1944 – 1945★★★★★
Vietnamese famine of 1945
A famine in northern Vietnam under French and Japanese rule kills an estimated 400,000 to 2 million people.
Disaster· Vietnam
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Events this year
June 6, 1944★★★★★
D-Day: the Normandy landings
Allied forces carry out the largest seaborne invasion in history on the Normandy coast, opening a Western Front to liberate Western Europe.
War· France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany
Ongoing
1858 – 1947★★★★★
Beginning of the British Raj
After the 1857 rebellion, the Government of India Act transfers rule from the East India Company to the British Crown; the Mughal Empire formally ends.
Politics· India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, United Kingdom
September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945★★★★★
World War II
Germany invades Poland, starting the deadliest conflict in human history, which ends with Japan's formal surrender on 2 September 1945.
War· Germany, Poland, United Kingdom, France, Russia, United States, Japan, China
1941 – 1945★★★★★
The Holocaust
Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murder some six million European Jews, along with millions of other victims.
WarDeath· Germany, Poland, Austria, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Czechia, Netherlands, France
September 8, 1941 – January 27, 1944★★★★★
Siege of Leningrad
German and Finnish forces besiege Leningrad for nearly 900 days; around a million civilians die, mostly from starvation.
WarDisaster· Russia, Germany, Finland