Lt. Edward Henry (“Butch”) O’Hare took off from the aircraft
carrier Lexington in a raid against the Japanese position at
Rabaul and minutes later became America’s first WWII flying
ace, shooting down five enemy bombers.

    
President Franklin D. Roosevelt congratulates Lieutenant
(j.g.) Edward H. O’Hare, United States Navy, on being
presented the Medal of Honor (below) at the White
House, Washington, D.C., 21 April 1942.         
       

Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry O’Hare
(March 13, 1914 – November 26, 1943

O’Hare went missing in action on November 26, 1943, and
was declared dead a year later. His widow Rita received
her husband’s posthumous decorations, a Purple Heart
and the Navy Cross on November 26, 1944.       
 

This 1958 Chevrolet Impala of Buddy’s was introduced as
the top model of the Bel Air line and quickly became a
massive hit.

Buddy Holly 
(September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959)

Operation Detachment, the U.S. Marines’ invasion of Iwo Jima, 
was launched. Iwo Jima was a barren Pacific island guarded
by Japanese artillery, but to American military minds, it was
prime real estate on which to build airfields to launch bombing
raids against Japan, only 660 miles away.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed
Executive Order 9066, initiating a controversial World War II
policy with lasting consequences for Japanese Americans.

The document ordered the forced removal of resident "enemy
aliens" from parts of the West vaguely identified as military
areas.

On February 19, 1878, Thomas Edison was awarded U.S. Patent
No. 200,521 for his invention—the phonograph.

The technology that made the modern music business possible
came into existence in the New Jersey laboratory where Edison
created the first device to both record sound and play it back.