 at the Yalta Conference of 4 – 11 February 1945.
23/11/1943. US forces retook Makin in the Gilbert Islands.
3/11/1943. US miners ended a 6 month strike.
9/6/1943, US Congress approved the Pay as You Go scheme for deducting income tax from salaries.
1/6/1943, The close of the Hot Springs Conference (opened 18/5/1943); the Allies discussed World War Two.
26/5/1943, Edsel Ford, president of the Ford Motor Company from 1919, died.
13/3/1943, J P Morgan Jnr, US financier, died aged 75.
9/3/1943. Bobby Fischer, chess champion, was born in Chicago. He took the world title from Boris Spassky in 1972.
9/2/1943. The USA reported that Japanese resistance in Guadacanal and the Solomon Islands had ceased.
15/1/1943. The Pentagon, built to house the US Defence Department, opened in Arlington, Virginia, on the Potomac River.
14/1/1943. Churchill, de Gaulle, and Roosevelt met at Casablanca. They demanded the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. Plans were made for the invasion of Sicily increased US bombing of Germany, and the transfer of British forces to the far east once Germany was defeated.
10/11/1942, William Crozet, US artillery expert, died.
17/6/1942, President Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill in Washington to discuss war production and military strategy.
8/6/1942. (1) Battle of Midway Island (4-8 June). The Japanese withdrew after 4 days of shelling. See 27/5/1942. The Japanese ability to mount strategic attacks in the Pacific was effectively ended. The US lost 500 men, the Japanese lost 3,500 men.
(2) Churchill arrived in Washington for talks with Roosevelt.
7/6/1942, The US aircraft carrier Yorktown was sunk by the Japanese at Midway Island.
6/6/1942, The US and Japan both lost one destroyer each at Midway.
5/6/1942, Japanese Admiral Yamamoto realised the surprise factor had failed and ordered a withdrawal from Midway.
3/6/1942, The Japanese launched a diversionary attack on the Aleutians but did not draw US forces away from Midway.
2/6/1942, Task forces 16 and 17 rendezvous 350 miles north east of Midway.
30/5/1942, US Task Force 17 set sail from Pearl Harbour to join Task force 16 against the Japanese at Midway Island,
29/5/1942. Bing Crosby recorded the bestseller White Christmas for the soundtrack of the film Holiday Inn.
28/5/1942, US Task Force 16 sailed to intercept the Japanese fleet bound for Midway Island.
27/5/1942, A Japanese fleet left Japan on operation M.1, the capture of Midway Island. They hope to repeat the surprise factor of Pearl Harbour; however the US had cracked the Japanese radio codes and were ready, see 8/6/1942
18/4/1942, US planes bombed Tokyo and other Japanese cities; the ‘Doolittle Raids’. See 24/11/1944.
21/3/1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This established the War Relocation Authority, to move Japanese in the US away from the west coast. Some 110,000 Japanese in the US were interned in WRA camps, although most of the 150,000 Japanese in Hawaii were not interned.
3/3/1942, The USA declared the West Coast a military area and evacuated some 100,000 civilians.
24/2/1942, Joe Lieberman, US politician, was born.
23/2/1942, Lend Lease was made reciprocal between the USA and Britain.
10/2/1942, American bandleader Glen Miller was presented with a gold record of his popular tune ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’; the tune was the first to hit one million sales.
27/1/1942, Jacqueline Cochrane, US aviatrix, flew a US bomber to the UK, for raids against Germany.
26/1/1942, American troops landed in Northern Ireland.
25/1/1942, Siam (Thailand) declared war on Britain and the USA. The USA did not declare war on Siam. Many Thai sympathised with the Allied side.
17/1/1942, Muhammad Ali, American boxer, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, as Cassius Clay.
23/12/1941, Wake Island (US territory) surrendered to the Japanese, see 4/9/1945.
11/12/1941. Hitler declared war on the USA, as did Italy, even though he had not yet conquered Russia or invaded Britain. The USA declared war on Germany and Italy.
See also China/Japan/Korea for World War Two in Pacific
See also France-Germany (from 1/1/