1936 World War II (Prelude to): In violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles, Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
1937 Chinese Air Force Day: The beginning of air-to-air combat of the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II in general, when 6 Imperial Japanese Mitsubishi G3M bombers are shot down by the Nationalist Chinese Air Force while raiding Chinese air bases.
1939 World War II: Germany takes Memel from Lithuania.
1939 World War II: Italy invades Albania.
1939 World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
1939 World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, and Poland are divided between the two nations.
1939 World War II: Nazi Germany invades Poland, beginning the war in Europe.
1939 World War II: following the start of the invasion of Poland the previous day, the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed by Nazi Germany.
1939 World War II: France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allies.
1939 World War II: The Battle of Barking Creek.
1939 World War II: The submarine {{HMS|Oxley}} is mistakenly sunk by the submarine {{HMS|Triton|N15|6}} near Norway and becomes the Royal Navy's first loss.
1939 World War II: The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.
1939 World War II: Polish government of Ignacy Mościcki flees to Romania.
1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II.
1939 World War II: The last Polish army is defeated.
1939 World War II: Germany annexes Western Poland.
1939 World War II: First attack on British territory by the German Luftwaffe.
1939 World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Customs Service to implement the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases of weapons by belligerents.
1939 World War II: Sonderaktion Krakau takes place.
1939 World War II: ''HMS Nelson'' is struck by a mine (laid by ''U-31'') off the Scottish coast and is laid up for repairs until August 1940.
1939 World War II: attle of the River Plate
1939 World War II: attle of the River Plate
1939 World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.
1940 World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.
1940 World War II: Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer {{HMS|Cossack}}. 299 British prisoners are freed.
1940 In a ceremony held in Berkeley, California, because of the war, physicist Ernest Lawrence receives the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics from Sweden's Consul General in San Francisco.
1940 World War II: xis Powers
1940 World War II: The United Kingdom and France announce that they have mined Norwegian territorial waters to prevent their use by German supply ships.
1940 World War II: peration Weserübung
1940 World War II: Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.
1940 World War II: Norwegian refugees form a government-in-exile in London
1940 World War II: The German submarine ''U-9'' sinks the French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.
1940 World War II: The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.
1940 World War II: Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
1940 World War II: Rotterdam is bombed by the German Luftwaffe.
1940 World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation.
1940 World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.
1940 World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk begins.
1940 World War II: attle of Dunkirk
1940 World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops. Two survive.
1940 World War II: Belgium surrenders to Germany.
1940 World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.
1940 World War II: The Dunkirk evacuation ends – British forces complete evacuation of 300,000 troops from Dunkirk in France.
1940 World War II: 13,000 British and French troops surrender to Major General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.
1940 World War II: Paris falls under German occupation, and Allied forces retreat.
1940 World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Premier of Vichy France.
1940 World War II: Operation Ariel begins – Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
1940 World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France.
1940 World War II: under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
1940 World War II: the French fleet of the Atlantic based at Mers el Kébir, is bombarded by the British fleet, coming from Gibraltar, causing the loss of three battleships: Dunkerque, Provence and Bretagne. One thousand two hundred sailors perish.
1940 World War II: the United Kingdom and the Vichy France government break off diplomatic relations.
1940 World War II: the Vichy government is established in France.
1940 World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France.
1940 World War II: attle of Cape Spada
1940 World War II: Italian forces begin the invasion of British Somaliland.
1940 World War II: the Soviet Union formally annexes Latvia.
1940 World War II: Alsace Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich.
1940 World War II: The Communist Party is banned in German-occupied Norway.
1940 World War II: he Blitz
1940 World War II: German bombs damage Buckingham Palace.
1940 World War II: The climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Royal Air Force shoots down large numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft.
1940 World War II: The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy.
1940 World War II: the McCollum memo proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
1940 World War II: attle of Britain
1940 World War II: Greece rejects Italy's ultimatum. Italy invades Greece through Albania, marking Greece's entry into World War II.
1940 World War II: The Battle of Britain ends – the United Kingdom prevents a German invasion.
1940 World War II: attle of Taranto
1940 World War II: In England, the city of Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost completely destroyed.
1940 World War II: In response to Germany's leveling of Coventry, England two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.
1940 World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
1940 World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
1940 World War II: Following the initial Italian invasion, Greek troops counterattack into Italian-occupied Albania and capture Korytsa.
1940 World War II: Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
1940 World War II: Slovakia becomes a signatory to the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
1940 World War II: First flight of the deHavilland Mosquito and Martin B-26 Marauder.
1940 World War II: At the Battle of Cape Spartivento, the Royal Navy engages the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean Sea.
1940 World War II: peration Compass
1940 World War II: Approximately 70 people are killed in the Marples Hotel, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield as a result of a German air raid.
1940 World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
1940 World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis (Υ-2) sinks the Italian motor ship ''Antonietta''.
1940 World War II: In The Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, killing almost 200 civilians.
1941 World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales
1941 World War II: First flight of the Avro Lancaster.
1941 World War II: The Greek army captures Kleisoura.
1941 Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek open fire at communist forces, resuming the Chinese Civil War after World War II.
1941 World War II: British troops launch a general counter-offensive against Italian East Africa.
1941 World War II: British and Commonwealth troops capture Tobruk from Italian forces during Operation Compass.
1941 World War II: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, allying itself with the Axis powers.
1941 World War II: First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joined the Axis Pact.
1941 World War II: The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands.
1941 World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.
1941 World War II: The 99th Pursuit Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black unit of the Army Air Corp, is activated.
1941 World War II: Yugoslavian Air Force officers topple the pro-axis government in a bloodless coup.
1941 World War II: attle of Cape Matapan
1941 World War II: Nazi Germany launches Operation 25 (the invasion of Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and Operation Marita (the invasion of Greece).
1941 World War II: The Axis Powers in Europe establish the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić's Ustaše fascist insurgents in power.
1941 World War II: The Italian convoy ''Duisburg'', directed to Tunisia, is attacked and destroyed by British ships.
1941 World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
1941 World War II: The Greek government and King George II evacuate Athens before the invading Wehrmacht.
1941 World War II: German troops enter Athens.
1941 World War II: attle of Crete
1941 World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship ''Bismarck'' sinks the then pride of the Royal Navy, {{HMS|Hood|51|6}}, killing all but three crewmen.
1941 World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb on the Athenian Acropolis, tear down the Nazi swastika.
1941 World War II: Battle of Crete ends as Crete capitulates to Germany.
1941 World War II: Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
1941 World War II: peration Barbarossa
1941 World War II: German troops reach the Dnieper River.
1941 World War II: U.S. forces land in Iceland, taking over from an earlier British occupation.
1941 World War II: Montenegrins start a popular uprising against the Axis Powers (''Trinaestojulski ustanak'').
1941 World War II: in response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
1941 World War II: German troops reach Leningrad, leading to the siege of Leningrad.
1941 World War II: a German submarine makes the first attack against a United States ship, the {{USS|Greer|DD-145|6}}.
1941 World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins. German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.
1941 World War II: concerned that Reza Pahlavi the Shah of Persia is about to ally his petroleum-rich empire with Nazi Germany during World War II, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union invade Iran in late August and force the Shah to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
1941 World War II: concerned that Reza Pahlavi the Shah of Persia is about to ally his petroleum-rich empire with Nazi Germany during World War II, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union invade Iran in late August and force the Shah to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
1941 World War II: On Jewish New Year Day, the German SS murder 6,000 Jews in Vinnytsya, Ukraine. Those are the survivors of the previous killings that took place a few days earlier in which about 24,000 Jews were executed.
1941 World War II: The first gas chamber experiments are conducted at Auschwitz.
1941 World War II: Holocaust in Kiev, Ukraine: German Einsatzgruppe C begins the Babi Yar massacre, according to the Einsatzgruppen operational situation report.
1941 World War II: Holocaust in Kiev, Ukraine: German Einsatzgruppe C complete Babi Yar massacre.
1941 World War II: In Operation Typhoon, Germany begins an all-out offensive against Moscow.
1941 For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship.
1941 World War II: Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are killed in the Kragujevac massacre.
1941 World War II: French resistance member Guy Môquet and 29 other hostages are executed by the Germans in retaliation for the death of a German officer.
1941 World War II: Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov takes command of Red Army operations to prevent the further advance into Russia of German forces and to prevent the Wehrmacht from capturing Moscow.
1941 World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt approves U.S. $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Allied nations.
1941 World War II: Soviet hospital ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees and wounded military and staff of several Crimea’s hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people died in the sinking.
1941 World War II: Temperatures around Moscow drop to -12 ° C and the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
1941 World War II: The aircraft carrier {{HMS|Ark Royal|91|6}} is torpedoed by U 81, sinking the following day.
1941 World War II: Battle between HMAS ''Sydney'' and HSK ''Kormoran''. The two ships sink each other off the coast of Western Australia, with the loss of 645 Australians and about 77 German seamen.
1941 World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.
1941 World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol.
1941 World War II: In the Battle of Moscow Georgy Zhukov launches a massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army, with the biggest offensive launched against Army Group Centre.
1941 World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War.
1941 World War II: ttack on Pearl Harbor
1941 World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships {{HMS|Prince of Wales|53|6}} and {{HMS|Repulse|1916|6}} are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.
1941 World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans' declaration of war on Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declares war on Germany and Italy.
1941 World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.
1941 World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak
1941 World War II: Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.
1941 World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
1941 World War II: Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong.
1942 World War II: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
1942 World War II: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
1942 World War II: President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
1942 World War II: First use of aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
1942 World War II: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials decided on the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question", accelerating The Holocaust.
1942 World War II: The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand to the decision of war declaration against the United States and United Kingdom .
1942 World War II: The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
1942 World War II: Allied forces are defeated by the Japanese at the Battle of Malaya and retreat to the island of Singapore.
1942 World War II: Josef Terboven, Reichskommissar of German-occupied Norway, appoints Vidkun Quisling the Minister President of the National Government.
1942 World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
1942 The Battle of Bukit Timah is fought in Singapore during World War II.
1942 World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. The Sook Ching massacre begins.
1942 World War II: nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.
1942 Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
1942 World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable.
1942 World War II: During the Battle of the Java Sea, an allied strike force is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea in the Dutch East Indies
1942 World War II: Ten Japanese warplanes raid the town of Broome, Western Australia killing more than 100 people.
1942 World War II: The Dutch surrender to Japanese forces on Java.
1942 World War II: General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: "I came out of Bataan and I shall return".
1942 World War II: In the Mediterranean Sea, the Royal Navy confronts Italy's Regia Marina in the Second Battle of Sirte.
1942 World War II: In the Indian Ocean, Japanese forces capture the Andaman Islands.
1942 World War II: In Poland, the first female prisoners arrive at Auschwitz.
1942 World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
1942 World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.
1942 World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
1942 World War II: The Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy cruisers {{HMS|Cornwall|56|6}} and {{HMS|Dorsetshire|40|6}} are sunk southwest of the island.
1942 World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya bombed.
1942 World War II: In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.
1942 World War II: The most famous (and first international) Aggie Muster is held on the Philippine island of Corregidor, by Brigadier General George F. Moore (with 25 fellow Texas A&M graduates who are under his command), while 1.8 million pounds of shells pounded the island over a 5 hour attack.
1942 World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.
1942 World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier ''Yorktown'' on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.
1942 World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
1942 World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier {{USS|Lexington|CV-2|6}}. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
1942 World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov: in eastern Ukraine, Red Army forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launch a major offensive from the Izium bridgehead, only to be encircled and destroyed by the troops of Army Group South two weeks later.
1942 Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
1942 World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia.
1942 World War II: United States declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania.
1942 World War II: Battle of Midway. U.S. Navy dive bombers sink the Japanese cruiser Mikuma and four Japanese carriers.
1942 World War II: The Battle of Midway ends.
1942 World War II: first Battle of El Alamein.
1942 World War II: the Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jet engines for the first time.
1942 World War II: The first unit of the Women's Army Corps begins training in Des Moines, Iowa.
1942 World War II: Operation Edelweiss begins.
1942 World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into the Soviet Union. Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so were to be immediately executed.
1942 World War II: in Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs (Operation Pastorius) are executed.
1942 World War II: attle of Savo Island
1942 World War II: peration Pedestal
1942 World War II: The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash-lands in Daly City, California.
1942 World War II: peration Jubilee
1942 World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier ''Ryūjō'' is sunk and US carrier {{USS|Enterprise|CV-6|6}} heavily damaged.
1942 World War II: Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
1942 World War II: A Japanese floatplane drops an incendiary bomb on Oregon.
1942 World War II: RMS ''Laconia'', carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks with a heavy loss of life.
1942 World War II: Swiss Police Instruction of September 25, 1942 – this instruction denied entry into Switzerland to Jewish refugees.
1942 World War II: attle of Cape Esperance
1942 World War II: Japanese ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Gotō dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.
1942 World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier, ''Hornet'', is sunk and another aircraft carrier, ''Enterprise'', is heavily damaged.
1942 World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein ends – German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.
1942 World War II: peration Torch
1942 World War II: Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
1942 World War II: First flight of the Heinkel He 219.
1942 World War II: Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihać in northwestern Bosnia.
1942 World War II: Guadalcanal Campaign: Battle of Tassafaronga — A smaller squadron of Japanese destroyers led by Raizo Tanaka defeats a US cruiser force under Carleton H. Wright.
1942 World War II: Carlson's patrol during the Guadalcanal Campaign ends.
1943 World War II: Operation Ke, the successful Japanese operation to evacuate their forces from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign, begins.
1943 World War II: The Soviet counter-offensive at Voronezh begins.
1943 World War II: Troops of Montgomery's 8th Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German-Italian Panzer Army.
1943 World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
1943 World War II: The VIII Bomber Command dispatched ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-Boat construction yards at Wilhemshafen, Germany. The first American bombing attack on Germany.
1943 World War II: Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. The {{USS|Chicago|CA-29}} is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.
1943 German Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed 2 days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army, ending one of World War II's fiercest battles.
1943 World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to conclusion as Soviet troops accept the surrender of 91,000 remnants of the Axis forces.
1943 World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.
1943 World War II: The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in the South West Pacific comes to an end.
1943 World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
1943 World War II: The discovery of a mass grave of Polish prisoners of war executed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, alienating the Western Allies, the Polish government in exile in London, from the Soviet Union.
1943 World War II: Operation Mincemeat: The submarine {{HMS|Seraph|P219|6}} surfaces in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.
1943 World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
1943 World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the Normandy landings ("D-Day"). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather.
1943 World War II: An Allied invasion fleet sails for Sicily (Operation Husky, July 10, 1943).
1943 World War II: peration Husky
1943 World War II: attle of Prokhorovka
1943 World War II: Allied forces capture the Italian city of Palermo.
1943 World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
1943 World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
1943 World War II: the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 is rammed by the Japanese destroyer ''Amagiri'' and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.
1943 Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.
1943 World War II: in Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
1943 World War II: The German 17th Army begins its evacuation of the Kuban River bridgehead (Taman Peninsula) in southern Russia and moves across the Strait of Kerch to the Crimea.
1943 World War II: German troops occupy Corsica and Kosovo-Metohija.
1943 World War II: Naples falls to Allied soldiers.
1943 World War II: U.S. captures Solomon Islands.
1943 World War II: The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
1943 Prisoners at the Nazi German Sobibor extermination camp in Poland revolted against the Germans, killing eleven SS troops who were guards there, and wounding many more. About 300 of the Sobibor Camp's 600 prisoners escaped from this Nazi extermination camp, and about 50 of these survived past the end of World War II (on May 8, 1945, European time).
1943 World War II: Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, United States Marines, the 3rd Marine Division, land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
1943 World War II: ehran Conference
1943 World War II: German warship ''Scharnhorst'' is sunk off of Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.
1944 World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.
1944 World War II: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.
1944 World War II: The 900-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
1944 World War II: The Battle of Cisterna takes place in central Italy.
1944 World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1944 World War II: During Anzio campaign 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.
1944 World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.
1944 World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.
1944 World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy, begins.
1944 World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
1944 World War II: The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer led by American General Douglas MacArthur.
1944 World War II: Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that would last five days.
1944 World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie ''The Great Escape'', 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.
1944 World War II: First bombardment of Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians.
1944 World War II: Operation Persecution is initiated – Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.
1944 World War II: attle of Monte Cassino
1944 World War II: More than 1000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
1944 World War II: 99 civilians are hung from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.
1944 World War II: the Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941.
1944 World War II: Germany launches a counter attack on Carentan.
1944 World War II: Battle of Saipan: The United States invade Saipan.
1944 World War II: First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
1944 World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”.
1944 World War II: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in the Nordic Countries, begins.
1944 World War II: Napalm incendiary bombs are dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St. Lô, France.
1944 World War II: attle of Guam (1944)|Battle of Guam
1944 World War II: the Soviet army enters Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jews survive out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to occupation.
1944 World War II: American forces defeat the last Japanese troops on Guam.
1944 World War II: peration Dragoon
1944 WWII: 168 captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being "terror fliers", arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.
1944 World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.
1944 World War II: The first Allied troops of the U.S. Army cross the western border of Germany.
1944 World War II: Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city to be liberated by allied forces.
1944 World War II: Operation Market Garden fails.
1944 The Kassel Mission results in the largest loss by a USAAF group on any mission in World War II.
1944 World War II: The Japanese aircraft carrier ''Zuikaku'', and the battleship Musashi are sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
1944 The USS ''Tang'' under Richard O'Kane (the top American submarine captain of World War II) is sunk by the ship's own malfunctioning torpedo.
1944 World War II: 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.
1944 World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany.
1945 World War II: In retaliation for the Malmedy massacre, U.S. troops massacre 30 SS prisoners at Chenogne.
1945 World War II: Supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1945 World War II: The Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.
1945 World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
1945 World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army.
1945 World War II: Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
1945 World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten U.S. Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize and become the model for the national USMC War Memorial.
1945 World War II: Turkey declares war on Germany.
1945 World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
1945 World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
1945 World War II: Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna; Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.
1945 World War II: attle of Okinawa|Operation Iceberg
1945 World War II: American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany.
1945 World War II: Sarajevo is liberated from the German and Croatian Nazis by the Yugoslav Partisans.
1945 World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.
1945 World War II: US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
1945 World War II: attle of Bautzen (1945)|Battle of Bautzen
1945 World War II: The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
1945 World War II: Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the ''Reichstag'' building.
1945 World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
1945 World War II: Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, commits suicide while in Allied custody.
1945 World War II: liberation of the Philippines declared.
1945 World War II: the leaders of the three Allied nations, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, President of the United States Harry S Truman and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
1945 World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the {{USS|Indianapolis|CA-35|6}}, killing 883 seamen.
1945 World War II: Hiroshima is devastated when the atomic bomb "Little Boy" is dropped by the United States B-29 ''Enola Gay''. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.
1945 World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, ''Fat Man'', is dropped by the United States B-29 ''Bockscar''. 39,000 people are killed outright.
1945 Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan standard time).
1945 World War II: Australian 9th Division forces liberate the Japanese-run Batu Lintang camp, a POW and civilian internment camp on the island of Borneo.
1945 World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
1945 World War II: The former premier of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by a firing squad for treason.
1946 World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
1947 The American and British occupation zones in Germany, after the World War II, merge to form the Bizone, that later became the Federal Republic of Germany.
1948 In Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in World War II.
1949 A former sharpshooter in World War II, Howard Unruh kills 13 neighbors in Camden, New Jersey, with a souvenir Luger to become the first U.S. single-episode mass murderer.
1955 The Allied occupation of Austria stemming from World War II, ends.
1955 The Soviet battleship Novorossiisk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol.
1958 Memorial Day: the remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War respectively, are buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
1962 Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
1967 Vietnam War: off the coast of North Vietnam the {{USS|Forrestal|CV-59|6}} catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134.
1969 Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
1975 Miki Takeo makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.
1978 The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II.
1979 An IRA bomb kills British World War II admiral Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and 3 others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another bomb near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland kills 18 British soldiers.
1983 A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
1987 The U.S. Department of Justice bars the Austrian President Kurt Waldheim from entering the United States, saying he had aided in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews and others as a German Army officer during World War II.
1988 In Israel, John Demjanuk is sentenced to death for war crimes committed in World War II.
1988 Japanese American internment: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the United States during World War II.
1992 Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery (Comfort women) during World War II.
1993 EU - riots in Nørrebro, Copenhagen caused by the approval of the four Danish exceptions in the Maastricht Treaty referendum. Police opened fire against civilians for the first time since World War II and injured 11 demonstrators. In total 113 bullets are fired.
1999 Maurice Papon, an official in the Vichy France government during World War II, is jailed for crimes against humanity.
2001 War on Terrorism: In the first such act since World War II, US President George W. Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.
2005 The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II) is reconsecrated after a thirteen-year rebuilding project.