istoryworld
All Events
The Japanese invasion of Papua signals the start of the three-year New Guinea campaign
British engineer Barnes Wallis designs a bouncing and rotating bomb for use against German dams
Pierre Laval becomes head of the government in German-backed Vichy France
Germany launches a bombing campaign specifically targeting historic British cities with three stars in the Baedeker guidebook
George VI awards the George Cross (for civilian valour) to the entire besieged island of Malta
US planes, flying from an aircraft carrier, undertake a difficult bombing raid on Tokyo
After losing the Philippines to the Japanese, Douglas MacArthur declares 'I shall return'
Burma becomes the last in the series of important southeast Asian territories to fall into Japanese hands
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer flies to neutral Sweden to contact the British on behalf of conspirators against Hitler
William Slim gets the remaining British forces back to India from Burma, in a fighting withdrawal that lasts two months
Reinhard Heydrich is fatally wounded by Free Czech agents parachuted in from Britain
Three Japanese midget submarines penetrate Sydney harbour in Australia
US physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer is appointed director of the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon
US planes sink four Japanese aircraft carriers in the battle of Midway, halting for the first time Japan's aggressive expansion
Hitler orders a massacre at Lidice, a village near Prague, in retaliation for the death of Heydrich
German general Erwin Rommel captures Tobruk, along with 33,000 British soldiers and valuable supplies
Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in an Amsterdam attic
Treblinka is constructed, in Poland, as the Nazis' first large-scale and purpose-built death camp
A renewed German campaign eastwards in Russia results in the capture of Sebastopol and the Crimea
Russia's new heavy industry is relocated to the east to escape the German advance
Auchinleck finally stops Rommel's advance, in the first battle of El Alamein
US general Dwight Eisenhower is appointed to command Allied landings in north Africa
US and Japanese forces begin a violent six-month struggle for Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands
Bernard Montgomery is appointed commander of the demoralized British and Commonwealth Eighth Army in North Africa
Canadian troops provide most of the assault force in a disastrous raid on Dieppe
