Free Republic

On 7 May 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Reims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the second world war in Europe. In this gallery, we look back at VE Day and the events leading up to Germany's surrender.

Seventy years ago, then-British prime minister Winston Churchill declared May 8, 1945, to be "Victory in Europe Day" after a gruelling five-year war against Nazi Germany and its allies. The day before, people had already started celebrating amid news that Hitler had committed suicide in his so-called Fuehrerbunker in Berlin days prior, and Germany has surrendered unconditionally. Canada celebrated, too. It had joined the war effort early, with its first troops departing for Europe at the end of 1939. More than one million Canadians performed full-time duty during the war. They fought in the raid on Dieppe and at Juno...

"Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces, Reims: Nazi General Jodl, representing Admiral Doenitz, strides into the 'war room' where Allied Generals await him and his party. After the surrender terms are understood, Jodl fills a third of a page with his scrawly signature, this his associates sign. U.S. General W. B. Smith the Allied Chief of Staff signs as do the remainder of the Allied Generals. In an adjoining room, General Eisenhower, wreathed in smiles, forms the signature pens into a V for Victory sign. Unconditional surrender is an accomplished fact." scenes of peace signed at red scholhouse in Reims, France,...

Four years after U.S. forces shot dead Osama bin Laden at a house half a mile from Pakistan’s top military academy, the Pakistani doctor who allegedly ran a fake vaccination program for the CIA to find the al Qaida chief – but didn’t find him – is serving a long prison term on questionable charges of aiding an insurgent Pakistani militant group, his attorney said. Suspected CIA operative Shakil Afridi has paid a heavy price for the huge embarrassment caused to Pakistan’s powerful military and its security services by the discovery of bin Laden: In addition to his 23-year term,...

Could it be that two generations from now our grandchildren are going to be watching a documentary about the consequences of America’s retreat in the Middle East? That’s the question I am pondering this week on the 40th anniversary of the communist conquest of Indochina. The event is being marked by the broadcast on PBS of Rory Kennedy’s documentary “Last Days in Vietnam.”

Prince Charles and his son Harry today joined world leaders to mark the centenary of the catastrophic Gallipoli landings which claimed 140,000 lives during World War One. The royals met descendants of fallen soldiers on the Royal Navy's flagship HMS Bulwark in Turkey's Dardanelles straits, the same crucial waters the Allies hoped to control 100 years ago. Instead tens of thousands lost their lives on both sides in a nine-month battle between the German-backed Ottoman forces and Allies including Australian, British and New Zealand troops trying to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war. Today, soldiers from both the...

(CNN)—Twenty years ago, on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a massive truck bomb in front of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The attack killed 168 men, women and children, injured hundreds more, and remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. The attack's aftermath saw a storm of media coverage with themes such as "attack on the heartland" and America's "lost innocence." In fact, the bombing took the country by surprise. It wasn't simply the scale of the tragedy that drew attention, but the fact that the bombing exposed something new: American citizens targeting their...

– This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the Palm Sunday tornadoes that tore through the Midwest. The National Weather Service recorded 47 tornadoes between April 11th and April 12th, 1965. 261 people died, making it the third deadliest outbreak on record. These details of the storm are something Carl Hartup witnessed first-hand. He worked as chief photographer for the News-Sentinel for 37 years. One can see a lot in a career that spans nearly forty years. snip “I took a corn stalk that was driven into a concrete block. The power of a tornado is just unbelievable,” Hartup said....

A central Russian gallery has cancelled the opening of an exhibition of World War Two images by US and British photographers, sparking claims that the event was pulled for political reasons. [....] A staff member at the state-run gallery told the BBC that the decision to cancel the exhibition was "political", and said they did not believe it would ever open. They said they had been "ordered" not to comment further. Gallery manager Raisa Zorina had previously dismissed the official explanation of "technical problems", telling local media "this is very serious" and advising them to "read between the lines".

Bells will ring across the country and in Lynchburg on Thursday to mark the 150th anniversary of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in Appomattox, the symbolic end of four years of bloodshed. A historic bell will be rung at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park at 3 p.m., the time the surrender occurred. People at historic sites, schools, parks, government buildings and within communities throughout Lynchburg and the country will join in at 3:15 p.m., ringing bells for four continuous minutes, representing the four years of fighting.

The surrender of Confederate Robert E. Lee to Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 150 years ago Thursday was the definitive milestone of the end of the Civil War.

In a speech one month ago, the first black president of the United States challenged millions of white Americans to resist the convenient allure of overlooking the country’s blemished moral record. It was a dual challenge, actually—first to the classical understanding of American exceptionalism, but also to America’s persistent critics, who abjure the concept of exceptionalism altogether. “What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this?” President Barack Obama said. “What greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation...

On March 30, 2005, Terri Schiavo had her last full day of life on this earth and both her family and Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life will never forget the last moments they shared with the woman whose former husband won a court order to take her life.Terri was killed on March 31, 2005 when her former husband won a protracted legal battle against the Schindler family for the right to disconnect her feeding tube. Doctors who examined Terri say she was not in a persistent vegetative state and that her condition could have been improved has she...

IOTO, Japan — Dozens of aging U.S. veterans, many in their early 90s and some in wheelchairs, gathered on the tiny, barren island of Iwo Jima on Saturday to mark the 70th anniversary of one of the bloodiest and most iconic battles of World War II. More than 30 veterans flown in from the U.S. island territory of Guam toured the black sand beaches where they invaded the deeply dug-in forces of the island’s Japanese defenders in early 1945. They were bused to the top of Mount Suribachi, an active volcano, where an Associated Press photo of the raising of...

How does one celebrate the 39th anniversary of the day one was convicted of armed robbery and use of a firearm to commit a felony? Long walk with your prize-winning dog? A cake? A shot and a beer? I'm sure that whatever Patty Hearst does today, it'll be done in style, for it's her conviction about which I'm talking. Yup, it was this day in 1976 when a jury of her peers (as much as anyone can be the peer of a wealthy socialite) came back from 12 hours of deliberation and delivered that verdict. You know her story, of...

On this day in 1965, state police under the command of the Democrat Governor, George Wallace, attacked African-Americans who were demonstrating for voting rights in Selma, Alabama. The rampaging Democrats used billy clubs and tear gas and dogs in their “Bloody Sunday” assault. A Republican-appointed federal judge, Frank Johnson, soon ruled in favor of the demonstrators, enabling them to complete their march two weeks later.

Turkey’s Ziraat Bankasi General Manager Hüseyin Aydin has told reporters that the state-run lender plans to launch its off-shoot, Ziraat Katilim Bankasi, an Islamic participation bank, on May, 29, which is the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul. “The 300 million dollar-equivalent Turkish Lira capital has been provided by the Treasury,” Aydin said March 5 while speaking to reporters in Istanbul on the sidelines of a joint meeting of the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) and the Banks Association of Turkey (TBB), which he personally chairs. The participation bank will open 20 branches this year and will operate as...

Some of the fashions at fashion week are so crazy it’s hard to tell if they’re real or not. So we had some of the guys in our graphics department make some fake ones..

Jewish community leader trapped inside Auschwitz concentration camp after getting locked in while filming a television show on the 70th anniversary of its liberation. The head of Rome’s Jewish community found himself locked into Auschwitz on Tuesday night and then arrested when he tried to escape. Riccardo Pacifici was doing a television interview after the ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the camp’s liberation, when he realised the camp’s gates had been closed. Mr Pacifici was locked in with Jewish community spokesman Fabio Perugia, the television host and two technicians. Mr Pacifici, whose grandparents died in the camp, spent...

As pro-life supporters from around the nation gather in Washington, D.C. today to mark the 42nd memorial of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion in the U.S., Operation Rescue announces that two more abortion facilities have permanently closed. “Today, as pro-lifers, we should be encouraged that our efforts have not been in vain. Abortion clinics are closing in record numbers due to their tireless work of men, women, and young people all across this nation,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “America is beginning to reject abortion, and that is evidenced in closed clinics and...