Explore 3063 historical events from 1940–1949.
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and is designated as the navy of the United States in the Constitution. With 290 comba…
World War II: A hunter-killer group of the United States Navy captures the German Kriegsmarine submarine U-505: The firs
The United States Army North (ARNORTH) is a formation of the United States Army. An Army Service Component Command (ASCC) subordinate to United States Northern Command (NORTHCOM), …
World War II: The United States Fifth Army captures Rome, although much of the German Fourteenth Army is able to withdra
Nazi Germany, officially the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the countr…
World War II: More than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. …
World War II: Commencement of Operation Overlord: The Allied invasion of Normandy begins with the execution of Operation
Joshua Rifkin is an American conductor, pianist, and musicologist. He is currently a professor of music at Boston University. As a performer, he has recorded music by composers fro…
Joshua Rifkin, American conductor and musicologist
Jean-François Stévenin was a French actor and filmmaker. He appeared in 150 films and television shows since 1968. He starred in the film Cold Moon, which was entered into the 1991…
Jean-François Stévenin, French actor and director (died 2021)
Sir Peter John Cresswell, DL was an English High Court judge, and a judge of the Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Centre.
Peter Cresswell, English judge
Maarja Nummert was an Estonian architect who designed a number of school buildings.
Maarja Nummert, Estonian architect
Michael Volker Kogel, also known as Mike Kennedy and Mike Keller, is a German-born Spanish singer. He was the lead singer for Los Bravos.
Mike Kogel, German singer-songwriter
Sir Stephen John Nickell, is a British economist and former warden of Nuffield College, Oxford, noted for his work in labour economics with Richard Layard and Richard Jackman. Nick…
Stephen Nickell, English economist and academic
The capture of the Caen Canal and Orne River bridges was an operation by airborne forces of the British Army that took place in the early hours of 6 June 1944 as part of the Norman…
World War II: Capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges by Allied paratroopers, also known as Operation Coup de M
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. …
World War II: Battle of Normandy: At Ardenne Abbey, members of the SS Division Hitlerjugend massacre 23 Canadian prisone
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: Ninety-nine civilians are hanged from lampposts and balconies by German troops in Tulle, France, in repris
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 invades East Karelia and the previously Finnish part of Karelia, occupied by Finland sinc
On 10 June 1944, four days after D-Day, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Haute-Vienne in Nazi-occupied France was destroyed when 642 civilians, including non-combatant men, wome…
World War II: Six hundred forty-three men, women and children massacred at Oradour-sur-Glane, France
Sir Bruce Anthony John Ponder FMedSci FAACR FRS FRCP is an English geneticist and cancer researcher. He is Emeritus Professor of Oncology at the University of Cambridge and former …
Bruce Ponder, English geneticist and cancer researcher
Richard James Bradshaw was a British opera conductor and the General Director of the Canadian Opera Company (COC) in Toronto.
Richard Bradshaw, English conductor (died 2007)
Michael Fish is a British weather forecaster. From 1974 to 2004, he was a television presenter for BBC Weather.
Michael Fish, English meteorologist and journalist
Herbert Joseph Pedersen is an American musician, guitarist, banjo player, and singer-songwriter who has played a variety of musical styles over the past fifty years including count…
Herb Pedersen, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
Distomo is a town in western Boeotia, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Distomo-Arachova-Antikyra, of which it is the seat and a munici…
World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia, Greece, 228 men, women and children are massacred by German troops
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play …
In baseball, 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds becomes the youngest player ever in a major-league game
USS Missouri (BB-63) is an Iowa-class battleship built for the United States Navy (USN) in the 1940s and is now a museum ship. Completed in 1944, she is the last battleship commiss…
USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrum
The Battle of Carentan was an engagement in World War II between airborne forces of the United States Army and the German Wehrmacht during the Battle of Normandy. The battle took p…
World War II: Battle of Carentan: American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan, Norm
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 Battle of Villers-Bocage: German tank ace Michael Wittmann ambushes elements of the British 7th Armou