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Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra had his singing debut in Indianapolis (Tommy Dorsey Orchestra). -
McDonald’s
McDonald’s opened it’s first restaurant in San Bernardino, California. -
White Rose (Nazis)
Five people founded the “White Rose” movement, a German group that spoke out against Nazi genocidal policies. -
Invasion of Italy
Allied forces landed on the boot of Italy and slowly made their way up. After encountering heavy German resistance, the Italian government agreed to an armistice with the allies. Mussolini was placed under arrest by his successor, Badoglio, but he was “rescued” by his ally Hitler’s airborne commandos. Staying in Italy Mussolini became the head of the Salo Republic in German occupied Gargagno. On October 13th, Italy government declared war on Germany. -
D-Day
The battle of Normandy began on June 6th and lasted until August. 156,000 American, British, and Canadian forces landed on five beaches with a 50-mile stretch of France’s Normandy region. The invasion required extensive planning - it was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history. By late August, all of northern France was liberated, and next spring the Allies defeated the Germans. The landings have been called “the beginning of the end of war in Europe.” -
Korematsu v. United States
During the war, Presidential Executive Order 9066 and congressional statues gave the military the power to exclude/deny citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas considered critical to national defense. Korematsu remained in San Leandro, California, and violated the Civilian Exclusion order No. 34. The Supreme Court sided with the government and ruled that the needs to protect against espionage outweighed Korematsu’s rights. -
Kamikazes
During the battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese deployed kamikaze (“divine wind”) suicide bombers against US warships for the first time. Japanese naval Captain Motoharu Okamura said “I firmly believe that the only way to swing the war in our favor is to resort to crash-dive attacks with our planes.... There will be more than enough volunteers for this chance to save our country.” More than 5,000 kamikaze pilots died in the gulf battle alone. -
Hiroshima
During World War II, an American B-29 bomber dropped the first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
Nagasaki
Three days after Hiroshima, which wiped out 90% of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people, a second B-29 dropped another A-Bomb on Nagasaki. This bomb killed an estimated 40,000 people, and Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s surrender in the war. -
Red Scare
As the Cold War between the United States and three Soviet Union intensified, hysteria over the perceived threat by Communists in the US became known as the red scare. -
Billie Holiday
Jazz musician Billie Holiday is released from prison early because of good behavior. -
NATO
NATO, or North American Treaty Organization, was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered outside of the Western Hemisphere. The US president Harry S. Truman asserted that the US would provide economic and military aid to nations struggling against an attempt at subjugation. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact, signed in Warsaw, included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members. The treaty called on the member states to come to defense of any member attacked by an outside force and it set up a unified military command under Ivan S Konev of the Soviets.
