July 11

Vichy, France • July 11, 1940 On July 10, 1940, the French National Assembly meeting in the munic­ipal opera house in Vichy, France, a small resort town 200 miles/­322 kilo­meters south of German-occupied Paris, ceded its power and author­ity to Premier Philippe Pétain, the 84‑year-old Maréchal of France and World War I hero. On this date, 1 day later, Marshal…