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Period: to
WWII
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Selective Service Act of 1940 Effective
The Selective Service Act comes into effect on this day. This creates the first peacetime draft, which is in anticipation of US involvement in WWII. Men aged 18-35 were required to register. -
Bataan Death Mach
Japan made 12,000 American troops and 63,000 Filipino troops, all of which had surrendered, march through the jungles of the Bataan Peninsula. About 25,000 troops died on the march. -
Japanese Attacks on Pearl Harbor
Japanese bombers attack US ships in Pearl Harbor during the early morning hours. After this event, the US declares war on Japan. -
Doolittle Raid
Air offensive on Tokyo by US leaders. The greatest effect of the attacks was a moral one: Japan saw they weren't untouchable and their cities could be bombed. -
Battle of the Coral Sea
This was a large victory for the US over Japan. It halted Japan's plan to occupy Port Moresby and the Solomon Islands, allowing them to control the Coral Sea. This would have blocked off the US from Australia. -
Battle of Midway
The US had anticipated a Japanese offensive on Midway island through deciphering a communications code. Japan last all four of their aircraft carriers, while the US lost only one. -
Operation Torch
Led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. This was the Allied invasion of North Africa. The Allied forces went after the German Afrika Corps. -
Operation Mincemeat
Successful wartime deception plan by the Allies. A corpse was decorated as a British soldier and placed off the coast of Greece with fake documents that detailed a surprise attack on Nazi territory in Greece. The Germans repositioned their armies, leaving Italy weakened. -
Tehran Conference
Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met for three days in Iran as they planned Operation Overlord, intended to take Europe by the storm. They also discussed the United Nations and how to break up Germany after the war. -
D-Day
This was the first day of the full-scale Allied invasion of Axis territories in Europe. The Germans were attacked from the air and the seas as eleven divisions landed on five different beaches. -
Battle of Okinawa / Operation Iceberg
For several months, the US and Japan fought over Okinawa, which was just a couple hundred miles from the Japanese mainland. The US now had the capacity to easily send in B-29 bombers over Japanese cities. -
V-E Day
This was the day that Germany surrendered. It is known as "Victory in Europe Day." This came after a month of Allied offensives on the German capital, Berlin.
