Explore 6096 historical events from 1940–1949.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and dictator who led Italy as Il Duce from 1922 until his overthrow in 1943. He founded the fascist movement…
Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci are shot dead by Walter Audisio, a member of the Italian resistance move
The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered ar…
The Holocaust: Nazi Germany carries out its final use of gas chambers to execute 33 Upper Austrian socialist and communi
Operations Manna, Chowhound and Faust provided food to relieve a famine in the 1944–1945 German-occupied Netherlands. By May 1945, about 20,000 people in the Netherlands had died o…
World War II: Airdrops of food begin over German-occupied regions of the Netherlands
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the N…
World War II: Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz
Dachau was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern the Nazi Part…
Dachau concentration camp is liberated by United States troops
Sylvain Simard is a politician and academic based in the Canadian province of Quebec. He represented Richelieu in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 2012, and was a cabin…
Sylvain Simard, Canadian academic and politician
Martin Harcourt Chivers was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. He began his career with his hometown club Southampton where he had a successful six years a…
Martin Chivers, English footballer and manager (died 2026)
The Führerbunker was an air raid shelter located near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. It was part of a subterranean bunker complex constructed in two phases in 1936 and 1…
World War II: Führerbunker: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide after being married for less than 40 hours
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and air…
World War II: German radio broadcasts news of Adolf Hitler's death, falsely stating that he has "fallen at his command p
On 1 May 1945, hundreds of people killed themselves in the town of Demmin, in the Province of Pomerania, Germany. Although death toll estimates vary, it is acknowledged to be the l…
World War II: Up to 2,500 people die in a mass suicide in Demmin following the advance of the Red Army
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. It…
World War II: The Soviet Union announces the fall of Berlin
During the Holocaust, death marches were massive forced transfers of prisoners from one Nazi camp to other locations, which involved walking long distances resulting in numerous de…
World War II: A death march from Dachau to the Austrian border is halted by the segregated, all-Nisei 522nd Field Artill
Terence Joseph Willesee is an Australian retired journalist and television and radio presenter.
Terry Willesee, Australian journalist and television host
Hugh Colin Hopper was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands.
Hugh Hopper, English bass guitarist (died 2009)
Catherine Lara is a French violinist, composer, singer, and author. Over a career spanning more than five decades, she has established herself as an icon in French pop/rock music a…
Catherine Lara, French singer-songwriter and violinist
Thomasina Winifred Montgomery, professionally known as Tammi Terrell, was an American singer-songwriter, widely known as a star singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, notably …
Tammi Terrell, American soul singer-songwriter (died 1970)
Sir John Michael Brady is an emeritus professor of oncological imaging at the University of Oxford. He has been a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford, since 1985 and was elected a fore…
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A prison ship, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. Some p…
World War II: Sinking of the prison ships Cap Arcona, Thielbek and Deutschland by the Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay, re
Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the…
World War II: Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg is liberated by the British Army
On 4 May 1945, at 18:30 British Double Summer Time, at Lüneburg Heath, south of Hamburg, British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery accepted the unconditional surrender of the Ge…
World War II: The German surrender at Lüneburg Heath is signed, coming into effect the following day
The Prague uprising was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World W…
World War II: The Prague uprising begins as an attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city from German occupation
Fu-Go was an incendiary balloon weapon deployed by Japan against the United States during World War II. It consisted of a hydrogen-filled paper balloon 33 feet (10 m) in diameter…
World War II: A Fu-Go balloon bomb launched by the Japanese Army kills six people near Bly, Oregon
Annie Dillard is an American author, best known for her narrative prose in both fiction and nonfiction. She has published works of poetry, essays, prose, and literary criticism, as…
Annie Dillard, American novelist, essayist, and poet
Margarita Mimi Baez Fariña was an American singer-songwriter and activist, the youngest of three daughters of mother Joan Chandos Bridge and Mexican-American physicist Albert Baez.…
Mimi Fariña, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist (died 2001)