19451776 Club

Germany signs the instrument of surrender; the war in Europe is over

The remnants of Hitler's military machine lay down arms as Allied commanders accept the unconditional capitulation of all German forces.

In the dying embers of World War II, the fate of a fractured nation hung in the balance. The German Instrument of Surrender, signed on May 8, 1945, marked the definitive end of Nazi Germany's reign of terror. With the stroke of a pen, the remnants of Hitler's war machine were silenced, and a new era of global power dynamics began to unfold…

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Coddington founds Newport; a new settlement opens on Aquidneck Island for those driven out by the Antinomian Controversy

The colony takes shape as Coddington plants a settlement built around the promise of religious freedom in Rhode Island.

1846

Taylor's army beats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande; a war is now underway

American troops hold their ground in the first major engagement of the border dispute, with the armies still in the field and the outcome of the wider conflict far from settled.

1976

Six Flags opens the world's first modern looping coaster; the Great American Revolution launches at Magic Mountain

The ride debuts in the park's Bicentennial summer, sending riders through a complete vertical loop for the first time on a modern steel coaster.

19421776 Club

Carrier aircraft do all the fighting as Allied forces move to block a Japanese thrust into the South Pacific.

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Shovels hit dirt at Hoover Field; the War Department breaks ground on a five-sided headquarters

Contracts worth $31.1 million are finalized the same day, sixty years to the day before the building's darkest morning.

1924

American forces leave Santo Domingo; Dominican National Guard takes over policing

The handover closes an eight-year occupation, but Washington keeps its grip on the country's customs house.

1944

American troops push into the Hürtgen Forest, aiming for a village called Schmidt

Dense conifers and steep ravines await, ground the Germans have spent weeks fortifying with bunkers and mines.

1918

2,711 guns open fire before dawn as America's biggest offensive begins

The barrage alone cost about a million dollars a minute, before a single soldier crossed the wire.

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