On August 25, 1944the Free French Second Armored Division rolled into Paris, with the American Fourth Infantry Division close behind. Rapturous crowds jammed the streets to greet the Allies, who encountered "15 solid miles of cheering, deliriously happy people waiting to shake your hand, to kiss you, to shower you with food and wine," as a U.S. Army major recalled.

Battle of Britain timeline

Monday 26 August 1940

Dover, Folkestone, and airfields in Kent and Essex were attacked. Lesser raids in the Solent.

German Losses:
Airmen: 44 | Aircraft: 42

British Losses:
Airmen: 7 | Aircraft: 29

The Japanese Surrender in Tokyo Bay, September 2, 1945

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/japanese-surrender-tokyo-bay-september-2-1945

ABATTBQ87 said:

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1943 World War II: Operation Tidal Wave also known as "Black Sunday", was a failed American attempt to destroy Romanian oil fields. Why 'Black Sunday'? 177 planes left, only 88 returned.

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SSGT Robert Clarence Elliott, A&M Class of 1942, was assigned to the 343rd Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force. On Aug. 1, 1943, the aircraft on which Elliot worked as an assistant engineer was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. Elliott's remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.

UPDATE: On February 8, 2023, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Staff Sergeant Robert C. Elliott, missing from World War II.

Staff Sergeant Elliott entered the U.S. Air Corps from Kansas and served in the 343rd Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group. On August 1, 1943, Operation TIDAL WAVE, a bombing raid against the oil refineries around Ploieti, Romania, was launched. One hundred and seventy-seven B-24 Liberators took off from Benghazi, Libya, for the raid. SSG Elliott was an assistant engineer on a Liberator nicknamed "Four Eyes/Damfino" (serial number 42-40655-5) that was one of fifty-one planes that failed to return. His remains were not identified following the war. Operation TIDAL WAVE, while successfully damaging the Ploieti oil refineries, cost the lives of hundreds of USAAF airmen, many of whom were interred by Romanian citizens into the Bolovan Cemetery in Ploieti. During postwar operations there, the American Graves Registration Command exhumed unknown remains, eventually reinterring those that could not be identified at the Ardennes American and Henri-Chapelle American Cemeteries in Belgium. In 2017, DPAA began exhuming those unknowns for comparison with the unaccounted-for airmen lost during Operation TIDAL WAVE. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one set of these unknown remains and SSG Elliott.

Staff Sergeant Elliott is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Impruneta, Italy.

Today marks the official beginning of World War II, when both England and France declared war on Germany for the German invasion of Poland two days earlier.

The first Allied casualty of war was the liner SS Athenia. She was a British passenger liner on a voyage from Glasgow to Montreal via Liverpool and Belfast, carrying 1,103 passengers (~500 Jewish refugees, 469 Canadians, 311 US citizens, 72 British subjects, and 315 crew). Of those, 117 perished, including 28 Americans. Germany feared the sinking would bring America into the war on the side of the British and French, but FDR declared that the United States would remain neutral. The Athenia was sunk by the Kriegsmarine U-Boat U-30 under the command of Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp.

It was not until 1946, during the Nuremberg trials, when German officials - Admiral Raeder - admitted that Germany was responsible for the sinking and had gone to great lengths (falsifying the sub's logs and swearing the crew to secrecy) to cover up their role in the sinking.