Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Ford Island Naval Air Station, Oahu, Hawaii, May 2, 1940 (US Navy photo: 80-G-411119)

80 Years Ago—May 7, 1940: President Roosevelt orders the US Pacific Fleet to stay at Pearl Harbor indefinitely as a deterrent to Japan.

ColGen Alfred Jodl signing the documents of Germany’s surrender, Reims, France, 7 May 1945. (US Army Signal Corps photo)

75 Years Ago—May 7, 1945: Germany surrenders—Gen. Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender at Reims, France at 2:41 am, effective May 8.

Last victims of Battle of Atlantic—off the coast of Scotland, German U-boat U-2336 sinks Canadian transport Avondale Park and Norwegian transport Sneland I, and U-1023 sinks Norwegian minesweeper NYMS-382.

Soviets take Breslau after 82-day siege.

Pulitzer Prize in literature is awarded to John Hersey for A Bell for Adano.

First edition cover of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939

80 Years Ago—May 6, 1940: John Steinbeck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath.

75 Years Ago—May 6, 1945: German SS troops try to crush uprising in Prague, Czechoslovakia, but resistance will prevail.

All Italy is occupied by the Allies.

Off Newfoundland, US destroyer escort Farquhar sinks German U-boat U-881, the last submarine sunk in the Atlantic by US forces.

Allied Third Burma Campaign, April-May 1945 (US Military Academy map)

80 Years Ago—May 5, 1940: Norwegian government-in-exile is established in London.

Off Denmark, damaged submarine HMS Seal surrenders to German seaplanes and a patrol vessel, the only British vessel surrendered by her commander during the war, the only sub captured at sea by Germany.

75 Years Ago—May 5, 1945: Allies secure Burma.

German SS unit assaults Schloss Itter in Austria, where high-ranking French POWs are being held—for the only time in the war, US and German forces fight side by side to defeat the SS troops.

In Lakeview, OR, one woman and five children are killed by a Japanese balloon bomb, the only civilians killed in the continental US by enemy action.

In the Last German U-boat attack off the US coast, U-853 sinks US cargo ship Black Point.

Gen. Bernard Montgomery reading surrender document to German officers at British 21st Army Group headquarters, Lüneburg Heath, Germany, 4 May 1945 (Imperial War Museum: BU 5208)

80 Years Ago—May 4, 1940: Germany begins rationing gasoline; many of the remaining civilian cars and trucks still in circulation are ordered off the roads.

75 Years Ago—May 4, 1945: German forces in northwest Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark surrender to the British at Lüneburg Heath, effective May 5 at 08:00.

US Seventh Army coming from Austria and US Fifth Army from Italy meet at Vipiteno on Italian side of Brenner Pass in the Alps.

British POWs at Trondheim, Norway, May 1940 (German Federal Archives: Bild 183-LO3926)

80 Years Ago—May 3, 1940: In Norway, Allied forces south of Trondheim surrender to the Germans.

British Cromwell tank guarding a bridge over the Elbe River, Hamburg, Germany, 3 May 1945 (Imperial War Museum: 4700-30 BU 5077)

75 Years Ago—May 3, 1945: British take Hamburg, Germany.

British and Indian forces take Rangoon, Burma.

On Mindanao in the Philippines, US Eighth Army takes Davao.

RAF Typhoons sink German liner Cap Arcona and German freighter Thielbek, both loaded with concentration camp prisoners about to be murdered (7500 killed, 2400 survive).

Movie premiere of historical drama The Valley of Decision, starring Gregory Peck & Greer Garson.

Mikhail Alekseevich Yegorov of Soviet 756 Rifle Regiment flying the Soviet flag over the Reichstag, Berlin, Germany, 2 May 1945 (public domain via WW2 Database)

80 Years Ago—May 2, 1940: As Germans advance in Norway, British troops evacuate bombed-out Namsos.

75 Years Ago—May 2, 1945: Official surrender of German forces in Italy and southern Austria.

Berlin surrenders to the Soviets; Soviet flag flies over Reichstag.

Dr. Wernher von Braun and other rocket scientists surrender to US forces in Austria.

Men of the Australian 2/48 Infantry Battalion in landing craft, Tarakan, Borneo, 1 May 1945 (Australian War Memorial: 090812)

80 Years Ago—May 1, 1940: In Norway, German troops from Oslo and Bergen link, and the British evacuate Åndalsnes.

British pass union trade agreement allowing women to work in munitions factories.

B-17G Fortress “Liquid-8-Or” of 569th Bomb Squadron dropping cases of “10 in 1” rations into Holland during Operation Chowhound aimed at breaking the famine in western Holland, May 1 or 3 1945 (public domain via WW2 Database)

75 Years Ago—May 1, 1945: Australian forces land at Tarakan off the coast of Borneo.

Leadership of Germany passes to Adm. Karl Dönitz after Hitler’s suicide the day before.

US Eighth Air Force flies first “Chow Hound” mission, dropping food and supplies to Dutch civilians.

Mexican Air Force arrives in Manila with P-47 fighters to fly for the Allies; the “Aztec Eagles” will fly 795 sorties and lose 7 pilots.

May 2, 1945 issue of US Army’s Stars and Stripes newspaper (Source: US Army)

80 Years Ago—April 30, 1940: Nazis establish their first guarded Jewish ghetto, at Lódz in occupied Poland, later to be sealed.

75 Years Ago—Apr. 30, 1945: As Soviets advance in Berlin, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide.

US Seventh Army takes Munich, Germany.

Col. William Darby, who had led US Army Rangers in North Africa and Italy, is killed in action near Lake Garda, Italy.

The Duke of Windsor (former King Edward VIII) resigns as Royal Governor of the Bahama Islands.

German representatives sign surrender document, Caserta, Italy, 29 April 1945 (US Army Center of Military History)

80 Years Ago—April 29, 1940: The Royal Air Force establishes Commonwealth Air Training Plan to train air crews in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Prisoners celebrating the arrival of United States Army troops, Dachau Concentration Camp, Germany, 29 Apr 1945 (US Holocaust Memorial Museum: 45075)

75 Years Ago—Apr. 29, 1945: At Caserta, Italy, German Gen. Heinrich von Vietinghoff signs the surrender of 1 million German troops in Italy and Austria, effective May 2.

US Seventh Army liberates Dachau concentration camp.

Hitler marries Eva Braun.

RAF begins Operation Manna, dropping food to Dutch civilians.

In municipal elections in France, French women vote for the first time ever.

The “Peace” rose is introduced at the Pacific Rose Society of Pasadena, CA.