Featured story: On August 19, 1939 5 U-boats from Kiel and 9 from Wilhelmshaven took to the North Atlantic to start the story of The Battle of the Atlantic. It's a long battle with a lot of intrigue.
If you like stories of the past this is your gateway into exploring fascinating historical events between 1918 and 1945.
Click on the welcome button to learn about how the site works or select a year and read about the interesting happenings around the world and check out the photo attributions listed below if you're curious about where they came from.
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If you have any comments, please email me at - htti@webgenesee.com.
There's nothing like sitting back and getting caught up on all the interesting characters and the interesting events that happened in the past, it's the story of how we got here. And it's a huge topic, there's thousands of stories that tell the tale and they're all told in a different way. How They Tell It organizes it all using a couple of different methods, wikipedia articles that give the details of the events and lists of books that have been written by various authors over the years so you can get a good insight on what was going on at the time.
Inside How You Tell It you'll find,
a ficticous journalist named Correspondent Kona who keeps a chronological blog of wikipedia articles that you can use to get a sense of the timelineness of what was happening and follow the stories day by day,
and a breakdown of the countries by year with stories and books written about the characters and the events that occured during that time so you get a well rounded understanding of everything that was going on.
Pick a year and dive in to soak up the great stories of history as they unfurl before you, there's a limitless supply of them and they're waiting for you in the amazing wikipedia articles and the great books that have been written over the years.
If you have any comments, please email me here - htti@webgenesee.com.
Now on with the stories!
Woodrow Wilson starts the year by trying to get some peace and there's a lot of treaty signing going on to end the Great War ~ Lenin is reving up the Communist Party of the Soviet Union while they're having a Revolution and a Civil War and it's the end of the line for the Tsars ~ Japan is having some Rice riots ~ The German Revolution is going on and it's the end of the line for the Kaisers ~ The Armistice of 11 November is signed.
The German Workers' Party has started and Hitler gives his first arranged public speech in Germany ~ Benito Mussolini started the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento and the Squadrismo is going on in Italy ~ The Jallianwala Bagh massacre is going on in British India ~ The May Fourth Movement is going on in China ~ The Treaty of Versailles is signed ~ Prohibition starts in the United States
The Treaty of Versailles is going into effect ~ The League of Nations is starting ~ The Kapp Putsch happened ~ Hitler started the Volkischer Beobachter ~ The Non-cooperation movement is going on
The Wagon tragedy happend ~ The Chinese Communist Party is starting. ~ The Washington Naval Conference happened ~ The Sturmabteilung starts
The Occupation of the Ruhr ~ The First Party Congress of the nazis ~ The Beer Hall Putsch and Hitler being arrested ~ The Blackshirts ~ The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake ~ The Kantō Massacre
The nazi party is refounded ~ Hitler is banned from public speaking ~ the Schutzstaffel ~ Mein Kampf and the New Order ~ The Peace Preservation Law ~ The Royal Observer Corps
The Sicherheitsdienst ~ Japanese militarism ~ The October incident ~ The Great Depression in the United Kingdom ~ The Mukden Incident ~ The Japanese invasion of Manchuria ~ The Pacification of Manchukuo
The nazi party ~ The last free election ~ The January 28 incident ~ Marian Rejewski ~ The bomber will always get through
nazis get the power ~ The Reichstag fire ~ The concentration camps ~ The Enabling Act of 1933 ~ The Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring ~ The Haavara Agreement ~ Nazi plunder and book burning ~ The anti-Nazi boycott ~ The warning
The Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich ~ The Death's Head Units ~ The Night of the Long Knives ~ The Allgemeine SS ~ The Punishment Catalogue ~ The 6 February 1934 crisis
The Chain Home ~ The Wehrmacht ~ The Kriegsmarine ~ The Reich Labour Service ~ The Messerschmitt Bf 109 ~ The Nuremberg Laws ~ The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress ~ The Second Italo-Ethiopian War
Edward VIII ~ RAF Fighter Command ~ RAF Bomber Command ~ George VI ~ February 26 Incident ~ The Remilitarizion of the Rhineland ~ The Orpo and the SiPo ~ The Anti-Comintern Pact ~ The Second United Front ~ The Condor Legion
The Degenerate Art exhibition ~ The National Spiritual Mobilization Movement ~ The New London School explosion ~ The Hindenburg disaster ~ The Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the Second Sino-Japanese War ~ The USS Panay incident
The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ~ The Sudetendeutsches Freikorps ~ The Munich Agreement ~ The Einsatzgruppen ~ Kristallnacht ~ The May Crisis ~ The Sudeten German uprising ~ The Occupation of Czechoslovakia ~ The Anschluss ~ The National Mobilization Law ~ Bletchley Park
The Gleiwitz incident ~ Directive 1 ~ The Soviet invasion of Poland ~ The Gas vans ~ The Pact of Steel ~ child euthanasia in Nazi Germany ~ Aktion T4 ~ The Phoney War ~ the radio speech ~ The Battle of the Atlantic ~ Hartmann's wolfpack ~ The RAF Advanced Air Striking Force ~ The British Expeditionary Force ~ The King's Speech ~ Operation Fish ~ The Battle of Čajánek's barracks ~ The Italian invasion of Albania ~ The Albert Einstein letter about nukes ~ The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact ~ The Anglo-French Supreme War Council ~ The Winter War
The Northern front, East Africa ~ The East African campaign ~ The Italian invasion of British Somaliland ~ The North African campaign ~ The Western Desert campaign ~ The Italian invasion of Egypt ~ Operation Compass ~ The rationing of bacon, butter and sugar ~ The Norway Debate ~ The Battle of Britain ~ The Birmingham Blitz ~ The Battle of Britain Day ~ The The Hardest Day ~ The Norwegian campaign ~ The German invasion of Denmark ~ The British occupation of the Faroe Islands ~ The Battle of France ~ Fall Rot ~ The Italian invasion of France ~ The Italian occupation of France ~ The French_Resistance ~ The German invasion of Belgium ~ The German invasion of the Netherlands ~ The German invasion of Luxembourg ~ The Allied occupation of Iceland ~ the first RAF raid ~ Directive 16 ~ The Tripartite Pact ~ The Battle of the Mediterranean ~ The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere ~ The Tonarigumi ~ The Imperial Rule Assistance Association ~ The Hundred Regiments Offensive ~ The Japanese invasion of French Indochina ~ The Franco-Thai War ~ The Greco-Italian War
The New Fourth Army incident ~ Operation Excess ~ Operation Substance ~ Operation Halberd ~ The Afrika Korps ~ The Twin Pimples raid ~ Operation Crusader ~ The Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia ~ The Siege of Tobruk ~ Operation Brevity ~ Operation Skorpion ~ The Syria–Lebanon campaign ~ Operation Battleaxe ~ Operation Colossus ~ The Action of 27 February 1941 ~ The Monsun Gruppe ~ The Lublin Ghetto ~ Wolf's Lair ~ The Schutzmannschaft ~ Operation Claymore ~ The Italian spring offensive ~ The Lend-Lease ~ The Belfast Blitz ~ The blockbuster bomb ~ The Rudolf Hess Attempted peace mission ~ The V Fighter Command ~ The Special Operations Executive ~ The Butt Report ~ The II Bomber Command ~ The French National Committee ~ The declaring war on Finland ~ The Eastern Front ~ The siege of Leningrad ~ Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact ~ The Hunger Plan ~ The Ural Mountains in Nazi planning ~ The Pripyat Marshes massacres ~ The Siege of Odessa ~ The Babi Yar ~ THe Crimean campaign ~ The Siege of Sevastopol ~ The Winter campaign of 1941 ~ The Action of 4 April 1941 ~ The Bismarck ~ The Second Happy Time ~ The German invasion of Greece ~ The Razing of Kandanos ~ THe Invasion of Yugoslavia ~ Operation Uzice ~ The Maquis ~ The Continuation War ~ Operation Silver Fox ~ Operation EF ~ The Soviet evacuation of Tallinn ~ The Final Solution ~ The gas chambers ~ The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet ~ The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran ~ The Three Alls Policy ~ The Pacific War ~ The Niihau incident
Solomon Islands campaign ~ Invasion of Tulagi ~ Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies ~ New Guinea campaign ~ Invasion of Salamaua ~ Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines ~ Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign ~ Raid on Makin Island ~ Guadalcanal campaign ~ Matanikau Offensive ~ Koli Point action ~ Battle of Oivi–Gorari ~ Carlson's patrol ~ National Council of the Resistance ~ Operation Biting ~ St Nazaire Raid ~ Service du travail obligatoire ~ Dieppe Raid ~ Case Anton ~ Channel Dash ~ Operation Donnerkeil ~ Dehousing ~ Baedeker Blitz ~ Operation Pluto ~ Internment of Japanese Americans ~ Rationing in the United States ~ Aleutian Islands campaign ~ Japanese occupation of Kiska ~ Japanese occupation of Attu ~ United States Office of War Information ~ Fort Stevens ~ Bracero program ~ Lookout Air Raids ~ Chindits ~ Action of 27 March 1942 ~ Action of 6 June 1942 ~ Indian Ocean raid ~ Japanese occupation of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands ~ Easter Sunday Raid ~ The Augsburg Raid ~ Commando Order ~ Doolittle Raid ~ Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign ~ Japanese occupation of Burma ~ Burma campaign ~ Arakan Campaign ~ Operation Kremlin ~ Case Blue ~ Sinyavino offensive ~ Battle of Stalingrad ~ Operation Nordlicht ~ Operation Braunschweig ~ Operation Uranus ~ Operation Little Saturn ~ Operation Winter Storm ~ Raid on Tatsinskaya ~ Demyansk Pocket ~ Attack on Sydney Harbour ~ Shelling of Newcastle ~ Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich ~ Ležáky ~ Lidice massacre ~ Operation Vigorous ~ Operation Pedestal ~ Operation Harpoon ~ Anne Frank ~ Estevan Point lighthouse ~ Operation Agreement ~ Operation Torch ~ Naval Battle of Casablanca ~ Operation Terminal ~ Tunisian campaign ~ Raid on Algiers
Operation Iskra ~ Operation Polar Star ~ Koriukivka massacre ~ Operation Büffel ~ Khatyn massacre ~ Operation Citadel ~ Casablanca Conference ~ Operation Flax ~ Operations Vulcan and Strike ~ Operation Ke ~ Salamaua–Lae campaign ~ Landing at Nassau Bay ~ New Georgia campaign ~ Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ~ Sochy massacre ~ Michniów massacre ~ Białystok Ghetto uprising ~ Escape from Sobibor ~ Black May ~ Raid on Darwin ~ Republic P-47 Thunderbolts ~ bouncing bombs ~ Mulberry harbour ~ shuttle bombing ~ French Committee of National Liberation ~ Operation Stonewall ~ Operation Pointblank ~ Werfer-Granate 21 ~ Schräge Musik ~ Henschel Hs 293 ~ V-2 rocket ~ Second Raid on Schweinfurt ~ An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus ~ Allied invasion of Sicily ~ Bombing of Rome ~ Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy ~ Operation Achse ~ Barbara Line ~ First Quebec Conference
Kaiten ~ Shin'yō-class suicide motorboat ~ Burma campaign ~ Siege of Myitkyina ~ Baby Blitz ~ Exercise Tiger ~ V-1 ~ Argument plan ~ area bombardment ~ Tallboy bombs ~ Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 ~ Operation Valkyrie ~ Messerschmitt Me 262 ~ Führerbunker ~ Memorial Centre Lipa Remembers ~ Massacre of villages under Kamešnica ~ Admiralty Islands campaign ~ Landing on Emirau ~ Western New Guinea campaign ~ Mariana and Palau Islands campaign ~ Philippines campaign ~ Kamikaze ~ Operation U-Go ~ Battle of the Tennis Court ~ Indian Ocean raid ~ Kamenets–Podolsky pocket ~ Crimean offensive ~ Minsk offensive ~ Polotsk offensive ~ Moscow Armistice ~ Operation Margarethe ~ Operation Ichi-Go ~ Ploiești mission ~ Soviet occupation of Romania ~ Provisional Government of the French Republic ~ Liberation of France ~ Operation Overlord ~ Normandy landings ~ Tulle massacre ~ Clearing the Channel Coast ~ Liberation of Paris ~ Battle of the Bulge ~ Malmedy massacre ~ 20 July plot ~ Warsaw Uprising ~ Wola massacre ~ Destruction of Warsaw ~ BAT guided bomb ~ Slovak National Uprising
Operation Bodenplatte ~ Vistula–Oder offensive ~ Siege of Breslau ~ Colmar Pocket ~ Mühlviertler Hasenjagd ~ Bombing of Dresden ~ Battle of Remagen ~ Operation Clausewitz ~ Western Allied invasion of Germany ~ Ruhr pocket ~ Celle massacre ~ Battle of the Seelow Heights ~ Capture of Hamburg ~ Goebbels cabinet ~ Flensburg Government ~ Battle of Iwo Jima ~ Operation Spring Awakening ~ Spring 1945 offensive in Italy ~ Liberation of Arnhem ~ Prague offensive ~ Second Guangxi campaign ~ Soviet invasion of Manchuria ~ settlers japanese army-abandoned china ~ Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ~ Soviet invasion of South Sakhalin ~ Kyūjō incident
Bognor Regis fishermen - William Pankhurst Marsh (1850-1918), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
word art - inkpx word art generator
1918 - Sheridan, John E., Artist, and United States Committee On Public Information. Division Of Pictorial Publicity. "Hey fellows!" Your money brings the book we need when we want it American Library Association, United War Work Campaign, Week of/ / Sheridan. United States, 1918. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002722568/.
1919 - Reading a salvage book by one of the Salvage men on the salvage truck of the A.T.S. salvage office. St. Nazaire. Nazaire Saint France, ca. 1919. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2011660971/.
1920 - Unidentified boy, seated on park bench, probably in Washington, D.C., holding book. , ca. 1920. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/94506123/.
1921 - Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. A Pupil in Pleasant Green School - Pocahontas Co. See Photo No. 6. Location: Pocahontas County--Marlinton, West Virginia / Photo by L.W. Hine. United States Marlinton Pocahontas County West Virginia, 1921. October. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018678724/.
1922 - Underwood & Underwood, photographer. "Uncle Joe" keeps up with the latest fad Uncle Joe Cannon refuses to be outdone by the newer members of Congress and has become a radio fan himself, although not for campaigning purposes, for Uncle Joe will not run for Congress again. Illinois, 1922. April 3. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2011647825/.
1923 - Young woman, star of Mack Sennett comedy films, full-length portrait, seated on beach chair, facing slightly right. , ca. 1923. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/98505214/.
1924 - Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. Miscellaneous. Boy studying. United States, ca. 1924. [?] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018678713/.
1925 - Margaret Connery of Dublin left Alice Paul, 12/3/25. , 1925. [December 3] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016841470/.
1926 - Maj. Campbell B. Hodges, 3/9/26. , 1926. [March 9] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016841911/.
1927 - Boris Lʹvovich Bruk - rukovoditelʹ ėkspedit︠s︡ii KOMZETa v Dalʹnevostochnom krae vg. , 1927. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018692331/.
1928 - Harris & Ewing, photographer. U.S. Chief Signal Officer inspects new radio equipment for talking to Aviators in flight. The new aircraft-radio equipment designed by both the Signal Corps of the War Department permits of both radiotelephone and radiotelegraph communication, sending, receiving, at the same time. The apparatus is used communicating with airplanes in flight. Corporal ... is demonstrating the outfit to the Chief Signal Officer, Major General George S. Gibbs, this is the first photograph showing him with radio. United States, 1928. February 8. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016888692/.
1929 - Curtis, Edward S, photographer. The ivory carver--Nunivak. Nunivak Island Alaska, ca. 1929. February 28. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003652882/.
1930 - Deti, Idushchie V Shkolu. Russian Federation Narym Tomsk Oblast, 1930. [Narymskii Krai: Publisher Not Identified, to 1936] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018685588/.
1931 - A Day in the life of Mussolini. , ca. 1931. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/90706629/.
1932 - American Colony . Photo Department, photographer. Iraq. Kifl. Native Moslem i.e., Muslim village with a Jewish shrine to the prophet Ezekiel. Jewish rabbi reading. At the entrance to the shrine. Kifl Iraq, 1932. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2019706919/.
1933 - Genthe, Arnold, photographer. Newton, Francis, portrait photograph. , 1933. Sept. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018717329/.
1934 - Genthe, Arnold, photographer. Jewish Federation activities involving children. , 1934. Sept. 17. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018716664/.
1935 - Untitled. , None. [Between 1935 and 1945] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017869103/.
1936 - Harris & Ewing, photographer. Woman at Typewriter in Office. United States, 1936. [March] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016882363/.
1937 - Lee, Russell, photographer. Children in rural school. Williams County, North Dakota. United States Williams County North Dakota, 1937. Oct. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017780789/.
1938 - Vachon, John, photographer. Untitled photo, possibly related to: Drover at the stockyards. South Omaha, Nebraska. United States Nebraska Omaha Douglas County, 1938. Nov. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017767988/.
1939 - Dwight, Mabel, Artist. Silence / Mabel Dwight. , 1939. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/89710983/.
1940 - Lee, Russell, photographer. Eugene Davis, gold prospector, reading over location notice form which must be filed along with mining claim. Pinos Altos, New Mexico. United States Pinos Altos Grant County New Mexico, 1940. May. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017786638/.
1941 - Delano, Jack, photographer. At the Alexander Community School in Greene County, Georgia. United States Greene County Georgia, 1941. Nov. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017796948/.
1942 - United States War Relocation Authority, Lange, Dorothea, photographer. San Francisco, Calif. Apr. Dave Tatsuno, with his two-year-old son, rereading notes compiled while he was a student at the University of California, and packing his possessions prior to evacuation and later housing in a War Relocation Authority center for the duration of the war. San Francisco California, 1942. [13 April] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021650565/.
1943 - Adams, Ansel, photographer. Children at Sunday school class, Manzanar Relocation Center, California / photograph by Ansel Adams. California Manzanar, 1943. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002697861/.
1944 - Boyer, Richard, photographer. New York, New York. Charlotte Rohr operating the Braille press at the Lighthouse, an institution for the blind, at 111 East Fifty-ninth Street. United States New York New York State, 1944. Mar. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017864845/.
1945 - Drunken_Sailors - aBernardo74, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons