1940
Roosevelt is elected as President of USA for an unprecedented third term with 54 percent of the popular vote. He defeats Republican Wendell L. Willke.
Armed merchant-cruiser Jervis Bay sunk by pocket-battleship Admiral Scheer in attack on Atlantic convoy.
1941
Japanese war plans agreed at an imperial conference, with a deadline of December 1941. The US ambassador to Tokyo, Joseph C Grew, warns that war might come very suddenly.
1942
The British attack Rommel’s rearguard, which is now almost 100 miles to west of El Alamein. A peace treaty is signed in Madagascar with the Vichy French.
1943
US Navy carrier planes cripple a Japanese squadron at Rabaul, forcing six cruisers to withdraw North to Truk for repairs.
The US Fifth Army reaches the Sangro river in southern Italy.
China’s Wang Chingwei, Thailand’s Wan Waithayakon, Manchukuo’s Chang Chinghui, Burma’s Adipadi Ba Maw, India’s Subhas Chandra Bose, and the Philippines Jose Laurel attend the “Greater East Asia Family Conference” of November 5-6, 1943 in Tokyo. The Filipino delegate urges the Asian quislings to “extend all possible material and spiritual support to Japan.”
1944
174 Lancasters of No. 5 Group, RAF, breach the Dortmund-Ems Canal, one of Germanys main transport arteries.
British forces land at Salonika, in Greece.
The German 4th Army recaptures the town of Goldap in East Prussia.
U.S. planes pound the harbour at Manila in the Philippines and destroy 249 Japanese aircraft.