On June 4, 1942, the Battle of Midway—one of the most decisive
U.S. victories against Japan during World War II—began. During
the four-day sea-and-air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific
Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers
while losing only one of its own, the Yorktown, to the previously invincible Japanese navy.
SANDY KOZEL
Cinco de Mayo is Spanish for "Fifth of May"… a yearly celebration
held on May 5, which commemorates the anniversary of Mexico’s
victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in
1862, led by General Ignacio Zaragoza (below).
Depictions of the Battle of Puebla.
On May 3, 1942, during World War II, the first modern naval
engagement in history, the Battle of the Coral Sea, began. A
Japanese invasion force succeeds in occupying Tulagi of
the Solomon Islands in an expansion of Japan’s defensive
perimeter.
The United States, having broken Japan’s secret war code
and forewarned of an impending invasion of Tulagi and Port
Moresby, attempted to intercept the Japanese armada. Four
days of battles between Japanese and American aircraft
carriers resulted in 70 Japanese and 66 American warplanes
destroyed.
USS Lexington on fire and sinking.
The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of
Guadalcanal, was fought between August 7, 1942, and
February 9, 1943 in the Pacific theater of World War II
on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the southern
Solomon Islands, and was the first major offensive
launched by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan.
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