Events in History Relating to War
October 24, 69
Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus, the commander of the Danube armies, loyal to Vespasian, defeat the forces of Emperor Vitellius.
September 7, 70
A Roman army under General Titus occupies and plunders Jerusalem.
October 28, 312
Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine I defeats Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman Emperor.
September 28, 351
Battle of Mursa Major: the Roman Emperor Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius.
September 6, 394
Battle of the Frigidus: The Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius I defeats and kills the pagan usurper Eugenius and his Frankish magister militum Arbogast.
June 20, 451
Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.
September 20, 451
The Battle of Chalons takes place in North Eastern France. Flavius Aetius's victory over Attila the Hun in a day of combat, is considered to be the largest battle in the ancient world.
June 2, 455
The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks
September 27, 489
Odoacer attacks Theodoric at the Battle of Verona, and is defeated again.
May 20, 685
The Battle of Dunnichen or Nechtansmere is fought between a Pictish army under King Bridei III and the invading Northumbrians under King Ecgfrith, who are decisively defeated.
June 9, 721
Odo of Aquitaine defeats the Moors in the Battle of Toulouse.
March 28, 845
Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
November 22, 845
The first King of all Brittany, Nominoe defeats the Frankish king Charles the Bald at the Battle of Ballon near Redon.
January 4, 871
Battle of Reading: Ethelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish invasion army.
May 27, 927
Battle of the Bosnian Highlands: Croatian army, led by King Tomislav, defeats the Bulgarian Army.
January 23, 971
In China, the war elephant corps of the Southern Han are soundly defeated at Shao by crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops. The Southern Han state is forced to submit to the Song Dynasty, ending not only Southern Han rule, but also the first regular war elephant corps employed in a Chinese army that had gained the Southern Han victories throughout the 10th century.
October 18, 1009
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, is completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacks the Church's foundations down to bedrock.
September 25, 1066
The Battle of Stamford Bridge marks the end of the Viking Age in England.
October 23, 1086
At the Battle of az-Zallaqah, the army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin defeats the forces of Castilian King Alfonso VI.
October 30, 1137
Battle of Rignano between Ranulf of Apulia and Roger II of Sicily.
October 24, 1147
After a siege of 4 months crusader knights led by Afonso Henriques, reconquered Lisbon.
October 25, 1147
Seljuk Turks completely annihilate German crusaders under Conrad III at the Battle of Dorylaeum.
October 23, 1157
The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the civil war in Denmark. King Sweyn III is killed and Valdemar I restores the country.
September 12, 1213
Albigensian Crusade: Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, defeats Peter II of Aragon at the Battle of Muret.
May 20, 1217
The Second Battle of Lincoln is fought near Lincoln, England, resulting in the defeat of Prince Louis of France by William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke.
September 21, 1217
The Estonian tribal leader Lembitu of Lehola is killed in a battle against Teutonic Knights.
September 22, 1236
The Lithuanians and Semigallians defeat the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the Battle of Saule.
March 4, 1238
The Battle of the Sit River is fought in the northern part of the present-day Yaroslavl Oblast of Russia between the Mongol Hordes of Batu Khan and the Russians under Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal during the Mongol invasion of Russia.
July 15, 1240
A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes in the Battle of the Neva.
December 6, 1240
Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev under Danylo of Halych and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.
April 11, 1241
Batu Khan defeats Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Muhi.
April 5, 1242
During a battle on the ice of Lake Peipus, Russian forces, led by Alexander Nevsky, rebuff an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights.
November 23, 1248
Conquest of Seville by the Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile.
September 3, 1260
The Mamluks defeat the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine, marking their first decisive defeat and the point of maximum expansion of the Mongol Empire.
February 18, 1268
The Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakovor.
December 11, 1282
Llywelyn the Last, the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, south Wales.
April 27, 1296
Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England.
November 9, 1313
Louis the Bavarian defeats his cousin Frederick I of Austria at the Battle of Gamelsdorf.
June 24, 1340
Battle of Sluys: The French fleet is almost destroyed by the English Fleet commanded in person by Edward III of England.
August 26, 1346
the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.
November 1, 1348
The anti-royalist Union of Valencia attacks the Jews of Murviedro on the pretext that they are serfs of the King of Valencia and thus "royalists".
October 24, 1360
The Treaty of Brétigny is ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War.
October 4, 1363
End of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the Chinese rebel forces of Zhu Yuanzhang defeat that of his rival, Chen Youliang, in one of the largest naval battles in history.
September 29, 1364
Battle of Auray: English forces defeat the French in Brittany; end of the Breton War of Succession.
September 8, 1380
Battle of Kulikovo – Russian forces defeat a mixed army of Tatars and Mongols, stopping their advance.
June 15, 1389
Battle of Kosovo: The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbs and Bosnians.
September 11, 1390
Lithuanian Civil War (1389–1392): the Teutonic Knights begin a five-week siege of Vilnius.
September 25, 1396
Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I defeats a Christian army at the Battle of Nicopolis.
January 19, 1419
Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy.
June 7, 1420
Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.
July 31, 1423
Battle of Cravant – the French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
June 12, 1429
Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk in the second day of the Battle of Jargeau.
June 18, 1429
French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
May 23, 1430
Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.
May 30, 1431
in Rouen, France, 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by an English-dominated tribunal. Because of this the Catholic Church remember this day as the celebration of Saint Joan of Arc.
May 30, 1434
Hussite Wars (Bohemian Wars): Battle of Lipany – effectively ending the war, Utraquist forces led by Diviš Bořek of Miletínek defeat and almost annihilate Taborite forces led by Prokop the Great.
November 10, 1444
Battle of Varna: The crusading forces of King Vladislaus III of Varna (aka Ulaszlo I of Hungary and Wladyslaw III of Poland) are crushed by the Turks under Sultan Murad II and Vladislaus is killed.
October 17, 1448
Second Battle of Kosovo, where the mainly Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi is defeated by an Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II.
July 17, 1453
Battle of Castillon: The French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony.
February 4, 1454
In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
September 23, 1459
Battle of Blore Heath, the first major battle of the English Wars of the Roses, is fought at Blore Heath in Staffordshire.
July 10, 1460
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick defeats the king's Lancastrian forces and takes King Henry VI prisoner in the Battle of Northampton.
September 17, 1462
The Battle of Świecino (or Battle of Żarnowiec) is fought during Thirteen Years' War.
October 10, 1471
Battle of Brunkeberg in Stockholm: Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with the help of farmers and miners, repels an attack by Christian I, King of Denmark.
August 29, 1475
The Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between France and England.
November 26, 1476
Vlad III Dracula defeats Basarab Laiota with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Bathory and becomes the ruler of Wallachia for the third time.
October 8, 1480
Great standing on the Ugra river, a standoff between the forces of Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Great Horde, and the Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia, which results in the retreat of the Tataro-Mongols and the eventual disintegration of the Horde.
June 16, 1487
Battle of Stoke Field, the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses.
November 25, 1491
The siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, begins.
January 2, 1492
Reconquista: the emirate of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders.
September 9, 1493
Battle of Krbava field, a decisive defeat of Croats in Croatian struggle against the Ottoman Empire invasion.
February 3, 1509
The Battle of Diu, between Portugal and the Ottoman Empire takes place in Diu, India.
September 8, 1514
Battle of Orsha – in one of the biggest battles of the century, Lithuanians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
October 28, 1516
Battle of Yaunis Khan: Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeat the Mameluks near Gaza.
November 8, 1520
Stockholm Bloodbath begins: A successful invasion of Sweden by Danish forces results in the execution of around 100 people.
September 23, 1529
The Siege of Vienna begins as Suleiman I begins his attack on the city.
October 28, 1531
Battle of Amba Sel: Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi again defeats the army of Lebna Dengel, Emperor of Ethiopia. The southern part of Ethiopia falls under Imam Ahmad's control.
January 12, 1539
Treaty of Toledo signed by King Francis I of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
October 18, 1561
Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima – Takeda Shingen defeats Uesugi Kenshin in the climax of their ongoing conflicts.
September 8, 1565
The Knights of Malta lift the Turkish siege of Malta that started on May 18.
March 23, 1568
Peace of Longjumeau ends the Second War of Religion in France. Again Catherine de' Medici and Charles IX of France make substantial concessions to the Huguenots.
May 23, 1568
Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of Aremberg and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years' War.
July 21, 1568
Battle of Jemmingen – Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau.
April 1, 1572
In the Eighty Years' War, the Watergeuzen capture Brielle from the Spaniards, gaining the first foothold on land for what would become the Dutch Republic.
November 4, 1576
In Flanders, Spain captures Antwerp (after three days the city is nearly destroyed).
November 8, 1576
Pacification of Ghent – The States-General of the Netherlands meet and unite to oppose Spanish occupation.
May 12, 1588
French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry of Guise enters the city.
October 21, 1600
Tokugawa Ieyasu defeats the leaders of rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, which marks the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, who in effect rule Japan until the mid-nineteenth century.
September 27, 1605
The armies of Sweden are utterly defeated by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Battle of Kircholm.
April 25, 1607
The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar.
June 4, 1615
Siege of Osaka: Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan.
February 27, 1617
Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.
May 23, 1618
The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitates the Thirty Years' War.
June 10, 1619
Battle of Záblatí, a turning point in the Bohemian Revolt.
September 17, 1631
Sweden wins a major victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld against the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years War.
April 15, 1632
Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
November 6, 1632
Death of King Gustavus Adolphus the Great of Sweden in the Battle of Lützen during the Thirty Years War.
October 23, 1641
Outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 – anniversary commemorated by Irish Protestants for over 200 years.
October 23, 1642
Battle of Edgehill: First major battle of the First English Civil War.
November 13, 1642
First English Civil War: Battle of Turnham Green – the Royalist forces withdraw in the face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take London.
May 19, 1643
French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power.
July 13, 1643
Battle of Roundway Down – In England, Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, commanding the Royalist forces, wins a crushing victory over the Parliamentarian Sir William Waller.
September 1, 1644
Battle of Tippermuir, Montrose defeats Elcho's Covenanters, reviving Royalist cause.
June 14, 1645
Battle of Naseby – 12,000 Royalist forces are beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers.
August 3, 1645
Second Battle of Nördlingen (Battle of Allerheim) – A French army under the command of Louis de Bourbon, Duc d'Enghien and Marshal Henri, Vicomte de Turenne attacks and defeats an Imperial army, led by Field Marshal Franz Baron (Freiherr) von Mercy at Alerheim, near Nördlingen, Germany.
March 14, 1647
Bavaria, Cologne, France and Sweden sign the Truce of Ulm.
January 17, 1648
England's Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Addresses, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.
January 30, 1648
The Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück is signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain.
September 11, 1649
Siege of Drogheda ends: Oliver Cromwell's English Parliamentarian troops take the town and execute its garrison.
June 12, 1653
First Anglo-Dutch War: the Battle of the Gabbard begins and lasts until June 13.
August 29, 1655
Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge.
February 26, 1658
Treaty of Roskilde: After a devastating defeat in the Northern Wars (1655-1661), the King of Denmark-Norway is forced to give up nearly half his territory to Sweden to save the rest.
October 29, 1665
Battle of Ambuila, where Portuguese forces defeated the forces of the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitated king Antonio I of Kongo, also called Nvita a Nkanga.
June 9, 1667
The Raid on the Medway by the Dutch fleet begins. It lasts for five days and results in a decisive victory by the Dutch over the English in the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
September 6, 1669
The siege of Candia ends with the Venetian fortress surrendering to the Ottomans.
September 27, 1669
The Venetians surrender the fortress of Candia to the Ottomans, thus ending the 21-year long Siege of Candia.
April 29, 1672
Franco-Dutch War: Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
November 11, 1673
Second Battle of Khotyn in Ukraine, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under the command of Jan Sobieski. defeat the Ottoman army. In this battle, rockets of Kazimierz Siemienowicz are successfully used.
February 19, 1674
England and the Netherlands sign the Peace of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.
November 10, 1674
Anglo-Dutch War: As provided in the Treaty of Westminster, Netherlands cedes New Netherlands to England.
November 2, 1675
A combined attack by the Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies attacks the Great Swamp Fort, owned by the Narragansetts during King Philip's War.
December 4, 1676
Battle of Lund: A Danish army under the command of King Christian V of Denmark engages the Swedish army commanded by Field Marshal Simon Grundel-Helmfelt.
September 12, 1683
Austro-Ottoman War: Battle of Vienna – several European armies join forces to defeat the Ottoman Empire.
October 3, 1683
The Qing Dynasty naval commander Shi Lang reaches Taiwan (under the Kingdom of Tungning) to receive the formal surrender of Zheng Keshuang and Liu Guoxuan after the Battle of Penghu.
September 26, 1687
The city council of Amsterdam votes to support William of Orange's invasion of England, which became the Glorious Revolution.
October 4, 1693
Battle of Marsaglia: Piedmontese troops are defeated by the French.
September 20, 1697
The Treaty of Rijswijk is signed by France, England, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic ending the Nine Years' War (1688–97).
February 29, 1704
Queen Anne's War: French forces and Native Americans stage a raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 100 men, women, and children.
February 3, 1706
During the Battle of Fraustadt Swedish forces defeat a superior Saxon-Polish-Russian force by deploying a double envelopment.
September 11, 1708
Charles XII of Sweden stops his march to conquer Moscow outside Smolensk, marking the turning point in the Great Northern War. The army is defeated nine months later in the Battle of Poltava, and the Swedish empire is no longer a major power.
June 27, 1709
Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava.
September 11, 1709
Battle of Malplaquet: Great Britain, Netherlands and Austria fight against France.
February 28, 1710
In the Battle of Helsingborg, 14,000 Danish invaders under Jørgen Rantzau are decisively defeated by an equally sized Swedish force under Magnus Stenbock.
July 27, 1720
The second important victory of the Russian Navy – the Battle of Grengam.
March 8, 1722
The Safavid Empire, ruling the once powerful Persian Empire, is defeated by an army from Afghanistan in The Battle of Gulnabad, pushing Persia into anarchy.
September 18, 1739
The Treaty of Belgrade is signed, ceding Belgrade to the Ottoman Empire.
June 16, 1745
Sir William Pepperell captures the French Fortress Louisbourg in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia during the War of the Austrian Succession.
September 21, 1745
Battle of Prestonpans: A Hanoverian army under the command of Sir John Cope is defeated, in ten minutes, by the Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart
December 4, 1745
Charles Edward Stewart's army reaches Derby, its furthest point during the second Jacobite rising.
October 25, 1747
British fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke defeats the French at the second battle of Cape Finisterre.
October 18, 1748
Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.
May 6, 1757
Battle of Prague – A Prussian army fights an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War.
November 5, 1757
Frederick the Great defeats the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire in the Battle of Rossbach.
December 5, 1757
Battle of Leuthen – Frederick II of Prussia leads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.
May 21, 1758
Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
June 23, 1758
Battle of Krefeld – British forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany.
July 25, 1758
the island battery at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia is silenced and all French warships are destroyed or taken.
August 25, 1758
Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
August 15, 1760
Battle of Liegnitz – Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians under Ernst von Laudon.
December 16, 1761
After four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kolobrzeg.
October 6, 1762
conclusion of the Battle of Manila between Britain and Spain, which resulted in the British occupation of Manila for the rest of the war.
May 16, 1771
The Battle of Alamance, a pre-American Revolutionary War battle between local militia and a group of rebels called "The Regulators", occurs in present-day Alamance County, North Carolina.
July 21, 1774
Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774: Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending the war.
October 26, 1775
King George III went before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorized a military response to quell the American Revolution.
December 5, 1775
At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
September 3, 1777
Cooch's Bridge – Skirmish of American Revolutionary war in New Castle County, Delaware where the Flag of the United States is flown in battle for the first time.
September 19, 1777
First Battle of Saratoga/Battle of Freeman's Farm/Battle of Bemis Heights.
May 13, 1779
War of Bavarian Succession: Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiate an end to the war. In the agreement Austria receives the part of its territory that was taken from them (the Innviertel).
October 16, 1780
Royalton, Vermont and Tunbridge, Vermont are the last major raids of the American Revolutionary War.
January 1, 1781
1,500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey as part of the Pennsylvania (Continentals; Regiment) Mutiny of 1781.
September 28, 1781
American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War.
April 15, 1783
Preliminary articles of peace ending Revolutionary War ratified.
April 18, 1783
Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.
October 1, 1787
Russians under Alexander Suvorov defeat the Turks at Kinburn.
July 9, 1790
Russo-Swedish War: Second Battle of Svensksund – in the Baltic Sea, the Swedish Navy captures one third of the Russian fleet.
October 22, 1790
Miami warriors under Chief Little Turtle defeat United States troops under General Josiah Harmar at the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the Northwest Indian War.
September 20, 1792
French troops stop allied invasion of France, during the War of the First Coalition at Valmy.
June 30, 1794
Native American forces under Blue Jacket attack Fort Recovery.
October 24, 1795
Partitions of Poland: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is completely divided among Austria, Prussia, and Russia
February 16, 1804
First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia (1799).
December 26, 1806
Battles of Pultusk and Golymin: Russian forces hold French forces under Napoleon.
June 19, 1807
Admiral Dmitry Senyavin destroys the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Athos.
May 2, 1808
Outbreak of the Peninsular War: The people of Madrid rise up in rebellion against French occupation. Francisco de Goya later memorializes this event in his painting The Second of May 1808.
May 3, 1808
The Madrid rebels who rose up on May 2 are fired upon near Príncipe Pío hill.
September 13, 1808
Finnish War: In the Battle of Jutas, Swedish forces under Lieutenant General Georg Carl von Döbeln beat the Russians, making von Döbeln a Swedish war hero.
April 20, 1809
Two Austrian army corps in Bavaria are defeated by a First French Empire army led by Napoleon I of France at the Battle of Abensberg on the second day of a four day campaign which ended in a French victory.
July 28, 1809
Battle of Talavera: Sir Arthur Wellesley's British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeats a French force under Joseph Bonaparte.
September 16, 1810
With the Grito de Dolores, Father Miguel Hidalgo begins Mexico's fight for independence from Spain
May 16, 1811
Peninsular War – The allies Spain, Portugal and Britain, defeat the French at the Battle of Albuera.
November 7, 1811
Tecumseh's War: The Battle of Tippecanoe is fought near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana, United States.
January 19, 1812
After a ten day siege, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, orders British soldiers of the Light and third divisions to storm Ciudad Rodrigo.
April 6, 1812
British forces assault the fortress of Badajoz under the command of the Duke of Wellington. This would be the turning point in the Peninsular War against Napoleon led France.
June 1, 1812
U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.
June 18, 1812
The U.S. Congress declares war on the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
June 23, 1812
Great Britain revokes the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war.
July 12, 1812
The United States invades Canada at Windsor, Ontario.
July 22, 1812
Peninsular War – Battle of Salamanca – British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeat French troops near Salamanca, Spain.
August 16, 1812
American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
August 19, 1812
American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning her nickname "Old Ironsides".
September 5, 1812
The Siege of Fort Wayne begins when Chief Winamac's forces attack two soldiers returning from the fort's outhouses.
September 13, 1812
A supply wagon sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.
September 15, 1812
A second supply train sent to relieve Fort Harrison is ambushed in the Attack at the Narrows.
October 9, 1812
In a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships: HMS Detroit and HMS Caledonia.
October 13, 1812
Battle of Queenston Heights – As part of the Niagara campaign in Ontario, Canada, United States forces under General Stephen Van Rensselaer are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock.
December 17, 1812
U.S. forces attack a friendly Lenape village in the Battle of the Mississinewa.
April 27, 1813
United States troops capture the capital of Upper Canada, York (present day Toronto, Canada).
May 27, 1813
In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.
June 6, 1813
Battle of Stoney Creek – A British force of 700 under John Vincent defeats an American force three times its size under William Winder and John Chandler.
July 5, 1813
Three weeks of British raids on Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Plattsburgh, New York begin.
September 11, 1813
British troops arrive in Mount Vernon and prepare to march to Washington D.C. to invade it.(The War of 1812)
October 25, 1813
Canadians and Mohawks defeat the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay.
March 27, 1814
In central Alabama, U.S. forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat the Creek at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend.
July 5, 1814
Battle of Chippawa – American Major General Jacob Brown defeats British General Phineas Riall at Chippawa, Ontario.
July 24, 1814
General Phineas Riall advances toward the Niagara River to halt Jacob Brown's American invaders.
July 25, 1814
Battle of Lundy's Lane – reinforcements arrive near Niagara Falls for General Riall's British and Canadian forces and a bloody, all-night battle with Jacob Brown's Americans commences at 18.00; the Americans retreat to Fort Erie.
September 11, 1814
The climax of the Battle of Plattsburgh, a major United States victory in the War of 1812.
January 8, 1815
Battle of New Orleans – Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
June 19, 1821
Decisive defeat of the Philikí Etaireía by the Ottomans at Drăgăşani (in Wallachia).
December 9, 1824
Patriot forces led by General Antonio José de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.
October 1, 1827
The Russian army under Ivan Paskevich storms Yerevan, ending a millennium of Muslim domination in Armenia.
September 14, 1829
Ottoman Empire signs the Treaty of Adrianople with Russia, thus ending the Russo-Turkish War.
February 14, 1831
Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.
February 16, 1838
Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus.
December 16, 1838
Battle of Blood River: Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius combat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
February 7, 1842
Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
May 8, 1846
The Battle of Palo Alto – Zachary Taylor defeats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war.
May 23, 1846
President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declares war on the United States.
July 7, 1846
American troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the United States conquest of California.
February 22, 1847
The Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops drive off 15,000 Mexicans.
February 23, 1847
Battle of Buena Vista – In Mexico, American troops under General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
March 9, 1847
The first large-scale amphibious assault in U.S. history is launched in the Siege of Veracruz
March 29, 1847
United States forces led by General Winfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.
September 13, 1847
Six teenage military cadets known as Niños Héroes die defending Chapultepec Castle in the Battle of Chapultepec. American General Winfield Scott captures Mexico City in the Mexican-American War.
March 10, 1848
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican-American War.
May 19, 1848
Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for $15 million USD.
September 29, 1848
Battle of Pákozd: Hungarian forces defeat Croats at Pákozd; the first battle of the War of Independence.
March 22, 1849
The Austrians defeat the Piedmontese at the Battle of Novara.
November 24, 1850
Danish troops defeat a Schleswig-Holstein force in the town of Lottorf, Schleswig-Holstein.
November 30, 1853
Battle of Sinop — The Imperial Russian Navy under Pavel Nakhimov destroys the Ottoman fleet under Osman Pasha at Sinop, a sea port in northern Turkey.
March 30, 1855
Origins of the American Civil War: Bleeding Kansas – "Border Ruffians" from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.
September 20, 1857
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 ends with the recapture of Delhi by troops loyal to the East India Company.
November 16, 1857
Second relief of Lucknow. The most Victoria Crosses won in a single day with 24.
September 21, 1860
In the Second Opium War, an Anglo-French force defeats Chinese troops at the Battle of Baliqiao.
January 9, 1861
The "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina. It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War".
January 9, 1861
Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War.
January 18, 1861
American Civil War – Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in seceding from the United States.
February 4, 1861
In Montgomery, Alabama, Delegates from six break-away U.S. states meet and form The Confederate States of America.
February 9, 1861
Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
February 11, 1861
United States House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.
March 11, 1861
The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.
April 12, 1861
The war begins with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
April 19, 1861
Baltimore riot of 1861, a pro-Secession mob in Baltimore, Maryland, attacks United States Army troops marching through the city.
April 20, 1861
Robert E. Lee resigns his commission in the United States Army in order to command the forces of the state of Virginia.
April 29, 1861
Maryland's House of Delegates votes not to secede from the Union.
May 6, 1861
Richmond, Virginia is declared the new capital of the Confederate States of America.
May 8, 1861
Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.
May 13, 1861
Queen Victoria of Britain issues a "proclamation of neutrality" which recognizes the breakaway states as having belligerent rights.
May 20, 1861
The state of Kentucky proclaims its neutrality, which will last until September 3 when Confederate forces enter the state.
June 3, 1861
Battle of Philippi (also called the Philippi Races) – Union forces rout Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia, now West Virginia, in first land battle of the War.
July 21, 1861
First Battle of Bull Run – at Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins. The Confederate won.
July 25, 1861
the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
July 26, 1861
George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.
August 5, 1861
In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levies the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).
August 10, 1861
Battle of Wilson's Creek – the war enters Missouri when a band of raw Confederate troops defeat Union forces in the southwestern part of the state.
August 29, 1861
US Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
September 3, 1861
Confederate General Leonidas Polk invades neutral Kentucky, prompting the state legislature to ask for Union assistance.
September 6, 1861
Forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant bloodlessly capture Paducah, Kentucky, which gives the Union control of the mouth of the Tennessee River.
October 9, 1861
Battle of Santa Rosa Island – Union troops repel a Confederate attempt to capture Fort Pickens.
October 21, 1861
Battle of Ball's Bluff – Union forces under Colonel Edward Baker are defeated by Confederate troops in the second major battle of the war. Baker, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, is killed in the fighting.
October 31, 1861
Citing failing health, Union General Winfield Scott resigns as Commander of the United States Army.
November 1, 1861
US President Abraham Lincoln appoints George B. McClellan as the commander of the Union Army, replacing the aged General Winfield Scott.
November 2, 1861
Western Department Union General John C. Fremont is relieved of command and replaced by David Hunter.
November 6, 1861
Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.
November 7, 1861
Battle of Belmont: In Belmont, Missouri, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant overrun a Confederate camp but are forced to retreat when Confederate reinforcements arrive.
November 8, 1861
The "Trent Affair" – The USS San Jacinto stops the United Kingdom mail ship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the UK and US.
November 21, 1861
Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin secretary of war.
December 9, 1861
The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
December 10, 1861
the Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
December 26, 1861
The Trent Affair: Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and Britain.
January 19, 1862
Battle of Mill Springs – The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.
February 6, 1862
Ulysses S. Grant gives the United States its first victory of the war, by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee, known as the Battle of Fort Henry.
March 7, 1862
Union forces defeat Confederate troops at Pea Ridge in northwestern Arkansas.
March 8, 1862
The iron-clad CSS Virginia (formerly USS Merrimack) is launched at Hampton Roads, Virginia.
March 9, 1862
The USS Monitor and CSS Virginia fight to a draw in the Battle of Hampton Roads, the first fight between two ironclad warships.
March 13, 1862
The U.S. federal government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.
March 28, 1862
Battle of Glorieta Pass – in New Mexico, Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle began on March 26.
April 6, 1862
The Battle of Shiloh begins – in Tennessee, forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant meet Confederate troops led by General Albert Sidney Johnston.
April 7, 1862
Battle of Shiloh ends – the Union Army under General Ulysses S. Grant defeats the Confederates near Shiloh, Tennessee.
April 16, 1862
A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia becomes law.
April 24, 1862
A flotilla commanded by Union Admiral David Farragut passes two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River on its way to capture New Orleans, Louisiana.
April 25, 1862
Forces under Union Admiral David Farragut capture the Confederate city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
April 28, 1862
Admiral David Farragut captures New Orleans, Louisiana.
April 29, 1862
New Orleans, Louisiana falls to Union forces under Admiral David Farragut.
May 5, 1862
Cinco de Mayo in Mexico: troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla.
May 11, 1862
The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia.
May 31, 1862
American Civil War Peninsula Campaign: Battle of Seven Pines or (Battle of Fair Oaks) – Confederate forces under Joseph E. Johnston & G. W. Smith engage Union forces under George B. McClellan outside Richmond, Virginia.
June 1, 1862
American Civil War, Peninsula Campaign: Battle of Seven Pines (or the Battle of Fair Oaks) ends inconclusively, with both sides claiming victory.
June 4, 1862
Confederate troops evacuate Fort Pillow on the Mississippi River, leaving the way clear for Union troops to take Memphis, Tennessee.
June 6, 1862
Battle of Memphis – Union forces capture Memphis, Tennessee, from the Confederates.
June 8, 1862
Battle of Cross Keys – Confederate forces under General Stonewall Jackson save the Army of Northern Virginia from a Union assault on the James Peninsula led by General George B. McClellan.
July 1, 1862
The Battle of Malvern Hill takes place, the final battle in the Seven Days Campaign, part of the George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.
July 16, 1862
David Farragut becomes the first United States Navy rear admiral.
August 5, 1862
Battle of Baton Rouge – along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Confederate troops drive Union forces back into the city.
August 6, 1862
the Confederate ironclad CSS Arkansas is scuttled on the Mississippi River after suffering damage in a battle with USS Essex near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
August 9, 1862
Battle of Cedar Mountain – At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.
August 17, 1862
Major General JEB Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
August 28, 1862
Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the battle of Second Manassas.
August 30, 1862
Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout a Union army under General Horatio Wright.
September 1, 1862
Battle of Chantilly – Confederate forces attack retreating Union troops in Chantilly, Virginia.
September 2, 1862
President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union General George B. McClellan to full command after General John Pope's disastrous defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
September 4, 1862
Civil War Maryland Campaign General Lee takes the Army of Northern Virginia, and the war, into the North.
September 5, 1862
the Potomac River is crossed at White's Ford in the Maryland Campaign.
September 13, 1862
Union soldiers find a copy of Robert E. Lee's battle plans in a field outside Frederick, Maryland. It is the prelude to the Battle of Antietam.
September 14, 1862
The Battle of South Mountain, part of the Maryland Campaign, is fought.
September 17, 1862
George B. McClellan halts the northward drive of Robert E. Lee's Confederate army in the single-day Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history.
September 17, 1862
The Allegheny Arsenal explosion results in the single largest civilian disaster during the war.
September 19, 1862
Battle of Iuka – Union troops under General William Rosecrans defeat a Confederate force commanded by General Sterling Price.
October 8, 1862
Battle of Perryville – Union forces under General Don Carlos Buell halt the Confederate invasion of Kentucky by defeating troops led by General Braxton Bragg at Perryville, Kentucky.
October 11, 1862
In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and his men loot Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.
November 5, 1862
Abraham Lincoln removes George B. McClellan as commander of the Union Army for the second and final time.
November 9, 1862
Union General Ambrose Burnside assumes command of the Army of the Potomac, after George B. McClellan is removed.
November 14, 1862
President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside's plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg.
November 28, 1862
In the Battle of Cane Hill, Union troops under General John Blunt defeat General John Marmaduke's Confederates.
December 13, 1862
At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the Union Major General Ambrose E. Burnside.
December 17, 1862
General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
December 18, 1862
In the Battle of Lexington, General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats a Union force under Colonel Robert Ingersoll.
December 31, 1862
Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.
January 1, 1863
The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.
January 11, 1863
Battle of Arkansas Post – General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.
January 26, 1863
General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.
January 26, 1863
Massachusetts Governor receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.
April 16, 1863
The Siege of Vicksburg – ships led by Union Admiral David Dixon Porter move through heavy Confederate artillery fire on approach to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
April 22, 1863
Grierson's Raid begins – troops under Union Army Colonel Benjamin Grierson attack central Mississippi.
May 2, 1863
Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia eight days later.
May 4, 1863
The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with a Union retreat.
May 6, 1863
The Battle of Chancellorsville ends with the defeat of the Army of the Potomac by Confederate troops.
May 10, 1863
Confederate General Stonewall Jackson dies eight days after he is accidentally shot by his own troops during the American Civil War.
May 12, 1863
Battle of Raymond: two divisions of James B. McPherson's XVII Corps (ACW) turn the left wing of Confederate General John C. Pemberton's defensive line on Fourteen Mile Creek, opening up the interior of Mississippi to the Union Army during the Vicksburg Campaign.
May 21, 1863
Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
May 23, 1863
Sergeant William Harvey Carney becomes the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner.
May 27, 1863
First Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson.
May 28, 1863
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first African American regiment, leaves Boston, Massachusetts, to fight for the Union.
June 14, 1863
Battle of Second Winchester – a Union garrison is defeated by the Army of Northern Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley town of Winchester, Virginia.
June 14, 1863
Second Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson during the American Civil War.
June 17, 1863
Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War.
July 18, 1863
Battle of Fort Wagner/Morris Island – the first formal African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, fails in their assault on Confederate-held Battery Wagner.
July 19, 1863
Morgan's Raid – At Buffington Island in Ohio, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid into the north is mostly thwarted when a large group of his men are captured while trying to escape across the Ohio River.
July 26, 1863
Morgan's Raid ends – At Salineville, Ohio, Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his volunteers are captured by Union forces.
August 8, 1863
following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which is refused upon receipt).
August 17, 1863
In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.
September 6, 1863
Confederates evacuate Battery Wagner and Morris Island in South Carolina.
September 8, 1863
Second Battle of Sabine Pass – on the Texas-Louisiana border at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas.
October 14, 1863
Battle of Bristoe Station – Confederate General Robert E. Lee forces fail to drive the Union Army out of Virginia.
October 15, 1863
The CSS H. L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink a ship, sinks during a test, killing its inventor, Horace L. Hunley.
October 29, 1863
Battle of Wauhatchie – forces under Union General Ulysses S. Grant ward off a Confederate attack led by General James Longstreet. Union forces thus open a supply line into Chattanooga, Tennessee.
November 16, 1863
Battle of Campbell's Station near Knoxville, Tennessee. Confederate troops unsuccessfully attack Union forces.
November 17, 1863
Siege of Knoxville begins – Confederate forces led by General James Longstreet place Knoxville, Tennessee under siege.
November 19, 1863
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the military cemetery ceremony at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
November 23, 1863
Battle of Chattanooga begins – Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant reinforce troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee and counter-attack Confederate troops.
November 24, 1863
Battle of Lookout Mountain – Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant capture Lookout Mountain and begin to break the Confederate siege of the city led by General Braxton Bragg.
November 25, 1863
Battle of Missionary Ridge – At Missionary Ridge in Tennessee, Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant break the Siege of Chattanooga by routing Confederate troops under General Braxton Bragg.
November 26, 1863
Mine Run – Union forces under General George Meade position against troops led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
November 27, 1863
Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and several of his men escape the Ohio Penitentiary and return safely to the South.
December 16, 1863
Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Army of Tennessee.
February 17, 1864
The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.
February 20, 1864
Battle of Olustee occurs – the largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
February 27, 1864
The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.
February 29, 1864
Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid fails – plans to free 15,000 Union soldiers being held near Richmond, Virginia are thwarted.
March 10, 1864
The Red River Campaign begins as Union troops reach Alexandria, Louisiana.
April 8, 1864
Battle of Mansfield – Union forces are thwarted by the Confederate army at Mansfield, Louisiana.
April 12, 1864
The Fort Pillow massacre: Confederate forces kill most African American soldiers that surrendered at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
April 17, 1864
The Battle of Plymouth begins – Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina.
May 5, 1864
The Battle of the Wilderness begins in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.
May 7, 1864
The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards.
May 10, 1864
Colonel Emory Upton leads a 10-regiment "Attack-in-depth" assault against the Confederate works at The Battle of Spotsylvania, which, though ultimately unsuccessful, would provide the idea for the massive assault against the Bloody Angle on May 12. Upton is wounded slightly but immediately is promoted to Brigadier general.
May 12, 1864
the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die in "the Bloody Angle".
May 13, 1864
Battle of Resaca – the battle begins with Union General Sherman fighting toward Atlanta, Georgia.
May 15, 1864
Battle of New Market, Virginia – students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate Army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley.
May 20, 1864
Battle of Ware Bottom Church – in the Virginia Bermuda Hundred Campaign, 10,000 troops fight in this Confederate victory.
May 21, 1864
Russia declares an end to the Russian-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning.
May 31, 1864
American Civil War Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor – The Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee engages the Army of the Potomac under Ulysses S. Grant & George G. Meade.
June 3, 1864
Battle of Cold Harbor – Union forces attack Confederate troops in Hanover County, Virginia.
June 5, 1864
Battle of Piedmont: Union forces under General David Hunter defeat a Confederate army at Piedmont, Virginia, taking nearly 1,000 prisoners.
June 10, 1864
Battle of Brice's Crossroads – Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi.
June 12, 1864
American Civil War, Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor – Ulysses S. Grant gives the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee a victory when he pulls his Union troops from their positions at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.
June 15, 1864
Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.81 km2) around Arlington Mansion (formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee) are officially set aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
July 11, 1864
Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C..
July 20, 1864
Battle of Peachtree Creek – Near Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attack Union troops under General William T. Sherman.
July 22, 1864
Battle of Atlanta – outside Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill.
July 24, 1864
Battle of Kernstown – Confederate General Jubal Anderson Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley.
July 28, 1864
Battle of Ezra Church: Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.
July 29, 1864
Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC.
July 30, 1864
Battle of the Crater – Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
August 5, 1864
the Battle of Mobile Bay begins – at Mobile Bay near Mobile, Alabama, Admiral David Farragut leads a Union flotilla through Confederate defenses and seals one of the last major Southern ports.
August 17, 1864
Battle of Gainesville – Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida.
August 18, 1864
Battle of Globe Tavern – Union forces try to cut a vital Confederate supply-line into Petersburg, Virginia, by attacking the Weldon Railroad.
August 31, 1864
During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launch an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.
September 1, 1864
Confederate General John Bell Hood evacuates Atlanta, Georgia after a four-month siege by General Sherman.
September 2, 1864
Union forces enter Atlanta, Georgia a day after the Confederate defenders flee the city.
September 7, 1864
Atlanta, Georgia, is evacuated on orders of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.
October 2, 1864
Battle of Saltville – Union forces attack Saltville, Virginia, but are defeated by Confederate troops.
October 7, 1864
Battle of Darbytown Road: the Confederate forces' attempt to regain ground that had been lost around Richmond is thwarted.
October 7, 1864
U.S.S. "Wachusett" captures the C.S.S. "Florida" Confederate raider ship while in port in Bahia, Brazil.
October 9, 1864
Battle of Tom's Brook – Union cavalrymen in the Shenandoah Valley defeat Confederate forces at Tom's Brook, Virginia.
October 15, 1864
The Battle of Glasgow is fought, resulting in the surrender of Glasgow, Missouri, and its Union garrison, to the Confederacy.
October 19, 1864
Battle of Cedar Creek – Union Army under Philip Sheridan destroys Confederate Army under Jubal Early.
October 23, 1864
Battle of Westport – Union forces under General Samuel R. Curtis defeat Confederate troops led by General Sterling Price at Westport, near Kansas City.
October 28, 1864
Second Battle of Fair Oaks ends – Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant withdraw from Fair Oaks, Virginia, after failing to breach the Confederate defenses around Richmond, Virginia.
October 30, 1864
Second war of Schleswig ends. Denmark renounces all claim to Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg, which come under Prussian and Austrian administration.
November 4, 1864
Battle of Johnsonville – Confederate troops bombard a Union supply base and destroy millions of dollars in material.
November 11, 1864
Sherman's March to the Sea – Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins burning Atlanta, Georgia to the ground in preparation for his march south.
November 15, 1864
Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta, Georgia and starts Sherman's March to the Sea.
November 22, 1864
Sherman's March to the Sea: Confederate General John Bell Hood invades Tennessee in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Union General William T. Sherman from Georgia.
November 25, 1864
A group of Confederate operatives calling themselves the Confederate Army of Manhattan starts fires in more than 20 locations in an unsuccessful attempt to burn down New York City.
November 29, 1864
Battle of Spring Hill – Confederate advance into Tennessee misses opportunity to crush Union army. Gen. Hood angered, leads to Battle of Franklin.
November 30, 1864
Battle of Franklin — The Army of Tennessee led by General John Bell Hood mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions commanded by John McAllister Schofield around Franklin, Tennessee (Hood lost six generals and almost a third of his troops).
December 4, 1864
Sherman's March to the Sea – At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General William T. Sherman's campaign destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to the Atlantic Ocean from Atlanta, Georgia. Union forces did suffer more than three times the Confederate casualties, however.
December 10, 1864
Sherman's March to the Sea – Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach Savannah, Georgia.
December 15, 1864
In the Battle of Nashville, Union forces under George H. Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of Tennessee under John B. Hood.
December 16, 1864
Franklin-Nashville Campaign – Battle of Nashville – Major General George H. Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.
December 22, 1864
Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "March to the Sea".
January 15, 1865
American Civil War – Fort Fisher North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy.
February 17, 1865
Columbia, South Carolina is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
March 2, 1865
East Cape War: The Volkner Incident in New Zealand.
March 13, 1865
The Confederate States of America agree to the use of African American troops.
March 16, 1865
The Battle of Averasborough begins as Confederate forces suffer irreplaceable casualties in the final months of the war.
March 18, 1865
The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.
March 19, 1865
The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina.
March 25, 1865
In Virginia, Confederate forces temporarily capture Fort Stedman from the Union in a bloody battle.
April 1, 1865
Battle of Five Forks – In Siege of Petersburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee begins his final offensive.
April 2, 1865
The Siege of Petersburg is broken – Union troops capture the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia, forcing Confederate General Robert E. Lee to retreat.
April 2, 1865
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and most of his Cabinet flee the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
April 3, 1865
Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.
April 4, 1865
A day after Union forces capture Richmond, Virginia, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln visits the Confederate capital.
April 6, 1865
The Battle of Sayler's Creek – Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fights its last major battle while in retreat from Richmond, Virginia.
April 9, 1865
Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the war.
April 10, 1865
A day after his surrender to Union forces, Confederate General Robert E. Lee addresses his troops for the last time.
April 26, 1865
Confederate General Joseph Johnston surrenders his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman at the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina.
May 10, 1865
Jefferson Davis is captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
May 10, 1865
In Kentucky, Union soldiers ambush and mortally wound Confederate raider William Quantrill, who lingers until his death on June 6.
May 12, 1865
the Battle of Palmito Ranch: the first day of the last major land action to take place during the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory.
May 13, 1865
Battle of Palmito Ranch – in far south Texas, more than a month after Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender, the last land battle of the Civil War ends with a Confederate victory.
May 26, 1865
Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.
June 23, 1865
At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie surrenders the last significant rebel army.
July 7, 1865
four conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln are hanged.
November 6, 1865
CSS Shenandoah is the last Confederate combat unit to surrender after circumnavigating the globe on a cruise on which it sank or captured 37 vessels.
November 10, 1865
Major Henry Wirz, the superintendent of a prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia, is hanged, becoming the only American Civil War soldier executed for war crimes.
April 6, 1866
The Grand Army of the Republic, an American patriotic organization composed of Union veterans of the American Civil War, is founded. It lasts until 1956.
July 3, 1866
Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria.
July 24, 1866
Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. State to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.
August 20, 1866
President Andrew Johnson formally declares the American Civil War over.
May 14, 1868
Japanese Boshin War: end of the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle, former Shogunate forces withdraw northward to Aizu by way of Nikkō.
August 16, 1869
Battle of Acosta Ñu: A Paraguay battalion made up of children is massacred by the Brazilian Army during the War of the Triple Alliance.
August 5, 1870
the Battle of Spicheren is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
August 6, 1870
Battle of Wœrth is fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory.
August 16, 1870
The Battle of Mars-La-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory.
September 1, 1870
Battle of Sedan is fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory.
September 2, 1870
Battle of Sedan – Prussian forces take French Emperor Napoleon III and 100,000 of his soldiers prisoner.
September 3, 1870
the Siege of Metz begins, which will result in a decisive Prussian victory on October 23.
September 19, 1870
the Siege of Paris begins, which will result on January 28, 1871 in the surrender of Paris and a decisive Prussian victory.
October 7, 1870
Franco-Prussian War – Siege of Paris: Leon Gambetta flees Paris in a balloon.
October 27, 1870
Marshal François Achille Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers in one of the biggest French defeats of the Franco-Prussian War.
January 19, 1871
Battle of St. Quentin is fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory.
February 17, 1871
The victorious Prussian Army parades though Paris, France after the end of the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War.
September 15, 1873
The last German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.
June 25, 1876
Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
September 24, 1877
Battle of Shiroyama, decisive victory of the Imperial Japanese Army over the Satsuma Rebellion
October 5, 1877
Chief Joseph surrenders his Nez Perce band to General Nelson A. Miles.
January 16, 1878
Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) – Battle of Plovdiv: Captain Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.
February 14, 1879
The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.
April 5, 1879
Chile declares war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the War of the Pacific.
May 21, 1879
War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique (then belonging to Peru) battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
October 8, 1879
War of the Pacific: the Chilean Navy defeats the Peruvian Navy in the Battle of Angamos, Peruvian Admiral Miguel Grau is killed in the encounter.
June 7, 1880
War of the Pacific: The Battle of Arica, assault and capture of Morro de Arica (Arica Cape), that ended the Campaña del Desierto (Desert Campaign).
October 20, 1883
Peru and Chile signed the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province is ceded to the latter, bringing an end to Peru's involvement in the War of the Pacific.
March 13, 1884
The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins, ending on January 26, 1885.
September 17, 1894
The Battle of Yalu River, the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War.
June 29, 1895
Doukhobors burn their weapons as a protest against conscription by the Tsarist Russian government.
February 15, 1898
The USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing more than 260. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.
April 21, 1898
The U.S. Congress, on April 25, recognizes that a state of war exists between the United States and Spain as of this date.
April 22, 1898
The United States Navy begins a blockade of Cuban ports and the USS Nashville captures a Spanish merchant ship.
May 1, 1898
The Battle of Manila Bay – the United States Navy destroys the Spanish Pacific fleet in the first battle of the war.
July 1, 1898
The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba.
July 3, 1898
The Spanish fleet, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, is destroyed by the U.S. Navy in Santiago, Cuba.
July 20, 1898
A boiler exploded on the USS Iowa (BB-4) off the coast of Santiago de Cuba.
February 6, 1899
The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.
October 11, 1899
Second Boer War begins: In South Africa, a war between the United Kingdom and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State erupts.
February 8, 1900
British troops are defeated by Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa.
February 14, 1900
In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.
February 27, 1900
In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronje at the Battle of Paardeberg.
May 24, 1900
The United Kingdom annexes the Orange Free State.
September 13, 1900
Filipino resistance fighters defeat a small American column in the Battle of Pulang Lupa, during the Philippine-American War.
September 17, 1900
Philippine-American War: Filipinos under Juan Cailles defeat Americans under Colonel Benjamin F. Cheatham at Mabitac.
May 31, 1902
The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the war and ensures British control of South Africa.
March 4, 1904
Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
August 10, 1904
the Battle of the Yellow Sea between the Russian and Japanese battleship fleets.
October 15, 1904
The Russian Baltic Fleet leaves Reval, Estonia for Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.
May 28, 1905
The Battle of Tsushima ends with the destruction of the Russian Baltic Fleet by Admiral Togo Heihachiro and the Imperial Japanese Navy.
August 10, 1905
Russian and Japanese peace negotiations begin in Portsmouth.
September 5, 1905
In New Hampshire, USA, the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, ends the war.
November 1, 1911
The first dropping of a bomb from an airplane in combat, during the Italo-Turkish War.
October 8, 1912
First Balkan War begins: Montenegro declares war against Turkey.
October 21, 1912
During the First Balkan War, Kardzhali is liberated by Bulgarian forces
October 23, 1912
The Battle of Kumanovo between the Serbian and Ottoman armies begins.
October 26, 1912
The capital city of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, is unified with Greece on the feast day of its patron Saint Demetrius. On the same day, Serbian troops captured Skopje.
December 8, 1912
The Greek army captures Korçë that had been under Ottoman rule.
January 5, 1913
During the Naval Battle of Lemnos, Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
May 30, 1913
the Treaty of London, 1913 is signed ending the war. Albania becomes an independent nation.
June 25, 1913
American Civil War veterans begin arriving at the Great Reunion of 1913.
July 28, 1914
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after Serbia rejects the conditions of an ultimatum sent by Austria on July 23 following the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand.
August 4, 1914
Germany invades Belgium. In response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality.
August 6, 1914
First Battle of the Atlantic – two days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany over the German invasion of Belgium, ten German U-boats leave their base in Helgoland to attack Royal Navy warships in the North Sea.
August 6, 1914
Serbia declares war on Germany; Austria declares war on Russia.
August 17, 1914
Battle of Stalluponen – The German army of General Hermann von François defeats the Russian force commanded by Pavel Rennenkampf near modern-day Nesterov, Russia.
August 22, 1914
in Belgium, British and German troops clash for the first time in the war.
August 26, 1914
Germany defeats Russia in the Battle of Tannenberg, a decisive engagement which results in the almost complete destruction of the Russian 2nd Army.
August 26, 1914
the British Expeditionary Force briefly checks the German advance at Le Cateau.
August 26, 1914
the German colony of Togoland is invaded by French and British forces, who take it after 5 days.
August 28, 1914
the Royal Navy beats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
September 3, 1914
William, Prince of Albania leaves the country after just six months due to opposition to his rule.
September 5, 1914
First Battle of the Marne begins. Northeast of Paris, the French attack and defeat German forces who are advancing on the capital.
September 8, 1914
Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war.
September 9, 1914
The creation of the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade, the first fully mechanized unit in the British Army.
September 13, 1914
South African troops open hostilities in German south-west Africa (Namibia) with an assault on the Ramansdrift police station.
October 9, 1914
Siege of Antwerp – Antwerp, Belgium falls to German troops.
October 24, 1914
End of Battle of Langemarck: The first Battle of Ypres (Flanders) ends with two more to follow.
November 1, 1914
the first British Royal Navy defeat of the war with Germany, the Battle of Coronel, is fought off of the western coast of Chile, in the Pacific, with the loss of HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth.
November 28, 1914
Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.
December 8, 1914
Battle of the Falkland Islands – The Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee is engaged by the Royal Navy.
December 15, 1914
The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
December 16, 1914
German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.
December 25, 1914
Known as the Christmas truce, German and British troops on the Western Front temporarily cease fire.
January 19, 1915
German zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing more than 20, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.
March 14, 1915
Cornered off the coast of Chile by the Royal Navy after fleeing the Battle of the Falkland Islands, the German light cruiser SMS Dresden is abandoned and scuttled by her crew.
March 18, 1915
Massive naval attack in Battle of Gallipoli. Three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
May 7, 1915
German submarine SM U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many formerly pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire.
May 9, 1915
Second Battle of Artois between German and French forces.
May 23, 1915
Italy joins the Allies after they declare war on Austria-Hungary.
August 6, 1915
Battle of Sari Bair – the Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay.
August 16, 1915
Should victory be achieved over the Central Powers, the Triple Entente promises the Kingdom of Serbia: the Austro-Hungarian territories of Baranja, Srem, Slavonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina; and the eastern ⅔ of Dalmatia (from the river of Krka to the city of Bar).
October 12, 1915
British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from Belgium
December 15, 1915
Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig replaces John French, 1st Earl of Ypres as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.
January 9, 1916
The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces are evacuated from the peninsula.
April 9, 1916
The Battle of Verdun – German forces launch their third offensive of the battle.
April 29, 1916
The British 6th Indian Division surrenders to Ottoman Forces at Kut in one of the largest surrenders of British forces up to that point.
May 31, 1916
Battle of Jutland – The British Grand Fleet under the command of Sir John Jellicoe & Sir David Beatty engage the Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Reinhard Scheer & Franz von Hipper in the largest naval battle of the war, which proves indecisive.
June 24, 1916
The Battle of the Somme begins with a week long artillery bombardment on the German Line.
July 1, 1916
First day on the Somme – On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 20,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.
August 2, 1916
Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.
August 3, 1916
Battle of Romani – Allied forces, under the command of Archibald Murray, defeat an attacking Ottoman army, under the command of Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein, securing the Suez Canal, and beginning the Ottoman retreat from the Sinai.
September 15, 1916
Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.
September 17, 1916
Manfred von Richthofen ("The Red Baron"), a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte, wins his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France.
November 18, 1916
First Battle of the Somme ends – In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
November 21, 1916
A mine explodes and sinks HMHS Britannic in the Aegean Sea, killing 30 people.
December 18, 1916
The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of Staff Erich Von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French and suffer 337,000 casualties.
December 19, 1916
Battle of Verdun – On the Western Front, the French Army successfully holds off the German Army and drives it back to its starting position.
December 23, 1916
Battle of Magdhaba – Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
January 9, 1917
the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine.
January 22, 1917
President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.
January 31, 1917
Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.
February 3, 1917
The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany a day after the former announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
February 24, 1917
The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States.
March 11, 1917
Baghdad falls to the Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Stanley Maude.
March 26, 1917
First Battle of Gaza – British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance.
April 2, 1917
President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
April 6, 1917
The United States declares war on Germany (see President Woodrow Wilson's address to Congress).
April 9, 1917
The Battle of Arras – the battle begins with Canadian Corps executing a massive assault on Vimy Ridge.
April 12, 1917
Canadian forces successfully complete the taking of Vimy Ridge from the Germans.
May 18, 1917
The Selective Service Act of 1917 is passed, giving the President of the United States the power of conscription.
June 5, 1917
Conscription begins in the United States as "Army registration day".
June 7, 1917
Battle of Messines – Allied ammonal mines underneath German trenches in Mesen Ridge are detonated, killing 10,000 German troops.
June 13, 1917
the deadliest German air raid on London during World War I is carried out by Gotha G bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.
July 6, 1917
Arabian troops led by Lawrence of Arabia and Auda ibu Tayi capture Aqaba from the Turks during the Arab Revolt.
July 20, 1917
The Corfu Declaration, which leads to the creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.
August 6, 1917
Battle of Mărăşeşti between the Romanian and German armies begins.
October 15, 1917
At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari is executed by firing squad for spying for the German Empire.
October 26, 1917
Battle of Caporetto; Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat at the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany.
October 31, 1917
Battle of Beersheba – "last successful cavalry charge in history".
November 6, 1917
Third Battle of Ypres ends: After three months of fierce fighting, Canadian forces take Passchendaele in Belgium.
November 7, 1917
Third Battle of Gaza ends: British forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.
November 20, 1917
Battle of Cambrai begins – British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back.
December 15, 1917
An armistice is reached between the new Bolshevik government and the Central Powers.
April 8, 1918
Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York City's financial district.
April 9, 1918
The Battle of the Lys – the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps is crushed by the German forces during what is called the Spring Offensive on the Belgian region of Flanders.
April 21, 1918
German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as "The Red Baron", is shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France.
May 26, 1918
Armenia defeats the Ottoman Army in the Battle of Sardarapat.
June 6, 1918
Battle of Belleau Wood – The U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day's casualties while attempting to recapture the wood at Chateau-Thierry.
July 15, 1918
the Second Battle of the Marne begins near the River Marne with a German attack.
August 8, 1918
the Battle of Amiens begins a string of almost continuous victories with a push through the German front lines (Hundred Days Offensive).
September 26, 1918
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the bloodiest single battle in American history, begins.
September 29, 1918
The Hindenburg Line is broken by Allied forces. Bulgaria signs an armistice.
October 1, 1918
Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence (a/k/a "Lawrence of Arabia") capture Damascus.
October 8, 1918
In the Argonne Forest in France, United States Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly kills 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
October 13, 1918
Mehmed Talat Pasha and the Young Turk (C.U.P.) ministry resign and sign an armistice, ending Ottoman participation in World War I.
October 28, 1918
Czechoslovakia is granted independence from Austria-Hungary marking the beginning of independent Czechoslovak state, after 300 years.
October 30, 1918
The Ottoman Empire signs an armistice with the Allies, ending the First World War in the Middle East.
November 10, 1918
The Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia receives a top-secret coded message from Europe (that would be sent to Ottawa, Ontario and Washington, DC) that said on November 11, 1918 all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air.
May 17, 1919
War Department (UK) orders use of National Star Insignia on all airplanes.
September 17, 1919
Massacre of Turkic peoples in the village of Hakmehmet, in Igdir Province, Turkey, by Armenians.
November 11, 1919
Lāčuplēšu day – Latvian forces defeat the Freikorps at Riga in the Latvian War of Independence.
January 10, 1920
The League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.
August 10, 1920
Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI's representatives sign the Treaty of Sèvres which divides up the Ottoman Empire between the Allies.
December 2, 1920
Following more than a month of Turkish-Armenian War, the Turkish dictated Treaty of Alexandropol is concluded –
January 28, 1921
A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honor the unknown dead of World War I.
June 28, 1922
The Irish Civil War begins with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin by Free State forces.
September 9, 1922
Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922 has ended with Turkish victory over the Greeks.
December 6, 1922
One year to the day after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State comes into existence.
December 1, 1925
World War I aftermath: The final Locarno Treaty is signed in London, establishing post-war territorial settlements.
December 11, 1927
Guangzhou Uprising: Communist militia and worker Red Guards launch an uprising in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, taking over most of the city and announcing the formation of a Guangzhou Soviet.
September 18, 1931
The Mukden Incident gives Japan the pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria.
June 17, 1932
Bonus Army: around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
July 28, 1932
U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.
February 16, 1934
Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund.
December 29, 1934
Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
March 7, 1936
World War II (Prelude to): In violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles, Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
July 17, 1936
An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.
July 31, 1936
The International Olympic Committee announces that the 1940 Summer Olympics will be held in Tokyo. However, the games are given back to the IOC after the Second Sino-Japanese War breaks out, and are eventually cancelled altogether because of World War II.
March 18, 1937
Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.
May 7, 1937
The German Condor Legion, equipped with Heinkel He 51 biplanes, arrives in Spain to assist Francisco Franco's forces.
August 14, 1937
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. 14 August has thus become acknowledged and celebrated as Chinese Air Force Day.
November 5, 1937
Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people.
May 25, 1938
The bombing of Alicante takes place, with 313 deaths.
January 26, 1939
Troops loyal to nationalist General Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
March 15, 1939
German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist.
March 17, 1939
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945): The Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out.
August 23, 1939
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.
August 31, 1939
Nazi Germany mounts a staged attack on Gleiwitz radio station, giving them an excuse to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II in Europe.
September 2, 1939
following the invasion of Poland, Free City of Danzig Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed by Nazi Germany.
September 3, 1939
France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allies.
September 10, 1939
The submarine HMS Oxley is mistakenly sunk by the submarine HMS Triton near Norway and becomes the Royal Navy's first loss.
September 10, 1939
Canada declares war on Nazi Germany, joining the Allies – France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.
September 17, 1939
The Soviet Union joins Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland during the Polish Defensive War of 1939.
September 17, 1939
A German U-boat U 29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous.
September 28, 1939
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion during World War II.
October 1, 1939
After a one-month Siege of Warsaw, hostile forces entered the city.
November 4, 1939
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.
November 30, 1939
Winter War: Soviet forces cross the Finnish border in several places and bomb Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, starting the war.
December 13, 1939
Battle of the River Plate – Captain Hans Langsdorff of the German Deutschland class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles.
December 17, 1939
Battle of the River Plate – The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.
February 16, 1940
Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. 299 British prisoners are freed.
March 18, 1940
Axis Powers – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
March 30, 1940
Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking to be the capital of a new Chinese puppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.
April 8, 1940
The United Kingdom and France announce that they have mined Norwegian territorial waters to prevent their use by German supply ships.
April 14, 1940
Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway in preparation for a larger force to arrive two days later.
May 5, 1940
Norwegian refugees form a government-in-exile in London
May 9, 1940
The German submarine U-9 sinks the French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.
May 10, 1940
The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent.
May 10, 1940
Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
May 10, 1940
Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
May 13, 1940
Germany's conquest of France begins as the German army crosses the Meuse River. Winston Churchill makes his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech to the House of Commons.
May 15, 1940
After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation.
May 17, 1940
the old city centre of the Dutch town of Middelburg is bombed by the German Luftwaffe, to force the surrender of the Dutch armies in Zeeland.
May 26, 1940
Battle of Dunkirk – In France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk, France.
May 27, 1940
In the Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops. Two survive.
May 28, 1940
Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik. This is the first allied infantry victory of the War.
June 3, 1940
The Battle of Dunkirk ends with a German victory and with Allied forces in full retreat.
June 4, 1940
The Dunkirk evacuation ends – British forces complete evacuation of 300,000 troops from Dunkirk in France.
June 4, 1940
Nazi forces enter the city of Paris, they finish taking control of the city 10 days later. (June 14, 1940)
June 10, 1940
Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom.
June 10, 1940
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounces Italy's actions with his "Stab in the Back" speech at the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia.
June 10, 1940
German forces, under General Erwin Rommel, reach the English Channel.
June 11, 1940
First attack of the Italian Air force on the island of Malta.
June 12, 1940
13,000 British and French troops surrender to Major General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.
June 14, 1940
Paris falls under German occupation, and Allied forces retreat.
June 16, 1940
Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Premier of Vichy France.
June 17, 1940
Operation Ariel begins – Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
June 17, 1940
sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
June 17, 1940
the British Army's 11th Hussars assault and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya, Africa from Italian forces.
June 23, 1940
German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France.
June 26, 1940
under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
July 3, 1940
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.
July 5, 1940
The United Kingdom and the Vichy France government break off diplomatic relations.
July 10, 1940
Battle of Britain – The German Luftwaffe begins attacking British convoys in the English Channel thus starting the battle (this start date is contested, though).
July 11, 1940
Vichy France regime is formally established. Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France.
July 19, 1940
Battle of Cape Spada – The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.
July 19, 1940
Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.
August 7, 1940
Alsace Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich (Germany) during World War II
August 13, 1940
Battle of Britain begins – the Luftwaffe launches a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations.
September 4, 1940
a German submarine makes the first attack against a United States ship (the USS Greer) .
September 7, 1940
The Blitz – Nazi Germany begins to rain bombs on London. This will be the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing.
September 15, 1940
The climax of the Battle of Britain, when the Royal Air Force shoots down large numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft.
October 7, 1940
the McCollum memo proposes bringing the United States into the war in Europe by provoking the Japanese to attack the United States.
October 9, 1940
Battle of Britain – During a night-time air raid by the German Luftwaffe, St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London, England is hit by a bomb.
October 28, 1940
Italy invades Greece through Albania, marking Greece's entry into World War II. It is celebrated in Greece as Okhi Day.
October 31, 1940
The Battle of Britain ends – the United Kingdom prevents a German invasion.
November 11, 1940
Battle of Taranto – The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto.
November 14, 1940
In England, the city of Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost completely destroyed.
November 16, 1940
In response to Germany's leveling of Coventry, England two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.
November 18, 1940
German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
November 20, 1940
Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
November 22, 1940
Following the initial Italian invasion, Greek troops counterattack into Italian-occupied Albania and capture Korytsa.
November 23, 1940
Romania becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
November 24, 1940
Slovakia becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.
November 27, 1940
At the Battle of Cape Spartivento, the Royal Navy engages the Regia Marina in the Mediterranean Sea.
December 9, 1940
Operation Compass – British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.
December 12, 1940
Approximately 70 people are killed in the Marples Hotel, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield as a result of a German air raid.
December 23, 1940
Greek submarine Papanikolis (Υ-2) sinks the Italian motor ship Antonietta.
December 29, 1940
In The Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe firebombs London, killing almost 200 civilians.
January 2, 1941
German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales.
January 9, 1941
The Greek Triton (S.112) sinks the Italian submarine Neghelli in Otranto.
January 17, 1941
Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek open fire at communist forces, resuming the Chinese Civil War after World War II.
January 18, 1941
British troops launch a general counter-offensive against Italian East Africa.
January 22, 1941
British and Commonwealth troops capture Tobruk from Italian forces during Operation Compass.
January 28, 1941
French-Thai War: Final air battle of the conflict. Japanese-mediated armistice goes into effect later in the day.
February 4, 1941
The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
March 1, 1941
Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, allying itself with the Axis powers.
March 2, 1941
First German military units enter Bulgaria after it joined the Axis Pact.
March 4, 1941
The United Kingdom launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands.
March 11, 1941
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.
March 19, 1941
The 99th Pursuit Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black unit of the Army Air Corp, is activated.
March 25, 1941
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers with the signing of the Tripartite Pact.
March 27, 1941
Yugoslavian Air Force officers topple the pro-axis government in a bloodless coup.
March 28, 1941
Battle of Cape Matapan – in the Mediterranean Sea, British Admiral Andrew Browne Cunningham leads the Royal Navy in the destruction of three major Italian heavy cruisers and two destroyers.
March 29, 1941
British Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy forces defeat those of the Italian Regia Marina off the Peloponnesus coast of Greece in the Battle of Cape Matapan.
April 6, 1941
Nazi Germany launches Operation 25 (the invasion of Yugoslavia) and Operation Marita (the invasion of Greece).
April 10, 1941
The Axis Powers in Europe establish the Independent State of Croatia from occupied Yugoslavia with Ante Pavelić's Ustase fascist insurgents in power.
April 14, 1941
The Ustashe, a Croatian far-right organization is put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers after the Axis Operation 25 invasion. In addition, Rommel attacks Tobruk.
April 16, 1941
The Italian convoy Duisburg, directed to Tunisia, is attacked and destroyed by British ships.
April 23, 1941
The Greek government and King George II evacuate Athens before the invading Wehrmacht.
April 27, 1941
The Communist Party of Slovenia, the Slovene Christian Socialists, the left-wing Slovene Sokols (also known as "National Democrats") and a group of progressive intellectuals establish the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People.
May 1, 1941
German forces launch a major attack on Tobruk.
May 9, 1941
The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
May 10, 1941
The House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
May 10, 1941
Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland in order to try and negotiate a peace deal between the United Kingdom and Germany.
May 13, 1941
Yugoslav royal colonel Dragoljub Mihailović starts fighting with German occupation troops, beginning the Serbian resistance.
May 20, 1941
Battle of Crete – German paratroops invade Crete.
May 24, 1941
In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sinks the then pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.
May 27, 1941
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".
May 27, 1941
The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing almost 2,100 men.
May 30, 1941
Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas climb on the Athenian Acropolis, tear down the Nazi swastika and replace it with the Greek flag.
June 1, 1941
Battle of Crete ends as Crete capitulates to Germany.
June 2, 1941
German paratoopers murder Greek civilians in the village of Kondomari.
June 3, 1941
The Wehrmacht razes the Greek village of Kandanos to the ground.
June 22, 1941
First anti-fascist armed unit in occupied Europe is founded by Croatian partisans near Sisak, Croatia.
June 27, 1941
German troops capture the city of Białystok during Operation Barbarossa.
June 30, 1941
Operation Barbarossa – Germany captures Lviv, Ukraine.
July 7, 1941
U.S. forces land in Iceland to forestall an invasion by Germany.
July 7, 1941
Beirut is occupied by Free France and British troops.
July 13, 1941
Montenegrins start popular uprising against the Axis Powers (Trinaestojulski ustanak).
July 26, 1941
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.
August 14, 1941
World War II – Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims.
August 22, 1941
German troops reach Leningrad, leading to the siege of Leningrad.
September 8, 1941
Siege of Leningrad begins. German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.
September 16, 1941
concerned that Reza Pahlavi the Shah of Persia was to align his petroleum-rich country with Germany during World War II, the United Kingdom and the USSR invade Iran in late August and force him to resign in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
September 17, 1941
A decree of the Soviet State Committee of Defense, restoring Vsevobuch in the face of the Great Patriotic War, is issued
September 22, 1941
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 are executed.
September 29, 1941
Holocaust in Kiev, Ukraine: German Einsatzgruppe C starts Babi Yar massacre. According to the Einsatzgruppen Operational Situation Report No. 101, at least 33,771 Jews from Kiev and its suburbs are killed at Babi Yar on September 29 – 30, 1941.
September 30, 1941
Holocaust in Kiev, Ukraine: German Einsatzgruppe C complete Babi Yar massacre. According to the Einsatzgruppen Operational Situation Report No. 101, at least 33,771 Jews from Kiev and its suburbs are killed at Babi Yar on September 29 – 30, 1941.
October 2, 1941
In Operation Typhoon, Germany begins an all-out offensive against Moscow.
October 8, 1941
In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol.
October 17, 1941
For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship.
October 20, 1941
Thousands of civilians in Kragujevac in German-occupied Serbia are killed in the Kragujevac massacre.
October 23, 1941
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.
October 30, 1941
Franklin Delano Roosevelt approves U.S. $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Allied nations.
October 30, 1941
1,500 Jews from Pidhaytsi (in western Ukraine) are sent by Nazis to Belzec extermination camp.
October 31, 1941
The destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors. It is the first U.S. Navy vessel sunk by enemy action in WWII.
November 6, 1941
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule. He states that even though 350,000 troops were killed in German attacks so far, the Germans had lost 4.5 million soldiers and that Soviet victory was near.
November 7, 1941
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.
November 12, 1941
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.
November 12, 1941
The Soviet cruiser "Chervona Ukraina" is destroyed during the Battle of Sevastopol.
November 13, 1941
The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by U 81, sinking the following day.
November 14, 1941
The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks due to torpedo damage from U-81 sustained on November 13.
November 19, 1941
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.
December 1, 1941
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.
December 5, 1941
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.
December 6, 1941
The United Kingdom declares war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War.
December 7, 1941
Attack on Pearl Harbor – The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the US Pacific Fleet and its defending Army Air Forces and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Because of the time difference due to the International Date Line, the events of December 8 occurred while the date was still December 7 to the east of this line.
December 8, 1941
The Japanese invade the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. They also invade the portions of Shanghai administered by European powers and bomb American bases in the Philippines.
December 8, 1941
Pacific War – After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. Congress passes a declaration of war against Japan.
December 8, 1941
Pacific War – the Republic of China officially declares war against Japan.
December 9, 1941
The Republic of China, Cuba, Guatemala, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and the Philippine Commonwealth, declare war on Germany and Japan.
December 9, 1941
The 19th Bombardment Group attacks Japanese ships off the coast of Vigan, Luzon.
December 10, 1941
The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.
December 10, 1941
Battle of the Philippines – Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on the Philippine mainland.
December 11, 1941
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.
December 12, 1941
Fifty four Japanese A6M Zero fighters raid Batangas Field, Philippines. Jesus Villamor and four Filipino fighter pilots fend them off; Cesar Basa is killed.
December 12, 1941
USMC F4F "Wildcats" sink the first 4 major Japanese ships off Wake Island.
December 12, 1941
UK declares war on Bulgaria. Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States. India declares war on Japan.
December 19, 1941
Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.
December 20, 1941
First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
December 25, 1941
Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong.
January 11, 1942
Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
January 12, 1942
President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
January 20, 1942
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.
January 26, 1942
The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
February 1, 1942
Vidkun Quisling is appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
February 9, 1942
Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
February 9, 1942
Year-round Daylight saving time is re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.
February 11, 1942
The Battle of Bukit Timah is fought in Singapore during World War II.
February 15, 1942
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.
February 19, 1942
nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.
February 19, 1942
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order 9066', allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to Japanese internment camps.
February 20, 1942
Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
February 22, 1942
President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapses.
February 27, 1942
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
March 3, 1942
Ten Japanese warplanes raid the town of Broome, Western Australia killing more than 100 people.
March 20, 1942
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".
March 22, 1942
In the Mediterranean Sea, Britain's Royal Navy confronts Italy's Regia Marina in the Second Battle of Sirte.
March 23, 1942
In the Indian Ocean, Japanese forces capture the Andaman Islands.
March 26, 1942
In Poland, Auschwitz receives its first female prisoners.
March 28, 1942
In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
March 29, 1942
The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II is the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city.
March 31, 1942
Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.
April 3, 1942
Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
April 5, 1942
The Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
April 8, 1942
Siege of Leningrad – Soviet forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad.
April 9, 1942
The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March – United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the island's east coast.
April 17, 1942
French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.
April 18, 1942
The Doolittle Raid on Japan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya bombed.
April 19, 1942
In Poland, the Majdan-Tatarski ghetto is established, situated between the Lublin Ghetto and a Majdanek subcamp.
April 21, 1942
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 Aggies who are under his command), while 1.8 million pounds of shells pounded the island over a 5 hour attack.
April 23, 1942
Baedeker Blitz – German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.
May 4, 1942
The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.
May 8, 1942
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. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
May 8, 1942
Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny is crushed and three of them are executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
May 10, 1942
The Thai Phayap Army invades the Shan States during the Burma Campaign.
May 12, 1942
Second Battle of Kharkov – in the 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.
May 15, 1942
in the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
May 22, 1942
Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
May 22, 1942
Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor.
May 27, 1942
In Operation Anthropoid, Reinhard Heydrich is assassinated in Prague.
May 28, 1942
in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis in Czechoslovakia kill over 1800 people.
May 30, 1942
1000 British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany.
May 31, 1942
Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia.
June 1, 1942
the Warsaw paper Liberty Brigade publishes the first news of the concentration camps.
June 4, 1942
The Battle of Midway begins. Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island by much of the Imperial Japanese navy.
June 6, 1942
Battle of Midway. U.S. Navy dive bombers sink the Japanese cruiser Mikuma.
June 7, 1942
Japanese soldiers occupy the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.
June 8, 1942
Japanese imperial submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.
June 10, 1942
Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice in reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.
June 11, 1942
The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
June 13, 1942
The United States opens its Office of War Information.
June 21, 1942
A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the United States mainland.
June 23, 1942
The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz take place on a train load of Jews from Paris.
June 23, 1942
Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales.
July 18, 1942
the Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jet engines for the first time.
July 19, 1942
Battle of the Atlantic – German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to the effective American convoy system.
July 20, 1942
The first unit of the Women's Army Corps begins training in Des Moines, Iowa.
July 28, 1942
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 will be immediately executed.
August 7, 1942
the Battle of Guadalcanal begins – United States Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
August 8, 1942
in Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs (Operation Pastorius) are executed.
August 9, 1942
Battle of Savo Island – Allied naval forces protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force.
August 15, 1942
Operation Pedestal – The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island's defenses.
August 16, 1942
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.
August 17, 1942
The U.S. Eighth Air Force begins regular combat operations in Europe with an attack on the marshalling yards at Rouen-Sotteville.
August 19, 1942
Operation Jubilee – the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an amphibious assault by allied forces on Dieppe, Franceand fails, many Canadians are killed or captured. The operation was doomed to fail, and was intended to develop and try new amphibious landing tactics for the coming full invasion in Normandy.
August 21, 1942
Allied forces involved in the Guadalcanal campaign defeated an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.
August 23, 1942
The last cavalry charge in history takes place at Izbushensky.
August 24, 1942
The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō is sunk and US carrier Enterprise heavily damaged.
August 25, 1942
second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by an Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged.
September 5, 1942
Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, first Japanese defeat in the Pacific War.
September 10, 1942
The British Army carries out an amphibious landing on Madagascar to re-launch Allied offensive operations in the Madagascar Campaign.
September 12, 1942
RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks.
September 12, 1942
First day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge during the Guadalcanal campaign. U.S. Marines protecting Henderson Field on Guadalcanal are attacked by Imperial Japanese Army forces.
September 13, 1942
Second day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge in the Guadalcanal campaign. U.S. Marines successfully defeated attacks by the Imperial Japanese Army with heavy losses for the Japanese forces.
September 23, 1942
First day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
September 25, 1942
Swiss Police Instruction of September 25, 1942 – this instruction denied entry into Switzerland to Jewish refugees.
September 27, 1942
Last day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps troops barely escape after being surrounded by Japanese forces near the Matanikau River.
October 7, 1942
The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
October 9, 1942
The last day of the October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces withdraw back across the Matanikau River after destroying most of the Imperial Japanese Army's 4th Infantry Regiment.
October 11, 1942
Battle of Cape Esperance – On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
October 12, 1942
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.
October 23, 1942
The Second Battle of El Alamein starts – At El Alamein in northern Egypt, the British Eighth Army under Field Marshal Montgomery begin a critical offensive to expel the Axis armies from Egypt, never to return.
October 26, 1942
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.
November 3, 1942
Second Battle of El Alamein ends – German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.
November 3, 1942
The Koli Point action begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends on November 12.
November 4, 1942
Second Battle of El Alamein – Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leads his forces on a five-month retreat.
November 8, 1942
Operation Torch – United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.
November 8, 1942
French resistance coup in Algiers, in which 400 civilian French patriots neutralize Vichyist XIXth Army Corps after 15 hours of fighting, and arrest several Vichyst generals, allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers.
November 10, 1942
Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
November 12, 1942
The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal, which would last for three days.
November 13, 1942
Naval Battle of Guadalcanal – U.S. and Japanese ships engage in an intense, close-quarters surface naval engagement during the Battle of Guadalcanal.
November 19, 1942
Battle of Stalingrad – Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.
November 22, 1942
Battle of Stalingrad – General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German 6th army is surrounded.
November 26, 1942
Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihać in northwestern Bosnia.
November 27, 1942
At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.
November 30, 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.
December 22, 1942
Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
December 24, 1942
French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral François Darlan in Algiers.
January 11, 1943
The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
January 14, 1943
Operation Ke, the successful Japanese operation to evacuate their forces from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign, begins.
January 14, 1943
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.
January 14, 1943
Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office when he travels from Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill.
January 18, 1943
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
January 23, 1943
Troops of Montgomery's 8th Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German-Italian Panzer Army.
January 23, 1943
Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.
January 23, 1943
The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse on Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign ends.
January 24, 1943
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
January 30, 1943
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.
January 31, 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.
February 2, 1943
The last German forces surrender to the Soviets after the Battle of Stalingrad.
February 9, 1943
Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.
February 11, 1943
General Dwight Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
February 14, 1943
Tunisia Campaign – General Hans-Jurgen von Arnim's Fifth Panzer Army launches a concerted attack against Allied positions in Tunisia.
March 2, 1943
Battle of the Bismarck Sea – United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
March 3, 1943
In London, England, 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station.
March 13, 1943
In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
March 15, 1943
Third Battle of Kharkov – the Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
March 22, 1943
the entire population of Khatyn in Belarus is burnt alive by German occupation forces.
March 27, 1943
Battle of the Komandorski Islands – In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
April 13, 1943
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.
April 18, 1943
Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.
April 19, 1943
In Poland, German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
April 30, 1943
Operation Mincemeat: The submarine HMS Seraph 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.
May 11, 1943
American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
May 13, 1943
German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces.
May 17, 1943
the Dambuster Raids by No. 617 Squadron RAF on German dams.
May 19, 1943
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the cross-English Channel landing (D-Day). It would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather.
June 1, 1943
British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing actor Leslie Howard and leading to speculation the downing was an attempt to kill British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
June 23, 1943
The British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
July 5, 1943
An Allied invasion fleet sails for Sicily (Operation Husky, July 10, 1943).
July 9, 1943
Operation Husky – Allied forces perform an amphibious invasion of Sicily.
July 10, 1943
The launching of Operation Husky begins the Italian Campaign.
July 11, 1943
Allied invasion of Sicily – German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily.
July 12, 1943
Battle of Prokhorovka – German and Soviet forces engage in largest tank engagement of all time.
July 20, 1943
American and Canadian troops liberate Enna on Sicily.
July 24, 1943
Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian airplanes 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.
July 25, 1943
Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
July 28, 1943
Operation Gomorrah: The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
August 2, 1943
PT-109 rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri and sinks. Lt. John F. Kennedy, future U.S. President, saves all but two of his crew.
August 5, 1943
at around 11 A.M during the Battle of Troina, Mount Etna erupts sending ash and lava miles into the sky.
August 17, 1943
The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrive in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
August 17, 1943
First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.
August 28, 1943
in Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
September 5, 1943
The 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment lands and occupies Nazdab, near Lae in the Salamaua-Lae campaign.
September 7, 1943
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.
September 8, 1943
The O.B.S. (German General Headquarters for the Mediterranean zone) in Frascati is bombed by USAAF.
September 8, 1943
United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.
September 11, 1943
Start of the liquidation of the Ghettos in Minsk and Lida by the Nazis.
September 12, 1943
Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is rescued from house arrest on the Gran Sasso in Abruzzi, by German commando forces led by Otto Skorzeny.
September 29, 1943
U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign an armistice aboard the Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson off Malta.
October 13, 1943
The new government of Italy sides with the Allies and declares war on Germany.
October 14, 1943
U.S. 8th Air Force loses 60 B-17 Flying Fortresses during an assault on Schweinfurt.
October 31, 1943
An F4U Corsair accomplishes the first successful radar-guided interception.
November 1, 1943
Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, United States Marines, the 3rd Marine Division, land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
November 1, 1943
In support of the landings on Bougainville, U.S. aircraft carrier forces attack the huge Japanese base at Rabaul.
November 3, 1943
500 aircraft of the U.S. 8th Air Force devastate Wilhelmshafen harbor in Germany.
November 6, 1943
the Soviet Red Army recaptures Kiev. Before withdrawing, the Germans destroy most of the city's ancient buildings.
November 16, 1943
American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
November 18, 1943
Battle of Berlin: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF loses nine aircraft and 53 air crew.
November 20, 1943
Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins – United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns.
November 22, 1943
War in the Pacific – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan (see Cairo Conference)
November 23, 1943
The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed. It will eventually be rebuilt in 1961 and be called the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
November 24, 1943
The USS Liscome Bay is torpedoed near Tarawa and sinks with nearly 650 men killed.
November 25, 1943
Statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina is re-established at the State Anti-Fascist Council for the People's Liberation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
November 28, 1943
Tehran Conference – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran to discuss war strategy.
November 30, 1943
Tehran Conference — U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin agree to the planned June 1944 invasion of Europe code-named Operation Overlord.
December 4, 1943
In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.
December 4, 1943
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes down the Works Progress Administration, because of the high levels of wartime employment in the United States.
December 5, 1943
U.S. Army Air Force begins attacking Germany's secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow .
December 24, 1943
U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander.
December 26, 1943
German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off of Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.
December 28, 1943
World War II – After eight days of brutal house-to-house fighting, the battle of Ortona concludes with the victory of the1st Canadian Infantry Division over the German 1st Parachute Division and the capture of the Italian town of Ortona.
January 3, 1944
Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.
January 4, 1944
Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.
January 22, 1944
The Allies commence Operation Shingle which is an assault on Anzio, Italy.
January 29, 1944
Approximately 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland.
January 31, 1944
American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
January 31, 1944
During Anzio campaign 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.
February 7, 1944
In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle
February 17, 1944
Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
February 17, 1944
Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk (Chuuk), Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion.
February 20, 1944
The "Big Week" began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
February 22, 1944
American aircraft bombard the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer by mistake, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
February 29, 1944
The Admiralty Islands are invaded in Operation Brewer led by American General Douglas MacArthur.
March 4, 1944
After the success of Big Week, the USAAF begins a daylight bombing campaign of Berlin.
March 9, 1944
Japanese troops counter-attack American forces on Hill 700 in Bougainville in a battle that would last five days.
March 15, 1944
Battle of Monte Cassino – Allied aircraft bomb the German-held monastery and stage an assault.
March 24, 1944
In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.
April 1, 1944
Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen.
April 4, 1944
First bombardment of Bucharest by Anglo-American forces kills 3000 civilians.
April 5, 1944
270 inhabitants of the Greek town of Kleisoura are executed by the Germans.
April 22, 1944
Operation Persecution is initiated – Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.
May 11, 1944
The Allies start a major offensive against the Axis Powers on the Gustav Line.
May 18, 1944
Battle of Monte Cassino – Conclusion after seven days of the fourth battle as German paratroopers ("Fallschirmjäger") evacuate Monte Cassino.
June 4, 1944
A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German submarine U-505 – the first time a U.S. Navy vessel had captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
June 4, 1944
Rome falls to the Allies, the first Axis capital to fall.
June 5, 1944
More than 1000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day.
June 6, 1944
Battle of Normandy begins. D-Day, code named Operation Overlord, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
June 7, 1944
Battle of Normandy – At Abbey Ardennes members of the SS Division Hitlerjugend massacre 23 Canadian prisoners of war.
June 9, 1944
99 civilians are hung from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in reprisal for maquisards attacks.
June 9, 1944
the Soviet Union invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland since 1941.
June 10, 1944
642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
June 10, 1944
In Distomo, Boeotia Prefecture, Greece 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops.
June 13, 1944
Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs actually hit their targets.
June 15, 1944
Battle of Saipan: The United States invades Saipan.
June 20, 1944
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”.
June 25, 1944
The Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in the Nordic Countries, begins.
June 30, 1944
The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.
July 3, 1944
Minsk is liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration.
July 9, 1944
Battle of Normandy – British and Canadian forces capture Caen, France.
July 17, 1944
Napalm incendiary bombs are dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near St. Lô, France.
July 18, 1944
Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
July 20, 1944
Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt (known as the July 20 plot) led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
July 21, 1944
Battle of Guam – American troops land on Guam starting the battle. It would end on August 10.
July 25, 1944
Operation Spring – one of the bloodiest days for the First Canadian Army during the war: 1,500 casualties, including 500 killed.
July 26, 1944
Soviet army enters Lviv, major city of western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jewish survivors left, out of 160,000 Jews in Lviv prior to Nazi occupation.
August 5, 1944
possibly the biggest prison breakout in history occurs as 545 Japanese POWs attempt to escape outside the town of Cowra, NSW, Australia.
August 12, 1944
Waffen SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
August 19, 1944
Liberation of Paris – Paris rises against German occupation with the help of Allied troops.
August 20, 1944
the Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet offensive.
August 23, 1944
World War II King Michael of Romania dismisses the pro-Nazi government of General Antonescu, who is arrested. Romania switches sides from the Axis to the Allies.
September 4, 1944
the British 11th Armoured Division liberates the Belgian city of Antwerp.
September 9, 1944
The Fatherland Front takes power in Bulgaria through a military coup in the capital and armed rebellion in the country. A new pro-Soviet government is established.
September 11, 1944
The first Allied troops of the U.S. Army cross the western border of Germany.
September 12, 1944
The liberation of Serbia from Nazi Germany and the Chetniks continues. Bajina Bašta in western Serbia is among those liberated cities. Near Trier, American troops enter Germany for the first time.
September 14, 1944
Maastricht becomes the first Dutch city that is liberated by allied forces.
September 17, 1944
Allied Airborne troops parachute into the Netherlands as the "Market" half of Operation Market Garden.
September 18, 1944
The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Junyō Maru, 5,600 killed.
September 25, 1944
Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdraw from Arnhem in the Netherlands, thus ending the Battle of Arnhem and Operation Market Garden.
September 26, 1944
On the central front of the Gothic Line Brazilian troops control the Serchio valley region after ten days of fighting.
September 27, 1944
The Kassel Mission results in the largest loss by a USAAF group on any mission in World War II.
September 28, 1944
Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Klooga, Estonia.
October 7, 1944
Uprising at Birkenau concentration camp, Jews burn down the crematoria.
October 8, 1944
The Battle of Crucifix Hill occurs on Crucifix Hill just outside Aachen. Capt. Bobbie Brown receives a Medal of Honor for his heroics in this battle.
October 11, 1944
Tuvinian People's Republic or formerly Tannu Tuva is annexed by the U.S.S.R
October 20, 1944
General Douglas MacArthur fulfills his promise to return to the Philippines when he commands an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.
October 21, 1944
The first kamikaze attack: HMAS Australia is hit by a Japanese plane carrying a 200 kg (441 pound) bomb off Leyte Island, as the Battle of Leyte Gulf began.
October 23, 1944
The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins – The largest naval battle in history begins in the Philippines; and also, the Soviet Red Army enters Hungary.
October 24, 1944
The Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku, and the battleship Musashi are sunk in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
October 25, 1944
The USS Tang (SS-306) under Richard O'Kane (the top submarine captain of World War II) is sunk by the ship's own torpedo.
October 30, 1944
Anne Frank and sister Margot Frank are deported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
November 1, 1944
Units of the British Army land at Walcheren in the Netherlands.
November 3, 1944
Two supreme commanders of the Slovak National Uprising, Generals Ján Golian and Rudolf Viest are captured, tortured and later executed by German forces.
November 6, 1944
Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility and subsequently used in the Fat Man Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
November 12, 1944
The Royal Air Force launches 29 Avro Lancaster bombers in one of the most successful precision bombing attacks of war and sinks the German battleship Tirpitz, with 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs off Tromsø, Norway.
November 19, 1944
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling $14 billion USD in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.
November 24, 1944
Bombing of Tokyo – The first bombing raid against the Japanese capital from the east and by land is carried out by 88 American aircraft.
November 26, 1944
A German V-2 rocket hits a Woolworth's store on New Cross High Street, United Kingdom, killing 168 shoppers.
November 27, 1944
An explosion at a Royal Air Force ammunition dump at Fauld, Staffordshire kills seventy people.
December 16, 1944
The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
December 17, 1944
Battle of the Bulge – Malmedy massacre – American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.
December 18, 1944
77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.
December 22, 1944
Battle of the Bulge – German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"
December 22, 1944
The Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indo-China, now Vietnam.
December 26, 1944
Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.
January 1, 1945
In retaliation for the Malmedy massacre, U.S. troops massacre 30 SS prisoners at Chenogne.
January 1, 1945
The German Luftwaffe launches Unternehmen Bodenplatte, a massive, but failed attempt to knock out Allied air power in northern Europe in a single blow.
January 3, 1945
Admiral Chester W Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan.
January 7, 1945
British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.
January 17, 1945
The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.
January 19, 1945
Soviet forces liberate the Łódź ghetto. Out more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.
January 27, 1945
The Red Army liberates the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.
January 28, 1945
Supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
January 30, 1945
The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest known maritime disaster, killing approximately 9,000 people.
January 30, 1945
Raid at Cabanatuan: 126 American Rangers and Filipino resistance liberate 500 prisoners from the Cabanatuan POW camp.
January 30, 1945
Hitler gives his last ever public address, a radio address on the 12th anniversary of his coming to power. (A subsequent address on February 24 was not read by Hitler.)
January 31, 1945
US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.
February 3, 1945
The Soviet Union agrees to enter the Pacific Theatre conflict against Japan.
February 3, 1945
As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17's of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin.
February 9, 1945
The Battle of the Atlantic – HMS Venturer sinks U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.
February 13, 1945
The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army.
February 13, 1945
Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment.
February 14, 1945
On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.
February 14, 1945
Prague is bombed probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.
February 19, 1945
Battle of Iwo Jima – about 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima.
February 21, 1945
Japanese Kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier Bismarck Sea and damage the Saratoga.
February 23, 1945
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.
February 23, 1945
The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
February 23, 1945
Capitulation of German garrison in Poznań. The city is liberated by Soviet and Polish forces.
February 23, 1945
The German town of Pforzheim is completely destroyed by a raid of 379 British bombers.
February 23, 1945
The Verona Philharmonic Theatre is bombed by Allied forces. It would later be re-opened in 1975.
March 3, 1945
American and Filipino troops take Manila in the Philippines.
March 7, 1945
American troops seize the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen.
March 10, 1945
The Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting firestorm kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.
March 11, 1945
The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2.
March 14, 1945
World War II – The R.A.F. first operational use of the Grand Slam bomb, Bielefeld, Germany.
March 16, 1945
The Battle of Iwo Jima ends but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.
March 19, 1945
Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin (CV-13), killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power.
March 19, 1945
Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.
March 21, 1945
Operation Carthage – British planes bomb Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. Unfortunately they also hit a school; 125 civilians are killed.
March 27, 1945
Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.
March 30, 1945
Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna; Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.
March 30, 1945
a defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 to the Americans.
April 1, 1945
Operation Iceberg – United States troops land on Okinawa in the last campaign of the war.
April 4, 1945
American troops liberate Ohrdruf forced labor camp in Germany.
April 5, 1945
Yugoslav leader Josip "Tito" Broz signs an agreement with the USSR to allow "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory."
April 7, 1945
The Japanese battleship Yamato, the largest battleship ever constructed, is sunk 200 miles north of Okinawa while en-route to a suicide mission in Operation Ten-Go.
April 7, 1945
Visoko is liberated by the 7th, 9th and 17th Krajina brigades from the Tenth division of Yugoslav Partisan forces.
April 9, 1945
The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer is sunk.
April 11, 1945
American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.
April 20, 1945
US troops capture Leipzig, Germany, only to later cede the city to the Soviet Union.
April 20, 1945
Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler makes his last trip to the surface to award Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth.
April 21, 1945
Soviet Union forces south of Berlin at Zossen attack the German High Command headquarters.
April 22, 1945
Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. 520 are killed and 80 escape.
April 22, 1945
Fuehrerbunker: After learning that Soviet forces have taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admits defeat in his underground bunker and states that suicide is his only recourse.
April 26, 1945
Battle of Bautzen – last successful German tank-offensive of the war and last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht.
April 27, 1945
German troops are finally expelled from Finnish Lapland.
April 27, 1945
The Völkischer Beobachter, the newspaper of the Nazi Party, ceases publication.
April 27, 1945
Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.
April 29, 1945
The German Army in Italy unconditionally surrenders to the Allies.
April 29, 1945
World War II – Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler marries his long-time partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun will commit suicide the next day.
April 29, 1945
The Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops.
April 30, 1945
Fuehrerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for one day. Soviet soldiers raise the Victory Banner over the Reichstag building.
May 1, 1945
A German newsreader officially announces that Adolf Hitler has "fallen at his command post in the Reich Chancellery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism and for Germany".
May 2, 1945
Fall of Berlin: The Soviet Union announces the capture of Berlin and Soviet soldiers hoist their red flag over the Reichstag building.
May 2, 1945
Italian Campaign – General Heinrich von Vietinghoff signs the official instrument of surrender of all Wehrmacht forces in Italy.
May 2, 1945
The US 82nd Airborne Division liberates Wöbbelin concentration camp finding 1000 dead inmates, most starved to death.
May 4, 1945
British forces liberate Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.
May 4, 1945
The North Germany Army surrenders to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.
May 5, 1945
Canadian and UK troops liberate the Netherlands and Denmark from Nazi occupation when Wehrmacht troops capitulate
May 5, 1945
Prague uprising against German occupying forces in Czechoslovakia
May 5, 1945
US Army troops liberate the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria
May 5, 1945
Admiral Karl Dönitz, President of Germany after Hitler's death, orders all German U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.
May 7, 1945
General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
May 8, 1945
V-E Day, combat ends in Europe. German forces agree to an unconditional surrender.
May 9, 1945
The final German surrender to Marshal Georgy Zhukov at Berlin-Karlshorst is signed by Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.
May 9, 1945
General Alexander Löhr, commander of German Army Group E in Topolšica signs the unconditional surrender of German occupying forces in former Yugoslavia ending World War II in Slovenia.
May 9, 1945
Hermann Göring is captured by the United States Army.
May 9, 1945
The Red Army enters Prague (capitulation of Nazi occupation troops).
May 9, 1945
The Channel Islands are formally liberated by the British.
May 15, 1945
The final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.
May 23, 1945
Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, committs suicide while in Allied custody.
May 23, 1945
The Flensburg government under Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz is dissolved when its members are captured and arrested by British forces at Flensburg in Northern Germany.
June 23, 1945
The Battle of Okinawa ends when organised resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.
July 17, 1945
Potsdam Conference – at Potsdam, U.S. President Harry Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the three main Allied leaders, begin their final summit of the war. The meeting would end on August 2.
July 30, 1945
Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis (CA-35), killing 883 seamen.
August 2, 1945
Potsdam Conference, in which the Allied Powers discuss the future of defeated Germany, concludes.
August 6, 1945
Hiroshima is devastated when an 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 died in subsequent years due to burns and radiation poisoning.
August 8, 1945
the Soviet Union declares war on Japan and begins the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.
August 9, 1945
Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, "Fat Man", is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. 70,000 people are killed instantly.
August 14, 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).
August 25, 1945
Ten days after World War II ends with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China kill Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by some of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War.
September 2, 1945
Combat in World War II ends in the Pacific Theater: The final official surrender of Japan is accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
September 3, 1945
As combat in World War II ends in the Pacific Theater and the final official surrender of Japan is accepted aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China together celebrate V-J Day on the following day, because Kuomingtang represented China on the Missouri and the news reached the Communist Party of China's areas one-day late. There are still many "September 3" streets and primary schools in China.
September 5, 1945
Igor Gouzenko, a Soviet Union embassy clerk, defects to Canada, exposing Soviet espionage in North America, signalling the beginning of the Cold War.
September 7, 1945
Japanese forces on Wake Island, which they had held since December of 1941, surrender to U.S. Marines.
September 8, 1945
United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
September 11, 1945
Liberation of the Japanese-run POW and civilian internee camp at Batu Lintang, Kuching, Sarawak on the island of Borneo by Australian 9th Division forces. Over 2,000 prisoners, including women and children, were due to be executed on September 15.
October 12, 1945
Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
October 15, 1945
The former premier of Vichy France Pierre Laval is shot by a firing squad for treason.
November 10, 1945
Heavy fighting in Surabaya between Indonesian nationalists and returning colonialists after World War II, is celebrated as Heroes' Day (Hari Pahlawan).
November 16, 1945
Operation Paperclip: The United States Army secretly admits 88 German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.
January 19, 1946
General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.
February 12, 1946
Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured U-boats.
March 28, 1946
The United States State Department releases the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power.
March 31, 1946
The first election is held in Greece after World War II.
April 29, 1946
Former Prime Minister of Japan Hideki Tojo and 28 former Japanese leaders are indicted for war crimes.
June 1, 1946
Ion Antonescu, "Conducator" (leader) of Romania during World War 2, is executed.
July 20, 1946
The US Congress's Pearl Harbor Committee says Franklin D. Roosevelt is completely blameless for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and calls for a unified command structure in the armed forces.
December 9, 1946
The "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" began with the "Doctors' Trial", prosecuting doctors alleged to be involved in human experimentation.
December 31, 1946
President Harry Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
January 1, 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.
May 22, 1947
In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.
July 26, 1947
U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
April 1, 1948
Berlin Airlift – Military forces, under direction of the Soviet-controlled government in East Germany, set-up a land blockade of West Berlin.
April 3, 1948
In Jeju, South Korea, a civil-war-like period of violence and human rights abuses begins, known as the Jeju massacre.
April 23, 1948
1948 Arab-Israeli War: Haifa, the major port of Israel, is captured from Arab forces.
May 13, 1948
1948 Arab-Israeli War: the Kfar Etzion massacre is committed by Arab irregulars, the day before the declaration of independence of the state of Israel on May 14.
July 29, 1948
Olympic Games: The Games of the XIV Olympiad – after a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin opened in London.
September 5, 1948
In France, Robert Schuman becomes President of the Council while being Foreign minister, As such, he is the negotiator of the major treaties of the end of World War II.
September 12, 1948
Invasion of the State of Hyderabad by the Indian Army on the day after the Pakistani leader Jinnah's death.
November 12, 1948
In Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials to death, including General Hideki Tojo, for their roles in World War II.
January 1, 1949
United Nations cease-fire takes effect in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly.
January 15, 1949
The Chinese Communist Party forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist Government.
April 1, 1949
The Communist Party of China holds unsuccessful peace talks with the Kuomintang in Beijing, after three years of fighting.
September 6, 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.
December 7, 1949
The government of Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei.
December 8, 1949
The capital of the Republic of China is moved from Nanjing to Taipei, Taiwan.
December 10, 1949
The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
March 1, 1950
Klaus Fuchs is convicted of spying for the Soviet Union by disclosing top secret atomic bomb data.
March 7, 1950
The Soviet Union issues a statement denying that Klaus Fuchs served as a Soviet spy.
July 5, 1950
Task Force Smith – First clash between American and North Korean forces.
July 20, 1950
In Philadelphia, Harry Gold pleads guilty to spying for the Soviet Union by passing secrets from atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs.
November 8, 1950
United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown shoots down two North Korean MiG-15s in the first jet aircraft-to-jet aircraft dogfight in history.
November 26, 1950
Troops from the People's Republic of China launch a massive counterattack in North Korea against South Korean and American forces (Battle of Chosin Reservoir), ending any hopes of a quick end to the conflict.
November 29, 1950
North Korean and Chinese troops force United Nations forces to retreat from North Korea.
December 16, 1950
President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight with communist North Korea in the Korean War.
March 7, 1951
Operation Ripper – United Nations troops led by General Matthew Ridgeway begin an assault against Chinese forces.
March 14, 1951
For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.
April 11, 1951
President Harry Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea.
November 29, 1952
U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict.
July 27, 1953
Korean War ends: The United States, People's Republic of China, and North Korea, sign an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, president of South Korea, refuses to sign but pledges to observe the armistice.
August 19, 1953
the CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
October 30, 1953
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document National Security Council Paper No. 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.
February 10, 1954
President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
March 13, 1954
Battle of Điện Biên Phủ: Viet Minh forces attack the French.
October 11, 1954
First Indochina War: The Viet Minh take control of North Vietnam.
October 31, 1954
Algerian War of Independence: The Algerian National Liberation Front begins a revolt against French rule.
April 24, 1955
The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
May 14, 1955
Eight communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
July 27, 1955
The Allied occupation of Austria stemming from World War II, ends (started on May 9, 1945).
October 26, 1955
After the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares permanent neutrality.
October 29, 1955
The Soviet battleship Novorossiisk strikes a World War II mine in the harbor at Sevastopol.
November 4, 1955
After being totally destroyed in World War II, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio.
September 24, 1957
President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends 101st Airborne Division troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce desegregation.
November 7, 1957
The Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
May 30, 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.
August 23, 1958
The Second Taiwan Strait crisis begins with the People's Liberation Army's bombardment of Quemoy.
September 2, 1958
United States Air Force C-130A-II is shot down by fighters over Yerevan, Armenia when it strays into Soviet airspace while conducting a sigint mission. All crew lost.
December 1, 1959
Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent.
May 1, 1960
U-2 incident – Francis Gary Powers, in a Lockheed U-2 spyplane, is shot down over the Soviet Union, sparking a diplomatic crisis.
May 7, 1960
U-2 Crisis of 1960 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that his nation is holding American U-2 pilot Gary Powers.
August 19, 1960
in Moscow, downed American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to ten years imprisonment by the Soviet Union for espionage.
October 12, 1960
Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonialist policy being conducted in Eastern Europe
June 23, 1961
The Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, comes into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959.
September 1, 1961
The Eritrean War of Independence officially begins with the shooting of the Ethiopian police by Hamid Idris Awate
March 18, 1962
The Evian Accords put an end to the Algerian War of Independence, which began in 1954.
April 21, 1962
The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.
July 3, 1962
The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends.
December 2, 1962
After a trip to Vietnam at the request of US President John F. Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official not to make an optimistic public comment on the war's progress.
November 6, 1963
Following the November 1 coup and execution of President Ngo Dinh Diem, coup leader General Duong Van Minh takes over leadership of South Vietnam.
November 24, 1963
Newly sworn-in US President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam both militarily and economically.
January 8, 1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.
May 2, 1964
An explosion sinks the USS Card while docked at Saigon. Viet Cong forces are suspected of placing a bomb on the ship.
June 11, 1964
World War II veteran Walter Seifert runs amok in an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers and seriously injuring several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance.
July 19, 1964
At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
July 20, 1964
Viet Cong forces attack the capital of Dinh Tuong Province, Cai Be, killing 11 South Vietnamese military personnel and 40 civilians (30 of which are children).
July 27, 1964
5,000 more American military advisers are sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.
August 2, 1964
Gulf of Tonkin Incident – North Vietnamese gunboats allegedly fires on U.S. destroyers, USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy.
August 4, 1964
United States destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. The destroyers open fire at what they believe were Vietnam People's Army torpedo boats, although subsequent research has raised doubts that the targets were real. This engagement has become known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
August 5, 1964
Operation Pierce Arrow – American aircraft from carriers USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bomb North Vietnam in retaliation for strikes attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin.
August 7, 1964
the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving US President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.
August 16, 1964
A coup d'état replaces Duong Van Minh with General Nguyen Khanh as President of South Vietnam. A new constitution is established with aid from the U.S. Embassy.
November 27, 1964
Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster".
November 28, 1964
National Security Council members agree to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.
December 1, 1964
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam.
December 5, 1964
For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.
February 9, 1965
The first United States combat troops are sent to South Vietnam.
March 30, 1965
A car bomb explodes in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, killing 22 and wounding 183 others.
May 1, 1965
Battle of Dong-Yin, a naval conflict between ROC and PRC, takes place.
May 27, 1965
American warships begin the first bombardment of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam.
June 18, 1965
The United States uses B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam.
July 24, 1965
four F-4C Phantoms escorting a bombing raid at Kang Chi are the targets of antiaircraft missiles in the first such attack against American aircraft in the war. One is shot down and the other three sustain damage.
July 28, 1965
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
July 29, 1965
the first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.
August 18, 1965
Operation Starlite begins – United States Marines destroy a Viet Cong stronghold on the Van Tuong peninsula in the first major American ground battle of the war.
August 19, 1965
Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa.
September 6, 1965
War of 1965: India retaliates following Pakistan's failed Operation Grand Slam which resulted in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 that is ended following the signing of the Tashkent Declaration.
September 7, 1965
In a follow-up to August's Operation Starlight, United States Marines and South Vietnamese forces initiate Operation Piranha on the Batangan Peninsula.
September 22, 1965
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965/Second Kashmir War between India and Pakistan over Kashmir ends after the UN calls for a cease-fire.
October 15, 1965
The National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam stages the first public burning of a draft card in the United States to result in arrest under a new law.
October 23, 1965
The 1st Cavalry Division (United States) (Airmobile), in conjunction with South Vietnamese forces, launch a new operation, seeking to destroy North Vietnamese forces in Pleiku in the II Corps Tactical Zone (the Central Highlands).
October 30, 1965
Just miles from Da Nang, United States Marines repel an intense attack by wave after wave of Viet Cong forces, killing 56 guerrillas. Among the dead, a sketch of Marine positions is found on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who sold drinks to the Marines the day before.
November 9, 1965
Catholic Worker member Roger Allen LaPorte, protesting against the Vietnam War, sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations building.
November 14, 1965
The Battle of the Ia Drang begins – the first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces.
November 27, 1965
The Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations are to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000.
November 28, 1965
In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.
December 16, 1965
General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.
August 16, 1966
The House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigations of Americans who have aided the Viet Cong. The committee intends to introduce legislation making these activities illegal. Anti-war demonstrators disrupt the meeting and 50 people are arrested.
August 18, 1966
the Battle of Long Tan occurs, when a patrol of 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment encounter the Viet Cong.
January 6, 1967
United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.
April 24, 1967
American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily."
May 17, 1967
Six-Day War: President Abdul Nasser of Egypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt.
June 8, 1967
Six-Day War: The USS Liberty incident occurs, killing 34 and wounding 171.
June 9, 1967
Six-Day War: Israel captures the Golan Heights from Syria
June 23, 1967
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference.
July 29, 1967
off the coast of North Vietnam the USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134.
August 7, 1967
the People's Republic of China agrees to give North Vietnam an undisclosed amount of aid in the form of a grant.
September 4, 1967
Operation Swift begins: U.S. Marines engage the North Vietnamese in battle in the Que Son Valley.
October 12, 1967
US Secretary of State Dean Rusk states during a news conference that proposals by the U.S. Congress for peace initiatives are futile because of North Vietnam's opposition
October 14, 1967
Folk singer Joan Baez is arrested in a blockade of the military induction center in Oakland, California.
October 21, 1967
More than 100,000 war protesters gather in Washington, DC. A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial is followed by a march to The Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and United States Marshals protecting the facility. Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.
November 2, 1967
US President Lyndon B. Johnson and "The Wise Men" conclude that the American people should be given more optimistic reports on the progress of the war.
November 11, 1967
In a propaganda ceremony in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, three American prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong and turned over to "new left" antiwar activist Tom Hayden.
November 17, 1967
Acting on optimistic reports he is given on November 13, US President Lyndon B. Johnson tells his nation that, while much remained to be done, "We are inflicting greater losses than we're taking...We are making progress."
November 21, 1967
American General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."
November 29, 1967
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation.
December 4, 1967
US and South Vietnamese forces engage Viet Cong troops in the Mekong Delta.
January 21, 1968
Battle of Khe Sanh – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.
January 30, 1968
The Tet Offensive begins when Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks in South Vietnam.
February 1, 1968
The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan is videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams. This image helped build opposition to the Vietnam War.
March 16, 1968
In the My Lai massacre, between 350 and 500 Vietnamese villagers (men, women, and children) are killed by American troops.
March 21, 1968
Battle of Karameh in Jordan between Israeli Defense Forces and Fatah.
April 23, 1968
Student protesters at Columbia University in New York City take over administration buildings and shut down the university.
July 26, 1968
South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
October 8, 1968
Operation Sealords – United States and South Vietnamese forces launch a new operation in the Mekong Delta.
October 14, 1968
27 soldiers are arrested at the Presidio in San Francisco for their peaceful protest of stockade conditions and the Vietnam War.
October 14, 1968
The United States Department of Defense announces that the United States Army and United States Marines will be sending about 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours.
October 31, 1968
Vietnam War October surprise: Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces to the nation that he has ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1.
November 11, 1968
Operation Commando Hunt initiated. The goal is to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam.
November 20, 1968
Eleven men comprising a Long Range Patrol team from F Company, 58th Infantry, 101st Airborne are surrounded and nearly wiped out by North Vietnamese army regulars from the 4th and 5th Regiment. The seven wounded survivors are rescued after several hours by an impromptu force made up of other men from their unit.
November 26, 1968
United States Air Force helicopter pilot James P. Fleming rescues an Army Special Forces unit pinned down by Viet Cong fire and is later awarded the Medal of Honor.
March 2, 1969
Soviet and Chinese forces clash at a border outpost on the Ussuri River.
April 3, 1969
U.S. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird announces that the United States will start to "Vietnamize" the war effort.
April 5, 1969
Massive antiwar demonstrations occur in many U.S. cities.
May 10, 1969
The Battle of Dong Ap Bia begins with an assault on Hill 937. It will ultimately become known as Hamburger Hill.
July 25, 1969
US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This is the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.
July 30, 1969
US President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyen Van Thieu and with U.S. military commanders.
August 4, 1969
at the apartment of French intermediary Jean Sainteny in Paris, U.S. representative Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese representative Xuan Thuy begin secret peace negotiations. The negotiations will eventually fail.
November 3, 1969
U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addresses the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies.
November 12, 1969
My Lai Massacre – Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the My Lai story.
November 13, 1969
Anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C. stage a symbolic March Against Death.
November 15, 1969
The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.
November 15, 1969
In Washington, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".
November 17, 1969
Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki to begin SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
November 20, 1969
The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
December 1, 1969
The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
March 10, 1970
Captain Ernest Medina is charged with My Lai war crimes.
April 28, 1970
U.S. President Richard M. Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
April 29, 1970
United States and South Vietnamese forces invade Cambodia to hunt Viet Cong.
May 4, 1970
Kent State shootings: the Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, open fire killing four students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the United States' invasion of Cambodia.
May 9, 1970
In Washington, D.C., 75,000 to 100,000 war protesters demonstrate in front of the White House.
September 5, 1970
Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: the United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thua Thien province.
September 7, 1970
An anti-war rally is held at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, attended by John Kerry, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.
September 7, 1970
Fighting between Arabic guerillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan.
September 17, 1970
Fighting breaks out along the Syria-Jordanian border between Jordanian troops and the fedayeen.
September 20, 1970
Syrian tanks roll into Jordan in response to continued fighting between Jordan and the fedayeen. The Jordanians knock out 30 of the Syrian tanks.
September 25, 1970
Cease-fire between Jordan and the Fedayeen ends fighting triggered by four hijackings on September 6 and 9.
October 8, 1970
In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects US President Richard Nixon's October 7 peace proposal as "a maneuver to deceive world opinion".
October 12, 1970
US President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas
November 4, 1970
Vietnamization – The United States turns control of the Binh Thuy Air Base in the Mekong Delta over to South Vietnam.
November 5, 1970
The United States Military Assistance Command in Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five years (24).
November 9, 1970
The Supreme Court of the United States votes 6 to 3 against hearing a case to allow Massachusetts to enforce its law granting residents the right to refuse military service in an undeclared war.
November 10, 1970
Vietnamization – For the first time in five years, an entire week ends with no reports of American combat fatalities in Southeast Asia.
November 21, 1970
Operation Ivory Coast – A joint Air Force and Army team raids the Son Tay prison camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war thought to be held there.
February 13, 1971
Backed by American air and artillery support, South Vietnamese troops invade Laos.
March 25, 1971
Bangladesh Liberation War: Beginning of Operation Searchlight of Pakistan Army against East Pakistani civilians.
March 26, 1971
East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form People's Republic of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Liberation War begins.
April 19, 1971
Vietnam Veterans Against the War begin a five-day demonstration in Washington, DC.
June 13, 1971
The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.
August 18, 1971
Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.
October 29, 1971
Vietnamization – The total number of American troops still in Vietnam drops to a record low of 196,700 (the lowest level since January 1966).
November 12, 1971
As part of Vietnamization, US President Richard M. Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam.
November 21, 1971
Indian troops, partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrillas), defeat the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.
December 16, 1971
Bangladesh War of Independence and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan army brings an end to both conflicts.
January 24, 1972
Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
February 29, 1972
Vietnamization – South Korea withdraws 11,000 of its 48,000 troops from Vietnam.
March 30, 1972
The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
April 2, 1972
The Easter Offensive begins – North Vietnamese soldiers of the 304th Division take the northern half of Quang Tri Province.
April 6, 1972
Easter Offensive – American forces begin sustained air strikes and naval bombardments.
April 10, 1972
For the first time since November 1967, American B-52 bombers reportedly begin bombing North Vietnam.
April 22, 1972
Increased American bombing in Vietnam prompts anti-war protests in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.
May 8, 1972
Vietnam War – U.S. President Richard M. Nixon announces his order to place mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation.
August 11, 1972
the last United States ground combat unit departs South Vietnam.
November 11, 1972
Vietnamization – The United States Army turns over the massive Long Binh military base to South Vietnam.
November 30, 1972
White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press that there will be no more public announcements concerning American troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels are now down to 27,000.
December 16, 1972
Henry Kissinger announces that North Vietnam has left private peace negotiations, in Paris.
December 18, 1972
President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th.
January 15, 1973
Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
January 27, 1973
Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde is killed in action becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty.
February 11, 1973
First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place.
February 12, 1973
The first United States prisoners of war are released by the Viet Cong.
February 22, 1973
Following United States President Richard Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.
March 29, 1973
The last United States combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
July 20, 1973
In testimony by Assistant Secretary of Defense Jerry Friedheim to the US Senate Committee on Armed Services, the US Defense Department admits it lied to US Congress about bombing Cambodia .
October 6, 1973
Egypt launches a coordinated attack against Israel to reclaim land lost in the Six Day War. The Yom Kippur War starts at 2:05 pm that day.
October 8, 1973
Yom Kippur War: Gabi Amir's armored brigade attacks Egyptian occupied positions on the Israeli side of the Suez Canal, in hope of driving them away. The attack fails, and over 150 Israeli tanks are destroyed.
October 16, 1973
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
August 5, 1974
The U.S. Congress places a $1 billion dollar limit on military aid to South Vietnam.
March 10, 1975
North Vietnamese troops attack Ban Me Thuot, South Vietnam, on their way to capturing Saigon.
April 2, 1975
Thousands of civilian refugees flee from the Quang Ngai Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops.
April 4, 1975
Operation Baby Lift – A United States Air Force C-5A Galaxy crashes near Saigon, South Vietnam shortly after takeoff, transporting orphans – 172 die.
April 21, 1975
President of South Vietnam Nguyen Van Thieu flees Saigon, as Xuan Loc, the last South Vietnamese outpost blocking a direct North Vietnamese assault on Saigon, falls.
April 29, 1975
Operation Frequent Wind: The U.S. begins to evacuate U.S. citizens from Saigon prior to an expected North Vietnamese takeover. U.S. involvement in the war comes to an end.
April 30, 1975
Fall of Saigon: Communist forces gain control of Saigon. The Vietnam War formally ends with the unconditional surrender of South Vietnamese president Duong Van Minh.
August 11, 1975
East Timor: Governor Mário Lemos Pires of Portuguese Timor abandons the capital Dili, following a coup by the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) and the outbreak of civil war between UDT and Fretilin.
August 15, 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.
October 16, 1975
The Balibo Five, a group of Australian television journalists based in the town of Balibo in the then Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), are killed by Indonesian troops.
July 20, 1976
The U.S. military completes its troop withdrawal from Thailand.
September 6, 1976
Soviet air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate on the island of Hokkaidō in Japan and requests political asylum in the United States.
January 21, 1977
President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada.
March 16, 1977
Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.
January 6, 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.
March 14, 1978
The Israeli Defense Force invades and occupies southern Lebanon, in Operation Litani.
March 23, 1978
The first UNIFIL troops arrived in Lebanon for peacekeeping mission along the Blue Line.
September 18, 1978
Leaders of Israel and Egypt reach a settlement for the Middle East at Camp David.
January 7, 1979
Third Indochina War – Cambodian-Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
November 30, 1981
In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on December 17).
April 2, 1982
Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands.
June 6, 1982
1982 Lebanon War begins: Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee," eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.
February 24, 1983
A special commission of the U.S. Congress releases a report that condemns the practice of Japanese internment during World War II.
July 7, 1983
Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov.
September 1, 1983
Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board are killed, including United States Congressman Lawrence McDonald.
October 23, 1983
Lebanon Civil War: The U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.
October 25, 1983
Operation Urgent Fury: The United States and its Caribbean allies invade Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters are executed in a coup d'état.
November 19, 1985
In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
April 17, 1986
The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly ends.
October 11, 1986
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.
April 27, 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.
May 11, 1987
Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
June 12, 1987
At the Brandenburg Gate U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
October 11, 1987
Start of Operation Pawan by Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka that killed few thousand ethnic Tamil civilians, several hundred Tamil Tigers and few hundred Indian Army soldiers.
April 18, 1988
The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II.
August 10, 1988
Japanese American internment: US 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.
March 19, 1989
The Egyptian Flag is raised on Taba, Egypt announcing the end of the Israeli occupation after the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and the Peace negotiations in 1979.
August 24, 1989
Colombian drug barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government.
November 9, 1989
Fall of the Berlin Wall. Communist-controlled East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. People start demolishing the Berlin Wall.
November 17, 1989
Velvet Revolution begins: In Czechoslovakia, a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government (it succeeds on December 29).
November 28, 1989
Velvet Revolution – In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly on political power.
December 1, 1989
East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the communist party the leading role in the state.
December 3, 1989
In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end (some commentators from both nations exaggerated the wording and independently declared the Cold War over).
March 15, 1990
Iraq hangs British journalist Farzad Bazoft for spying.
August 6, 1990
the United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
October 13, 1990
End of the Lebanese war. Syrian forces launch an attack on the free areas of Lebanon removing General Michel Aoun from the presidential palace.
October 15, 1990
Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and open up his nation.
November 29, 1990
The United Nations Security Council passes United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing "use all necessary means to uphold and implement" United Nations Security Council Resolution 660 "to restore international peace and security" if Iraq did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.
January 12, 1991
An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
January 17, 1991
Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning. Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.
January 20, 1991
Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.
January 22, 1991
Three SCUDs and one Patriot missile hit Ramat Gan in Israel, injuring 96 people. Three elderly people die of heart attacks.
February 13, 1991
Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed.
February 23, 1991
Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabian border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground phase of the war.
February 26, 1991
On Baghdad Radio Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
February 27, 1991
U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated".
March 2, 1991
Battle at Rumaila Oil Field brings an end to the 1991 Gulf War.
May 28, 1991
The capital city of Addis Ababa, falls to the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, ending both the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Civil War.
December 1, 1991
Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
January 16, 1992
El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City ending a 12-year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.
October 4, 1992
The Rome General Peace Accords ends a 16 year civil war in Mozambique.
May 18, 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.
November 9, 1993
Stari most, the "old bridge" in Bosnian Mostar built in 1566, collapses after several days of bombing.
December 11, 1994
First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya.
February 17, 1995
The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ends on a cease-fire brokered by the UN.
November 21, 1995
The Dayton Peace Agreement is initialed at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agreement is formally ratified in Paris, on December 14 that same year.
December 29, 1996
Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war.
May 15, 1997
The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans.
October 25, 1997
After a brief civil war which has driven President Pascal Lissouba out of Brazzaville, Denis Sassou-Nguesso proclaims himself the President of the Republic of the Congo.
February 28, 1998
Serbian police begin the offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army in Kosovo.
March 24, 1999
NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
April 29, 1999
The Avala TV Tower near Belgrade is destroyed in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
May 7, 1999
In Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, three Chinese citizens are killed and 20 wounded when a NATO aircraft bombs the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
June 9, 1999
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and North Atlantic Treaty Organization sign a peace treaty.
June 10, 1999
NATO suspends its air strikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.
June 12, 1999
Operation Joint Guardian begins when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force (KFor) enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
November 19, 1999
In Istanbul, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ends a two-day summit by calling for a political settlement in Chechnya and adopting a Charter for European Security.
April 22, 2000
Second Battle of Elephant Pass, Tamil Tigers capture a strategic Sri Lankan Army base and hold it for 8 years.
May 2, 2000
Her Royal Highness Princess Margriet of the Netherlands unveils the Man With Two Hats monument in Apeldoorn and the other in Ottawa on May 11, 2000. Symbolically linking both Netherlands and Canada for their assistance throughout World War II.
May 25, 2000
Liberation Day of Lebanon. Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion in 1978.
November 14, 2001
War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters take over the capital Kabul.
December 17, 2002
Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.
May 9, 2004
Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov is killed in a land mine bomb blast under a VIP stage during a World War II memorial victory parade in Grozny, Chechnya.
May 29, 2004
The World War II Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
April 29, 2005
Syria completes withdrawal from Lebanon, ending 29 years of occupation.
October 30, 2005
The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II) is reconsecrated after a thirteen-year rebuilding project.
December 23, 2005
Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead.
March 20, 2006
Over 150 Chadian soldiers are killed in eastern Chad by members of the rebel UFDC. The rebel movement sought to overthrow Chadian president Idriss Deby.
December 1, 2006
Mexican President Felipe Calderon declares war on Drug traffickers in the ongoing Mexican Drug War.
May 18, 2009
Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE are defeated by the Sri Lankan government, ending almost 26 years of fighting between the two sides.
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