Explore 3063 historical events from 1940–1949.
Richard Johnson is a part-owner of the V8 Supercar team Dick Johnson Racing and a former racing driver. As a driver, he was a five-time Australian Touring Car Champion and a three-…
Dick Johnson, Australian racing driver
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)
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
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
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)
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
Mildred Elizabeth Gillars was an American broadcaster employed by Nazi Germany to disseminate Axis propaganda during World War II. Following her capture in post-war Berlin, Gillars…
World War II: Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops
The Prague offensive was the last major military operation of World War II in Europe. The offensive was fought on the Eastern Front from 6 May to 11 May 1945. Fought concurrently w…
World War II: The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins
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…
End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic
The Halifax VE-Day riots, 7–8 May 1945, in Halifax and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, began as a celebration of the World War II victory in Europe. This rapidly evolved into a rampage by …
The Halifax riot starts when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax, Nova Scotia
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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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)
Michael John Smith, was an American engineer and astronaut. He served as the pilot of the Space Shuttle Challenger when it was destroyed during the STS-51-L mission, breaking up 73…
Michael J
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: the Channel Islands are liberated from Nazi occupation
The Battle of Poljana took place outside of Poljana, near the town of Prevalje in Yugoslavia between the Yugoslav Army and a column of 30,000 retreating Axis soldiers, which consis…
World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia
The Levant Crisis, also known as the Damascus Crisis, the Syrian Crisis, or the Levant Confrontation, was a military confrontation that took place between British and French forces…
Beginning of the Levant Crisis between Britain and France in Syria