istoryworld
All Events
Italians signs a secret armistice with the Allies, as Allied troops land in Sicily
British general Harold Alexander is appointed commander-in-chief of all Allied forces in the Italian campaign
On Hitler's orders, the SS rescue Mussolini from house arrest in the mountains of central Italy
All German and Italian troops are by now driven out of Sicily or captured by the Allies
The RAF bomb the German V-2 rocket research station at Peenemünde
Allied bombers begin four months of night-time raids on Berlin
A strong Allied force lands at Salerno, south of Naples
Italy, abandoning her Axis partners, surrenders unconditionally to the Allies
A premature uprising against the Germans in Naples results in a massacre of the inhabitants
British admiral Louis Mountbatten is appointed to head the new Southeast Asia Command, with his headquarters in Delhi
British general William Slim is appointed to command the Fourteenth Army, formed specifically for the campaign to recover Burma
The Allies move north from Salerno and capture Naples
Italy changes sides and declares war on her recent ally, Germany
Subhash Chandra Bose, as leader of the Indian National Army, declares war on Britain
The Germans halt the Allied advance along the Gustav Line, which includes Monte Cassino
Mussolini becomes Hitler's puppet ruler of a new Fascist republic in north Italy
Carl ('Tooey') Spaatz is appointed to command the US Strategic Air Forces in Europe
Colossus Mark I, the world's first computer, goes into decoding service at Bletchley Park in Britain
Harold Macmillan negotiates with the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel III, about transition arrangements after Italy's change of side
Churchill extends Harold Macmillan's responsibilities to include developments in Greece and the Balkans
The Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiment demonstrates that the chemical constituent of a gene is DNA rather than protein, thus opening the door for molecular biology
Ibn Saud and his US partners set up ARAMCO, the Arabia-American Oil Company
John von Neumann establishes game theory as a mathematical discipline with his book Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour
Commissioned by a church in Northampton to sculpt a Madonna and Child, British sculptor Henry Moore produces the first of his family groups
Saul Bellow publishes his first novel, Dangling Man, a study of an intellectual adrift as he waits to be drafted into the army
