On November 11, 1923, German authorities arrested Adolf Hitler following the Beer Hall Putsch, marking a pivotal event that could have shifted the direction of world history and changed the lives of tens of millions. The Beer Hall Putsch, which occurred on November 8-9,…
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Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass, unfolded on the night of November 9 and 10, 1938, marking a horrifying turning point in the persecution of Jews during the Nazi era in Germany. Triggered by the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom…
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Thirteen minutes. On the night of November 8, 1939, while Munich’s old Bürgerbräukeller echoed with the loyalist cheers of Nazi Party faithful commemorating the sixteenth anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch, Adolf Hitler slipped out of the hall thirteen minutes earlier than scheduled—a minor…
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In the dimming light of a crisp October evening in 1940, the Battle of Britain was drawing to a dramatic close. The roar of aircraft engines had become a familiar backdrop to daily life for the British people, who had endured months of relentless…
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On October 30, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved $1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to Allied nations, marking a pivotal point in the United States’ role in World War II. This decision expanded the scope of the Lend-Lease Act, passed by Congress in March…
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On October 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur made good on his promise and waded ashore on Leyte Island in the Philippines. Nearly three years prior, the charismatic general had been forced to leave the islands after the Japanese invasion, but he made a promise…
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On October 8, 1939, just weeks after the invasion of Poland, Nazi Germany officially annexed large portions of the country, marking a significant moment in the early stages of World War II. This act followed the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939,…
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On September 19, 1944, the United States Army entered a dense, forbidding tract of woodland along the German–Belgian border known as the Hürtgen Forest. What began that morning as a push to clear the area for the advance into the Rhineland would spiral into…
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When the guns fell silent in Europe on May 8, 1945, the question of how to commemorate the Allied triumph over Nazi Germany loomed over the victorious powers. The Soviet Union, which had borne the brunt of the war on the Eastern Front and…
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September 3, 1939, the world drew battle lines, and World War II officially began following England and France’s declaration of war against the Nazis following Hitler’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The invasion was a brazen act of aggression, violating international norms…
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