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| 750622986 | ABC-1 agreement | (1941) An agreement between Britain and the U. S. developed at a conference in Washington, D. C., between Jan. 29- Mar. 27, 1941, that should the U. S. enter WWII, the two nations and their allies would coordinate their military planning, making a priority of protecting the British Commonwealth. That would mean "getting Germany first" in the Atlantic and the European theater and fighting more defensively on other military fronts. | |
| 750622987 | Bracero program | (1942) Program established by agreement with the Mexican government to recruit temporary Mexican agricultural workers to the U. S. to make up for wartime labor shortages in the Far West. The program persisted until 1964, by when it had sponsored 4.5 million border crossings. | |
| 750622988 | code talkers | Native American men who served in the military by transmitting radio messages in their native languages, which were undecipherable by German and Japanese spies. | |
| 750622989 | Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) | (1942) Nonviolent civil rights organization founded in 1942 and committed to the "Double V"- victory over fascism abroad and racism at home. After WWII, this organization would become a major force in the civil rights movement. | |
| 750622990 | D-Day | (1944) A massive military operation led by American forces in Normandy beginning on Jun. 6, 1944. The pivotal battle led to the liberation of France and brought on the final phases of WWII in Europe. | |
| 750622991 | Executive Order No. 9066 | (1942) Order of FDR authorizing the War Department to remove Japanese "enemy aliens" to isolated internment camps. Immigrants and citizens alike were sent away from their homes, neighbors, schools, and businesses. The Japanese internment policy was held to be constitutional by the U. S. Supreme Court in Korematsu v. U. S. | |
| 750622992 | Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) | (1941) Threatened with a massive "Negro March on Washington" to demand equal job opportunities in war jobs and in the military, FDR's administration issued an executive order forbidding racial discrimination in all defense plants operating under contract with the federal government. This organization was intended to monitor compliance with the Executive Order. | |
| 750622993 | Manhattan Project | (1942) Code name for the American commission est. in 1942 to develop the atomic bomb. The first experimental bomb was detonated on Jul. 16, 1945, in the desert of New Mexico. Atomic bombs were then dropped on two cities in Japan in hopes of bringing the war to an end: Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945. | |
| 750622994 | Battle of Midway | (1942) A pivotal naval battle fought near the island of Midway on Jun. 3-6, 1942. The victory halted Japanese advances in the Pacific. | |
| 750622995 | National War Labor Board (NWLB) | Established by FDR to act as an arbitration tribunal and mediate disputes between labor and management that might have led to war stoppages and thereby undermined the war effort. This organization was also charged with adjusting wages with an eye to controlling inflation. | |
| 750622996 | Office of Price Administration (OPA) | (1941-1947) A critically important wartime agency charged with regulating the consumer economy through rationing scarce supplies, such as automobiles, tires, fuel, nylon, and sugar, and by curbing inflation by setting ceilings on the price of goods. Rents were controlled as well in parts of the country overwhelmed by war workers. This organization was extended after WWII ended to continue the fight against inflation, but was abolished in 1947. | |
| 750622997 | Potsdam Conference | (1945) From Jul. 17 to Aug. 2, 1945, President Harry S. Truman met with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and British leaders Winston Churchill and later Clement Attlee (when the Labour party defeated Churchill's Conservative party) near Berlin to deliver an ultimatum to Japan: surrender or be destroyed. | |
| 750622998 | Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act | (1943) Passed amidst worries about the effects that labor strikes would have on war production, this law allowed the federal government to seize and operate plants threatened by labor disputes. It also criminalized strike action against government-run companies. | |
| 750622999 | SPARs (U. S. Coast Guard Women's Reserve), WAACs (Women's Army Auxiliary Corps), WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) | The women's branches of the U. S. Army, Navy, and Coast Guard, established during WWII to employ women in noncombatant jobs. Women now participated in the armed services in ways that went beyond their traditional roles as nurses. | |
| 750623000 | V-E (Victory in Europe) Day | The source of frenzied rejoicing, May 8, 1945 marked the official end to the war in Europe, following the unconditional surrender of what remained of the German government. | |
| 750623001 | V-J (Victory in Japan) Day | Aug. 15, 1945 heralded the surrender of Japan and the final end to WWII. | |
| 750623002 | War Production Board (WPB) | Est. in 1942 by executive order to direct all war production, including procuring and allocating raw materials, to maximize the nation's war machine. This organization had sweeping powers over the U. S. economy and was abolished in Nov. 1945 soon after Japan's defeat. |
