After more than four years of Nazi occupation, Paris was liberated
by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry
Division. German resistance was light, and General Dietrich von
Choltitz, commander of the German garrison, defied an order by
Adolf Hitler to blow up Paris’ landmarks and burn the city to the
ground before its liberation. Choltitz signed a formal surrender
that afternoon, and on August 26, Free French General Charles
de Gaulle led a joyous liberation march down the Champs
d’Elysees.

Dietrich Hugo Hermann von Choltitz 
(9 November 1894 – 5 November 1966)

On August 19, 1934, Adolf Hitler, already chancellor, is
also elected president of Germany in an unprecedented
consolidation of power in the short history of the republic. 

James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens
(September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980)

On this day at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, African American track
star Jesse  Owens won his fourth gold medal of the Games in
the 4×100-meter relay. His relay team set a new world record of
39.8 seconds, which held for 20 years. In their strong showing in
track-and-field events at the XIth Olympiad, Jesse Owens and
other African American athletes struck a propaganda blow
against Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, who planned to use the Berlin
Games as a showcase of supposed Aryan superiority.

Owens with Adolf Hitler.

One of Jesse Owens’ four gold medals won at the 1936
Olympics in Berlin.

TIM MAGUIRE

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012)

On June 1, 1942, a Warsaw underground newspaper, the Liberty
Brigade, made public the news of the gassing of tens of
thousands of Jews at Chelmno, a Nazi-operated death camp
in Poland—almost seven months after extermination of
prisoners began.

Investigation of Chelmno Death Camp being conducted.

Children rounded up for deportation to the Chelmno death camp.

Chelmno extermination camp burial pits.

Chelmno extermination camp memorial.