United States Events

In 1930, Sténio Vincent, a long-time critic of the occupation, was elected President. By 1930, President Herbert Hoover had become concerned about the effects of the occupation, partic...

At 13, John Kennedy went to the Canterbury School, a private school in New Milford, Connecticut, but he fell ill and never returned. He later graduated from Choate Preparatory School in W...

Late in 1937, Mr. Kennedy was appointed United States Ambassador to England and moved there with his whole family, with the exception of Joe and Jack who were at Harvard. Because of his f...

For the first time the inauguration of the President was held on January 20, pursuant to the provisions of the 20th amendment to the Constitution. Having won the election of 1936 by a wi...

A flat-bottomed craft built in Shanghai specifically for river duty, Panay served as part of the U.S. Navy's Yangtze Patrol in the Asiatic Fleet, which was responsible for patrolling the ...

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1938 was awarded to Pearl Buck "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces".

The 1938 flood event resulted in the deaths of 115 people. It destroyed 5,601 homes and damaged 1,500 homes making them uninhabitable. For many Angelenos, the storm evoked grim memories o...

In late June 1938, Kennedy sailed with his father and his brother Joe on the SS Normandie to spend July working with his father, recently appointed U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. Jam...

In 1938, with the rise of Hitler, Berlin, who was Jewish, and a first-generation European immigrant, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song", and it was introduced on an Armistice...

In September 1936 he enrolled as a freshman at Harvard College, where he produced that year's annual Freshman Smoker, called by a reviewer "an elaborate entertainment, which included in i...

In 1940, Kennedy completed his thesis, "Appeasement in Munich," about British participation in the Munich Agreement. He initially intended his thesis to be private, but his father encoura...

The only chief executive to serve more than two terms, President Roosevelt took office for the third time as Europe and Asia engaged in war. The oath of office was administered by Chief J...

Despite having a bad back, Kennedy was able to join the U.S. Navy through the help of Captain Alan Kirk, the Director, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) who had been the Naval Attache in...

Wake Island was an American outpost in the central Pacific. Wake is a coral atoll, made up of three islands. Wake Island itself is the largest, and forms two sides of a triangle. Peal...

The First Battle of Guam, was an engagement during the Pacific War in World War II, and took place on December 8, 1941 on Guam in the Mariana Islands between the Empire of Japan and Ameri...

While the Japanese invasion force was landing at Balikpapan, on the early morning of January 24, at around 02:45, the Allied (ABDACOM's) 59th US Navy Destroyer Division under Rear Admiral...

From 6 January onwards, Ambon was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Allied aircraft made some sorties against the approaching Japanese fleet, with little success. On 13 January, the two B...

The Battle of Makassar Strait, also known as the Action of Madura Strait, the Action North of Lombok Strait and the Battle of the Flores Sea, was a naval battle of the Pacific theatre of ...

The Battle of Badung Strait was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the night of 19–20 February 1942 in Badung Strait between the American-British-Dutch-Aust...

During the night of 19–20 February, 1,500 troops from the Imperial Japanese Army's 228th Regimental Group, 38th Division, XVI Army, under the command of Colonel Sadashichi Doi, began land...

The Battle of the Java Sea was a major naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Allied navies suffered a disastrous defeat at the hand of the Imperial Japanese Navy, on Febru...

The Battle of Java (Invasion of Java, Operation J) was a battle of the Pacific theatre of World War II. It occurred on the island of Java, between 28 February and 12 March 1942. It involv...

The Battle of Sunda Strait was a naval battle which occurred during World War II. On the night of February 28 – March 1, 1942, the United States cruiser USS Houston and the Australian cru...

The Doolittle Raid, 18 April 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to strike a Japanese home island (Honshū) during World War II. It demonstrated that Japan itself was vulnera...

As the raiders landed in China, most were aided by local Chinese forces or civilians. One raider, Corporal Leland D. Faktor, died while bailing out. For aiding the American airmen, the Ja...

The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought during May 4–8, 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air force...

The Makin Island Raid (pronounced, "Muckin") (occurred on August 17, 1942 – August 18, 1942) was an attack by the United States Marine Corps on Japanese military forces on Makin Island (n...

By the end of 1942, the chances of the Allies re-taking Timor were remote, as there were now 12,000 Japanese troops on the island and the commandos were coming into increasing contact wit...

When dawn broke on the morning of March 26, the American task force was east of the International Date Line, (so it was actually March 27) 180 miles west of Attu and a hundred miles sout...

The Battle of Attu took place May 11, 1943 – May 30, 1943 on Attu Island off of Alaska as part of the Aleutian Islands Campaign during the Pacific War of World War II. Fought entirely bet...

The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large scale a...

Conflicting statements have been made as to whether the destroyer captain had spotted and steered towards the boat; author Donovan, who interviewed members of the destroyer crew, believed...

Operation Cottage was a tactical maneuver during the Aleutian Islands campaign. In the operation, which took place on August 15, 1943, Allied military forces landed unopposed on Kiska Isl...

The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, largely fought from November 20 to November 23, 1943. It was the second time the United States was on the offensi...

The first assault was made on January 17. Near the coast, British X Corps (56th and 5th Divisions) forced a crossing of the Garigliano (followed some two days later by British 46th Divisi...

The central thrust by U.S. 36th Division commenced three hours after sunset on January 20. The lack of time to prepare meant that the approach to the river was still hazardous due to uncl...

The Battle of Kwajalein was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought from January 31, 1944, to February 3, 1944, on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Employing the ...

On February 11, after a final unsuccessful 3 day assault on Monastery Hill and Cassino town, the Americans were withdrawn. U.S. II Corps, after two and a half weeks of torrid battle, was ...

Increasingly, the opinions of certain Allied officers were fixed on the great abbey of Monte Cassino: in their view it was the abbey—and its presumed use as a German artillery observation...

The Battle of Eniwetok was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought between 17 February 1944 and 23 February 1944, on Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The invasi...

On the night of February 17 the main assault took place. The 4/6th Rajputana Rifles would take on the assault of point 593 with the depleted Sussex Regiment held in reserve to pass throug...

Few people today realize that British and American soldiers fought in a battle that compares to Stalingrad for human suffering. The Battle of Monte Cassino was a mini-war within World War...

Operation Ichi-Go (一号作戦 Ichi-gō Sakusen, lit. "Operation Number One") was a campaign of a series of major battles between the Imperial Japanese Army forces and the National Revolutionary ...

"Soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force. You are about to embark upon the great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are u..." —Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June 1944 to 9 July 1944. The invasion fleet embar...

The Battle of the Philippine Sea (aka "The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot") was a decisive naval battle of World War II, and the largest aircraft carrier battle in history. It was fought bet...

The Second Battle of Guam (July 21 — August 8, 1944) was the American capture of the Japanese held island of Guam (in the Mariana Islands) during the Pacific campaign of World War II. ...

The Battle of Tinian was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Tinian in the Mariana Islands from 24 July 1944 to 1 August 1944. The American victor...

The assault troops were formed of three American divisions of the VI Corps, reinforced with the French 5th Armoured Division, all under the command of Lieutenant General Lucian K. Truscot...

The Battle of Guilin–Liuzhou (simplified Chinese: 桂柳会战; traditional Chinese: 桂柳會戰; pinyin: Gùilǐu Huìzhàn), also known as the Battle of Guiliu was one of the 22 major engagements between ...