March:
1 – 1805 – Justice Samuel Chase acquitted / 1941 – Bulgaria signs Tripartite Pact
2 – 1877 – Rutherford Hayes elected President / 1942 – Birth of John Irving / 1945 – Airfield captured on Iwo Jima
3 – 1942 – First flight of Avro Lancaster
4 – 1790 – 1st Innaguration Day
5 – 1770 – Boston Massacre / 1933 – Reichstag elections / 1936 – First flight of Supermarine Spitfire
6 – 1820 – Missouri Compromise ratified / 1836 – Battle of the Alamo
7 – 1945 – U.S. forces capture Ludendorff bridge at Remagen
8 – 1862 – CSS Virginia sinks first two ships
9 – 1945 – B-29’s leave for mass bombing of Tokyo
10 – 1945 – B-29’s bomb Tokyo
11 – 1861 – Confederate Constitution ratified / 1941 – Lend-Lease is passed by Congress
12 – 1938 – Austrian Anschluss
13 – 1940 – End of the Winter War (Finland/Russia)
14 -
15 – 1939 – German troops enter Czechoslavakia
16 – 1751 – Birth of James Madison / 1935 – Germany abrogates Versailles Treaty
17 – 1776 – General Washington retakes Boston
18 – 1944 – Mt. Vesuvius erupts
19 – 1682 – Rene-Robert La Salle mutineed / 1945 – Hitler issues “scorched earth” policy
20 -
21 – 1999 – World Poetry Day
22 – 1622 – Massacre at Jamestown / 1887 – Birth of Chico Marx
23 – 1944 – Partisan attack in Rome
24 – 1944 – Ardeatine Massacre
25 – 1865 – Confederate attack on Fort Stedman
26 – 1945 – Fighting ends on Iwo Jima
27 – 1977 – Tenerife 747 crash
28 – 1834 – Andrew Jackson censured
29 – 1847 – General Scott captures Veracruz
30 – 1942 – Joint Chiefs divide Pacific into two theaters
31 – 1942 – Japan invades Christmas Island
April
1 – 1945 – Okinawa campaign begins
2 -
3 – 1865 – Fall of Richmond to Union forces / 1972 – Death of Ferde Grofe
4 – 1884 – Birth of Isoroku Yamamoto
5 -
6 – 1945 – Start of suicide air attacks off Okinawa
7 – 1945 – Sinking of the Yamato
8 -
9 – 1940 – Germany invades Norway/Denmark
10 – 1963 – USS Thresher lost
11 -
12 – 1945 – Death of President Franklin Roosevelt
13 – 1943 – Germans discover Katyn Forest massacre
14 – 1966 – Birth of Greg Maddux
15 -
16 – 1945 – U.S. landings on Ie Shima
17 – 1941 – Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany
18 – 1943 – Death of Isoroku Yamamoto / 1945 – Death of Ernie Pyle
19 -
20 – 1945 – Surrender of Leipzig, Germany to the Allies
21 – 1918 – Death of Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron)
22 -
23 – 1985 – New Coke is released
24 – 1800 – Library of Congress established
25 – 1945 – U.S. & Russian troops meet at the Elbe
26 -
27 – 1938 – Birth of Earl Anthony
28 – 1945 – Benito Mussolini executed
29 – 1945 – Marriage of Hitler and Eva Braun
30 – 1945 – Hitler commits suicide
May
1 – 1884 – May Day
2 – 1945 – Soviets announce capture of Berlin
3 -
4 – 1945 – 1st major Japanese counter-attack on Okinawa
5 – 1942 – Japanese landings on Corregidor
6 – 1942 – Fall of Corregidor to the Japanese
7 – 1942 – Battle of the Coral Sea
8 – 1945 – V-E Day
9 -
10 – 1940 – Germany invades Belgium/Holland
11 – 1858 – Minnesota granted statehood
12 – 1944 – Author Max Brand killed in Italy
13 -
14 – 1944 – Allied forces break the Gustav Line in Italy
15 -
16 – 1990 – Death of Jim Henson (the Muppets)
17 – 1943 – Operation Chastise – the DamBuster missions
18 – 1980 – Mount St. Helens erupts
19 – 1946 – Birth of Andre the Giant
20 – 1941 – German attack on Crete
21 -
22 – 1939 – Germany & Italy sign Pact of Steel
23 -
24 – 1941 – Bismarck sinks the Hood
25 – 1927 – Birth of Robert Ludlum
26 – 1907 – Birth of John Wayne
27 – 1941 – Bismarck sunk by the British
28 -
29 – 1790 – Rhode Island granted statehood
30 – 1942 – Operation K cancelled by Japanese
31 – 1930 – Birth of Clint Eastwood
June
1 – 1939 – First flight of Focke-Wulf FW-190
2 – 1774 – The Quartering Act enabled in the Colonies
3 -
4 – 1942 – Battle of Midway / 1942 - Mitsubishi Zero shot down at Dutch Harbor
5 – 1942 – Final operations in the Battle of Midway
6 – 1944 – British capture the Pegasus & Ranville Bridges
7 – 1776 – Lee Resolution presented to Continental Congress
8 – 1966 – XB-70 Valkyrie collides with F-104 Starfighter
9 -
10 – 1942 – Town of Lidice razed as reprisal for Heydrich death
11 – 1940 – First air raid on Malta
12 -
13 – 1886 – Death of King Ludwig II – Neuschwanstein castle
14 – 1940 – Germans enter Paris
15 -
16 – 1940 – French PM Reynaud resigns in France – Petain takes over
17 -
18 – 1945 – Death of General Simon Bolivar Buckner on Okinawa
19 – 1944 – Battle of the Philippines Sea
20 -
21 – 1788 – New Hampshire granted statehood
22 – 1941 – Operation Barbarossa commences
23 -
24 – 1940 – France signs Armistice…with Italy
25 -
26 – 1961 – Birth of Greg LeMond
27 -
28 – 1919 – Treaty of Versailles signed
29 – 1956 – National Interstate and Defense Highways Act passed
30 – 1940 – Germany occupies the Channel Islands
July
1 -
2 – 1945 – U.S. campaign in Ryukyu’s (Okinawa) ends
3 -
4 – 1826 – Deaths of John Adams & Thomas Jefferson
5 – 1958 – Birth of Bill Watterson
6 -
7 – 1937 – Sino-Japanese war begins
8 – 1775 – Olive Branch Petition sent to England
9 – 1944 – Island of Saipan declared secure
10 -
11 – 1804 – Duel between Aaron Burr & Alexander Hamilton
12 – 1945 – Death of Wolfram von Richthofen
13 – 1928 – Birth of Bob Crane (Hogan’s Heroes)
14 – 1798 – Sedition Act becomes U.S. law
15 – 1982 – Lawn Lake Dam fails in Estes Park, CO
16 – 1945 – First atomic bomb test in New Mexico
17 – 1945 – Start of Potsdam Conference
18 -
19 – 1989 – Crash of UAL flight 232 in Sioux City, IA
20 – 1944 – Assassination attempt on Hitler
21 – 1983 – Coldest recorded temperature @ Vostok, Antarctica
22 – 1943 – Patton’s 7th Army takes Palermo
23 – 1942 – Treblinka opened
24 -
25 -
26 -
27 – 1972 – First flight of McDonnell Douglas F-15
28 – 1942 – Stalin issues “no retreat” order – Order No. 277
29 – 1921 – Hitler becomes head of German Workers Party
30 – 1945 – USS Indianapolis sunk by I-58
31 -
August
1 – 1943 – USAAF raid on Ploesti
2 -
3 – 1936 – Jesse Owens wins 1st of 4 Olympic Gold Medals
4 -
5 – 1941 – Resistance in Smolensk ends
6 – 1945 - Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
7 – 1942 – U.S. Marines land on Guadalcanal
8 – 1946 – First flight of Convair B-36 Peacemaker
9 – 1945 – Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
10 -
11 – 1946 – Birth of John Conlee
12 – 1941 – The Atlantic Charter signed
13 – 1943 – Guadalcanal: Patrol led by Lt. Col. Goettge wiped out
14 -
15 – 1945 – Japan announces surrender
16 -
17 – 1907 – Pike Place Market opens in Seattle
18 -
19 – 1942 – Operation Jubilee – Allied raid on Dieppe
20 – 1937 – Freddie Falgout killed on USS Augusta in Shanghai
21 – 1959 – Hawaii granted statehood
22 -
23 – 1939 – Soviets and Germans sign non-aggression pact
24 – 1814 – War of 1812: British burn U.S. capital
25 – 1916 – National Park Service created
26 -
27 – 1928 – Kellogg-Briand Pact signed
28 – 1988 – Ramstein Air Show disaster
29 -
30 -
31 – 1939 – Phony raid by Poland into Germany
September
1 – 1939 - Germany invades Poland
2 -
3 – 1783 – Treaty of Paris signed
4 -
5 – 1774 – First Continental Congress begins
6 – 1901 – President William McKinley shot
7 -
8 – 1944 – First V-2 rocket strikes
9 – 1943 – Allies land in Italy (Salerno & Taranto)
10 – 1939 – Canada declares war on Germany
11 -
12 -
13 -
14 – 1901 – President McKinley dies from gunshot wound
15 – 1944 – U.S. Marines land on Peleliu
16 -
17 – 1939 – USSR invades Poland from the east
18 – 1944 – Exploits of Marine PFC Arthur Jackson on Peleliu
19 – 1881 – President James Garfield dies from gunshot complications
2o -
21 – 1937 – Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” is published
22 – 1927 – Birth of Tommy Lasorda
23 -
24 – 1991 – Death of Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
25 -
26 – 1983 – Stanislav Petrov prevents nuclear holocaust
27 – 1940 – Germany, Italy, & Japan sign Tripartite Pact
28 – 1941 – Ted Williams finishes season at .406
29 – 1941 – Jewish massacre at Babi Yar
30 -
October
1 – 1943 – Fall of Naples to the Allies
2 – 1950 – First Peanuts cartoon
3 – 1935 – Italy invades Abyssinia
4 – 1582 – Gregorian Calendar implemented
5 -
6 – 1945 – Billy Sianis & the Curse of the Cubs
7 – 1916 – Cumberland football team loses 222-0
8 – 1918 – Alvin York’s heroics in the Argonne Forest
9 -
10 – 1944 – First bombing of Okinawa
11 -
12 – 1942 – Guadalcanal: Battle of Cape Esperance
13 – 1943 – Italy declares war on Germany
14 – 1944 – Death of Erwin Rommel
15 – 1942 – USS Meredith sunk off Guadalcanal
16 -
17 – 1989 – San Francisco earthquake
18 -
19 – 1781 – Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown
20 -
21 – 1944 – First kamikaze attack on HMAS Australia
22 -
23 – 1944 – Battle of Leyte Gulf begins
24 -
25 – 1944 – Battle of Leyte Gulf: USS Johnston and Taffy 3
26 – 1940 – First flight of P-51 Mustang / 1944 – End of the Battle of Leyte Gulf
27 -
28 – 1929 – U.S. Stock Market Crash takes off
29 -
30 – 1961 – Tsar Bomba detonated
31 – 1913 – Lincoln Highway dedicated
November
1 -
2 – 1772 - Committees of Correspondance created in the Colonies
3 -
4 – 1922 – Howard Carter finds steps to King Tut’s tomb
5 -
6 – 1861 – Jefferson Davis elected President of the Confederacy
7 – 1940 – Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
8 – 1942 – Operation Torch commences
9 – 1937 – Japan captures Shanghai
10 – 1975 – The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
11 – 1942 – Vichy France ends fighting in North Africa
12 -
13 – 1942 - Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
14 -
15 – 1942 – Naval Battle of Guadalcanal ends
16 -
17 – 1938 – Birth of Gordon Lightfoot
18 -
19 – 1941 – Ice road over Lake Ladoga opened
20 – 1943 – U.S. Marines landing on Tarawa Atoll
21 – 1969 – ARPAnet (precursor to the Internet) created
22 -
23 – 1943 – Capture of Tarawa Atoll / 1943 – Capture of Makin Atoll
24 – 1988 – Myster Science Theater 3000 debuts
25 – 1943 – Apamama Atoll taken by Marines
26 – 1789 – 1st National Thanksgiving in U.S.
27 – 1944 – Fighting ends on Peleliu
28 -
29 -
30 – 1942 – Guadalcanal: Battle of Tassafaronga Point
December
1 – 1925 – Locarno Pact signed in London
2 – 1942 – First sustained man-made nuclear reaction
3 -
4 – 1941 – Closest German approach to Moscow
5 – 1941 – Soviet boat (Uritsky) spots Pearl Harbor fleet / 1941 - Soviet counteroffensive at Moscow
6 -
7 – 1941 – Pearl Harbor attacked
8 -
9 – 1937 – Battle of Nanking begins
10 – 1941 – Repulse & Prince of Wales sunk
11 -
12 – 1998 – Falcon 4.0 released
13 – 1937 – Japan captures Nanking
14 – 1911 – Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole
15 – 1791 – U.S. Bill of Rights becomes law
16 – 1773 – Boston Tea Party
17 – 1939 – Graf Spee scuttled
18 -
19 – 1777 – Continental Army arrives at Valley Forge
20 – 1941 – Debut of Chennault’s Flying Tigers
21 -
22 – 1964 – First flight of the SR-71 Blackbird
23 -
24 – 1942 – Guadalcanal: Marines find the Gifu
25 – 1776 – Washington crosses the Delaware
26 – 1919 – Babe Ruth sold from the Red Sox to the Yankees
27 -
28 – 1846 – Iowa granted statehood
29 – 1778 – British capture Savannah without firing a shot
30 -
31 – 1983 – Last day of AT&T monopoly
