1939: St. Louis carrying 907 Jewish refugees denied permission to land in Florida
1940: The Dunkirk evacuation ends
1941: Over 4 million Axis soldiers invade the USSR
1942: Czech paratroopers attempt to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, a main architect of the Holocaust. He dies 8 days later
1943: BOAC Flight 777-A, a civilian airline flight is attacked by 8 German Junkers. On board is the film actor Leslie Howard
1944: 155,000 Allied troops arrive on the beaches of Normandy. D-Day landings are the largest amphibious operation in history
1945: Aris Velouchiotis, leader of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), the major resistance in Nazi occupied Greece dies
1946: A referendum held in Italy declares the country a republic
1947: U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall outlines the Marshall Plan for American reconstruction & relief aid to Europe
1948: Columbia Records launches long playing 33 1/3 rpm record format
1949: George Orwell's 1984 published. Introducing doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak & Big Brother
1950: North Korean troops cross 38th parallel into South Korea & capture Seoul, starting Korean War
1951: The first UNIVAC (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) is dedicated at the U.S. Census Bureau
1952: U.S. Army Special Forces, known as the 'Green Berets' is created
1953: Julius & Ethel Rosenberg are executed for passing information about atomic bomb to Soviets
1954: Joseph Welch asks Senator Joseph McCarthy: 'Have you, at long last, no decency?'
1955: The 'Johnny Carson Show' debuts on CBS-TV. It is short lived, but Carson would later host 'The Tonight Show' for 30 years
1956: The Flag of the United States Army is officially adopted by President Dwight D. Eisenhower
1957: Composer & big band leader Jimmy Dorsey, known as "JD", dies aged 53
1958: Due to a crisis in the Fourth Republic, Charles de Gaulle is called out of retirement to lead France
1959: USS George Washington, the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles, is launched
1960: Civil unrest leads to resignation of Japanese prime minister, Nobusuke Kishi
1961: Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects from Soviet Union while in Paris with the Kirov Ballet
1962: Frank Morris, John Anglin & Clarence Anglin escape from Alcatraz. They are never heard from again
1963: Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes first woman in space piloting Vostok 6