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60 of 60 events · showing 21–40

The Story of

Australia

1794 – 2025

Country in Oceania

  1. 1940 Brocklesby mid-air collision

    29 September 1940

    On 29 September 1940, a mid-air collision occurred over Brocklesby, New South Wales, Australia. The accident was unusual in that the aircraft involved, two Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Avro Ansons of No.

  2. Anglo-Iraqi War

    1941

    The Anglo-Iraqi War was a British-led Allied military campaign during the Second World War against the Kingdom of Iraq, then ruled by Rashid Ali al-Gaylani who had seized power in the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état with assistance from Germany and Italy. The campaign resulted in the downfall of Gaylani's government, the re-occupation of Iraq by the British, and the return to power of the Regent of Iraq, Prince 'Abd al-Ilah, a British ally.

  3. Battle of Cape Matapan

    27 March 1941 – 29 March 1941

    The Battle of Cape Matapan (Greek: Ναυμαχία του Ταινάρου) was a naval battle during the Second World War between the Allies, represented by the navies of the United Kingdom and Australia, and the Royal Italian Navy, from 27 to 29 March 1941. Cape Matapan is on the south-western coast of the Peloponnesian peninsula of Greece.

  4. Battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran

    19 November 1941

    On 19 November 1941, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran engaged each other in a battle off the coast of Western Australia. Sydney, with Captain Joseph Burnett commanding, and Kormoran, under Fregattenkapitän (lit. 'Frigate captain') Theodor Detmers, encountered each other approximately 106 nautical miles (196 km; 122 mi) off Dirk Hartog Island.

  5. Battle of Singapore

    8 February 1942 – 15 February 1942

    Singapore was captured from the British by the Empire of Japan in February 1942 during the Second World War. The Fall or Battle of Singapore took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War, with fighting lasting from 8 to 15 February 1942.

  6. Bombing of Darwin

    19 February 1942

    On 19 February 1942, 188 carrier based & 54 land based Japanese aircraft, in two separate raids, bombed the Australian town of Darwin, ships in Darwin Harbour and the town's two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to contest the invasion of Timor and Java during World War II. This was the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia. Darwin was very lightly defended relative to the size of this attack, and the Japanese inflicted heavy losses upon Allied forces at little cost to themselves.

  7. Battle of the Java Sea

    27 February 1942

    The Battle of the Java Sea (Indonesian: Pertempuran Laut Jawa, Japanese: スラバヤ沖海戦, romanized: Surabaya oki kaisen, lit. 'Sea Battle off Surabaya') was a decisive naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Allied naval forces suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 27 February 1942. In secondary actions over successive days, starting when the Allies' Combined Striking Force (CSF) of two heavy cruisers, three light cruisers, and nine destroyers, led by Rear-Admiral Karel Doorman of the Royal Netherlands Navy, attempted to intercept a Japanese troop…

  8. Indian Ocean raid

    31 March 1942 – 10 April 1942

    The Indian Ocean raid (Operation C, the Third Mobile Operation in the Indian Ocean and the Battle of Ceylon in Japanese) was a sortie of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) from 31 March to 10 April 1942. Japanese aircraft carriers (Admiral Chūichi Nagumo) struck Allied shipping, naval bases and airfields around British Ceylon but failed to find most of the Eastern Fleet.

  9. Battle of Christmas Island

    31 March 1942 – 1 April 1942

    The Battle of Christmas Island was a small engagement which began on 31 March 1942, during World War II. Assisted by a mutiny of soldiers of the British Indian Army against their British officers, Imperial Japanese Army troops were able to occupy Christmas Island unopposed. The United States Navy submarine Seawolf severely damaged the Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser Naka during the landings.

  10. Battle of the Coral Sea

    4 May 1942 – 8 May 1942

    The Battle of the Coral Sea, from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and naval and air forces of the United States and Australia. Taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, the battle was the first naval action in which the opposing fleets neither sighted nor fired upon one another, attacking over the horizon from aircraft carriers instead.

  11. Attack on Sydney Harbour

    8 June 1942

    From 31 May to 8 June 1942, during World War II, Imperial Japanese Navy submarines made a series of attacks on the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle. On the night of 31 May – 1 June, three Ko-hyoteki-class midget submarines (M-14, M-21 and M-24), each with a two-member crew, entered Sydney Harbour, avoided the partially constructed Sydney Harbour anti-submarine boom net, and attempted to sink Allied warships.

  12. Normandy landings

    6 June 1944 – 29 August 1944

    The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day (after the military term), it is the largest seaborne invasion in history.

  13. Bretton Woods system

    22 July 1944

    The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial relations among 44 countries, including the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, European countries, and Australia, after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement until the Jamaica Accords in 1976. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent states.

  14. Battle of Okinawa

    1945

    The Battle of Okinawa (Japanese: 沖縄戦, Hepburn: Okinawa-sen), codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by the United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. The initial invasion of Okinawa on 1 April 1945 was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Kerama Islands surrounding Okinawa were preemptively captured on 26 March 1945 by the U.S. Army 77th Infantry Division.

  15. Borneo campaign

    1945

    The Borneo campaign or Second Battle of Borneo was the last major Allied campaign in the South West Pacific Area during World War II to liberate Japanese-held British Borneo and Dutch Borneo. Designated collectively as Operation Oboe, a series of amphibious assaults between 1 May and 21 July 1945 were conducted by the Australian I Corps, under Lieutenant-General Leslie Morshead, against Imperial Japanese forces who had been occupying the island since late 1941 – early 1942.

  16. Japanese Instrument of Surrender

    2 September 1945

    The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the printed agreement that formalized the surrender of Japan, marking the end of hostilities in World War II. It was signed by representatives from Japan and from the Allied nations: the United States, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. The signing took place on the deck of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay just after 09:00 Japan Standard Time (JST) and took effect at 09:25 JST on 2 September 1945.

  17. Malayan Emergency

    16 June 1948 – 12 July 1960

    The Malayan Emergency, also known as the Anti–British National Liberation War, (1948–1960) was a guerrilla war fought in Malaya between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and the military forces of the Federation of Malaya and the Commonwealth (British Empire). The MNLA fought to win Malayan independence from the British Empire and to establish a communist state, while the Malayan Federation and Commonwealth forces fought to protect British economic and colonial interests and combat communism.

  18. Korean War

    25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953

    The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict fought on the Korean Peninsula between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union, while South Korea was supported by the United Nations led by the United States under the auspices of the United Nations Command (UNC).

  19. Tet Offensive

    30 January 1968 – 23 September 1968

    The Tet Offensive was both a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. The North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Viet Cong (VC) launched a surprise attack on 30 and 31 January 1968 against the forces of the South Vietnamese Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the United States Armed Forces and their allies, targeting military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam.

  20. Vietnam War

    30 April 1975

    The Vietnam War (c. 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union and China, while South Vietnam was supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations.