.S. vice president.
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V-E Day, or Victory in Europe Day, was the day the war with Germany ended.
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The U.S. dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, and then Nagasaki, defeating Japan and ending their occupation in China.
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Three days after the uranium based bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, the plutonium based bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, due to Japan's refusal to surrender.
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Victory in Japan Day was the day Japan unconditionally surrendered to the Allies.
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Held from 1945 to 1949, the major war crime trials were held between 1945 and 1946. The first trials were restricted to major war criminals of Axis nations only. The London Charter, issued August 8, 1945, established the legal basis for the trial. Four indictments were written up: 1.Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of crime against peace, 2.Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crime against peace, 3.War crimes, 4.Crimes against humanity.
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