Home > 1940's: Overview > World Events: Selected Occurrences Outside the United States

World Events: Selected Occurrences Outside the United States

1940

  • Max Beckmann paints Circus Caravan.
  • T. S. Eliot's long poem East Coker, the second part of his Four Quartets, is published.
  • Graham Greene's novel The Power and the Glory is published.
  • Carl Jung's Psychology and Religion is published.
  • Arthur Koestler's novel Darkness at Noon is published.
  • Igor Stravinsky composes his Symphony in C Major.
  • Dylan Thomas's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, a collection of largely autobiographical short stories, is published.
14 Jan.
Japanese premier Gen. Abe Nobuyuki resigns. Adm. Yonai Mitsumasa forms a new cabinet.
27 Jan.
In Rangoon, Burma, a riot breaks out between Hindus and Muslims.
9 Feb.
The Irish Supreme Court upholds a law authorizing the internment without trial of suspected members of the Irish Republican Army.
12 Feb.
The Dominican Republic announces a contract to resettle one hundred thousand European refugees.
16 Feb.
The British destroyer Cossack attacks the German ship Altmark, liberating some three hundred English prisoners. Norway protests the attack, which violated Norwegian territorial waters.
18 Feb.
President José Félix Estigarribia of Paraguay announces he is assuming dictatorial powers.
21 Feb.
In the small Polish village of Auschwitz, construction begins on a German concentration camp.
22 Feb.
In Tibet a six-year-old boy is crowned the fourteenth Dalai Lama.
28 Feb.
In Egypt the twenty-eight-hundred-year-old sarcophagus of Pharaoh Psusennes is opened, revealing treasures that rival those found in the tomb of Tutankhamen.
1 Mar.
Italian laws restricting the professional practices of Jews go into effect.
12 Mar.
Defeated in the Soviet-Finnish war, the Finns sign a treaty ceding the Karelian Isthmus and the Rybachi Peninsula to the Soviet Union and granting it lease rights to the Hango Peninsula in return for their continued independence.
18 Mar.
At a meeting on the Italian side of the Brenner Pass, Benito Mussolini informs Adolf Hitler that Italy will enter the war against Britain and France.
19 Mar.
U.S. ambassador to Canada James Cromwell declares in an official address that Hitler is bent on the destruction of American social and economic order.
20 Mar.
French premier Edouard Daladier resigns; the next day Paul Renaud forms a new cabinet and creates a war council in expectation of a German invasion.
26 Mar.
The Mexican government announces the expropriation of 1.5 million acres of land held by three American corporations.
30 Mar.
Wang Ching-wei establishes a Chinese government under the supervision of occupying Japanese troops.
9 Apr.
Germany invades Denmark and Norway. Belgium refuses to allow the British to move their troops through the Low Countries.
10 Apr.
King Haakon VII of Norway repudiates the puppet government of Norwegian Nazi Vidkun Quisling.
18 Apr.
In India the All-India National Congress calls for civil disobedience against British rule.
10 May
Germany invades Belgium and Holland, beginning its blitzkrieg (lightning war) through the Low Countries into France. Neville Chamberlain resigns as British prime minister and is succeeded by Winston Churchill.
13 May
Churchill announces to the House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."
14 May
The Dutch army surrenders to Germany. Authorities report that 100,000 Dutch troops, more than one-fourth of their army, have been killed in the fighting. The official capitulation papers are signed the next morning.
17-18 May
German troops take Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium.
20 May
The German army takes Amiens, France.
26 May
German troops take Calais.
27 May
The British begin to evacuate Dunkirk, France. By 4 June their flotilla of warships, private yachts, and fishing boats has removed nearly 350,000 troops, They leave 2,000 guns, 60,000 trucks, 76,000 tons of ammunition, and 600,000 tons of fuel in France. England is left practically disarmed by the defeat, but in the House of Commons on 4 June Churchill declares, "We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets…we shall never surrender."
28 May
King Leopold III of Belgium surrenders his country to the Germans.
30 May
Reich commissioner Arthur Seyss-Inquart assumes office as civil administrator of the occupied Netherlands.
3 June
German planes bomb Paris.
7 June
King Haakon VII and his Norwegian government go into exile in London.
9 June
An armistice is signed in Norway.
10 June
Italy declares war on Britain and France. The next day its planes bomb British bases on Malta and in Aden, while the British hit Italian air bases in Libya and Italian East Africa.
11 June
President Getúlio Vargas of Brazil reasserts his country's neutrality.
12 June
The heaviest single Japanese bombing attack on Chungking, China, kills 1,500 people and leaves 150,000 homeless. Between 18 May and 14 August Japanese planes drop 2,500 tons of bombs on the city, killing more than 2,000 civilians and injuring nearly 3,500.
14 June
The German army enters Paris; Hitler orders a three-day celebration of the victory. The French government relocates to Bordeaux. The Soviet Union occupies the small Baltic nation of Lithuania; two days later it takes over neighboring Estonia and Latvia, demanding that all three countries put themselves under Soviet protection.
16 June
Italian planes bomb British bases in Egypt.
17 June
French premier Reynaud resigns and is replaced by World War I hero Marshal Philippe Pétain, who calls for surrender to the Germans.
18 June
German planes raid the east coast of England. In a radio broadcast from London, Gen. Charles de Gaulle of France calls on his countrymen to rally behind him as he continues to oppose Germany from exile.
22 June
The French government signs an armistice with the Nazis at the same site in the Compiègne Forest where Germany surrendered to the Allies in World War I. Germany occupies three-fifths of France, leaving the southern portion as a so-called Free Zone. De Gaulle announces the formation of the French National Committee in London to continue fighting alongside the British Empire.
24 June
France and Italy sign an armistice.
26 June
Turkey declares itself a nonbelligerent.
28 June
The Soviet Union occupies Bessarabia and northern Bucovina, in Romania.
30 June
The Germans occupy the Channel Islands.
2 July
The French government establishes itself at Vichy. On 10 July it abolishes the Third Republic and adopts a new constitution creating an authoritarian government and investing full power on the chief of the French State, Pétain.
6 July
Hitler makes peace overtures to Britain.
10 July
German aircraft bomb South Wales.
14 July
Fulgencio Batista defeats Ramon Grau San Martin for the presidency of Cuba.
16 July
Hitler issues Directive 16, ordering the invasion of Great Britain. During the Battle of Britain, which lasts from early August to November, the British lose 827 aircraft, but they shoot down 2,409 German planes.
21 July
The Soviet Union annexes Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
22 July
Prince Konoye Fumimaro of Japan forms a new government. At the second Pan-American conference, meeting in Havana, U.S. secretary of state Cordell Hull proposes a collective trusteeship of European possessions in the New World; the proposal is adopted on 28 July.
25 July
The United States places severe restrictions on the export of scrap metal, petroleum, and petroleum products, and it bans the export of aviation fuel and lubricating oil outside the Western Hemisphere; the measure is aimed chiefly at Japan, which relies heavily on American oil.
2 Aug.
Italian troops invade British Somaliland, occupying the capital, Berbera, on 19 August; British forces are evacuated.
6 Aug.
Germany orders the expulsion of all Jews from Kraków, Poland.
15 Aug.
The Minseito Party, the last remaining political party in Japan, dissolves itself, making the nation an authoritarian state.
17 Aug.
Germany announces a "total" naval blockade of the British Isles.
20 Aug.
Reflecting on the conduct of the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the Battle of Britain, Churchill declares, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
24 Aug.
The first German bombing of London occurs.
25 Aug.
The RAF bombs Berlin, an event Luftwaffe head Hermann Goring had assured Hitler could never happen.
7-15 Sept.
The London Blitz, massive German bombardment of London, occurs.
13 Sept.
Italian troops invade Egypt from Libya.
22 Sept.
Vichy France accedes to a Japanese ultimatum demanding bases in northern Indochina near the Chinese border.
25 Sept.
After meeting heavy resistance from Vichy French forces, British and Free French forces led by General de Gaulle abandon an invasion of Dakar, in French West Africa.
27 Sept.
Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact in Berlin, committing themselves to providing each other with military assistance in case of attack by any nation not already at war against them.
1 Oct.
Military delegations from several Latin American nations visit Washington, D.C., for consultations.
2 Oct.
All Jews in occupied France are required to register with police.
7 Oct.
German troops move into Romania.
12 Oct.
Hitler postpones "Operation Sealion," a German invasion of Britain, until spring 1941.
18 Oct.
Vichy France bars Jews from positions in government, the teaching profession, the armed forces, the press, film, and radio. On 30 October Pétain announces a policy of collaboration with Germany.
28 Oct.
Italian troops invade Greece.
8 Nov.
Italian troops begin retreating from Greece.
11 Nov.
British fighter planes cripple much of the Italian fleet in an engagement at Taranto.
14 Nov.
The English automotive center of Coventry is carpet-bombed by 449 German aircraft. The attack creates a firestorm that kills more than 550 people and destroys the city's fourteenth-century cathedral.
20 Nov.
Hungary joins the Axis.
23-24 Nov.
Romania and Slovakia sign the Tripartite Pact with the Axis.
24 Nov.
Slovakia joins the Axis.
26-27 Nov.
The RAF conducts heavy night raids on Cologne.
30 Nov.
Japan formally recognizes the puppet government of Wang Ching-wei in China.
9-11 Dec.
The British crush the Italians at Sidi Barrani, Egypt, wiping out four divisions and taking more than twenty thousand prisoners.
17 Dec.
In North Africa the British take Sidi Omar and Sollum from the Italians.
25 Dec.
The Germans suspend bombing of London until 27 December.
29 Dec.
The Germans drop incendiary bombs on the center of London, causing the worst damage to the city since the fire of 1666.

1941

  • Bertolt Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children premieres in Zurich.
  • Benjamin Britten composes his opera Paul Bunyan.
  • Noel Coward's play Blithe Spirit premieres in London.
  • T. S. Eliot's long poem The Dry Salvages, the third part of his Four Quartets, is published.
  • Erich Fromm's Escape front Freedom, an analysis of fascism, is published.
  • Franz Werfel's novel The Song of Bernadette is published.
10 Jan.
Germany and the Soviet Union announce what the German government calls the largest grain deal in history.
21 Jan.
The British suppress publication of the Communist newspaper Daily Worker.
22 Jan.
Tobruk, Libya, falls to British and Free French forces.
26 Jan.
British forces invade Somaliland.
28 Jan.
The Free French announce the capture of Murzuk, in southern Libya.
2 Feb.
Three days of riots between soldiers and anti-British demonstrators come to an end in Johannesburg, South Africa.
6 Feb.
British forces capture Bengasi, in eastern Libya.
9 Feb.
British warships shell Genoa, Italy.
10 Feb.
Great Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with Romania because German troops have been deployed there.
12 Feb.
Gen. Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli to take command of German and Italian forces in Libya.
24 Feb.
In a speech to the Japanese Diet, Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke demands the cession of Oceania to Japan.
1 Mar.
Bulgaria joins the Axis.
3 Mar.
The Soviet Union denounces Bulgaria for allying itself with the Axis powers.
5 Mar.
Nazis in Amsterdam sentence eighteen Dutch resistance fighters to death.
7 Mar.
The British recapture Somaliland.
25 Mar.
Yugoslavia joins the Axis; anti-Nazi riots erupt in Belgrade, and on 27 March the pro-Axis government is overthrown in a military coup.
28-29 Mar.
The British navy destroys much of the remaining Italian fleet off Cape Matapan, Greece.
3 Apr.
Italian and German troops force the British to evacuate Bengasi, Libya.
4 Apr.
The German army invades the Balkan Peninsula; it then crosses into Yugoslavia and Greece on 6 April.
10 Apr.
The Danish envoy to Washington, D.C., announces an agreement to provide American protection for Greenland; the government of Nazi-occupied Denmark declares the agreement void on 12 April.
13 Apr.
The Soviet Union and Japan sign a neutrality pact.
17 Apr.
The Yugoslavian army surrenders to the Axis.
19 Apr.
The British land troops in Iraq to protect the oil fields after the Baghdad government has displayed an increasingly pro-Axis bias. Military exchanges between the British and Iraqis follow.
27 Apr.
German forces occupy Athens.
5 May
Following the British conquest of Ethiopia, Emperor Haile Selassie returns to assume the throne lost in the Italian conquest of 1936.
8 May
Nazi air raids flatten Hull, England.
9 May
The RAF conducts devastating air raids on Hamburg and Bremen.
10 May
Rudolf Hess, Hitler's personal deputy, parachutes into Scotland.
10-11 May
Nazi bombers blitz London, damaging the House of Commons, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben.
16 May
The RAF bombs German airfields in Syria.
20 May
The Germans launch an invasion of Crete, completing their conquest of the island on 1 June.
21 May
The U.S. ship Robin Moor is torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Brazil.
24 May
The British battle cruiser Hood is sunk by the 35,000-ton German battleship Bismarck between Greenland and Iceland.
27 May
The British navy sinks the Bismarck off the French coast.
31 May
British forces enter Baghdad, and the Iraqi government agrees to an armistice.
8 June
British and Free French troops invade Syria, taking Damascus on 21 June.
18 June
Germany and Turkey sign a ten-year friendship treaty.
22 June
Germany and Italy declare war on the Soviet Union as Germany launches a massive attack on three fronts. Turkey declares its neutrality. Britain assures the Soviets of aid, as does the United States, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares on 25 June that the neutrality act does not apply to Russia.
26 June
Finland joins the Axis attack on the Soviet Union; German troops are already within fifty miles of Minsk, which falls to them on 30 June.
27 June
Hungary declares war on the Soviet Union.
1 July
The Germans capture Riga, the capital of Lithuania; the next day the Nazis capture 160,000 Russian troops near Bialystok.
3 July
Soviet premier Joseph Stalin announces a "scorched earth" defense; two days later German mechanized troops reach the Dnieper River, three hundred miles from Moscow.
7 July
The United States occupies Iceland with naval and marine forces; the Icelandic parliament approves the occupation on 10 July.
8 July
The Nazi advance into Russia stalls. An estimated 9 million men are engaged in the war between Germany and Russia.
18 July
Japanese premier Konoye forms a new cabinet, which includes four generals and three admirals.
19 July
Bolivia announces the uncovering of an Axis plot and ousts the German diplomatic minister.
23 July
Vichy France accedes to Tokyo's demand for military bases in Indochina.
24 July
German troops advance to the outskirts of Leningrad and Smolensk. Japanese troops arrive in southern Indochina.
25 July
The United States and Great Britain freeze all Japanese assets; Japan retaliates the next day by freezing American and British assets.
31 July
Japan formally apologizes for sinking the American gunboat Tutuila in Chungking, China, on 30 July.
1 Aug.
President Roosevelt places an embargo on the export of all motor fuel oils out-side the Western Hemisphere except to the British Empire.
8 Aug.
Vichy military observers estimate the casualties from the first forty-eight days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union to be 1.5 million Axis troops and 2 million Russians.
19 Aug.
German troops lay siege to Odessa.
21 Aug.
In Paris two Communists are executed, and thousands more so-called Communists and anarchists are arrested as the Germans crack down on the Resistance. By the end of the month eleven more suspected Resistance members are executed, and in Paris alone thousands of Jews are rounded up for deportation to Nazi concentration camps.
25 Aug.
Responding to increasing Axis infiltration, Soviet and British troops invade Iran.
28 Aug.
The Vichy regime executes three more suspected Resistance fighters; on 29 August they will execute eight more men.
29 Aug.
German troops occupy Tallinn, Estonia.
4 Sept.
German U-boats attack the U.S. destroyer Greer en route to Iceland; the Greer counterattacks with depth charges.
5 Sept.
German artillery begins shelling Leningrad.
10 Sept.
German authorities in Oslo place the city under martial law after several strikes have broken out; on 12 September they begin mass arrests of trade unionists.
11 Sept.
President Roosevelt authorizes American ships to protect themselves by shooting first if they feel threatened by Axis warships; the next day Berlin announces that it will take appropriate countermeasures.
14 Sept.
The first Russian-based RAF wing arrives in the Soviet Union. In Zagreb, Yugoslavia, the central telephone exchange is bombed, and Axis authorities arrest and execute fifty Resistance fighters.
16 Sept.
Under pressure from the Allies, ailing Reza Shah Pahlevi of Iran abdicates in favor of his twenty-one-year-old son, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi.
18 Sept.
Stalin orders the conscription of all Soviet workers between the ages of sixteen and fifty for after-hours military training.
21 Sept.
German troops enter Kiev and reach the Sea of Azov, cutting off the Crimea.
28 Sept.
German authorities announce the arrest of Czech premier Alois Elias on charges that he had plotted high treason with the Czech government in exile in London. Many other arrests and executions follow, including Mayor Otokar Klapka of Prague, convicted on 3 October. Two days later German radio reports 159 executions and 900 arrests so far.
2 Oct.
Hitler announces a final drive against Moscow.
15 Oct.
The Germans capture Kalinin, one hundred miles northwest of Moscow. Soviet troops begin their final evacuation of Odessa.
16 Oct.
Axis troops capture Odessa. In Japan premier Konoye resigns. On 18 October Lt. Gen. Tojo Hideki forms a new cabinet, making himself premier, minister of war, and home minister.
17 Oct.
The U.S. destroyer Kearny is torpedoed and damaged off the coast of Greenland.
19 Oct.
The Germans lay siege to Moscow.
21 Oct.
In reprisal for the slaying of a German officer, fifty French citizens are executed in Nantes, and the Germans warn they will execute fifty more if the killers of the officer are not turned over by 23 October. On 22 October the Nazis seize one hundred people in Bordeaux after the killing of another German officer; fifty are killed immediately and fifty are held hostage, as in Nantes, Because of an international outcry, execution of the Nantes and Bordeaux hostages is first postponed and then suspended indefinitely on 30 October.
22 Oct.
In Zagreb, Yugoslavia, newspapers report the execution of two hundred citizens in reprisal for an attack on two German officers.
30 Oct.
The U.S. destroyer Reuben James is sunk off the coast of Iceland.
6 Nov.
The United States announces $1 billion in lend-lease aid to the Soviet Union.
9 Nov.
In Vienna Nazi authorities announce the execution of twenty Czechs.
17 Nov.
Special envoy Kurusu Saburo delivers Japanese premier Tojo's ultimatum to President Roosevelt. Tojo demands American withdrawal from China and the lifting of the U.S. economic embargo in return for peace in the Pacific.
18 Nov.
Britain begins an invasion of Libya that drives Rommel's forces back to the point at which he began his invasion of Egypt.
19 Nov.
The United States and Mexico sign trade and financial agreements designed to stabilize currency and resolve nationalization claims.
24 Nov.
The United States dispatches troops to Dutch Guiana to help Dutch troops protect its bauxite mines.
28 Nov.
Reports from Shanghai indicate that transports carrying some 30,000 Japanese troops are moving southward from China toward Haiphong in Indochina.
30 Nov.
In an inflammatory speech, Japanese premier Tojo declares that Anglo-American exploitation of Asia must be purged.
2 Dec.
In Trieste sixty people go on trial on various charges, including espionage and involvement in a 1938 plot to assassinate Mussolini; on 14 December nine are sentenced to death, and others receive long prison terms.
6 Dec.
The Soviet army begins a counteroffensive along the Moscow front.
7 Dec.
In a surprise attack Japanese planes bomb U.S. naval and air bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, destroying two battleships and four other capital vessels. Japanese air forces simultaneously attack U.S. bases in the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island and British bases in Hong Kong and Singapore, while also invading Malaya and Thailand by land and sea. A Japanese declaration of war on the United States is delivered after the attack.
8 Dec.
The United States, Great Britain, the Free French government, and the Dutch government in exile in London declare war on Japan, as do Canada, Costa Rica, Honduras, San Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Thailand capitulates to the Japanese.
11 Dec.
Germany and Italy declare war on the United States; the U.S. Congress unanimously responds by declaring war on Germany and Italy—as do Cuba, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic; Mexico severs relations with both nations.
13 Dec.
Japanese forces take Guam.
14 Dec.
Turkey and Ireland declare neutrality in the U.S./Japanese war.
16 Dec.
A Japanese submarine shells the Hawaiian port of Kahului, one hundred miles southwest of Honolulu.
22 Dec.
Prime Minister Churchill and other British officials visit Washington, D.C., to establish a combined American-British military command for the war.
23 Dec.
Japanese forces complete their invasion of Wake Island.
25 Dec.
The British garrison at Hong Kong surrenders to the Japanese.
30 Dec.
Mohandas K. Gandhi resigns from the All-India National Congress Party because it has abandoned civil disobedience.

1942

  • Albert Camus's novel The Stranger is published.
  • T. S. Eliot's Little Gidding, the fourth part of his Four Quartets, is published.
  • Dmitry Shostakovich composes his Seventh Symphony, his homage to Leningrad.
1 Jan.
In Washington, D.C., twenty-six Allied nations, including the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China, sign a pact agreeing not to make separate peace with Germany.
2 Jan.
The Japanese take Manila.
14-15 Jan.
The RAF conducts heavy bombing raids on port facilities at Hamburg and Rotterdam, beginning a long series of air attacks on port and factory cities in Germany and occupied Europe.
15-28 Jan.
Foreign ministers of the Western Hemisphere nations, including the United States, meet in Rio de Janeiro. With the exception of Argentina and Chile, they sever diplomatic relations with Axis nations and agree to collective-security arrangements.
17 Jan.
The Japanese invade Burma.
20 Jan.
Leading Nazi officials meet in Wannsee, near Berlin, to plan a "final solution" to the "Jewish problem."
21 Jan.
In North Africa Rommel begins a counteroffensive that drives the British back into Egypt within two weeks.
26 Jan.
The first U.S. troops arrive on British soil.
29 Jan.
The Soviet Union, Great Britain, and Iran conclude a treaty providing for wartime occupation of Iran. The Soviets station troops in the northern section of the country, the British in the south, to guard Iranian oil reserves and vital supply lines from the Persian Gulf to the Soviet Union.
15 Feb.
Japan occupies Singapore and Malaya.
3 Mar.
The RAF bombs the Renault works outside Paris, destroying the factory, which has been manufacturing tanks and aircraft engines for the Germans.
7 Mar.
The Japanese complete their invasion of Java.
23 Mar.
British envoy Sir Stafford Cripps arrives in India to offer postwar dominion status; the terms of the offer are rejected by the Indian Congress on 11 April. The British respond by imprisoning Indian Nationalists.
28 Mar.
The RAF bombs Lübeck, Germany, inflicting heavy damage in the important Baltic port.
2 Apr.
Dr. William Temple, archbishop of York, becomes archbishop of Canterbury.
18 Apr.
"Doolittle's Raiders," a squadron of U.S. Army Air Corps bombers led by Brig. Gen. James H. Doolittle, raid Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
23-26 Apr.
The RAF bombing of the Baltic port of Rostock is the heaviest on any city since the beginning of the war. The Germans begin reprisal raids on British cities.
1 May
The Japanese take Mandalay, forcing the British to begin withdrawal from Burma to India.
4-9 May
American and Japanese naval forces trade blows in the Coral Sea.
6 May
U.S. forces surrender the Philippines to the Japanese.
7 May
The Allies take Bizerte and Tunis.
26 May
Great Britain and the Soviet Union sign a twenty-year alliance. Rommel begins a new offensive in the western Sahara.
27 May
Reinhard Heydrich, second in command of the Gestapo, is shot in Czechoslovakia; he dies on 3 June. In retaliation the Nazis kill thousands of Czechs, including everyone in the town of Lidice.
30 May
More than one thousand Allied bombers level Cologne, the major railway center of western Germany.
3 June
Japanese aircraft attack a U.S. naval base in the Aleutian Islands. A few days later they land troops on Attu and Kiska, in the western Aleutians.
4-6 June
The United States cripples the Japanese fleet at the battle of Midway.
9-28 June
Rommel's victories in North Africa force the British to retreat to El Alamein, east of Alexandria, Egypt.
18 June
The United States declares war on Bulgaria.
25 June
Maj. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed commander in chief of Allied military forces.
1-9 July
Rommel's troops attack El Alamein, attempting to reach and gain control of the Suez Canal, but they are turned back by British forces.
16-17 July
During the Rafle du Vel' d'Hiver (Roundup of the Winter Velodrome) more than twelve thousand Jews are arrested and held in a Paris sports arena for deportation to Germany and the occupied countries of eastern Europe.
26-29 July
The Allies conduct one of their most successful bombing raids on Hamburg.
7 Aug.
The United States lands troops on Guadalcanal, where the Japanese have been building an airstrip since early July; on 12-15 November American naval forces score a costly victory in a major sea battle for control of this strategically important island in the Solomon Islands, but the Japanese fight on until February 1943.
12-15 Aug.
Churchill, Stalin, and American representative Averell Harriman meet in Moscow to discuss the progress of the war against Germany.
25 Aug.
German troops reach the outskirts of Stalingrad.
27 Aug.
British scientists announce the discovery of penicillin.
14 Sept.
The German siege of Stalingrad begins.
5 Oct.
Prof. Gilbert Murray helps to found Oxfam to help relieve starvation in occupied Europe.
23-26 Oct.
The British Eighth Army, under the leadership of Lt. Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery, defeats Rommel's forces at El Alamein.
8 Nov.
Allied troops under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower land in French North Africa to support the British offensive in Egypt. The United States and Vichy France break off diplomatic relations. In a speech in Munich Hitler announces, incorrectly, that Stalingrad is "firmly in German hands."
9-11 Nov.
German troops occupy the so-called Free Zone of France.
11 Nov.
The Allies take Algiers, Oran, Casablanca, and Rabat.
13 Nov.
Tobruk is retaken by the British.
19-22 Nov.
A Soviet offensive lifts the siege of Stalingrad, but heavy fighting in the area continues until February 1943.
20 Nov.
The British retake Benghazi.

1943

  • Aram Khachaturian composes his Ode to Stalin.
  • Harold Laski's political study Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time is published.
  • Thomas Mann's novel Joseph the Provider is published.
  • Jacques Maritain's Christianity and Democracy is published.
  • Henri Michaux's Exorcismes, a collection of war poems, is published.
  • Henry Moore sculpts his Madonna and Child.
  • Sean O'Casey's play Red Roses for Me premieres in Dublin.
  • Sergey Prokofiev composes his opera War and Peace.
  • Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophical work Being and Nothingness is published.
  • Dmitry Shostakovich composes his Eighth Symphony.
  • The Aqua-Lung is invented.
  • Hitler suppresses publication of the Frankfurter Zeitung.
14-27 Jan.
Churchill and Roosevelt confer with the joint chiefs of staff at Casablanca and demand unconditional surrender by the Axis powers.
22 Jan.
American and Australian forces overrun the last pockets of Japanese troops in New Guinea.
23 Jan.
The British Eighth Army takes Tripoli.
31 Jan.
On the outskirts of Stalingrad, the Germans under Gen. Friedrich Paulus capitulate. Stalin announces the capture of more than 45,000 prisoners, including thirteen generals, and the deaths of 146,700 Germans. The remaining German troops in the area, including eight more generals, surrender on 2 February.
9 Feb.
The last Japanese forces retreat from Guadalcanal.
20 Feb.
At the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, Allied troops are forced to retreat by Rommel's Afrika Korps. On 25 February Allied troops retake the pass.
2-4 Mar.
The Japanese are defeated by the United States in the battle of the Bismarck Sea, losing a convoy of 22 ships and more than 50 aircraft.
20 Apr.
The Nazis massacre Jews in the Warsaw ghetto.
7-9 May
After the Allies take Tunis and Bizerte, the German forces in Tunisia surrender unconditionally.
11 May
American forces land on Attu. They complete their invasion of the island on 2 June, and the Japanese abandon Kiska without a fight by 27 July.
22 May
Moscow announces it has dissolved the Third Communist International (Comintern), formed in 1919.
3 June
French generals de Gaulle and Henri Giraud form the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) to coordinate the French war effort.
4 June
A military coup in Argentina is staged by generals Arturo Rawson and Pedro Ramirez.
10 July
The Allies invade Sicily, overcoming the last remaining forces on the island at Messina on 17 August.
19 July
Allied forces bomb Rome for the first time.
25 July
Mussolini resigns. Italian king Victor Emmanuel III asks Marshal Pietro Badoglio to form a new government.
1 Aug.
The Japanese grant independence to Burma, which declares war on the United States and Great Britain.
14-24 Aug.
Allied representatives meet in Quebec to plan a war strategy.
8 Sept.
Eisenhower announces the unconditional surrender of Italy to the Allies. Stalin permits the reopening of many Soviet churches.
9 Sept.
Allied troops land near Salerno, Italy.
10 Sept.
Germany announces the occupation of Rome and northern Italy.
12 Sept.
German commandos led by Capt. Otto Skorzeny rescue Mussolini from house arrest in San Grasso and take him to northern Italy, where he forms a new Fascist government.
30 Sept.
The Allies occupy Naples.
13 Oct.
The Italian government led by Badoglio declares war on Germany.
14 Oct.
The Japanese declare the Philippines independent.
19-30 Oct.
The Allies confer in Moscow and agree that Germany will be stripped of all territory acquired since 1938.
1 Nov.
American forces land at Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
6 Nov.
The Russians retake Kiev.
19 Nov.
Sir Oswald Mosley, a British Fascist leader imprisoned since May 1940 as a security risk, is released on the grounds of failing health.
22-26 Nov.
Churchill, Roosevelt, and Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek meet at Cairo to plan a postwar Asian policy.
28 Nov.-1 Dec.
Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt meet in Teheran to discuss war strategy and plan the structure of the postwar world.

1944

  • Béla Bartók composes his Sonata for Solo Violin Concerto.
  • Max Beckmann paints his Self-Portrait in Black.
  • Paul Hindemith composes his opera Herodias.
  • Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment, a study of western Marxism and authoritarianism, is published.
  • Aldous Huxley's novel Time Must Have a Stop is published.
  • Somerset Maugham's novel The Razor's Edge is published.
  • Henry Moore sculpts the first version of his Family Group.
  • Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit premieres in Paris.
11 Jan.
Moroccan nationalists demand independence from France.
22 Jan.
Allied troops land at Anzio, Italy, in an attempt to outflank German defense positions in central Italy. Progress is slow, as they meet stubborn resistance.
27 Jan.
The German siege of Leningrad ends.
30 Jan.
At Brazzaville, in the Congo, African leaders discuss the postwar decolonization of Africa.
24-25 Feb.
President Ramirez of Argentina is overthrown in a coup led by Gen. Edelmiro Farrell.
4 Mar.
American planes bomb Berlin.
6 Mar.
In a daylight raid American bombers drop 2,000 tons of bombs on Berlin.
15 Mar.
The Soviet Union officially replaces "The Internationale" with "Hymn of the Soviet Union" as its national anthem.
4 June
Allied forces enter Rome.
6 June
D day: Allied forces establish beachheads in Normandy, France, and begin the liberation of western Europe. The operation, code-named "Overlord," involves more than 4,000 ships, 3,000 planes, and 4 million troops.
13 June
The Germans begin attacking Britain with their V-l rockets, launching more than seven thousand against England by 24 August.
15 June
American long-range Superfortress aircraft begin bombing operations against the Japanese home islands.
1 July
The Allies confer in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, hoping to establish a stable postwar economic system.
3 July
The Soviets announce their recapture of Minsk.
18 July
Tojo resigns as Japanese prime minister.
20 July
At Hitler's East Prussian headquarters, a bombing assassination attempt fails. Plotters, including Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, chief of staff of the Home Army, are executed during the night.
12 Aug.
Allied troops take Florence.
21-29 Aug.
In Washington, D.C., at the Dumbarton Oaks conference, the Allies begin discussions on the formation of the United Nations.
25 Aug.
Allied troops liberate Paris.
4 Sept.
Allied troops liberate Brussels.
8 Sept.
The Germans begin V-2 rocket attacks on England.
12 Sept.
Romania signs an armistice with the Allies.
17-28 Sept.
Allied efforts to secure Rhine bridges and outflank the Germans at Eindhoven and Arnhem fail.
19 Sept.
Finland signs an armistice with the Allies.
29 Sept.
The Soviet Union invades Yugoslavia.
9-20 Oct.
Churchill and Stalin confer in Moscow.
20 Oct.
American forces led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur land in the Philippines.
23-26 Oct.
During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle of World War II, American forces destroy the remainder of the Japanese fleet.
16 Dec.
German general Karl von Rundstedt launches an unsuccessful German offensive in the Ardennes. This "Battle of the Bulge" is the last major German military offensive of World War II.

1945

  • Martin Buber's theological study For the Sake of Heaven is published.
  • Carlo Levi's autobiographical work Christ Stopped at Eboli is published.
  • Jean Giraudoux's play The Madwoman of Chaillot premieres in Paris.
  • George Orwell's novel Animal Farm is published.
  • Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies, a study of authoritarianism, is published.
  • Jean Renoir's movie The Southerner is released.
  • Roberto Rossellini's movie Open City, filmed in postwar Rome, is released.
  • Dmitry Shostakovich composes his Ninth Symphony.
  • Igor Stravinsky composes his Symphony in Three Movements.
  • Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited is published.
  • In France women gain the right to vote.
Jan.
Part one of Sergey Eisenstein's movie Ivan the Terrible is released and achieves instant success, earning Eisenstein a Stalin Prize. Completed in February 1946, part two, however, is denounced by the Central Committee of the Communist Party for its unflattering portrayal of Ivan and his bodyguard and is promptly banned. It is not publicly released until 1958.
1 Jan.
In Egypt elections boycotted by the nationalist Wafd result in the election of Ahmed Maher Pasha as premier.
18 Jan.
The Soviets announce the liberation of Warsaw.
20 Jan.
The provisional Hungarian government of Gen. Bela Miklos signs an agreement of unconditional surrender to the Allies.
22 Jan.
British troops retake Monywa, in Burma, reopening the land route to China.
26 Jan.
Soviet troops reach the Prussian coast at Elbing, severing East Prussia from the rest of Germany.
27 Jan.
The Red Army liberates Auschwitz.
29 Jan.
Soviet troops cross the 1939 border between Poland and Germany, entering the province of Pomerania in northeastern Germany. By 2 February they control most of East Prussia.
31 Jan.
Soviet troops cross the Oder River, coming within fifty miles of Berlin.
4-11 Feb.
Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and other Allied leaders confer at Yalta, in the Crimea, on issues of postwar international organization. They agree to divide Germany into separate Allied occupation zones.
13 Feb.
The Soviets capture Budapest after a fifty-day seige.
14 Feb.
The Allies firebomb Dresden.
19 Feb.
U.S. Marines land at Iwo Jima, 750 miles south of Tokyo. The island falls to the Americans on 17 March, at a cost of 4,000 American and 20,000 Japanese lives.
21 Feb.
The Inter-American Conference convenes in Mexico City to discuss economic issues such as conversion to a peacetime economy.
24 Feb.
U.S. troops drive the last Japanese forces from Manila. After announcing the Egyptian declaration of war on Germany and Japan, Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is assassinated in Cairo.
6 Mar.
U.S. troops capture Cologne.
7 Mar.
The American First Army crosses the Rhine at Remagen.
9 Mar.
American Superfortress bombers drop more than 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo.
19 Mar.
The Soviet Union formally denounces a 1925 nonaggression treaty with Turkey and demands diplomatic revisions.
30 Mar.
The Soviets capture Danzig.
1 Apr.
American forces invade Okinawa, 360 miles south of Tokyo.
9-13 Apr.
The Red Army enters Vienna.
12 Apr.
President Roosevelt dies at Warm Springs, Georgia. He is succeeded by Vice-president Harry S Truman. American troops liberate Buchenwald concentration camp.
21 Apr.
Soviet troops reach the outskirts of Berlin.
25 Apr.
Advancing armies of the United States and the Soviet Union meet at Torgau, on the Elbe River in Germany. The United Nations conference opens in San Francisco. The delegates complete the UN charter on 26 June.
28 Apr.
In Como, Italy, Mussolini is executed by Italian partisans.
29 Apr.
The U.S. Seventh Army enters Munich and liberates the concentration camp at Dachau. German troops in Italy surrender to the Allies.
30 Apr.
Hitler commits suicide at his bunker in Berlin.
2 May
The Germans surrender Berlin to the Soviets.
8 May
V-E Day. German military authorities formally surrender to the Allies, ending World War II in Europe.
19 May
Demonstrations erupt in Lebanon and Syria following the landing of French troops sent to reestablish colonial control.
22 May
Yonabaru, the key Japanese position on Okinawa, is taken by American forces. The Japanese surrender the island on 21 June, at a cost of 13,000 American and 100,000 Japanese lives.
23 May
French authorities report 1,300 casualties in a nationalist uprising staged by Berber tribesmen in Algeria.
29 May
French artillery shells Damascus after street fighting breaks out between Syrians and French troops.
3-25 June
French troops are withdrawn from Beirut and Damascus, as France requests UN mediation.
11 June
The Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Mackenzie King, wins in the Canadian elections, but King loses his seat in the House of Commons.
5 July
The United States completes the reoccupation of the Philippines, at a cost of nearly 12,000 men.
16 July
The United States successfully detonates the first atomic bomb at Alamagordo Air Force Base in New Mexico.
17-26 July
Truman, Stalin, Churchill, and other Allied representatives meet in Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin, and issue the Potsdam Declaration, demanding unconditional surrender from Japan.
26 July
Elections in Britain result in a Labour Party landslide; Clement Attlee succeeds Churchill as prime minister.
6 Aug.
The U.S. Superfortress bomber Enola Gay drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing more than 50,000 people and leveling four square miles of the city.
8 Aug.
The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and attacks Japanese forces in Manchuria the next day.
9 Aug.
The United States detonates an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing more than 40,000 people and destroying a third of the city.
10 Aug.
The Japanese Supreme Council votes to accept the surrender terms of the Potsdam Declaration.
14 Aug.
The Soviet government concludes a treaty with the Chinese Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek.
15 Aug.
V-J Day. The Allies accept the unconditional surrender of the Japanese. The French sentence Pétain to death as a Nazi collaborator; the sentence is later commuted to life imprisonment.
28 Aug.
U.S. troops land on the home islands of Japan to supervise the disarmament of the Japanese military.
2 Sept.
In ceremonies aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, moored in Tokyo Bay, the Japanese formally surrender to the Allies, ending World War II. In Hanoi Vietnamese nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnamese independence, using a copy of the American Declaration of Independence supplied by the Office of Strategic Services.
20 Sept.
The All-India Congress Committee, led by Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, convenes. It rejects British proposals for national autonomy and calls for the removal of Britain from India.
11-12 Oct.
Gen. Eduardo Avalos seizes control in Argentina. His government is over-thrown on 17 October by Col. Juan Perón.
21 Oct.
Elections for the French Constituent Assembly result in significant gains for the Communists.
10 Nov.
The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union recognize the Communist government of Albania, led by Col. Enver Hoxha.
13 Nov.
The Constituent Assembly of France unanimously elects Charles de Gaulle as head of the French government.
18 Nov.
Antonio de Oliveira Salazar's National Union Party wins the Portuguese elections, which are boycotted by the opposition.
20 Nov.
In Nuremberg the trials of top Nazi leaders for crimes against humanity begin.
14 Dec.
The U.S. government sends Gen. George C. Marshall as envoy to China to mediate in the civil war between the Communists and Nationalists.
15 Dec.
The Allied Control Commission abolishes Shintoism as the state religion of Japan.
27 Dec.
Allied foreign ministers, meeting in Moscow, call for the establishment of a provisional democratic government in Korea. Soviet forces occupy Korea north of the thirty-eighth parallel while U.S. troops occupy the southern portion of the country.

1946

  • Simone de Beauvoir's novel All Men Are Mortal is published.
  • Benjamin Britten composes his opera The Rape of Lucretia.
  • Marcel Carné's movie Les Portes de la Nuit is released.
  • Ernst Cassirer's The Myth of the State, a study of political science, is published.
  • André Gide's Journal, 1939-42 is published.
  • David Lean's movie Great Expectations is released.
  • Michael Polanyi's Science, Faith and Society, an analysis of scientific method and medicine, is published.
  • Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy is published.
  • Dylan Thomas's Deaths and Entrances, a collection of poems, is published.
  • Women gain the right to vote in Italy.
24 Feb.
Perón, leader of a Fascistic political movement, is elected president of Argentina.
2 Mar.
British troops complete their evacuation of Iran, but Soviet troops remain, violating the Anglo-Russian treaty of 1942, by which the two countries agreed to remove all troops from Iran within six months of the end of the war. Following diplomatic pressure from the United States and Great Britain, the Soviet Union completes the withdrawal of its troops by 9 May.
5 Mar.
In a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Churchill warns that in Europe "an iron curtain [of Communism] has descended across the continent."
22 Mar.
Great Britain recognizes the independence of Transjordan, which came under British mandate after World War I.
18 Apr.
The League of Nations conducts its final assembly in Geneva, turning over its assets to the United Nations.
3 June
Italians vote to replace their monarchy with a republic.
1 and 25 July
The United States conducts atomic-bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
4 July
The United States grants independence to the Philippines.
8 Sept.
Bulgarian voters reject their monarchy in favor of a republic; on 15 September Bulgaria is declared a people's republic.
13 Oct.
French voters approve a new constitution, which establishes the Fourth Republic.
16 Oct.
At Nuremberg, as a result of their convictions for war crimes, ten leading Nazis are executed. Nazi chief Hermann Göring, scheduled to hang with the others, commits suicide two hours before the executions.
10 Nov.
French Communists score significant electoral gains, resulting in political dead-lock in the French Assembly.
22 Nov.
French authorities, seeking the surrender of Vietnamese nationalists, bombard the cities of Haiphong and Hanoi, killing 6,000.
16 Dec.
Socialists led by Léon Blum form a new French government.

1947

  • Benjamin Britten composes his opera Albert Herring.
  • Albert Camus's novel The Plague is published.
  • Charlie Chaplin's movie Monsieur Verdoux is released.
  • Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is published.
  • Erich Fromm's Man for Himself, a psychological study of ethics, is published.
  • Alberto Giacometti sculpts Man Pointing.
  • Le Corbusier begins the Unité d'habitation, an apartment complex intended to function as a self-sufficient community, in Marseilles.
  • H. R. Trevor-Roper's historical work The Last Days of Hitler is published.
1 Jan.
The British and Americans join their German occupation zones into a single economic unit.
29 Jan.
American envoys, led by General Marshall, abandon efforts to negotiate an end to the Chinese civil war.
10 Feb.
The Allies sign formal peace treaties with Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Finland, officially ending the hostilities of World War II.
3 Mar.
Martial law is declared in Palestine after increased incidences of Zionist attacks against British personnel.
4 Mar.
France and England sign a fifty-year military alliance.
12 Mar.
Speaking to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, President Truman requests $500 million in military and economic assistance for the governments of Greece and Turkey.
29 Apr.
The Constituent Assembly of India outlaws untouchability, affirming equal rights for all, regardless of race, religion, caste, or sex.
3 May
A new Japanese constitution, drafted by the Americans, goes into effect.
June
France is paralyzed by a series of strikes.
27 June
Soviet, British, and French representatives meet in Paris to discuss American proposals for economic assistance to Europe. Talks break down on 2 July when Soviet foreign commissar Vyacheslav Molotov denounces the Americans' "Marshall Plan" as politically motivated and refuses to participate in the reconstruction program.
15 Aug.
India and Pakistan become independent nations, ending nearly 350 years of British colonial rule on the Indian subcontinent.
2 Sept.
Nineteen Western Hemisphere nations, including the United States, sign the Rio Pact, committing themselves to collective defense against aggression.
5 Oct.
The Soviet Union announces that during a secret meeting in Warsaw in September, the Communist parties of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, and Yugoslavia created the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) to coordinate the activities of European Communist Parties and trade unions.
26 Oct.
India annexes Kashmir, provoking war with Pakistan; on 30 December the conflict will be referred for settlement to the United Nations.
30 Dec.
After King Michael of Romania abdicates, the Romanian parliament abolishes the monarchy and proclaims the nation a people's republic.

1948

  • The first volume of Winston Churchill's memoir, The Second World War, is published.
  • Graham Greene's novel The Heart of the Matter is published.
  • Aldous Huxley's novel Ape and Essence is published.
  • Laurence Olivier stars in a screen version of Hamlet.
  • Vittorio de Sica's movie The Bicycle Thieves is released.
  • Belgium grants the right to vote to women.
1 Jan.
The Benelux Customs Union is established.
4 Jan.
Burma becomes an independent nation.
20 Jan.
Gandhi is assassinated.
4 Feb.
Ceylon becomes independent.
25 Feb.
Communists seize control of the Czechoslovakian government. Czech nationalist Jan Masaryk dies on 10 March after falling from a window. Reported as a suicide, his death arouses suspicion in the West.
1 Mar.
British and American authorities establish a central bank to serve their occupation zones of Germany.
17 Mar.
France, the United Kingdom, and the Benelux countries sign the Brussels Pact, a fifty-year military alliance.
3 Apr.
The U.S. Congress appropriates $6 billion for the Marshall Plan.
1 May
North Korea proclaims itself a people's republic and adopts a Soviet-style constitution.
14 May
The state of Israel is declared, as the British mandate in Palestine comes to an end. At midnight troops from Egypt, the Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invade Palestine; the United Nations effects a truce on 15 July.
26 May
The United Party, led by Premier Jan Smuts, loses control of the South African House of Assembly after running on a platform that included a gradual increase in the rights of native Africans. The victorious Nationalist Party and its coalition partner, the Afrikaner Party, advocate a policy of strict apartheid.
18 June
France merges its German occupation zone with the Anglo-American zone, forming a single West German political unit.
20 June
A new currency, the deutsche mark, is established for West Germany.
24 June
Soviet authorities halt all surface traffic from West Germany into Berlin, block-ading the city. Western authorities respond with an airlift to supply the western sections of Berlin with vital necessities.
28 June
The Soviet Union expels Yugoslavia from the Cominform, signaling hostile relations between the two Communist governments.
25 July
Britain ends the rationing of bread.
Aug.
Soviet scientists who disagree with the environmental evolutionary theories of geneticist T. D. Lysenko are purged from the Russian scientific establishment.
15 Aug.
South Korea formally proclaims itself the Democratic Republic of Korea.
22 Aug.
In Amsterdam 147 Protestant and Orthodox denominations from forty-four countries found the World Council of Churches.
12 Nov.
An American military tribunal finds Tojo and six other Japanese defendants guilty of war crimes and sentences them to death. They are executed on 23 December.
27 Dec.
Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested by the Communist government of Hungary on charges that he had furnished western powers with information about Soviet-Hungarian relations and urged western intervention in Hungary. On 8 February 1949 he is sentenced to life imprisonment for high treason.

1949

  • Simone de Beauvoir's feminist work The Second Sex is published.
  • T. S. Eliot's play The Cocktail Party premieres in Edinburgh.
  • George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four is published.
  • Paul Tillich's theological study The Shaking of the Foundations is published.
20-23 Jan.
Representatives of nineteen Middle Eastern, Far Eastern, and Australasian nations meet in New Delhi to discuss Asian affairs and issue a statement critical of Dutch efforts to prevent the Netherlands East Indies from becoming the independent nation of Indonesia.
25 Jan.
The Soviet Union and Communist countries of Eastern Europe announce that they have established the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.
8 Mar.
France agrees to recognize the independence of Vietnam within the French Union and to reinstall Vietnamese emperor Bao Dai.
4 Apr.
Twelve nations, including the United States and the Brussels Pact nations, form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), committing themselves to mutual military assistance.
18 Apr.
The Republic of Ireland is officially proclaimed.
5 May
Ten Western European states form the Council of Europe to promote peace and foster European cooperation.
11 May
Israel is admitted to the United Nations.
12 May
Soviet authorities, announcing they have completed road and rail "repairs," end the Berlin blockade.
29 June
American occupation forces are withdrawn from Korea. South Africa signals a hardening of apartheid restrictions by banning mixed marriages and automatic citizenship for immigrants from Commonwealth countries.
5 Aug.
The United States terminates all military and economic assistance to the Nationalist Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek.
14 Aug.
The conservative Christian Democratic Party, led by Konrad Adenauer, garners 31 percent of the vote in the first postwar parliamentary election conducted in the new Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).
23 Sept.
American, British, and Canadian officials announce that the Soviet Union has successfully detonated an atomic bomb.
1 Oct.
The Communist People's Republic of China is proclaimed.
7 Oct.
The eastern, Soviet-occupied zone of Germany declares itself the German Democratic Republic.
24 Oct.
In New York the permanent headquarters of the United Nations is dedicated.
8 Nov.
Cambodia becomes an independent nation within the French Union.
26 Nov.
India adopts a federal constitution and opts to remain within the British Commonwealth.
16 Dec.
The British Parliament further restricts the powers of the House of Lords.
27 Dec.
Led by President Sukarno, the United States of Indonesia becomes an independent nation.