This is where the Daily Chronicles are posted
Manila, Philippines · January 2, 1942 Japan intended to occupy the Philippine Islands as part of its plan for a “Greater East Asia War.” The nation’s Southern Expeditionary Army Group was tasked with seizing the islands, British Malaya (today’s Malaysia), and the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) simultaneously with the Japanese Navy’s assault on the…
London, England · January 2, 1945 In the 19th century the Bavarian city of Nuremberg, long associated with gingerbread, sausages, handmade toys, and Christkindlmaerkte (Christmas markets), had become an important industrial center with companies such as engineering and manufacturing giants Siemens and MAN. Both firms contributed mightily to Germany’s war effort—Siemens by producing everything from…
Washington, D.C. · January 1, 1942 On August 14, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter on a warship off the Canadian coast. The two leaders hoped that, following the defeat of Adolf Hitler’s Germany, countries around the world would renounce the use of force in international…
SHAEP HQ, Versailles, France · January 1, 1945 Nazi Germany’s position on the Western Front had declined precipitously after the D-Day landings of Allied troops on June 6, 1944. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third U.S. Army was driving rapidly into the enemy’s rear. The German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) was aware that German troops were…
Washington, D.C. · December 31, 1943 By this date in 1943 Boeing delivered its 92nd B‑29 Superfortress to the U.S. government after the giant bomber began rolling off the assembly line the previous September. Even before the country was at war and government funds had been allocated, Boeing had produced a prototype of the long-range…
Ottawa, Canada · December 30, 1941 On December 28, 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill left Washington’s Union Station for Canada. Six days earlier Churchill and his military and civilian advisers had arrived in the nation’s capital to meet with their American and Canadian counterparts. The visit by the two heads of state between Christmas…
London, England · December 29, 1940 On this date in 1940, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appealed to the nation in a radio “fireside chat” to support his proposal to strengthen the U.S. military in light of developments in Europe, the German Luftwaffe delivered a massive attack on the British capital, London. Almost 3,000 civilians were…
Washington, D.C. · December 28, 1941 The Seabees were in effect combat engineers of the U.S. Navy, working and, when necessary, fighting on land. On this date in 1941 Rear Admiral Ben Moreell requested authority to organize a militarized Naval Construction Force, and a week later he gained permission from the Bureau of Navigation (later…
Washington, D.C. · December 27, 1938 In 1938 America’s armed forces had less than 3,000 pilots. To speed the production of pilots outside the armed services, President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) on this date in 1938. The program was intended, the president said, to provide a boost to general aviation…
London, England · December 26, 1943 The Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, variously described as a battleship and battlecruiser of the German Kriegsmarine. Launched in 1936 and completed in 1939—her nine-gun, triple turrets the pride of the Kriegsmarine—the 31,500‑ton ship was sister ship to the Gneisenau. During much of the early part of the…