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Timeline: the rise and fall of the Third Reich
Historian Roger Moorhouse charts the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, from the end of the First World War to the Third Reich's collapse in 1945
1918-1919: The end of the First World War and the birth of the Weimar Republic 9 November 1918: The German monarchy collapses as Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and a new republic is established under the leadership of Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). 11 November 1918: Germany signs an armistice, effectively ending World War I. January 1919: The constitution of the new German republic is drafted, establishing a democratic parliamentary system, under a presidency. However, the new republic faces immediate challenges from extremist movements on both the left and right-wings, and due to unrest in Berlin, the constituent assembly for the new republic was held in the city of Weimar – thereby giving it its name. HistoryExtra Academy | Nazi Germany This six-part video course covers everything you need to know about Nazi Germany, guided by historian, author and broadcaster Laurence Rees Find out more 1919-1923: The Weimar Republic and economic instability January 1919: The German Workers' Party (DAP), is established in Munich by railway worker Anton Drexler. It would be the precursor to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), later known as the Nazi Party. June 1919: The Treaty of Versailles is signed, officially ending the war. It imposes harsh terms on Germany, including reparations, territorial losses and a controversial “war guilt” clause, fostering widespread resentment among the German populace. September 1919: Adolf Hitler joins the DAP after attending a party meeting. February 1920: Under Hitler’s growing influence, the NSDAP presents its manifesto – the “25-Point Program” - which includes demands for the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles, the expansion of Germany’s territory, and the establishment of an authoritarian regime. July 1921: Hitler assumes leadership of the NSDAP, becoming its most prominent figure. Autumn 1923: Hyperinflation, resulting from the printing of money to finance the war, begins to seriously undermine the German economy, leading to widespread poverty and social unrest. The Weimar Republic struggles to manage these economic challenges, and extremists on both right and left, including the Nazi Party, gain increasing political traction. 8-9 November, 1923: The Beer Hall Putsch, led by Hitler and other Nazi leaders, attempts to overthrow the Weimar government. The coup fails, twenty people are killed, and Hitler is arrested and arraigned for high treason. 1924-1929: The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party February/March 1924: Hitler's trial takes place in Munich. He seizes the moment and uses it as an opportunity to spread his message. As a result, he emerges for the first time as a national political figure. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment. 1924: While in prison, in Landsberg, Hitler writes Mein Kampf, in which he outlines his ideological views, including the need for German expansion (Lebensraum) and the superiority of the Aryan race. December 1924: Thanks to a sympathetic prison administration, Hitler is released from prison after less than 9 months. With that, the Nazi Party begins to rebuild its political influence. 1925: Thanks to economic restructuring and political stabilisation, the Weimar Republic begins to flourish. The extremist parties lose their support. 1927: The ban on Hitler making public speeches, which had been in place in most of the country since 1925, is finally lifted. May 1928: In Reichstag (German parliament) elections, the Nazi Party gains only 2.6% of the national vote, confirming Hitler’s position of obscurity on the fringes of German political life. October 1929: The Wall Street Crash triggers the Great Depression, which devastates the global economy, pulling the plug on Germany’s fragile economic recovery. Unemployment rises sharply, leading to widespread discontent with the Weimar Republic and a resurgence of political unrest from both extremes. 1930-1933: The Nazis gain power 1930: The Nazi Party, under Hitler’s leadership, begins to gain significant support, particularly among the working class and rural populations disillusioned with the Weimar Republic’s inability to address the economic crisis. March/April 1932: Hitler runs for president but loses to Paul von Hindenburg, the incumbent. July 1932: The Nazis become the largest party in the Reichstag, with more than 37% of the vote, but they fail to win an outright majority. Autumn 1932: A series of minority governments find themselves unable to govern effectively given the ongoing economic crisis and the political chaos in the Reichstag. January 30, 1933: Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Hindenburg, after political manoeuvring and backroom deals among conservative elites, who believe they can control him. 1933-1938: Establishing the totalitarian state 27 February 1933: The Reichstag Fire occurs, and the Nazis use it as a pretext to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspends civil liberties and allows for the arrest of political opponents. March 23, 1933: The Enabling Act is passed, granting Hitler dictatorial powers. The act allows Hitler to legislate without the Reichstag’s approval, effectively ending democracy in Germany and establishing a one-party state. March 1933: Nazi Germany’s first concentration camp for political opponents is opened, at Dachau, near Munich. The camp, alongside others, is used by the Nazis to consolidate their power by eliminating political rivals, including Communists and Socialists. June 30, 1934: The Night of the Long Knives – a violent purge of the Nazi SA (Sturmabteilung) at the hands of the SS (Schutzstaffel) – further consolidates Hitler’s power and allows him to eliminate all those he considered oppositional. The death toll is estimated at around 150. January 13, 1935: A referendum on the status of the Saarland returns a vote of more than 90% for the province returning to German rule, after 15 years of League of Nations administration. It is another proof of Hitler’s growing popularity. September 15, 1935: The Nuremberg Laws are enacted, stripping Jews of their German citizenship and forbidding mixed marriages. Racial discrimination is enshrined in German law. 7 March 1936: Hitler remilitarizes the Rhineland, violating the Treaty of Versailles, but faces no military response from France or Britain. This bold move boosts his popularity and strengthens his hold on power. August 1936: The Olympic Games are held in Berlin further cementing Hitler’s domestic popularity and enhancing his international prestige. 12 March 1938: The Anschluss, or annexation of Austria, occurs after German forces march, unopposed, into the country. The annexation is confirmed the following month, in a spurious referendum. 30 September 1938: Hitler’s sabre-rattling forces the Munich Agreement, which forces Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland region to Nazi Germany, under the guise of protecting ethnic Germans from persecution. 9-10 November 1938: Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) occurs, in which Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues across Germany are violently attacked. Thousands of Jews are arrested, beaten and consigned to the concentration camps, marking a significant escalation of anti-Semitic persecution. 1939: The outbreak of the Second World War 23 August 1939: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, effectively dividing eastern Europe between the two and ensuring that Germany will not face a two-front war when it invades Poland. 1 September 1939: Germany invades Poland. 3 September 1939: After their ultimatums demanding that Germany halt its invasion of Poland go unanswered, Britain and France declare war on Germany. 1940-1941: The expansion of Nazi Germany April-June 1940: Nazi Germany swiftly conquers Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. The Blitzkrieg tactics—fast-moving mechanized warfare—prove highly effective. 22 June 1941: Operation Barbarossa begins, when Germany invades the Soviet Union. Initially hugely successful, the invasion stalls as the harsh winter sets in and Soviet resistance grows. Autumn 1941: The Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads, begin mass executions of Jews and other “undesirable” elements across occupied Eastern Europe. As many as 1.5 million Jews would be killed in this way. 1942-1944: The turning of the tide October-November 1942: The Battle of El Alamein halts the German advance in the Western Desert. 8 November 1942: In Operation Torch, British and American forces land in Algeria and Morocco, marking the beginning of the end of the German campaign in North Africa. February 1943: The Battle of Stalingrad ends, as the German Sixth Army is surrounded and forced to surrender to the Soviets, marking a major turning point in the war in favour of the Allies. May 1943: After mounting losses in the fighting the convoys in the Atlantic, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, commander of Germany’s U-boat fleet, withdraws his wolfpacks from the theatre, pending technological updates and reinforcements. He privately confesses that he has lost the Battle of the Atlantic. 9 July 1943: In Operation Husky, the Allies launch a successful invasion of Sicily, further weakening Germany’s military position and leading, later than month, to the fall of Hitler’s ally, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. 24 July 1943: The Allied bombing of Hamburg – Operation Gomorrah – begins. The heaviest aerial assault of the war to date, it will culminate in some 37,000 dead and a profound blow to German domestic morale. July-August 1943: The Battle of Kursk deals a crushing blow to German ambition on the Eastern Front. German land forces would never regain the initiative. 6 June 1944: D-Day sees Allied forces land in Normandy, which will begin the liberation of France and Western Europe. 20 July 1944: Operation Valkyrie, an assassination attempt on Hitler, is carried out by German officers, led by Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. The plot’s failure leads to a harsh internal crackdown on suspected conspirators. 25 August 1944: Allied forces liberate Paris 1945: The fall of the Third Reich January 1945: The failure of the German Ardennes Offensive – the “Battle of the Bulge” – exhausts what remains of German reserves. 13-15 February 1945: The bombing of Dresden results in around 25,000 dead. 19 April 1945: Soviet victory in the Battle of the Seelow Heights, east of Berlin, opens the way to the German capital. 24 April 1945: Soviet forces complete the encirclement of Berlin. 25 April 1945: Advancing American and Soviet forces meet at Torgau on the Elbe, effectively cutting what remained of Hitler’s Germany in half. 30 April 1945: Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin as Soviet forces close in on the centre of the city. 2 May 1945: Berlin surrenders to the Soviets. 7-8 May 1945: Germany officially surrenders to the Allies – at Reims, on 7 May, and at Karlshorst, Berlin, the following day – thus marking the end of the war in Europe. 1945-1946: The Nuremberg Trials 20 November 1945: The Nuremberg Trials open, to prosecute key Nazi leaders for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace. 16 October 1946: Ten of the twelve high-ranking Nazis that were sentenced to death at Nuremberg are executed.. The two exceptions are Martin Bormann – who was sentenced in absentia (and was already dead) – and Hermann Göring, who committed suicide in his cell the night before.
Do you know all the major periods in British history?
Journey through the ages of Britain, from prehistory through to modernity…
The history of Britain can be broken down into several distinct periods, each with their own role to play in the changes and impact on the character of the country we know today. Explore the history with this timeline: Prehistory (Before AD 43) Prehistory refers to the period of human existence before the development of written records. In Britain, that lasted until the Roman invasion. The Stone Age, beginning with the use of the earliest stone tools, saw humans transition from nomadic hunter-gatherers in the Palaeolithic, to the end of the Ice Age around 12,000 years ago when Britain was first inhabited, to settled agricultural communities during the Neolithic thousands of years later. Around 2500 BC, the Bronze Age emerged with the discovery of metalworking, which enabled the production of stronger tools and weapons, leading to the rise of early civilisations. This was followed by the Iron Age around 800 BC, when the mastery of iron inspired more advanced technologies and reshaped societies. This marked the transition toward recorded history. In the absence of written records, Britain’s prehistory is known through archaeological discoveries, from ancient cave paintings to monumental structures like Stonehenge. More from us on prehistory HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives Your guide to Britain’s prehistoric stone circles “Graves are like time capsules – little microcosms of prehistoric culture”: Alice Roberts on what bones and burials can tell us about early Britain Neanderthal in the mirror: our changing perceptions of these ancient humans What was life like in the Iron Age? Plus 6 places in Britain to explore Roman (AD 43–c410) At its peak, the Roman empire controlled nearly two million square miles of land and ruled over one in four people across the world. Following the conquest of Britain by Emperor Claudius, this superpower would govern for almost four centuries. They brought monumental changes to everything from architecture to religion, but did not have everything their own way, facing constant threats from the various tribes of Britons. By the fifth century, the empire's influence was waning, marking the shift to post-Roman societies across Europe. More from us on Roman history HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives Who are the most underrated Roman emperors? Exile and exploitation: 5 things you probably didn't know about Roman Britain Roman holiday: when emperor Hadrian became a tourist of ancient Egypt The Invisible Romans: how the brutal lives of the enslaved shaped an empire Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers Early Medieval (c410–1066) In the aftermath of the collapse of Roman rule, Britain entered a period of uncertainty and transformation. This is often referred to as the Dark Ages, although that term is now widely rejected by historians due to its oversimplification. “All ages of the past are dark because the past is a grave,” says Thomas Williams. “It is a void that historians and archaeologists seek to fill with knowledge.” For Britain, this period was defined by the arrival of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who settled in Britain and formed Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria, East Anglia, Essex, Kent and Sussex. These kingdoms were challenged by the onset of the Viking invasion, beginning in the late-eight century, leading to a centuries-long power struggle. More from us on early medieval history HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives The bone chests of Winchester: an Anglo-Saxon detective story 10 ways the Anglo-Saxons changed the course of British history Giants, dragons and Middle Earth: the Anglo-Saxon fear of the past Is it time to retire the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’?” Michael Wood explores the controversy Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers Medieval (1066–1485) The medieval period began with William the Conqueror's victory at the battle of Hastings in 1066, bringing about the Norman Conquest, and in 1154 Henry II came to the throne as the first Plantagenet king. These centuries would be rocked by major events such as the Black Death and the Hundred Years' War between England and France, which altered the balance of power in Europe. Feudalism became the dominant social structure, while the establishment of Magna Carta in 1215 set early foundations for constitutional governance in England. More from us on medieval history HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives The A to B of medieval travel: 8 tips for travelling in the Middle Ages Climbing monks, wrestling kings and marching nuns: what people in the Middle Ages did to exercise What does medieval mean? Why the Middle Ages was actually an age of transformation Medieval manners and etiquette: dos and don’ts of the Middle Ages Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers Tudor (1485–1603) Lasting 118 years and three generations of one dynasty, the Tudor period began when Henry Tudor (the future Henry VII) defeated Richard III at the battle of Bosworth, effectively ending the Wars of the Roses. Under the Tudors, especially under Henry VIII, Britain experienced profound changes in religion. The English Reformation severed ties with the Roman Catholic Church and led to the establishment of the Church of England. After seesawing back to Protestantism under Edward VI and Catholicism under Mary I, Elizabeth I came to the throne. The Elizabethan era was known for its flourishing of the arts, exploration and the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, solidifying England’s status as an emerging naval power. More from us on Tudor history HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives The Tudor travel bug: 6 artefacts that show the Tudors’ taste for travel The ultimate Tudor quiz Inside the six wives' bedchamber: the stories of Tudor ladies-in-waiting The poet, the gardener and the witch: forgotten voices of Tudor England Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers Stuart (1603–1714) Upon Elizabeth I’s death without an heir, James VI of Scotland ascended to the throne as James I, uniting England and Scotland under one crown. He survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, but his son, Charles I, would be executed during the Civil Wars. This saw the temporary overthrow of the monarchy with the Commonwealth, headed by Oliver Cromwell, before the Restoration in 1660 under Charles II. James VII and II, the second surviving son of Charles I, came to the throne in 1685. With the Glorious Revolution in 1688, William III and Mary II came to the throne and established a constitutional monarchy, limiting the powers of the crown. More from us on Stuart history HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives From Tudor to Stuart: the succession of 1603 Oliver Cromwell’s postal spies: intercepting letters and codebreaking in the General Post Office Crown v Parliament: your guide to the Civil War of the 17th century The siege of Basing House: how the Civil War was won Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers Georgian (1714–1837) The Hanoverian dynasty was established under George I after the last Stuart, Anne, died with no heir. He contended with Jacobite rebellions in 1715 and 1719, while his son George II faced the threat of one in 1745, to restore the Stuarts. The reign of George III witnessed the loss of Britain’s American colonies with defeat in the American War of Independence, but also the expansion into other territories such as India. This helped to solidify Britain’s imperial power. The Georgian period simultaneously gave birth to the Industrial Revolution, which transformed the economy and society forevermore. It is also known for the Regency period, which strictly applies to the years 1811–1820 in British history. "The Regency period is often viewed through the pages of Jane Austen – a time of country house visits, balls and strict social etiquette," explains Dr Lizzie Rogers. "Yet, beneath its genteel exterior lurks an era of war and revolution, change and upheaval." After George III, William IV reigned from 26 June 1830 until his death, on 20 June 1837. More from us on Georgian history HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives Inside debtors’ prisons: what life was like for people jailed in Georgian Britain How Georgian and Victorian same-sex couples co-opted marital traditions and made them their own Murder and mayhem in Georgian Britain: the scandalous work of Johnson's General History Could you make it through a London season in the Regency era? Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers Victorian (1837–1901) The Victorian era, named after the queen who ruled for more than 63 years, was characterised by Britain’s position as a global superpower. The country experienced rapid industrialisation and social reform. During Queen Victoria's reign, significant advancements were made in science, medicine and culture, alongside the expansion of the British empire to its greatest extent. More from us on Victorian history HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives Death on the canal: inside a Victorian crimewave Sex, sadism and sugared death: 8 scandals that rocked Victorian Britain Victorian zoos: animal attraction in the 19th century Victorian murder scandals: what six killings tell us about women's lives in the 19th century Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers 20th century (1901–2000) The 20th century began with the Edwardian period and was a period of unprecedented change for Britain, later typified by the First World War and Second World War that reshaped global politics and diminished the empire’s power. By mid-century, Britain had become a modern welfare state with the creation of institutions like the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948. Britain’s role on the world stage, which had previously been dominant, continued to diminish as former colonies gained independence, marking the end of the age of empire. Yet, the century brought cultural and technological advancements that shape modern British society to this day. More from us on 20th-century history HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives How Britain fell in love with the NHS Beauty before durability: the interwar beginnings of fast fashion The seaborne invasion: why we must remember the forgotten heroes of D-Day and the battle for Normandy Alternate history: what if the Soviets had landed on the Moon first and won the Space Race? Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers
Napoleonic Wars timeline: the key dates you need to know
Jeremy Black charts Napoleon’s rise to power in Revolutionary France and the dramatic chain of events leading up to his final defeat at Waterloo
20 April 1792 – Start of the French Revolutionary Wars Three years into the French Revolution, France’s Legislative Assembly declares war on Austria, fearing that it will launch an invasion in a bid to restore the absolute monarchy of Louis XVI. A Prussian-led coalition army attempts to march on Paris in September, but it is defeated at Valmy, around 108 miles from the capital. The first stage of the French Revolutionary Wars – commonly known as the War of the First Coalition – is now underway. 22 September 1792 – The French Republic is born Emboldened by the victory at Valmy, the revolutionaries abolish Louis XVI’s constitutional monarchy and proclaim the new French Republic. In November, General Charles François Dumouriez leads an army into the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) to prevent an invasion of France via the Low Countries, defeating the main Austrian force in the region at the battle of Jemappes. 21 January 1793 – Louis XVI is executed Having been convicted of high treason, Louis XVI is beheaded by guillotine in what is now Place de la Concorde, Paris. The execution sparks outrage among the monarchies of Europe. 1 June 1794 – Britain’s ‘Glorious First of June’ With Britain now part of the coalition of powers fighting France, a fleet led by Admiral Lord Howe attacks 26 French warships sent to escort an American grain convoy into Brest. The vital convoy does reach France, but superior British gunnery costs the French seven warships (six captured and one sunk) and 5,000 casualties. 14 February 1797 – Spain is defeated at Cape St Vincent With Spain now allied to the French Republic, Britain’s Admiral Sir John Jervis (pictured below) and 15 warships attack a Spanish fleet of 27 off southern Portugal. Thanks to a melee created by the then-commodore Horatio Nelson, British captains win several individual ship encounters. Their superior rate of fire has a deadly effect and four Spanish ships are captured. 21 July 1798 – Battle of the Pyramids A young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, leads an invasion of Ottoman-ruled Egypt in an effort to defend French trade interests and weaken Britain’s access to India. At the so-called battle of the Pyramids, he repels the Mamluk cavalry to seize Lower Egypt. On the podcast | Great Reputations: Napoleon 9–10 November 1799 – Napoleon seizes power Having made his name in Italy and Egypt, Napoleon returns to France to find the government under pressure after setbacks in the War of the Second Coalition (led by Britain, Austria and Russia). He mounts a bloodless coup and becomes first consul of France, eventually crowning himself emperor in 1804. 14 June 1800 – A decisive moment at Marengo Napoleon’s opening campaign as first consul is an invasion of northern Italy, beginning with a crossing of the Great St Bernard Pass. At Marengo, he finds the Austrians a formidable rival, and his enforced retreat for much of the battle is only reversed following a successful counter-attack by French reinforcements. A quarter of the French army become casualties. The Austrians ask for an armistice. 27 March 1802 – The Peace of Amiens Britain, Spain and the Batavian Republic (the Netherlands) agree a peace treaty with France in the city of Amiens, marking the end of the War of the Second Coalition and the French Revolutionary Wars as a whole. The French signatory is Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph Bonaparte. 20 October 1805 – The French leader shows his brilliance at Ulm Attacking the Austrians in the War of the Third Coalition, Napoleon moves his Grande Armée (a ‘Great Army’, comprising troops from the Armée d’Angleterre) by rapid marches that outmanoeuvre part of the Austrian army based at Ulm. In the face of his brilliant strategic campaign the enemy surrenders (although Austria remains in the war), opening the way for the overrunning of southern Germany. 21 October 1805 – Britain’s Royal Navy triumphs at Trafalgar Vice Admiral Lord Nelson intercepts a Franco-Spanish fleet off Cape Trafalgar near Cádiz. The British attack in two divisions, splitting the opponents into groups. The battle of Trafalgar then becomes a series of small struggles between individual ships or groups in which British gunnery and seamanship prevails, albeit at the cost of heavy casualties – including Nelson himself. Meanwhile, Napoleon’s planned invasion of Britain has failed to materialise. 2 December 1805 – Battle of Austerlitz In perhaps his greatest ever victory, Napoleon defeats a larger Russian and Austrian army near the town of Austerlitz (now in the Czech Republic). Around 16,000 Austrian and Russian troops are killed or wounded, with 11,000 taken prisoner. The defeat leads Francis I of Austria to accepta harsh peace two days later. 14 October 1806 – Prussian resistance is crushed Frederick William III of Prussia joins Russia as part of the Fourth Coalition, but Napoleon attacks before Russian reinforcements can arrive. At the twin battles of Jena and Auerstädt in Saxony, the poorly-commanded Prussian forces are defeated. Napoleon crushes what he thinks is the main body of the Prussian army at Jena, but it is actually at Auerstädt, where it is expertly defeated by Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout. 7–8 February 1807 – Napoleon struggles at Eylau Moving east, Napoleon finds the Russians to be tough opponents. At Eylau in East Prussia, repeated French attacks fail to break the Russians, who withdraw during the night. French casualties are heavy and, although Napoleon gains possession of the battlefield and Russian losses are heavier, he wins neither tactically nor strategically. 14 June 1807 – Battle of Friedland Russia, with an inferior force and their backs to a river, attacks the French at Friedland. The plan fails and leads to heavy losses. It leaves the Russians so battered that they need time to rebuild their army. The subsequent Treaties of Tilsit on 7 and 9 July bring about an uneasy peace. 5 May 1808 – The costly Peninsular War begins After Portugal refuses to adopt Napoleon’s Continental System (blocking it from trading with Britain), he invades the country via Spain, causing the royal family to flee. He then occupies Madrid, sparking a mass uprising, before overthrowing the Spanish monarchy on 5 May 1808. The Peninsular War ensues, with Anglo-Portuguese troops securing early victories against the French at Roliça and Vimeiro in August. 21–22 May 1809 – Napoleon faces a challenge by the Danube Austria resumes conflict with France in 1809 as part of the Fifth Coalition. The first major battle, fought at Aspern and Essling near Vienna, reflects little credit on Napoleon, whose bold attack on a superior Austrian force is repelled, before a serious Austrian assault leaves the French isolated on the north bank of the Danube. The French army is not destroyed, but Napoleon abandons the battlefield. 5–6 July 1809 – The French counter-attack at Wagram After failure at Aspern-Essling, Napoleon counter-attacks north of Vienna at Wagram. He drives Archduke Charles from the field, helped by a successful flank manoeuvre, but the Austrian army is not routed. Both sides use artillery to great effect. Wagram is followed by peace with Austria on French terms. 24–25 June 1812 – France invades Russia Napoleon seeks to deal with the crisis in his relations with Russia by striking at the centre of its power, and with an army so large that it will guarantee victory. More than 600,000 French and allied troops cross the Niemen river and invade Russian territory without resistance, denying Napoleon the decisive battle he had initially sought. 7 September 1812 –A deadly day at Borodino The Russians attempt to stop Napoleon’s advance on Moscow at Borodino, a battle involving around 250,000 men and in excess of 1,100 cannon. The battle lasts all day with total casualties of some 77,000. The Russians resist French attacks and are driven back without breaking. Napoleon refuses to commit his Imperial Guard, which might have been decisive. The Russians abandon the battlefield at night. Despite heavier Russian casualties, it is Napoleon’s losses – about a quarter of his army – that are crucial. 14 September 1812 – Napoleon enters Moscow After the battle of Borodino, the road to Moscow is left open. Napoleon enters an undefended city on 14 September, only to find it set ablaze that night. Alexander I refuses to negotiate and Napoleon’s supply situation deteriorates, forcing him to abandon Moscow on 19 October. Heavy snowfalls turn the retreat into a nightmare and thousands of troops die. Meanwhile, the costly Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal continues to drain Napoleon’s resources even further. 26–27 August 1813 - Battle of Dresden In 1813, Prussia, Austria and Sweden join Russia in the fight against a now-outnumbered Napoleon as part of the Sixth Coalition. They plan to avoid direct battle with him and only attack forces led by his subordinates. However, Frederick William III of Prussia insists on fighting the French emperor, and an army commanded by Prince Schwarzenberg is beaten by Napoleon at Dresden. 16–19 October 1813 – Severe losses at Leipzig At the battle of the Nations at Leipzig, Napoleon is heavily outnumbered by converging Allied forces. Unable to defeat his opponents, whom he nevertheless holds off, he decides to retreat. In total, the French lose around 68,000 men. 6 April 1814 – Napoleon abdicates In early 1814, Napoleon, with some success, attacks the Austro-Prussian-Russian forces that invade eastern France, manoeuvring with skill to destroy the most exposed units. Their superior numbers tell, however, and the coalition troops march into Paris. A provisional government deposes Napoleon and he formally abdicates on 6 April. Unaware of the news, Britain’s Arthur Wellesley captures Toulouse a few days later, having invaded France via the Pyrenees. 1 March 1815 – An unexpected return Napoleon escapes from exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba with a small flotilla and about 1,100 troops. He comes ashore near Antibes, southern France, on 1 March where the garrison surrenders. The army of the new French king, Louis XVIII, proves unwilling to mount effective opposition, and on 20 March, Napoleon enters Paris to reclaim power. Louis has already fled the city. 9 June 1815 – The Congress of Vienna ends Following months of negotiations in Vienna, ambassadors from several major powers (including Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia) sign an act that redistributes a number of European territories. The objective is to create long-term peace by settling issues arising from both the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. 15 June 1815 – The Waterloo campaign begins As coalition forces prepare to mount an invasion of France, Napoleon decides the best way of breaking it down is to attack the powers individually. In what is now Belgium, he plans a concentration of troops south of the Prussian and British-led armies, with the intention of following it with a rapid advance designed to defeat them separately before advancing on Brussels. 16 June 1815 – A futile French victory at Ligny The French defeat the Prussians at Ligny but Napoleon can’t outflank them as he had hoped. He instead has to rely on costly frontal attacks that drive the Prussians back without breaking them. French losses ensure Napoleon has a smaller margin of manpower for subsequent operations. To the northwest, the French are less successful against a British-led allied force at Quatre Bras. 18 June 1815 – Wellington’s triumph Napoleon’s hopes are crushed during the battle of Waterloo as a result of a defensive engagement with the British-led army under Arthur Wellesley (now Duke of Wellington), joined later in the day by the Prussian army, which moves to their support. Napoleon’s lack of operational and tactical imagination plays a major part in his defeat. 15 July 1815 – Final surrender Facing rising opposition and an erosion of support, Napoleon’s regime collapses. Having abdicated in favour of his son on 22 June, he plans to go to America, but a British naval blockade makes it impossible. Feeling he will get better treatment from Britain than other foes, he boards HMS Bellerophon on 15 July. He is sent to the island of St Helena, in the distant south Atlantic, where he is imprisoned until his death on 5 May 1821. One the podcast | The Napoleonic Wars: Everything you wanted to know
Countdown to disaster: a timeline of the last hours of Pompeii
Pompeii was a bustling Roman city, home to thousands of people living in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. Nige Tassell charts the terrifying events of AD 79 that saw Pompeii, and nearby Herculaneum, transformed into an ash-covered hellscape of destruction and death
Four days before the eruption 11:00 Minor earth tremors gently shake Pompeii, but not enough for any of its citizens to stop going about their day-to day business in this bustling, prosperous city. Minor earthquakes are common here in the region of Campania; the residents barely notice. The collective opinion is that there’s nothing untoward about this morning’s seismic activity. This is despite the enormous and devastating earthquake that hit Pompeii in living memory. In AD 62 (sometimes recorded as AD 63), the city was severely damaged and a tenth of its 20,000-strong population killed. Almost all of its adult population will have lost at least one loved one or friend in that giant quake, but an air of possible complacency pervades its rebuilt streets. The markets are busy, the trade is brisk. Everything appears to be normal. View oEmbed on the source website First day of the eruption 10:00 Those minor tremors are still being felt across Pompeii, and have been for the last four days. Yet its citizens still appear to be unconcerned. No one is heeding what will later be interpreted as warning signs. The markets are still busy, the trade is still brisk. It’s another typical morning without note. But then comes lunchtime... 13:00 Shortly after noon, as residents are stopping to refuel, Mount Vesuvius roars into life. Inside the mountain, the pressure caused by molten rock – the origin of the tremors felt over the past few days – has grown to such a point that there’s no way back. It has to escape, and so Vesuvius erupts for the first time in several centuries. A huge column of volcanic rock and ash is sent soaring as high as 10 miles into the air. What had been a typically cloudless summer’s day is very quickly extinguished by a cloud of volcanic debris, spreading swiftly to block out the early afternoon sun. It is the darkest of clouds for what will be the darkest of days for Pompeii and its residents. The explosion is unfathomably violent, unfathomably large. Each and every second, around 1.5 million tonnes of debris is being expelled from the depths of the mountain’s belly. At the same time, the vast – and growing – cloud is being pushed the short distance between Vesuvius and Pompeii by southeasterly winds. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2023/08/2E4PY1D-0016b6a-e1692092443558.jpg" width="620" height="414" alt="A 19th-century painting by Eduardo Ettore Forti depicts street life in Pompeii before the eruption – with Vesuvius looming in the background (Photo by Jimlop collection/Alamy Stock Photo)" title="A 19th-century painting by Eduardo Ettore Forti depicts street life in Pompeii before the eruption – with Vesuvius looming in the background (Photo by Jimlop collection/Alamy Stock Photo)" /> Across the Bay of Naples, in the port of Misenum, a 17-year-old boy is watching the catastrophic events unfold. The nephew of Pliny the Elder – the naturalist, philosopher and author of the 37-volume Naturalis Historia – the teenager will later produce an eyewitness account of the tragic events, which will become the strongest written testimony of this fateful day. In Misenum, he watches the contents of the eruption fill the sky. He will note that, above the volcano, the cloud resembled an umbrella pine tree, “raised high on a kind of very tall trunk and spread out into branches”. Pliny the Younger is currently staying with his namesake uncle who, as the serving admiral of Rome’s navy, instinctively decides to set sail across the bay. Accompanied by several oar-driven warships, the intention is presumably to execute some kind of evacuation of Pompeii’s population. Even if he were able to land close to the city (which he is unable to do as debris falls from the sky into the sea, creating dangerous floating islands in the shallow water), such is the scale of the disaster that it would be the tiniest, most piecemeal operation. 16:00 The cloud has travelled the five miles towards Pompeii and is now raining tens of thousands of tonnes of pumice down onto its citizens. Some have tried to escape – whether into the countryside or by taking to the sea – but so rapid and so heavy is the deluge that there’s no real hope for the population who remain inside the city. They are trapped. Many seek shelter in their homes – hoping to be protected, hoping to survive – but the sheer weight of the accumulated pumice is causing entire houses to collapse. On the podcast | Sophie Hay answers the big questions on everything you wanted to know about Pompeii For those local residents fortunate to avoid a direct hit, their fate is already determined by another development. Very soon the city will be smothered by thick ash, concealing everything and everyone. Over the next 24 hours, the ash and debris will settle on the city as much as three metres deep. All the while, the eruption continues throughout the afternoon and evening, and into the night. At its peak, the surge from the massive volcano reaches as high as 20 miles into the sky. Second day of the eruption 01:00 After 12 hours of firing its huge plume of debris upwards, the gases inside Vesuvius begin to weaken, to lose their intensity. This is not necessarily good news. This is not the end of the disaster. The volcano still has plenty of its innards to expel. It will just do so less spectacularly now – less spectacular but even more deadly. Pyroclastic flows – super-heated clouds of ash, gases and volcanic debris – surge down its slopes, engulfing all in their path. Having been saved by the prevailing winds that has allowed it to largely avoid the airborne debris of the past 12 hours, the coastal city of Herculaneum, located to the west of Vesuvius, doesn’t manage to escape this time. Horror in Herculaneum Despite being situated closer to the crater of Vesuvius, the seaside resort of Herculaneum benefitted from the meteorological conditions of the first day of the eruption. The winds were blowing in a southeasterly direction, which, with the town being located west of the volcano, left it comparatively free of the ashfall. Only a light covering of ash fell on Herculaneum, rather than the heavier debris that brought destruction onto Pompeii, and thus many of its inhabitants were granted safe passage away from danger. However, come nighttime, the town did not escape Vesuvius’ wrath, with the volcano unleashing the first of several pyroclastic surges. At great speed, this torrent of hot ash poured across the land towards Herculaneum, with the short distance between volcano and town being covered in little more than a single minute. So intense was the heat that any remaining citizens were killed instantly. They, along with Herculaneum itself, were buried in the flow, waiting to be discovered by curious archaeologists more than 1,600 years later. 06:00 At daybreak, with the volume of ash falling on the city lessening, those Pompeiians who, by fortune or fate, have survived begin to take stock of what’s happened to their neighbourhoods, to their friends, to their families. It’s comparatively quiet now. They believe that the horrific events have dissipated, that Vesuvius has uttered its last roar. It’s now a grim search for the bodies of the casualties. On the beach at Stabiae, a port a few miles to the south of Pompeii, a notable casualty will be revealed the following morning. Having sheltered in the town for the first night of the eruption, the body of Pliny the Elder is discovered. One school of thought is that he has died by asphyxiation, caused by inhaling the volcanic ash. But the ashfall is less significant in Stabiae than elsewhere; it may be that he has suffered an asthma attack or cardiac arrest. 07:30 The willingness of those surviving Pompeiians to believe that Vesuvius has now fallen silent again proves to be misplaced. The volcano belches out its fourth pyroclastic surge, which charges towards the city at the scarcely believable speed of around 200 miles per hour. Across the Bay of Naples, the teenage Pliny – who will soon abandon Misenum with his mother – is observing from a distance. “It was daylight now elsewhere in the world,” he would later write, “but there the darkness was darker and thicker than any night.” Did you know? It is estimated that around 10,000–15,000 people lived in Pompeii in AD 79. So far around 1,200 bodies have been excavated, and although others may still lay undiscovered, it seems as though most residents did escape in time. In among the darkness, he reports “zigzag flashes” and “variously shaped masses of flame”. As the surges power their way towards the sea, there’s the very likely possibility of a tsunami affecting the local waters. It’s an apocalyptic sight for the despondent teenager. “I derived some poor consolation in my mortal lot from the belief that the whole world was dying with me and I with it.” None of the residents who remain have any hope of surviving the heat and intensity of the flow, its temperature measuring several hundred degrees centigrade. Another pyroclastic surge soon follows and completely submerges the city, trapping Pompeii in situ. No more will Pompeiians go about their day-to-day business. No more will this city bustle. Its streets, its buildings, its people will now sleep forever. Nige Tassell is a journalist specialising in history This article was first published in the October 2022 issue of BBC History Revealed
Seven key moments in the history of Malta
Once traded for a falcon, collectively awarded the George Cross, besieged and coveted by world powers the globe over – Malta’s history is full of fascinating stories. Here are seven key moments from the tiny Mediterranean nation’s tumultuous past…
Nestled in the heart of the Mediterranean some 58 miles south of Sicily, the archipelago of Malta is small – it is the 10th smallest country in the world by area, in fact – yet nonetheless it has played an oversized role in history. A natural harbour, whoever holds Malta has easy access to Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East, something not lost on the powers of world history. Since the first people on the islands arrived around 5,900 BC, Malta has fallen under the control of the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, crusaders, French, British and others, before finally becoming an independent nation in 1964. It has witnessed wars and strife, vanishing cultures, and the possible shipwrecking of a saint. It was traded for a bird of prey, became a pilgrimage hotspot on the sea route to the Holy Land, and witnessed the creation of one of the first planned cities in Europe. It served as a sanctuary for the exiled Mehmed VI after the dissolution of the Ottoman empire and was lauded as the ‘Nurse of the Mediterranean’ for its part in treating soldiers injured at Gallipoli during the First World War. Malta’s past is chequered and complex. Here are seven key moments that have shaped the islands, and the world around them. The disappearance of the temple builders – 2500 BC Temple culture bloomed in Malta around 3600 BC. More than a millennium before the construction of the great pyramid of Giza or the raising of the trilithons of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, the ‘temple people’ built the first of a string of megalithic marvels that can be counted among the oldest free-standing structures in the world. Today, six of these complexes spread across Malta and Gozo – Ġgantija, Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra, Ta' Ħaġrat, Skorba and Tarxien – are counted as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Their purpose remains clouded, though collectively they point to the people of the period having a ritualistic culture, with one tantalising clue being the prevalence of statuettes colloquially described as ‘fat ladies’, which may have served as idols of fertility. Of more obvious purpose is the seventh UNESCO World Heritage site from this period, the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum – not a temple, but a tomb. Hewn out of the soft limestone rock, this underground necropolis held the remains of an estimated 7,000 people when it was excavated in the 20th century. But in 2500 BC, the temple builders died out and disappeared, leaving these grand structures as their testament. Historians have struggled to determine why this people suddenly vanished from Malta: drought, famine, epidemic and outside aggression have all been put forward as potential reasons for their abrupt end, with no conclusive evidence pointing towards any. Rome ousts Carthage – 218 BC Developing from a Phoenician colony, the city-state and then empire of Carthage ruled over Malta for almost 250 years before losing it to their greatest rival: the Romans. Malta escaped unscathed during the First Punic War (264-241 BC) – as these clashes between and Rome and Carthage would become known. The islands were raided and occupied during the first months of the Second Punic War (218–201 BC); the Roman historian Livy records that the local garrison surrendered without a fight. By the time Rome had finally annihilated its hated foe at the end of the Third Punic War (149–146 BC), Malta had been a Roman territory for more than 70 years. Read more | How Hannibal beat the Alps but couldn't beat Rome The change in overlordship ushered in a new age of prosperity that lasted until the Roman empire’s fracture into east and west in the fourth century AD. The Romans designated Malta a municipium, or free town, incorporating it within the province of Sicilia but otherwise leaving the islands to their own devices, and in time they became a major producer of olive oil. Maleth, the old Phoenician colony that pre-dated the Carthaginians, became Melite after a period of rapid expansion (and reinforcement, in the form of thick walls and defensive ditches). It is here you can find the Domvs Romana, or Roman House, and its almost entirely intact mosaics. The shipwreck of St Paul – AD 60 When Christianity came to Malta in the first century AD, it was no mere missionary who arrived – but an apostle himself. Or at least, that is how this story goes. The Bible describes how St Paul is shipwrecked en route to standing trial in Rome. Some translations say he washed ashore at an island called Melite. This is oft assumed to be a conflation for Malta, rather than the town of Melite. Other translations of the Bible identify this place as Malta directly. On arriving, Paul is bitten by a viper, miraculously survives its venom, and is received by the Roman governor, Publius – who will later become Malta’s first bishop and, later still, its first saint. Read more | 7 controversial saints in history The apostle’s influence, apocryphal or not, can be seen on the landscape and is now a part of the islands’ national mythos. The place where his ship was wrecked is known as St Paul’s Island, where you’ll find a statue to the saint. The island itself sits within St Paul’s Bay. The cave in which Paul is said to have spent three months is known as St Paul’s Grotto, and counts Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis among its visitors. When, on 11 January 1693, the church in Mdina (as Melite was known by this time) was destroyed in what remains Malta’s worst ever earthquake, the newly reconstructed one was named for St Paul. Fitting, as it is said to stand on the very spot where Publius received the apostle some 1,600 years earlier. The Arab conquest – from AD 870 Arabic caliphates held power in Malta from the closing of the ninth century until the end of the 11th, wresting control from the Byzantine empire. The arrival of the Arabs was to leave an indelible mark on the islands, bringing changes to cuisine, music and architecture. They introduced cotton and citrus fruits as crops, and brought irrigation techniques that are still in use today. But perhaps the most lasting influence was on language. Present-day Maltese is a direct derivative of the Siculo-Arabic that was spoken across Muslim-ruled Sicily at that time, and it remains the only Semitic language written in a Latin alphabet, though it is now peppered with loan words from Italian, English and elsewhere. Likewise many place names (Mdina, Rabat, Marsa and Xagħra, to name a few) are derived from this tongue, as are a number of common family names. Read more | Digital revolution: the evolution of Hindu-Arabic numerals The endurance of this linguistic legacy may have its roots in the Norman conquest of Malta under Count Roger I of Sicily that began in 1091. Approximately 150 years later, in 1249, Arab historian Ibn Hadlun records that all Muslims were expelled from Malta – yet somehow their language survived. It has been suggested that many renounced their religion rather than leave, embracing Christianity, and in doing so kept their language alive. The Great Siege of Malta – 1565 <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2023/03/GettyImages-51243176-d1f1b93-e1679043163737.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="As the dead, injured and destitute lie at his feet, a Knight of the Order of St John hails the victory over the Ottoman forces at the Great Siege of Malta. Monks tend the dead and wounded" title="As the dead, injured and destitute lie at his feet, a Knight of the Order of St John hails the victory over the Ottoman forces at the Great Siege of Malta (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" /> In 1530, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles V gifted Malta to Knights Hospitaller, formally the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, a brotherhood of military monks formed to care for sick pilgrims in the Holy Land. All he asked for was a token annual tribute of a Maltese falcon – a real bird of prey, not the priceless and entirely fictitious MacGuffin made famous by the 1941 film of the same name. The Hospitallers had come to Charles asking for a new home, after being forced out of their stronghold of Rhodes by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent’s expanding Ottoman empire. Having established themselves on Malta, the Hospitallers carried on largely as they had before: interfering with Suleiman’s shipping. It was little wonder that his army came knocking. Read more | Divided they fell: how war, revolution and sectarianism led to the end of the Ottoman empire An armada of around 200 ships carrying 40,000 Ottoman soldiers descended on Malta on 18 May 1565, the beginning of almost four months of offensives and counteroffensives that can be counted among the hardest-fought of the era. At one point, in a bid to encourage the local people to surrender, the Ottomans fixed the decapitated bodies of the dead to crucifixes and sent them floating across the harbour. The Hospitallers retorted by firing cannons loaded with decapitated Turkish heads back at them. What broke the deadlock was the arrival of Spanish reinforcements from Sicily on 7 September. In a dreadful oversight, Sulieman ordered his men to face the new arrivals in open battle. Met by experienced and fresh troops, the Ottomans buckled, with thousands cut down as they retreated to their ships. In was a turning point for the Hospitallers, now hailed as the saviours of Europe, a bulwark against the Ottoman menace. Fearing a future invasion, they began to build a new stronghold named after their grandmaster, Jean Parisot de Valette. It would become Valletta, the current Maltese capital. The French Occupation – 1798-1800 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Malta in June 1798 as a pit-stop on his way to Egypt, the French taking control of the islands within a day and after little resistance. Many Hospitallers at this time were of French heritage themselves and were simply unwilling to fight their countrymen. The French occupation would last for two years, but Napoleon himself would only spend six days on Malta, leaving behind a garrison of 4,000 men. He marked the end of Hospitaller rule with a set of radical political and administrative reforms – including the dismantling of feudal structures and the abolition of slavery – but his mistake was to allow his men to loot churches and help themselves to Maltese treasures. Public anger reached its tipping point at an auction of church property in September 1798. Within days, a 10,000-strong Maltese militia was at the gates of Valletta, trapping the French inside. With no way to breach the walls, they entreated Britain to come to their aid, and so Malta was blockaded once more, with the British finally gaining control of the islands in 1800. Read more | Napoleon: the rise and fall of a dictator This was the beginning of a long period of British rule in Malta. Though the 1802 Treaty of Amiens required the islands to be returned to the Hospitallers, Britain quietly ignored this stipulation – Malta’s strategic location was too valuable to lose in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars. The Knights of St John would never regain it: Malta would formally be confirmed as a British crown colony with the 1814 Treaty of Paris. As for the church treasure, a great desal was taken by Napoleon himself, stashed on his flagship L’Orient – and was subsequently sunk by Admiral Horatio Nelson at the battle of the Nile. Fortress Malta – 1940–1942 In 1942, King George VI awarded the George Cross – the highest British honour awarded for non-military gallantry – to Malta in its entirety, for withstanding a two-year siege during the Second World War. Though it was neglected in the run up to the conflict, Malta’s eventual importance to Britain cannot be overstated. The ancestral home to the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet was, in Winston Churchill’s words, as “an unsinkable aircraft carrier” ideally placed to frustrate Axis ambitions in northern Africa and chip away at shipping convoys carrying vital supplies to Libya. Read more | 8 of Churchill’s greatest speeches Germany and Italy recognised this too. Between June 1940 and November 1942, the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica bombarded the archipelago relentlessly, with one sustained attack that lasted 154 days and nights seeing 6,700 tonnes of bombs land on the islands. By the summer of 1942, the situation was desperate: people were having to turn to curtains for clothes and tyres to resole their shoes, disease was spreading, and the risk of starvation was imminent. With fuel reserves dwindling, offensive operations had ground to a halt. The British response was Operation Pedestal, a supply run of epic proportions. Fourteen merchant vessels ran the gauntlet of sniping submarines and aerial assaults, accompanied by three aircraft carriers, two battleships, seven light cruisers and 32 destroyers, among others. Only five of the merchant ships made it to harbour, but the presence of the tanker SS Ohio among them – limping into port lashed between two destroyers – turned this into a strategic victory, its vital cargo allowing Malta to be used as launch point for attacks on Axis shipping once more. Malta would go on to serve as the launch point of Operation Husky, the July 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily. In a reversal of its role in 1565, it was no longer a bastion to protect Rome, but one from which to subdue it. Read next | Britain's island weapon: Malta in the Second World War
Timeline: the pharaohs and dynasties that ruled ancient Egypt
Charlotte Hodgman tracks 3,000 years of pharaonic rule – from the reigning dynasties, to key moments in ancient Egyptian history
Early dynastic period, c3000–2686 BC 1st Dynasty: c3000–2890 BC First pharaoh: Aha (c3000 BC–unknown) Last pharaoh: Qa‘a (unknown–2890 BC) 2nd Dynasty: 2890–2686 BC First pharaoh: Hetepsekhemwy (2890 BC–unknown) Last pharaoh: Khasekhemwy (unknown–2686 BC) Key information: The era directly following the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in c3100 BC, the Early Dynastic Period sees a capital city established at Memphis. Old Kingdom, 2686–2160 BC 3rd Dynasty: 2686–2613 BC First pharaoh: Nebka (2686–2667 BC) Last pharaoh: Huni (2637–2613 BC) 4th Dynasty: 2613–2494 BC First pharaoh: Sneferu (2613–2589 BC) Last pharaoh: Shepseskaf (2503–2498 BC) 5th Dynasty: 2494–2345 BC First pharaoh: Userkaf (2494–2487 BC) Last pharaoh: Unas (2375–2345 BC) 6th Dynasty: 2345–2181 BC First pharaoh: Teti (2345–2323 BC) Last pharaoh: Nitiqret (2184–2181 BC) 7th and 8th Dynasties: 2181–2160 BC Several ephemeral kings ruled in the 7th Dynasty, most of whom took the name of Neferkara – probably in imitation of the throne name of Pepy II (6th Dynasty, 2278–2184 BC). The short-lived 8th Dynasty was equally unstable and saw the collapse of the Old Kingdom system of control. Key information: The first true, flat-sided pyramids are built during the reign of Sneferu (founder of the 4th Dynasty), in place of the step pyramids commonly found in the 3rd Dynasty. Sneferu’s son, Khufu (2589–2566 BC), builds the Great Pyramid of Giza, and the Great Sphinx follows, probably during the reign of Khafre (Khufu’s son and successor, 2558–2532 BC), together with a second pyramid. The third pyramid at Giza is probably built during the reign of Khafre’s successor, Menkaure (2532–2503 BC). Egypt splits into several political units after the 94-year reign of Pepy II (6th Dynasty). Ancient Egypt facts The land of the pharaohs is famous for its huge pyramids, its bandaged mummies and its golden treasures. But how much do you really know about ancient Egypt? Was the Great Pyramid built by slaves? How did mummification work? Here, Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley shares 10 lesser-known facts... First intermediate period, 2160–2055 BC 9th and 10th Dynasties: 2160–2025 BC First pharaoh: K hety (2160 BC–unknown) Last pharaoh: Merykara (unknown –2025 BC) 11th Dynasty (Thebes only): 2125–2055 BC First pharaoh: Intef I (2125–2112 BC) Last pharaoh: Intef III (2063–2055 BC) Key information: Centralised power weakens during this period, and Egypt is ruled by two competing dynasties. One is based at Heracleopolis in the north, with the other based at Thebes in the south. Middle Kingdom, 2055–1650 BC 11th Dynasty (all Egypt): 2055–1985 BC First pharaoh: Mentuhotep II (2055–2004 BC) Last pharaoh: Mentuhotep IV (1992–1985 BC) 12th Dynasty: 1985–1773 BC First pharaoh: Amenemhat I (1985–1956 BC) Last pharaoh: Queen Sobekneferu (1777–1773 BC) 13th Dynasty: 1773–after 1650 BC First pharaoh: Wegaf (1773 BC–unknown) Last pharaoh: Ay (exact dates unknown) 14th Dynasty: 1773–1650 BC Believed to be minor rulers whose reigns were contemporary with the 13th or 15th Dynasties Key information: Upper and Lower Egypt are reunified under Mentuhotep II (pictured below). Evidence indicates a shift in the pharaoh’s role as political and spiritual leader during this period, as well as changes in the organisation of society, religious beliefs, and relations with neighbouring peoples. During the 12th Dynasty a new capital is established, at Idj Tawy. Tutankhamun: Life, Death & Legacy Introducing a brand-new podcast series exploring the life and legacy of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun Listen to all episodes now Second intermediate period, 1650–1550 BC 15th Dynasty: 1650–1550 BC First pharaoh: Salitis/Sekerher (1650 BC–unknown) Last pharaoh: Khamudi (exact dates unknown) 16th Dynasty: 1650–1580 BC Theban rulers contemporary with 15th Dynasty 17th Dynasty: c1580–1550 BC First pharaoh: Rahotep (c1580 BC–unknown) Last pharaoh: Kamose (1555–1550 BC) Key information: Egypt is once again ruled by competing dynasties, with the north ruled by the Hyksos – descendants of people from western Asia who had settled in the eastern Nile Delta – who ally with rulers of Kerma in Nubia against the Egyptian 16th Dynasty, based in Thebes. New Kingdom, 1550–1069 BC 18th Dynasty: 1550–1295 BC First pharaoh: Ahmose I (1550–1525 BC) Last pharaoh: Horemheb (1323–1295 BC) Ramesside Period, 1295–1069 BC 19th Dynasty: 1295–1186 BC First pharaoh: Ramesses I (1295–1294 BC) Last pharaoh: Queen Tausret (1188–1186 BC) 20th Dynasty:1186–1069 BC First pharaoh: Sethnakht (1186–1184 BC) Last pharaoh: Ramesses XI (1099–1069 BC) Key information: Ahmose I drives the Hyksos from the Delta and reunites Egypt, ushering in nearly 500 years of political and economic stability. The following Ramesside period is a high point in Egyptian history, with great building projects – particularly under Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC) and military conquests in Syria, Libya and Nubia. Third Intermediate Period, 1069–664 BC 21st Dynasty: 1069–945 BC First pharaoh: Smendes (1069–1043 BC) Last pharaoh: Psusennes II (959–945 BC) 22nd Dynasty: 945–715 BC First pharaoh: Sheshonq I (945–924 BC) Last pharaoh: Osorkon IV (unknown–715 BC) 23rd Dynasty: 818–715 BC (contemporary with late 22nd, 24th and early 25th dynasties) Pharaohs include: Pedubastis I, Takelot III, Iuput II 24th Dynasty: 727–715 BC Known pharaoh: Bakenrenef (720–715 BC) 25th Dynasty: 747–656 BC First pharaoh: Piy (747–716 BC) Last pharaoh: Tanutamani (664–656 BC) Key information: The death of Ramesses XI in 1069 BC sees Egypt descend into some 400 years of politically divided rule, with various centres of power and a loss of control over Nubia (Kush) in the south, which is ruled by an independent dynasty in the mid-eighth century BC. In the late eighth century BC, the Kushite ruler Piy (whose victory stele is pictured below), invades Egypt and lays the foundations for the 25th Dynasty. Late Period, 664–332 BC 26th Dynasty: 664–525 BC First pharaoh: Psamtek I (664–610 BC) Last pharaoh: Psamtek III (526–525 BC) 27th Dynasty (1st Persian Period): 525–404 BC First pharaoh: Cambyses (525–522 BC) Last pharaoh: Artaxerxes II (405–359 BC) 28th Dynasty: 404–399 BC Only pharaoh: Amyrtaios (404–399 BC) 29th Dynasty: 399–380 BC First pharaoh: Nepherites I (399–393 BC) Last pharaoh: Nepherites II (c380 BC) 30th Dynasty: 380–343 BC First pharaoh: Nectanebo I (380–362 BC) Last pharaoh: Nectanebo II (360–343 BC) 2nd Persian Period: 343–332 BC First pharaoh: Artaxerxes III Ochus (343–338 BC) Last pharaoh: Darius III Codoman (336–332 BC) Key information: Egypt sees considerable turmoil with foreign powers threatening throughout the period. In 525 BC, the Achaemenid Persian empire invades for the first time but will be ousted by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. Ptolemaic Period, 332–30 BC Macedonian Dynasty: 332–305 BC First pharaoh: Alexander the Great (332–323 BC) Last pharaoh: Alexander IV (317–310 BC, nominal ruler 310–305 BC) Ptolemaic Dynasty: 305 BC–30 AD First pharaoh: Ptolemy I Soter (305–285 BC) Last pharaoh: Ptolemy XV Caesarion (44–30 BC) Key information: After Alexander the Great’s death, rule passes to one of his generals, Ptolemy. Antony and Cleopatra’s defeat at Actium by Octavian (future Roman Emperor Augustus) in 31 BC is followed by the murder of Egypt’s last pharaoh, Cleopatra’s son Caesarion (pictured with his mother, below), the following year. *The dates used in this feature are derived from The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw (OUP, 2000). Please note that dates will vary between different sources. This timeline was first published in the June 2022 issue of BBC History Revealed
WW2 timeline: 20 important dates and milestones you need to know
Lasting six years and one day, the Second World War started on 1 September 1939 with Hitler's invasion of Poland and ended with the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945. Here, we trace the timeline of a conflict that engulfed the world, with expert insight from Professor Jeremy Black and the late Terry Charman on 20 key milestones…
The Second World War was the deadliest and most destructive global conflict in history, claiming the lives of more than 50 million people. Adolf Hitler started the war in 1939 when his German forces invaded Poland. When did WW2 start? 1 September 1939 When did WW2 end? 2 September 1945 | Read more about the end of WW2 Which countries were involved? WW2 involved almost every part of the world. But the key players were the Axis powers on one side (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and on the other side the Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China) How many people died? It has been estimated that 50 million soldiers and civilians died in WW2 Why did WW2 happen? We can now say without equivocation that this was Hitler’s war, say expert historians including Professor Richard Evans, Sir Ian Kershaw and Laurence Rees | Read more about why WW2 happened Read on for a timeline for a list of the most important dates and milestones of WW2… Clash near the Marco Polo Bridge, close to Beijing, 7 July 1937 The triggering of the full-scale war with China that lasted until 1945 began with an obscure clash involving a Japanese unit on night manoeuvres near the Marco Polo Bridge southwest of Beijing on the night of 7–8 July 1937. The Japanese felt the nation’s honour had been challenged and sent fresh forces to the region. Hardliners in the Japanese army used the incident to press for a settlement of China on their terms, while the Chinese nationalist leader, Jiang Jieshi, was unwilling to propriate Japan. As a result, an intractable struggle began that greatly weakened both sides. Large-scale conflict broke out toward the end of July, and Beijing was occupied on 29 July. By Professor Jeremy Black WW2 | The Big Questions Member exclusive | Historian and broadcaster Laurence Rees explains major moments of the global conflict in this five-part series. Listen to all episodes now The German invasion of Poland, 1 September 1939 The Second World War began at dawn on Friday 1 September 1939, when Adolf Hitler launched his invasion of Poland. The Poles fought bravely, but they were heavily outnumbered in both men and machines, and especially in the air. Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, but gave no real assistance to Poland. Two weeks later, Stalin invaded eastern Poland, and on 27 September Warsaw surrendered. Organised Polish resistance ceased after another week’s fighting. Poland was divided up between Hitler and Stalin. Read more about the 1939 invasion of Poland In Poland the Nazis unleashed a reign of terror that was eventually to claim six million victims, half of whom were Polish Jews murdered in extermination camps. The Soviet regime was no less harsh. In March and April 1940, Stalin ordered the murder of over 20,000 Polish officers and others who had been captured in September 1939. Tens of thousands of Poles were also forcibly deported to Siberia. By May 1945, and despite his promises to Churchill and Roosevelt, Stalin had installed a subservient communist regime in Poland. Back in 1939, Poland’s then-leader Marshal Eduard Smigly-Rydz had warned, “With the Germans we risk losing our liberty, but with the Russians we lose our soul.” By Terry Charman Read more | Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt: the big three’s war of words Germans launch offensive in the West, 10 May 1940 The German unwillingness to limit their war to the conquest of Poland and to launch meaningful peace talks meant that the Second World War broadened out. Hitler was eager to profit from the ability Poland’s defeat offered for Germany to fight on only one front and argued that Germany enjoyed a window of opportunity thanks to being more prepared for war than Britain or France. Bad weather in the severe winter of 1939–40, caution on the part of the German High Command, and the need for preparations, delayed the attack until May 1940. On 10 May, the Germans attacked Belgium and the Netherlands, both hitherto neutral, and invaded France. They successfully gained and used the initiative, while the French and British suffered from a failure to prepare for fluid defence in depth. Read more | Monarchy timeline: from Hastings to the Windsors in 122 moments Germany’s success in its subsequent seven-week campaign transformed the strategic situation in Europe. Victory led Hitler to a conviction of his own ineluctable success, and that of the Wehrmacht under his leadership. Thanks to this victory, the Germans would clearly be able to fight on, and any successful challenge to them would now have to overcome German dominance of Western Europe. By Professor Jeremy Black The Battle of Britain, 25 July, 1940 After France’s surrender in June 1940, Churchill told the British people, “Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war”. To mount a successful invasion, the Germans had to gain air superiority. The first phase of the battle began on 10 July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping in the Channel. Your guide to the Battle of Britain The following month, RAF Fighter Command airfields and aircraft factories came under attack. Under the dynamic direction of Lord Beaverbrook, production of Spitfire and Hurricane fighters increased, and despite its losses in pilots and planes, the RAF was never as seriously weakened as the Germans supposed. Read more | 6 Battle of Britain myths The British also had the advantage that the battle was fought over home ground; pilots who survived their planes being shot down were soon back in action, while German aircrew went into ‘the bag’ as prisoners of war. The battle continued until the end of October, but essentially it had been won in early September when the Germans diverted their resources to night bombing. Radar, ground crews, aircraft factory workers all contributed to the victory, but it was of the young pilots from Britain, the Commonwealth and Nazi-occupied Europe of whom Churchill spoke when he said, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”. By Terry Charman More from us HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives The Battle of Britain: everything you wanted to know Resistance in the Second World War Nazi Germany: everything you wanted to know Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers The Blitz, 29 December 1940 The Blitz – an abbreviation of the word Blitzkrieg (lightning war) – was the name given to the German air attacks on Britain between 7 September 1940 and 16 May 1941. London was bombed by accident on the night of 24 August 1940, and the following night Churchill ordered an attack on Berlin. This prompted the Germans to shift their main effort from attacking RAF airfields to bombing Britain’s towns and cities. 7 September 1940, ‘Black Saturday’, saw the beginning of the first major attacks on London. The capital was bombed for 57 consecutive nights, when more than 13,650 tons of high explosive and 12,586 incendiary canisters were dropped by the Luftwaffe. Read more | Lucy Worsley on Blitz Spirit: the courageous stories of six Londoners Beginning with Coventry on 14 November 1940, the Germans also began bombing other cities and towns while still keeping up attacks on London. More than 43,000 civilians were killed in the Blitz and much material damage was done, but British morale remained unbroken and Britain’s capacity to wage war was unimpaired. In Winston Churchill’s words, Hitler had tried and failed “To break our famous island race by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction”. By Terry Charman Operation Barbarossa: the German invasion of Russia, June 1941 Since the 1920s, Hitler had seen Russia, with its immense natural resources, as the principal target for conquest and expansion. It would provide, he believed, the necessary ‘Lebensraum’, or living space, for the German people. And by conquering Russia, Hitler would also destroy the “Jewish pestilential creed of Bolshevism”. His non-aggression pact with Stalin in August 1939 he regarded as a mere temporary expedient. Barely a month after the fall of France, and while the Battle of Britain was being fought, Hitler started planning for the Blitzkrieg campaign against Russia, which began on 22 June 1941. Despite repeated warnings, Stalin was taken by surprise, and for the first few months the Germans achieved spectacular victories, capturing huge swathes of land and hundreds of thousands of prisoners. But they failed to take Moscow or Leningrad before winter set in. On 5/6 December, the Red Army launched a counter-offensive which removed the immediate threat to the Soviet capital. It also brought the German high command to the brink of a catastrophic military crisis. Hitler stepped in and took personal command. His intervention was decisive and he later boasted, “That we overcame this winter and are today in a position again to proceed victoriously… is solely attributable to the bravery of the soldiers at the front and my firm will to hold out…” By Terry Charman Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941 After Japan’s occupation of French Indo-China in July 1941, US President Franklin D Roosevelt, followed by Britain and the Netherlands, ordered the freezing of Japanese assets. Many Japanese now believed that there was no alternative between economic ruin and going to war with the United States and the European colonial powers. In October 1941, a hardline government under General Hideki Tojo came to power, and preparations were made to deliver a devastating blow against the Americans. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2018/08/GettyImages-50698634-d2fc755-e1638549006167.jpg" width="2582" height="1652" alt="Destroyer USS Shaw exploding during early morning air attack by Japanese on Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, near Honolulu. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/US Navy/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)" title="Destroyer USS Shaw exploding during earl" /> On 7 December 1941, “a date which will live in infamy,” Japanese carrier-borne aircraft attacked the US Pacific fleet at its base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. Despite warnings, the Americans were caught completely by surprise. Eight battleships were put out of action, and seven other warships damaged or lost. More than 2,500 Americans were killed, while the Japanese lost only 29 planes. Crucially, the American carriers were at sea and so escaped, and the base itself was not put out of action. The following day Congress declared war on Japan, which had also attacked British and Dutch colonial possessions. Read more | America and WW2: why didn’t the US enter the war sooner? On 11 December, Hitler declared war on the United States, and the war was now truly a global conflict. The Japanese were initially victorious everywhere, but Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto warned: “We can run wild for six months or a year, but after that I have utterly no confidence”. By Terry Charman Pearl Harbor podcast series Member exclusive | Browse and listen to all episodes in our podcast series on the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor Listen to all episodes now The fall of Singapore, 15 February 1942 The Japanese began their invasion of Malaya on 8 December 1941, and very soon the British and empire defenders were in full retreat. Told previously that the Japanese were no match for European troops, morale among the defending forces slumped as General Tomoyuki Yamashita’s forces moved swiftly southwards towards Singapore. The sinking of the British capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse by Japanese aircraft also contributed to the decline in morale, and panic began to set in among the civil population and the fighting troops. British commander Lieutenant General Arthur Percival had hoped to make a stand at Johore, but was forced to withdraw to Singapore Island. The Japanese landed there on 8/9 February, and before long the defence collapsed. To avoid further bloodshed, and with his water supply gone, Percival surrendered on 15 February. Churchill described the surrender as, “the worst disaster… in British military history”. More than 130,000 British and empire troops surrendered to a much smaller Japanese force, which only suffered 9,824 battle casualties during the 70-day campaign. Singapore was not only a humiliating military defeat, but also a tremendous blow to the prestige of the ‘white man’ throughout Asia. By Terry Charman Midway, 4 June 1942 For six months after Pearl Harbor, just as Admiral Yamamoto predicted, Japanese forces carried all before them, capturing Hong Kong, Malaya, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. In May 1942, in an attempt to consolidate their grip on their new conquests, the Japanese sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic Pacific power. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2016/12/GettyImages-50659712-9d71328-e1638548987425.jpg" width="2551" height="1709" alt="Smoking hulk of the Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma, which was destroyed during the battle of Midway. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/US Navy/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)" title="Smoking hulk of the Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma, which was destroyed during the battle of Midway. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/US Navy/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)" /> This would be done by luring into a trap the US navy carriers that had escaped Pearl Harbor, while at the same time the Japanese would occupy the Midway atoll in preparation for further attacks. The loss of the carriers would, the Japanese hoped, force the Americans to the negotiating table. In the event, it was the Americans who inflicted a crushing defeat on the Japanese. Their codebreakers were able to determine the location and date of the Japanese attack. This enabled US admiral Chester Nimitz to organise a trap of his own. Read more about the battle of Midway During the ensuing battle the Japanese suffered the loss of four carriers, one heavy cruiser and 248 aircraft, while American losses totalled one carrier, one destroyer and 98 planes. By their victory at Midway, the turning point of the Pacific war, the Americans were able to seize the strategic initiative from the Japanese, who had suffered irreplaceable losses. Admiral Nimitz described the battle’s success as “Essentially a victory of intelligence”, while President Roosevelt called it “Our most important victory in 1942… there we stopped the Japanese offensive.” By Terry Charman Alamein, 25 October 1942 The North African campaign began in September 1940, and for the next two years the fighting was marked by a succession of Allied and Axis advances and retreats. In the summer of 1942, the Axis forces under ‘Desert Fox’ field marshal, Erwin Rommel, looked poised to take Cairo and advance on the Suez Canal. The British Middle East commander General Claude Auchinleck took personal command of the defending Eighth Army and halted the retreat at the strong defensive line at El Alamein. But Churchill, dissatisfied with Auchinleck, replaced him in August with General Harold Alexander, while Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery took over command of the Eighth Army. Montgomery immediately began to build up an enormous superiority in men and equipment, finally launching his offensive at Alamein on 23 October 1942. By the beginning of November, the Axis forces were in full retreat, although final victory in North Africa was not achieved until May 1943. Although Montgomery has been criticised for being too cautious in exploiting his success at Alamein, it made him a household name and he became Britain’s most popular general of the war. Churchill hailed Alamein as a “Glorious and decisive victory… the bright gleam has caught the helmets of our soldiers, and warmed and cheered all our hearts”. By Terry Charman Read more | El Alamein: The British empire’s last hurrah Stalingrad, February 1943 The battle for Stalingrad began in late August 1942, and by 12 September, German troops of the Sixth and Fourth Panzer Armies had reached the city’s suburbs. Bearing the name of Russia’s leader, Stalingrad had a symbolic significance as well as a strategic one. Throughout September and October, under General Vassili Chuikov, the city’s defenders contested every yard of ground of the devastated city. The Red Army’s stubborn defence allowed General Georgi Zhukov time to prepare a counterattack that was launched on 19 November 1942, and which soon trapped the Sixth Army commanded by General Friederich Paulus. Hitler, wrongly assured by Göring that the Luftwaffe could supply Stalingrad by air, ordered Paulus to hold out. He also ordered Field Marshal Erich Manstein to break through and relieve the beleaguered Sixth Army. Manstein was unsuccessful, and on 31 January 1943 Paulus capitulated. Of the 91,000 German troops who went into captivity, less than 6,000 returned home after the war. Stalingrad was one of Germany’s greatest defeats, and it effectively marked the end of Hitler’s dreams of an empire in the east. By Terry Charman Read more on the top 10 military blunders in history Germans launch the battle of Kursk The last major German offensive on the Eastern Front sought to exploit the opportunities provided by a major German salient. They sought to break through the flanks of the salient and to achieve an encirclement triumph to match the Soviet success at Stalingrad the previous winter. Still engaging in strategic wishful thinking, Hitler saw this as a battle of annihilation in which superior will would prevail. He hoped that victory would undermine the Allied coalition, by lessening western confidence in the likelihood of Soviet victory and increasing Soviet demands for a second front in France. The Germans were outnumbered by the Soviets who had prepared a defence system that thwarted the German tank offensive. After heavy losses and only modest gains, Hitler cancelled the operation that had cost him much strength. Having stopped the Germans, the Soviets were now in a position to counterattack. The Germans were now to be driven back in a near-continuous process. By Professor Jeremy Black Read more | 7 must-see WW2 films, from Schindler’s List to Letters from Iwo Jima D-Day, Operation Overlord, 6 June 1944 Operation Overlord, the invasion and liberation of north-west Europe, began on D-Day, 6 June 1944. That day, under the overall command of US General Dwight Eisenhower, British, Canadian and American troops, supported by the Allied navies and air forces, came ashore on the coast of Normandy. By the end of the day, 158,000 men, including airborne troops, had landed. Initially, except on the American Omaha beach, German resistance was unexpectedly light. But it soon stiffened and the Allied breakout from the beachhead area was painfully slow. The fierceness of the fighting can be gauged by the fact that in Normandy British infantry battalions were suffering the same percentage casualty rates as they had on the Western Front in 1914–1918. Eventually the breakout was achieved, and on 25 August, Paris was liberated. Brussels followed on 3 September. Hopes that the war might be won in 1944 were dashed by the Allied failure at Arnhem and the unexpected German offensive in the Ardennes in December. It was not until 4 May 1945 that the German forces in north-west Europe surrendered to Montgomery at his HQ on Lüneburg Heath. By Terry Charman Read more about the events and impact of D-Day: D-Day: the WW2 battle through the eyes of the men who were there Why the training for D-Day was deadlier than the assault D-Day in numbers: 5 infographics that show the big picture 23–26 October 1944: Battle of Leyte Gulf The Americans used their naval and air superiority, already strong and rapidly growing, to mount a reconquest of the Philippines from October 1944. That operation helped ensure a naval battle: that of Leyte Gulf of 23–26 October, the largest naval battle of the war and one (or rather a series of engagements) that secured American maritime superiority in the western Pacific. The availability of oil helped determine Japanese naval dispositions and, with carrier formations based in home waters and the battle force based just south of Singapore, any American movement against the Philippines presented a very serious problem for Japan. There was growing pessimism in Japan and losing honourably became a goal for at least some Japanese naval leaders. The head of the Naval Operations Section asked on 18 October 1944 that the fleet be afforded “a fitting place to die” and “the chance to bloom as flowers of death”. With Operation Sho-Go (Victory Operation) the Japanese sought to intervene by luring the American carrier fleet away, employing their own carriers as bait, and then using two naval striking forces (under Vice-Admirals Kurita and Kiyohide respectively) to attack the vulnerable American landing fleet. This overly complex scheme posed serious problems for the ability of American admirals to read the battle and control the tempo of the battle, and, as at Midway, for their Japanese counterparts in following the plan. In a crisis for the American operation, one of the strike forces was able to approach the landing area and was superior to the American warships. However, instead of persisting, the strike force retired; its exhausted commander, Kurita, lacking knowledge of the local situation, not least due to the difficulties of identifying enemy surface ships. The net effect of the battle was the loss of four Japanese carriers, three battleships including the Musashi, 10 cruisers, other warships and many aircraft. By Professor Jeremy Black Yalta: The Big Three, February 1945 Between June 1940 and June 1941, Britain stood alone against Hitler. But then, after the German invasion of Russia and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she gained two powerful allies. For the next four years Churchill did his utmost to foster ‘The Grand Alliance’ against the Nazis. He even earned the grudging admiration of Nazi propaganda chief Dr Goebbels who said, “…I can feel only respect for this man, for whom no humiliation is too base and no trouble too great when the victory of the Allies is at stake”. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2020/07/GettyImages-103372360-1e4684d-e1638547611167.jpg" width="1024" height="704" alt="The original ‘Big Three’ at Livadia Palace in Yalta: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. None of them came away from the summit with everything they had hoped for. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)" title="The original ‘Big Three’ at Livadia Palace in Yalta: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. None of them came away from the summit with everything they had hoped for. (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images)" /> Churchill conferred with both Roosevelt and Stalin to hammer out strategy and to discuss postwar arrangements. The three men congregated for the first time at Tehran in November 1943. There, and again at their last meeting at Yalta, Churchill was conscious of the fact that Britain, exhausted by her war effort, was now very much the junior partner of the two emerging superpowers. Opinion | Did Britain really stand alone in WW2? At Yalta, the postwar division of Germany was agreed upon as was the decision to bring war criminals to trial. The future constitution of the United Nations was discussed, and Stalin undertook to enter the war against Japan after Germany had been defeated. But the future of eastern Europe remained a stumbling block. With the Red Army in occupation, the Soviet dictator was disinclined to listen to the views of his two allies. By Terry Charman The bombing of Dresden, 13/14 February 1945 At Yalta, an Allied plan to bomb the hitherto untouched city of Dresden was discussed. The reason for attacking the city was due principally to its strategic importance as a communications centre in the rear of the German retreat that followed the Soviet winter offensive of January 1945. It was also believed that Dresden might be used as an alternative to Berlin as the Reich capital. The attack was part of a plan codenamed ‘Thunderclap’, designed to convince the Germans that the war was lost. It was drawn up in January 1945, when Hitler’s Ardennes offensive, V2 rocket attacks on Britain and the deployment of snorkel-equipped U-boats clearly demonstrated that Germany was still capable of offering stubborn resistance. Strategic bombing attacks had previously failed to break Germany, although they had proved valuable in reducing its capacity to wage war. Now, on the night of 13/14 February 1945, Dresden was attacked by 800 RAF bombers, followed by 400 bombers of the United States Army Air Force. The bombing created a firestorm that destroyed 1,600 acres of Dresden. Even today it is still uncertain as to how many died, and estimates have ranged from 25,000 to 135,000. Most authorities now put the death toll at around 35,000. The scale of destruction, the enormous death toll, and its timing at such a late stage in the war, have all ensured that the bombing of Dresden still remains highly controversial. By Terry Charman The liberation of Bergen-Belsen, 17 April 1945 Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated by the British Army on 15 April 1945. The photographs, newsreel films and Richard Dimbleby’s moving BBC broadcast from the camp sent a shockwave of horror and revulsion through Britain. Stories about concentration camps and the Nazi persecution and extermination of the Jews had been circulating since 1933, but this was the first time that the British public were faced with the reality of Hitler’s Final Solution of the Jewish Question – the Holocaust. Even today it is not known for certain when the order to set about systematic extermination of European Jewry was given. But by December 1941, the first extermination camp at Chelmno in German-occupied Poland was in operation, while mass shootings of Soviet Jews had begun in June. On 20 January 1942, a meeting of Nazi bureaucrats took place at Wannsee, near Berlin, to discuss the technicalities of the Final Solution. It is estimated that nearly six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, more than 1.1 million in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, the largest extermination camp in German-occupied Poland. During the Second World War, Hitler’s racial policies also claimed many millions of non-Jewish victims, including Soviet prisoners of war, those with mental and physical disabilities, gypsies (Roma and Sinti), homosexuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The future Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie saw Belsen just after it was liberated. Years later he said,“ A war that closed down Belsen was a war worth fighting”. By Terry Charman Learn more about the horrors of the Holocaust and those responsible: 12 things you need to know about Anne Frank and her diary Forgotten trials: the other side of Nuremberg Experiments in evil: the shocking efforts to understand the atrocities of the Holocaust Laurence Rees on the perpetrators of the Holocaust: “What they told us was, at the time, they felt it was the right thing to do” VE Day, 8 May 1945 On the afternoon of 8 May 1945, the British prime minister Winston Churchill made the radio announcement that the world had long been waiting for. “Yesterday morning,” he declared, “at 2.41 a.m., at General Eisenhower’s headquarters, General Jodl, the representative of the German High Command, and Grand Admiral Dönitz, the designated head of the German State, signed the act of unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe.” After nearly six years, the war in Europe was finally over. But while VE Day marked the end of the Second World War in Europe, fighting in the far east would continue for another three-and-a-half months. As a consequence, there was always a slightly solemn undercurrent to the celebrations of VE Day. Read more | What events led to VE Day? Japan was not finally defeated until after the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945... By Terry Charman Nagasaki, 9 August 1945 On 2 August 1939, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Roosevelt alerting him to the military potential of splitting the atom. Fears that German scientists might be working on an atomic bomb, prompted the Americans and British to set up the Manhattan Project to develop their own atomic weapon. It was successfully tested in the desert near Alamogordo in New Mexico on 16 July 1945 and the news was flashed to Roosevelt’s successor Harry Truman, who was meeting Churchill and Stalin at Potsdam. Although the bomb had been conceived with Germany as the target, it was now seen as both a way of quickly ending the war with Japan, and as a lever to apply political pressure on the Russians. Although the Japanese were warned that if they carried on fighting their homeland would face “utter devastation”, they continued to resist with their usual fanaticism. Thus, the first atomic bomb to be used militarily, codenamed Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. An estimated 78,000 people died and 90,000 others were seriously injured. Three days later a second bomb, Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki causing a similar loss of life. By Terry Charman Japan surrenders, 2 September 1945 The dropping of the atomic bombs brought about the quick acceptance of Allied terms and Japan surrendered on 14 August 1945. Japan publicly announced its surrender on 15 August 1945. This day has since been commemorated as Victory over Japan – or ‘VJ’ – Day. But the official surrender documents were not signed until 2 September, which is considered VJ Day in the USA. The formal surrender took place on USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, six years and one day after the Germans invaded Poland. The Second World War was officially over. By Terry Charman Jeremy Black is a professor of history at the University of Exeter who specialises in British and continental European history. His publications include The Age of Total War, 1860–1945 (Praeger Publishers Inc, 2006) and World War Two: A Military History (Routledge, 2003) The late Terry Charman was a senior historian at the Imperial War Museum London and the author of Outbreak 1939: The World Goes to War (Virgin, 2009) These WW2 dates first appeared in BBC History Magazine's Collectors' Edition 'The Second World War Story'
When did Titanic sink and how long did it take? A timeline of the disaster
As day turned to night on 14 April 1912, little did passengers and crew on board Titanic know of the horrors that lay ahead. Nige Tassell tracks a timeline of how the disaster unfolded…
When did Titanic make contact with the iceberg that caused the devastating sinking? How long did it take for the ship to go under? And how long before other ships arrived to aid the survivors? This timeline tracks the disaster, hour-by-hour… 14 April 1912 09:00 | Having left Southampton four days earlier on its maiden voyage, Titanic’s radio operators receive their first warning about drifting ice in the area to which the ship is heading. The message, delivered by RMS Caronia, tells of the presence of "bergs, growlers and field ice" (growlers being smaller, hard-to-spot bergs) a day or so’s sailing from Titanic’s current position. A little more than an hour later, a telegraph arrives in the hands of Titanic’s captain, the highly experienced Edward J Smith, a man with more than 40 years at sea under his belt and who had previously captained Titanic’s sister ship, Olympic. Smith thanks Caronia, part of the fleet of the rival Cunard Line, for the warning. Read more | Where & how was Titanic built? 11:00 | Due to high winds, Captain Smith decides to cancel Titanic’s first lifeboat drill. This will prove to be significant when the evacuation of the ship becomes frantic almost 13 hours later. 13:42 | Another warning comes Titanic’s way, this time from the Greek ship Athenai, relayed via RMS Baltic. It cautions the crew about "passing icebergs and large quantities of field ice" in the area. The chairman of the White Star Line, J Bruce Ismay, is on board Titanic; he always travels on the maiden voyages of his ships. Smith informs Ismay that a sharp lookout will be kept and that ice will be seen in time to avoid it, given the calm and clear weather conditions. Titanic keeps to the longer steamer track to New York, which is advised during the iceberg season. 19:20 | The radio operators pick up further reports, this time issued by SS Californian, of three large icebergs. This message is delivered to the bridge by radio operator Harold Bride, where it is posted on the notice board for officers. Captain Smith is not on watch at the time, and is dining with passengers travelling first class, leaving the ship in the command of Titanic’s Second Officer, Charles Lightoller. 21:40 | Senior radio operator Jack Phillips receives yet another warning from yet another ship, SS Mesaba, reporting of multiple large icebergs just 15 miles ahead of Titanic. However, there’s a communication breakdown. Messages for a ship’s captain should be prefixed with the letters ’MSG’, but because Mesaba’s missive hasn’t been labelled correctly, Phillips does not treat it with the utmost urgency. Instead, he carries on with the pressured task of sending a large backlog of passenger telegrams now that he is within range of the Cape Race relay station on Newfoundland. 22:00 | Two of the ship’s lookouts – Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee – take their positions up in the crow’s nest. The task of spotting icebergs, especially the smaller growlers, is difficult for a number of reasons. It’s a moonless night, meaning that they’re peering into darkness, save for bright starlight and the ship’s own lights. It’s also an incredibly still night. Had the ocean been choppier, the pair could have spotted water breaking against the icebergs. And they’re without binoculars, which have been misplaced during a crew rearrangement. However, as binoculars do not speed the process of spotting icebergs at night this position is not corrected. 22:55 | A casual but vital warning comes from the nearby Californian – "Say, old man, we are stopped and surrounded by ice". But in Titanic’s radio room, Jack Phillips is too preoccupied with sending passenger telegrams, and the message from the nearby ship is so loud that it nearly deafens him. His response is curt to say the least: "Shut up! Shut up! I am busy. I am working Cape Race." 23:30 | With his ship stationary until at least first light, when it can safely navigate its way out of what will become known as ’Iceberg Alley’, Californian’s radio operator switches off his equipment and goes to sleep after 16 hours of work, quite possibly a little aggrieved at the rudeness of his opposite number aboard Titanic. Had he held his position for just half an hour longer to receive the distress calls of the other ship, the subsequent loss of life may have been much less. 23:39 | Titanic, now 400 nautical miles south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, is seconds away from disaster. But despite the multiple warnings its crew have received throughout the day, the vessel continues to crack on at just two knots slower than its top speed of 24 knots because the weather remains unusually clear. Ensuring an early arrival in New York would be a notable publicity coup for the White Star Line company and the new Titanic. Read more | Titanic's passengers: 8 stories of those on board Up in the crow’s nest, Frederick Fleet spots an iceberg right in the ship’s path. He rings the look-out bell three times and calls the bridge, where Sixth Officer James Moody receives Fleet’s urgent, unequivocal words: “Iceberg, right ahead!” Moody relays the message to First Officer William Murdoch, who in turn instructs Quartermaster Robert Hichens to instantly change the ship’s course to “hard-a-starboard” and for the engines to be put into reverse. 23:40 | Although it takes around 30 seconds for the steam-powered mechanism to turn the rudder, that’s just enough time to avoid a head-on collision between liner and iceberg. But the starboard side does make significant contact, with an underwater spur of ice scraping along the ship for seven seconds. In his cabin, Captain Smith feels the impact and quickly makes his way to the bridge where he’s informed of the collision. Many passengers continue to sleep, unaware of what’s just occurred and the devastation it will unleash. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2022/04/GettyImages_879023392-d3b7faa-e1649843905649.jpg" width="822" height="1024" alt="An illustration depicts lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee in the crow’s nest." title="An illustration depicts lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee in the crow’s nest. (Photo by: Carl Simon/United Archives/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" /> 23:45 | All of Titanic’s engines are switched off and the ship now faces north, albeit drifting southwards. The chief architect, Thomas Andrews, is also on board for this maiden voyage and is summoned to the bridge by Smith. Titanic is divided into 16 watertight compartments. Even if four of the forward compartments were to be flooded, the ship should still remain afloat. But when Andrews surveys the damage over the next few minutes, he finds that five compartments have been ripped open by the collision. His diagnosis to Smith is a grim one: Andrews predicts that Titanic will be completely underwater within a couple of hours, if not sooner. 15 April 1912 00:05 | Smith orders the lifeboats to be readied in order for as many people to be evacuated as possible. Stewards move speedily though the ship, banging on cabin doors to rouse the occupants, whether crew or fare-paying passengers, since Titanic has not been fitted with a public-address system. The evacuation is an unequal one. The ratio of stewards to passengers in the first-class accommodation means the latter have great assistance from the staff, helping them to dress and escorting them up onto deck. In the more populous third-class accommodation, passengers are largely left to manage their own passage from cabin to deck, with directions from stewards. In the first-class lounge, the band play to entertain those waiting for the lifeboats. 00:20 | With passengers instructed to put on lifebelts, the loading of the lifeboats gets underway. Titanic has 20 lifeboats in all, with a combined capacity of 1,178 – little more than half the number of people on board. The ship had been designed to carry 64 lifeboats, but the White Star Line company had complied with the current regulations and only fitted fewer than a third of them. Lifeboats on a properly subdivided ship like Titanic in 1912 were intended to ferry passengers from the stricken vessel to a nearby rescue ship, and uninterrupted views of the ocean from the main deck were deemed to be more pleasing to the eye of its passengers, rather than rows of lifeboats. With this insufficient number of lifeboats, Captain Smith explains the priority to First Officer William Murdoch and Second Officer Charles Lightoller: "put the women and children in and lower away". By now, several vessels have received the distress signals sent by radio operators Phillips and Bride. Many are too distant to offer assistance, but Carpathia – another liner belonging to the rival Cunard company – is comparatively close at 58 nautical miles away. "Come at once. We have struck a berg." Carpathia immediately changes course, but it will still take at least three hours to arrive. Exactly what its crew will encounter when they eventually arrive remains unclear. 00:25 | The grim mathematics are inescapable. By now, 45 minutes after the collision, 13,700 tonnes of icy water have poured into a ship that’s only capable of pumping out 1,700 tonnes per hour. Titanic’s fate is sealed as the much nearer Californian, with its radio operator asleep, does not understand the ship’s plight and fails to come to its aid. 00:45 | The first Titanic lifeboat, No 7, is lowered onto the ocean and starts rowing away from the stricken ship. There are believed to be just 27 people aboard it, 38 fewer than its capacity. A significant number of first-class passengers refuse to board the lifeboats. Among them is the industrialist millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim who, along with his valet, removes his life-vest and changes into evening wear, including a top hat. "We have dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen", he is reported to have said. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2022/04/GettyImages_515578740-67c36db-e1649843253552.jpg" width="1024" height="793" alt="Wealthy businessman Benjamin Guggenheim who died when Titanic sank" title="Wealthy businessman Benjamin Guggenheim perished along with his valet, having changed into evening clothes so they could “go down like gentlemen”. (Image by Getty Images)" /> Others don’t have an option. Very few third-class passengers will make it onto the deck, let alone find a seat in a lifeboat. Indeed, many third-class passengers travelling as families choose to stick together and trust the ship, rather than have the women and girls risk their lives on the ocean at night in a small lifeboat, and abandon the male members of their family – including boys of 13, who are regarded as adults in 1912. 00:55 | Lifeboat No 7 is far from the only underpopulated craft; No 6 is thought to have only 23 people on board. More lifeboats are lowered every few minutes, rarely at capacity. Lifeboat No 1 carries just a dozen passengers. Early lifeboats are sent unfilled due to the initial reluctance of passengers nearby to enter them, and because the crew’s main objective is to get all the boats launched before Titanic sinks with its lifeboats still attached to the ship. Read more | Titanic films and their historical accuracy 01:30 | After the first hour following the collision, the downward angle of the ship had remained relatively steady at around five degrees, offering a modicum of reassurance to both passengers and crew that they might be rescued in time. However, by 01:30, that angle has increased to 10 degrees as Titanic continues to take on water at an alarming rate. A group of male passengers tries to rush Lifeboat No 14 as it’s being lowered with 40 people already on board. Three shots fired in the air by Fifth Officer Harold Lowe manages to halt the melee. 01:35 | At the wireless operators station, an ominous message is sent over the ship’s radio and picked up by Carpathia: "Engine room getting flooded." Ten minutes later, the update is even more alarming: "Engine room full up to boilers." It will be the final intelligible message sent over Titanic’s radio system. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2022/04/GettyImages_591949880-57cf240-e1649843555672.jpg" width="1024" height="780" alt="Captain Stanley Lord (second left) of SS Californian, pictured with his senior officers." title="Captain Stanley Lord (second left) of SS Californian, pictured with his senior officers. (Photo by Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)" /> 02:05 | The last of the 20 lifeboats – collapsible D – is lowered from the ship. The last few lifeboats have been closer to capacity now that the fate of the “unsinkable” ship is clear to all left on board. 02:15 | Titanic’s downward angle gets much steeper as water pours in through open port holes and deck hatches into areas of the ship previously unflooded. A wave caused by the rapid sinking of Titanic causes people to be swept into the ocean. The front funnel collapses and several passengers are crushed to death. 02:18 | The ship’s lights go out and the frantic scene is now plunged into darkness. Under the weight of the stern, which is now lifted out of the water by the sinking bow, Titanic begins to split into two. 02:20 | The world’s most modern ocean-going liner completely disappears under the surface of the Atlantic. "There is no danger that Titanic will sink," White Star Line vice-president Phillip Franklin reassures the waiting press, after news of the collision first reaches New York. But those who have survived being thrown into the water will perish, many from cardiac arrest, within half an hour. Second Officer Lightoller, the most senior crew member to survive the disaster after managing to cling onto an upturned lifeboat, will later describe the sensation of plunging into the freezing waters as being akin to "a thousand knives" penetrating his body. 02:26 | The bow and the stern, now separated, reach the seabed, having rapidly corkscrewed to a depth of nearly 4,000 metres in just six minutes. 03:30 | Rockets fired by Carpathia are spotted by those aboard the lifeboats. Having dodged innumerable icebergs, its crew have travelled at high speed, with the heating system turned off so as much steam as possible could be available for its engines. 04:00 | The rescue begins; survivors are brought on board Carpathia by rope ladder and slings. Children are hauled aboard in mail sacks. 08:30 | Californian arrives at the scene of the disaster but, after a two-hour search, they find there are no remaining survivors to rescue. The ship’s radio operator had only learned of the disaster when he logged back on early this morning. 08:50 | The last of the survivors are now aboard Carpathia. The decision is made to take them to New York City, Titanic’s intended destination. J Bruce Ismay is among those rescued, having found himself a berth on a lifeboat (and for which he will later be renounced as a coward). Ismay has already sent a grim message to the White Star Line offices in Manhattan, which was relayed to the waiting press. "Deeply regret advise you Titanic sank this morning fifteenth after collision iceberg, resulting serious loss of life, further particulars later." 18 April 1912 21:30 | After a difficult voyage through ice, fog and thunderstorms, Carpathia arrives in New York. It initially visits Pier 59, where the empty lifeboats are unloaded to go back into White Star Line’s care, before sailing on to Pier 54, where an estimated 40,000 people are waiting in heavy rain. Only 705 Titanic passengers and crew have made it to New York. More than 1,500 lives have been lost at sea. Nige Tassell is a freelance journalist specialising in history This article first appeared in the July 2021 issue of BBC History Revealed
13 remarkable moments in the history of the Oscars
When was the first Academy Awards? How many Oscars did Titanic (1998) win? Here's everything you needed to know about the history of the most notable event in the film industry...
When was the first Academy Awards? The Academy Awards were first held in 1929, and each year the film industry awards gold-plated statuettes – commonly called Oscars – in a glittering and star-studded ceremony. Who was Oscar – and why were the gold statuettes named after him? Officially the Academy Award of Merit, everyone knows the golden knight holding a sword and standing on a reel of film as Oscar. Cedric Gibbons, art director at movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, gets the credit for designing the statuette but not for naming it. There are three theories. Hollywood journalist Sidney Skolsky always maintained he thought it up as a less-grandiose antidote to the pretentiousness of the award ceremony. Meanwhile, actor Bette Davis claimed she once remarked the statuette’s backside resembled that of her husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. The most likely winner, however, is Margaret Herrick, a librarian at the Academy, who said the knight (not just his bum) looked like her uncle Oscar. Who was the first African-American to win an Academy Award? Hattie MacDaniel won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as ‘Mammy’ in the 1939 Civil War epic Gone With the Wind. How many Oscars did Titanic (1998) win? With 14 nominations and 11 wins, the blockbuster epic Titanic (1997) dominated the Academy Awards in 1998. Which role has won Oscars while having two different actors playing the character? Vito Corleone – played by Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1973) – was the first character to have two different actors win Academy Awards for playing him. The Joker is another example of this occurrence; actors Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix both won Oscars for their portrayal of the unhinged Batman nemesis. The history of the Oscars: 13 key moments 1929 Academy Awards: The first ceremony takes place Founded by Louis B Mayer, head of MGM studios, in 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was intended as a non-profit organisation with the goal of advancing the film industry. The first Academy Award Ceremony took place two years later at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, on 16 May 1929. Tickets for the private dinner cost $5 and the presentation ceremony hosted by Douglas Fairbanks [actor and first president of the Academy] lasted just 15 minutes. The film industry was undergoing a dramatic change at the time, with the revolutionary introduction of new sound technology. Although hugely popular ‘talkies’ such as The Jazz Singer (1927) had been released before the first Academy Awards, they were not considered, because it was seen as unfair to compare them to silent movies. Q&A: When were the first film trailers shown? The first ever Academy Award was bestowed upon Emil Jannings, for Best Actor for his leading roles in silent films The Way of All Flesh (1927) and The Last Command (1928). The first ever Academy Award for Best Picture went to Wings, a 1927 silent movie that told the story of two pilots in love with the same woman. The film cost $2 million to produce, making it the most expensive movie of its time. Up until the release of The Artist in 2012, Wings was the only silent film to win Best Picture. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2017/12/emil20jannings-5efe97f-0024bb9.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="Emil Jannings, winner of the first ever Academy Award for Best Actor, in 'The Way of All Flesh'. (Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)" title="Emil Jannings, winner of the first ever Academy Award for Best Actor, in 'The Way of All Flesh'. (Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)" /> 1934 Academy Awards: The wrong Frank gets up on stage Arguably one of the most awkward Academy Awards moments happened in 1933, when both Frank Lloyd and Frank Capra were nominated in the Best Director category. Caught up in the excitement of the ceremony, Frank Capra heard Will Rogers, who presented the award, exclaim “Come on up and get it, Frank!” He duly ran up to the stage to claim his award, only to find that it was in fact Frank Lloyd who had won. Capra called the journey back to his chair “the longest, saddest, most shattering walk in my life”, saying “I wished I could have crawled under the rug like a miserable worm. When I slumped in my chair I felt like one. All my friends at the table were crying”. However, Capra’s humiliation didn't last long: he won the Best Director gong the following year for It Happened One Night (1934). 1938 Academy Awards: An imposter nabs an Academy Award The Best Supporting Actress Award of 1938 went to Alice Brady for her role in In Old Chicago (1937). However, she was too ill to attend the ceremony. When her award was announced an unknown man took to the stage to collect it, apparently on her behalf. Before anyone realised something was wrong the man had vanished. The mystery of the imposter’s identity – and what happened to Brady’s stolen statuette – was never solved. Listen | Amanda Vickery, Hallie Rubenhold and Hannah Greig discuss the acclaimed new historical drama The Favourite Statuettes vanished again in 2000, when crates containing 55 Oscars disappeared from a loading bay. Some 52 of the statuettes were recovered soon after, found by citizen Willie Fulgear, who was rummaging in a bin behind a foodstore in LA’s Koreatown. According to the The New York Times he was looking for boxes to use for an upcoming house move. Astonished by his unexpected discovery, Fulgear told reporters: “I’ve got more Oscars than any of the movie stars”. Investigators believed that the culprits took the Oscars by accident, unaware of the crates’ contents. 1939 Academy Awards: The name ‘Oscar’ is officially adopted Popular legend has it that the name ‘The Oscars’ originated from Academy librarian Margaret Herrick, who claimed the award statuette bore a striking resemblance to her Uncle Oscar. In 1939 the Academy decided to officially embrace its now synonymous nickname, which had been used informally for several years. 7 must-see Second World War films 1939 Academy Awards: George Bernard Shaw becomes the only person to have won an Oscar and a Nobel Prize After winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925, Shaw received an Academy Award for adapting his 1913 stage play Pygmalion into a film script. He didn’t attend the ceremony, however, reportedly saying: “They might as well send some honour to George for being king of England”. Listen | Peter Jackson discusses his new film They Shall Not Grow Old, which recreates the First World War in colour 1940 Academy Awards: Results are leaked ahead of the ceremony At the first Academy Awards in 1929, the winners had been announced to the public three months previously. However, the following year the Academy decided to create a sense of suspense and instead sent an advanced list of award winners to newspapers, embargoed for publication until 11pm on the night of the Oscars ceremony. This system remained in place for the next 10 years. However, in 1940 the LA Timesbroke the embargo and announced the winners in their evening edition, meaning that nominees could find out their fate before turning up at the ceremony. As a result of this fiasco, the following year (1941) the sealed envelope system (that is still used today) was introduced and the results became a closely guarded secret. 1940 Academy Awards: Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Academy Award McDaniel made history in 1940 by winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role as ‘Mammy’ in the 1939 Civil War epic Gone With the Wind. However, in the year that McDaniel won, the Oscars ceremony was due to take place in a hotel that upheld a strict racial segregation policy. Film producer David O Selznick reportedly had to call in favours just to have McDaniel allowed into the building. Despite being the recipient of a major award, McDaniel had to sit at the back of the auditorium on a segregated table away from the rest of her co-stars. McDaniel was also banned from attending Gone With the Wind’s Atlanta premiere because of segregation laws. It wasn't until 62 years later that a black actress received an Academy Award in the leading role category – Halle Berry won Best Actress for her performance in Monster’s Ball in 2002. In her famously emotional acceptance speech, Berry said: “This moment is so much bigger than me. It's for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened”. Berry is still the only black actress to have ever won in the leading role category. 1943–5: Oscar statuettes are made of painted plaster The Oscars statuette, which depicts a knight with a crusaders’ sword stood on a reel of film, was designed by MGM’s chief art director Cedric Gibbons in 1929. In the early ceremonies the gongs were made from gold-plated solid bronze, which was later substituted for the pewter-like alloy Britannia metal. However, as the Second World War raged, metal shortages meant that the awards had to be made from alternative materials. Consequently all awards handed out between 1943 and 1945 were made of painted plaster. When the war was over, all recipients of plaster awards were invited to exchange them for metal ones. Period dramas should not be judged on historical accuracy, say historians 1945 Academy Awards: First Academy Award comes in handy in the Second World War Emil Jannings, winner of the first ever Academy Award (for his performances in silent films The Way of All Flesh [1927] and The Last Command [1928]) was ruled out from the new Hollywood talkies because of his thick German accent. Jannings therefore returned to Germany, where he became associated with Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda machine, starring in several films promoting Nazism. When the Allies stormed Berlin in 1945, Jannings reportedly carried his Oscar statuette around with him to win over American GIs and to demonstrate his former allegiance to the US. Listen | Taylor Downing chronicles the events of the year 1942, which he contends was Britain’s lowest moment in the Second World War 1968: The ceremony is postponed In 1968 the Academy decided to push back the ceremony from 8 April to 10 April following the assassination of Martin Luther King, whose funeral was scheduled for 9 April. The 1981 ceremony was also postponed following an assassination attempt on US President Ronald Reagan. 1973: Marlon Brando’s Oscar is rejected by Sacheen Littlefeather Marlon Brando famously refused his Best Actor award for his performance in The Godfather (1972) in protest of Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans. He did not attend the ceremony, instead sending Native American activist actress Sacheen Littlefeather to make a speech in his place. When Littlefeather explained Brando’s actions, the audience was clearly unsure how to react – some people cheered, others booed. A confused Roger Moore, who attempted to present the award, apparently took the statuette home with him after Sacheen Littlefeather refused to accept it. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2017/12/sacheen20littlefeather-ac2c124-501bb4f.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="Sacheen Littlefeather holds a written statement from actor Marlon Brando refusing his Best Actor award, on stage at the Academy Awards, 1973. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" title="Sacheen Littlefeather holds a written statement from actor Marlon Brando refusing his Best Actor award, on stage at the Academy Awards, 1973. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" /> Brando was not the first person to have refused an Oscar: in 1936 Dudley Nichols rejected his Best Adapted Screenplay award for The Informer (1935) due to ongoing strike action by the Screen Writers Guild. Later, after receiving a Best Actor nomination for his titular role in Patton in 1971, George C Scott informed the Academy that if he won he intended refuse the award. Everyone was therefore very surprised to hear him announced as the winner. Goldie Hawn, who presented the award, exclaimed “Oh my god!” when she read the result. Unsurprisingly, Scott did not attend the ceremony, which he reportedly dismissed as a “two-hour meat parade”. 1974: Tatum O’Neal become the youngest-ever Oscar winner The 10-year-old received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Paper Moon (1973), in which she starred opposite her father, Ryan O’Neal. She accepted her award wearing a mini tuxedo and platform shoes. 1998 Academy Awards: Titanic wins 11 Oscars With 14 nominations and 11 wins, the blockbuster epic Titanic (1997) dominated the Academy Awards in 1998. Starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet, it tells the tragic story of the passenger ship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. Films with historical settings have long performed well at the Oscars, from 1931's Best Picture winner All Quiet on the Western Front, through to recent films such as The King’s Speech (2010), Lincoln (2012) and 12 Years a Slave (2013). Other notable historical films that have swept the boards include the 1959 Charlton Heston epic Ben Hur (11 wins), 1996’s The English Patient (nine wins) and 1939 Civil War drama Gone With the Wind (eight wins). Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Dances with Wolves (1990), Schindler’s List (1993) and Shakespeare In Love (1998) each took home seven awards. This article was first published by HistoryExtra in February 2016
Timeline: a history of prisons in Britain
What are the key dates to know about in the development of prisons in Britain? Rosalind Crone shares 14 milestones in the evolution of imprisonment, from the Norman conquest to the Victorians…
In an episode of our ‘Everything you wanted to know’ podcast series, Rosalind Crone answered key questions on the history of prisons in Britain, from what life was like in Victorian prisons to the real state of the food. Listen to the full episode here and find out more about key milestones below… 1078 | The construction of the central keep of the Tower of London, built by William I following the Norman conquest of England. The Tower was first used as a prison for enemies of the king in about 1100. 1166 | The Assizes of Clarendon, a series of ordinances through which Henry II ordered sheriffs of every county to build gaols to keep in safe custody those accused of felonies (serious crimes) until they could be tried by the newly created itinerant royal judges (justices of the assize). From about the 12th century, the obligation to establish and maintain a gaol in order to keep the peace was included in royal charters granted to towns. These gaols were the responsibility of the towns’ corporations (or governing bodies). 1352 | Imprisonment for debt, previously confined to those who owed money to the crown, was extended to those who owed money to private individuals. Read more: What was it like to be a Prisoner of War during the Hundred Years’ War? 1556 | Bridewell Hospital in London became a ‘house of correction’ for idle apprentices, rogues and vagabonds, disorderly women and petty offenders. The idea of the bridewell or house of correction to manage social problems associated with poverty spread across England and Wales, so that be the early 1600s there were approximately 170 such institutions. Not only did the bridewell foster the use of sentences of imprisonment for petty offenders, but it also introduced the notion of ‘reform’, that imprisonment could be used not just to punish but to transform criminals or the socially deviant into more productive members of society. 1777 | The publication of John Howard’s State of the Prisons in England and Wales, which exposed the appalling conditions in many gaols and houses of correction in Britain, and spearheaded a movement for the reform of prisons. Howard’s efforts were mirrored by those of Jeremiah Fitzpatrick in Ireland. 1779 | The passing of the first Penitentiary Act, which contained a blueprint for prison construction and a new regime of imprisonment. The national penitentiaries proposed by the legislation were not built, but the Act triggered a wave of local prison building and renovation: during the 1780s and 1790s, approximately 60 prisons were either built or substantially rebuilt. The Act also enabled judges to sentence felons to terms of imprisonment as an alternative to transportation. 1816 | Millbank, the first state penitentiary in Britain, opens. Convicted male and female felons are sent to Millbank to serve long sentences of imprisonment as an alternative to transportation. In the same year, Elizabeth Fry began to visit Newgate Gaol on a regular basis, and to embark on a programme to reform female imprisonment at that institution, and the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline in Britain was established. A second wave of national prison reform had begun. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2018/11/GettyImages-3376123-3d6c1ea.jpg" width="2708" height="3502" alt="Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer and Quaker, circa 1820. She fought for what are now regarded as basic prison principles" title="Elizabeth Fry, English prison reformer and Quaker, circa 1820. She fought for what are now regarded as basic prison principles (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)" /> 1823 | A Gaols Act is passed which attempts to regulate imprisonment in local prisons, and to impose some degree of uniformity. Unfortunately, the legislation lacks a mechanism for enforcement. 1835 | An independent prison inspectorate for England, Wales and Scotland is established in an attempt to enforce greater uniformity in local prisons. In the same year, two rival systems of prison discipline – separation and silence – come to characterise the debate over penal reform in Britain. Following a parliamentary inquiry, the government expresses a preference for separation. 1842 | Pentonville Prison, designed for the implementation of the separate system of prison discipline, opens. It was intended for young men (aged 18 to 35) sentenced to transportation who the authorities thought might be capable of reform. The men were subjected to 18 months separate confinement (later reduced to 9 months) at the prison, and those who showed signs of amendment were released on licence or given conditional pardons on arrival in Australia. Pentonville was promoted as a ‘model prison’ and local authorities were encouraged to replicate its design. Read more: 5 crimes that changed law enforcement in Britain 1857 | Sentences of transportation were abolished. Instead, convicted felons were sentenced to penal servitude – or long-term imprisonment – in Britain, for periods between 3 years and life (depending on the crime). Some convicts sentenced to penal servitude continued to be sent to the penal colony in Western Australia until 1868. 1865 | A new Prison Act abolished the distinction between gaols and houses of correction, and all local prisons became known as prisons. The Act also promoted a new penal regime based on ‘hard labour, hard board and hard fare’ in local prisons. At the same time, the punitive aspects of imprisonment in the convict prison system were intensified. 1869 | The Debtors Act substantially curtailed the use of imprisonment for debt. Only debtors who defaulted in paying fines or other sums ordered by the court could be imprisoned. The last debtors’ prison in England was closed. 1878 | Local prisons in England and Wales were nationalised, thus coming under the control of a new sub-department of the Home Office: the Prison Commission. The nationalisation of prisons in Scotland and Ireland soon followed, with national prison boards under the authority of the Home Office established in those countries. Sir Edmund Du Cane, chair of the Prison Commission, insisted on uniformity in prison discipline, including the strict implementation of the 1865 Prison Act. 1895 | The Gladstone Committee – an inquiry into prisons administered by the Home Office – ushered in a new era of imprisonment in Britain. In its wake, more specialist prisons for different types of offenders, as well as a range of non-custodial options for those convicted of crime, were established. There was a new interest in rehabilitation among policymakers, but this had a limited effect on the many prisoners confined in ordinary local prisons. Rosalind Crone is a senior lecturer in history at the Open University, specialising in the society and culture of 19th-century Britain. She is currently writing a book, Illiterate Inmates: Educating Criminals in 19th-Century England