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WORLD WAR II TIMELINE:

MILESTONES TO PEACE
JAN FEB

Sept. 16. First-ever peacetime draft established in U.S., war between fascists and democracies in Europe and China has been under way for a year.
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Dec. 29 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gives speech declaring U.S. will be the arsenal of democracy.
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March 11 FDR signs the Lend-Lease Act turning over warships to Britain.

July 26 U.S. freezes Japanese assets in this country, suspends diplomatic relations.

Nov. 17 Japan demands U.S. lift trade embargo.

Dec. 7 Japanese eet makes surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii. Dec. 8 U.S. declares war on Japan.

Feb. 19 FDR issues executive order authorizing internment of Japanese-American citizens.

April 18 Col. James Doolittle leads rst U.S. bombing strike against Japan from USS Hornet.

June 4-7 Battle of Midway, U.S. Navy sinks four Japanese carriers; Japanese occupy two islands in Alaskas Aleutians.

Aug. 8 U.S. Marines capture air eld on Guadalcanal.

Oct. 26 Manhattan Project to develop atomic bomb given top war production priority.

March 1 Processed food joins gas and tires among rationed products in U.S.

May U.S. adopts new convoy, anti-submarine tactics in Atlantic; Germany forced to end most submarine attacks o U.S. coast.

Sept. 8 After Allied invasion takes Sicily, Italy surrenders; German troops take over most mainland defenses.

Dec. 24 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower named commander of Allied Expeditionary Force being formed to invade Western Europe.

March 31 U.S. forces land on Marshall Islands, continuing island-hopping strategy in Paci c.

June 6 Allied invasion of Normandy, France begins.

Oct. 20 U.S. forces land in Philippines; U.S. Navy decisively defeats Japanese in Battle of Leyte Gulf Oct. 23-26.

Dec. 16-27 Battle of the Bulge; German counterattack fails to split Allied armies in Belgium.

March 26 Battle of Iwo Jima ends.

April 12 FDR dies of brain hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga.; Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes president.

May 8 Days after Adolf Hitler dies by his own hand, German high command surrenders, VE Day declared.

June 18 Truman approves plans for invasion of Japan the following November; Okinawa falls four days later.

July 16 Trinity atomic bomb test in Alamogordo, N.M.

Aug. 6 U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan; second bomb falls on Nagasaki three days later; some 260,000 die in the two attacks. Aug 14: Japan announces surrender; a formal surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay Sept. 2 ends the war.
Source: U.S. Naval History Center; U.S. Army Historical Command

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