On This Day

On This Day - 1941 - In response to domestic discontent, Adolf Hitler orders a stop to his policy of exterminating the mentally ill. Since the beginning of the war, more than 70,000 such people have died at the hands of the Nazis. The policy will be continued in a decentralized manner, with another 100,000 dying by May 1945. Thousands also will be killed in Nazi German-occupied areas.

On This Day

On This Day - 1941 - Nazi troops reached the outskirts of Leningrad during World War II.

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On This Day - 1942 - Guadalcanal. Japanese Colonel Ichiki believes only a few Americans defend Henderson Aitfield along the Tenaru River. At 1h30 he sends 100 troops across the Tenaru River, supported by machine guns and mortars, but 2500 Marines mow them down with machine gun- and anti tanks.

On This Day

On This Day - 1942 - German forces were getting ready to attack Stalingrad. The Russians, already devastated by the power of the Blitzkrieg during Operation Barbarossa, had to make a stand especially as the city was named after the Russian leader, Joseph Stalin.

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On This Day - 1942 - US Army Air Force planes see action for the first time in North Africa, bombing German military positions from their base in Egypt.

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On This Day - 1940 - The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, has spent the last few days in a top-secret meetings with the American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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On This Day - 1940 - 13th The Luftwaffe launched "Adler Tag" or "Eagle Day", the start of intended mass attacks which would knock out the RAF.

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On This Day - 1945 - In Tokyo, the Japanese government at last accepts the inevitable and surrenders to the Allies unconditionally. President Truman declares that "This is the day we've been waiting for since Pearl Harbor". Emperor Hirohito makes an emotional broadcast to the Japanese nation saying that they had to surrender to keep the country from being destroyed by "a new and most cruel bomb". The surrender is formally made to General MacArthur at a ceremony abroad the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

On This Day

On This Day - 1942 - Japanese counter attack U.S. Marines on Guadalcanal.

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On This Day - 1942 - U.S. 1st Marine Division begins Operation Watchtower, the first U.S. offensive of the war, by landing on Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands.

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On This Day - 1945 - The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

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On This Day - 1944 - Polish insurgents liberated a German labour camp in Warsaw. 348 Jewish prisoners were freed.

On This Day

On This Day - 1944 - Nazi police raided a house in Amsterdam and arrested 8 people. Anne Frank, a teenager at the time, was one of the people arrested. Her dairy would be published after her death. The last entry in the dairy was on this day.

On This Day

On This Day - 1936, Adolf Hitler presided over the Olympic Games as they opened in Berlin.