Celebrating 100 Years of STV
- Historical Context in the 1940s
- June 14, 1940 - On the same day Paris fell to the German army and Auschwitz received its first Polish prisoners, the Naval Expansion Act is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, increasing the capacity of the U.S. Navy by 11%.
- September 14, 1940 - The U.S. Congress approves the first peacetime conscription draft.
- November 5, 1940 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt continues his dominance of presidential politics with a victory over Republican candidate Wendell Wilkie, winning his third presidential election. Roosevelt becomes the first man to hold office for three terms.
- December 7, 1941 - The attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, commences at 7:55 a.m. when Japanese fighter planes launch a surprise attack on United States soil, destroying the U.S. Pacific Fleet docked at the base. This attack, which took the greatest amount of U.S. naval life in history with 1,177 sailor and marines perishing in the attack, as well as the loss or damage to twenty-one naval ships, led to the entry of American troops into World War II. One day later, the United States declares war on Japan. Four days later, the United States declares war on Germany and Italy, responding to their declaration of war against America.
- February 19, 1942 - An executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt confines 110,000 Japanese Americans on the West Coast into relocation camps. These camps would last for three years.
- June 4-7, 1942 - The Battle of the Midway is fought at Midway Islands in the Pacific with the Japanese fleet encountering its first major defeat of the war against the United States military. As the Battle of Midway comes to an end on June 7, Japan invades the Aleutian Islands, the first invasion of American soil in 128 years.
- June 20, 1942 - The development of the first atomic bomb is signed into agreement between the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Hyde Park, New York.
- August 7, 1942 - The United States Marines land on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in the first American offensive of World War II.
- December 2, 1942 - The first nuclear chain reaction is produced at the University of Chicago in the Manhattan Project under the direction of physicists Arthur Compton and Enrico Fermi. Troops from the United States and other Allied nations land on the beach at Normandy, France in 1944, beginning the western European invasion that would lead to defeat of Nazi Germany.
- April 13, 1943 - The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. is dedicated on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- July 10, 1943 - The United States Army's 45th Infantry Division lands on the island of Sicily, starting the campaign of Allied invasion into Axis-controlled Europe. The conquest of Sicily would be completed on August 17th.
- June 6, 1944 - The Normandy Invasion, D-Day, occurs when one hundred and fifty-five thousand Allied troops, including American forces and those of eleven other Allied nations. Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of France to begin the World War II invasion of Europe.
- June 22, 1944 - The G.I. Bill of Rights is signed into law, providing benefits to veterans.
- July 21, 1944 - The United States military begins to retake the island of Guam after Japanese troops had occupied the island during World War II.
- November 6, 1944 - Franklin D. Roosevelt, seeking his fourth term in office, broadcasts his last campaign speech from his Hyde Park, New York home. Two days later, he would gain that fourth term.
- February 19, 1945 - Thirty thousand United States Marines land on Iwo Jima. On April 1, American troops invade Okinawa, beginning the Battle of Okinawa.
- April 12, 1945 - President Roosevelt succumbs to a brain hemorrhage and Vice President Harry S. Truman assumes the presidency and role as commander in chief of World War II.
- May 7, 1945 - The unconditional surrender of Germany at Reims, France concludes the military engagements of World War II in Europe.
- August 6, 1945 - President Harry S. Truman gives the go-ahead for the use of the atomic bomb with the bombing of Hiroshima. Three days later, the second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito of Japan surrenders.
- June 6, 1946 - The Basketball Association of America, known as the National Basketball Association (NBA) since 1949 after its merger with the rival National Basketball League, is founded.
- July 4, 1946 - The island nation of the Philippines are given their independence by the United States ending ends four hundred and twenty-five years of dominance by the west. Microwave oven invented by American inventor Percy Spencer, while working for the Raytheon Company.
- April 15, 1947 - Jackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's barrier against colored players when he debuts at first base for Branch Rickey's Brooklyn Dodgers.
- June 5, 1947 - Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposes aid extension to European nations for war recovery, known as the Marshall Plan, which would lead to Congressional approval of $12 billion over the following four years.
- April 30, 1948 - The Organization of American States was founded by twenty-one nations to provide a mutual security pact after World War II. Founding nations were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
- November 2, 1948 - President Harry S. Truman rallies from behind, capturing his first president election from Thomas E. Dewey, the governor of New York.
- March 2, 1949 - Captain James Gallagher lands the B-50 Lucky Lady II in Texas after completing the first around-the-world non-stop airplane flight.
- April 4, 1949 - NATO, the North American Treaty Organization, is formed by the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The treaty stated that any attack against one nation would be considered an attack against them all.
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