DDT was developed to wipe out lice, which had been carrying typhus among the troops of the Allied Forces.
The Normandy Invasion took place on D Day, June 6th.
An American police dog was given the Distinguished Service Medal for charging a machine gun nest in the invasion of Sicily.
President Franklin Roosevelt was elected to his fourth term, defeating Republican candidate Thomas Dewey.
160 persons died — 94 of them children — when a Barnum & Bailey circus tent caught fire in Hartford, Connecticut.
155 people died when a series of tornadoes ripped through Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
America's most popular bandleader, Glenn Miller, became a major in the Air Force. Leading the Air Force band, Miller made several pro-Ally broadcasts from London, which were beamed into Nazi Germany. Miller's plane disappeared on a flight from London to Paris on Christmas Eve. In the 1990s, documents would show that Miller's plane crashed into the English Channel after it was accidentally hit by friendly fire from the Royal Air Force.
Casablanca was named motion picture of the year at the Academy Awards ceremony.
