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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Emperor's voice reaches the Japanese people for the first time: Japan surrenders

A phonograph record, smuggled past mutinous officers overnight, carries Hirohito's words into homes across the country at noon.

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

This story is held for members.

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

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

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

U.S. and Japanese fleets trade blows in the Coral Sea; neither side ever sees the other

First in line, a 39-year-old Washington clerk enlists in the Marine Corps

Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act; the elderly get a federal pension

Churchill and Roosevelt issue a joint charter for the postwar world

Emperor's voice reaches the Japanese people for the first time: Japan surrenders

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