World War Ii

Gerard DeGroot is a professor of modern history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and the author of "The Bomb: A Life. " Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch's exploits as commander of the Seventh Army in France were celebrated across America. "This temporary notoriety will soon die out," he assured his wife in September 1944. "God protect me from being spoiled by it. " Those words proved too prophetic. Two months later, glory morphed into despair when his son was killed...

Melvin James Kaminsky, known far and wide and forever as Mel Brooks, turns 87 next month. He is one of those comedy legends who can't complain about lacking respect or accolades, which might make it difficult to find another 90 minutes to spend watching PBS's appreciative retrospective, "Mel Brooks: Make a Noise," airing Monday night on the "American Masters" series. He seems plenty honored enough . The good news is that the film, directed by Robert Trachtenberg, makes a fast and sure...

MOSCOW — Standing under a pricey blue sky in Red Square on Thursday morning, President Vladimir Putin sounded rousing themes of suffering, perseverance and Russian greatness as the nation celebrated its most glorious holiday — victory over Nazi Germany 68 years ago. Putin's message echoed in the hurrahs of 11,000 service members and cadets who marched across the cobblestones outside the Kremlin in the annual Victory Day parade, followed...

People travel to Washington from all over the world to experience the sights that we routinely pass right by. That's even true for Arlington National Cemetery , the Old Post Office and the Washington Monument. "[Washington] is understated and elegant. It's so impressive," says Irene Thompson of Northern Ireland as she walks with her sister-in-law, Anne Thompson, through the cemetery on a DC by Foot tour of about 50 people. Every Saturday at 10 a.m., DC by Foot offers free tours of the cemetery where...

The Navy Annex was never intended to last long or, for that matter, to house human beings. The 1 million-square-foot complex, perched on an Arlington County hill overlooking the Pentagon, was designed as a temporary warehouse but pressed by wartime needs into service as offices for the Navy and Marine Corps. Seven decades later, including more than 50 years as Marine Corps headquarters, the Navy Annex is coming down. Demolition crews are gutting the interior and, late last month, began tearing down the complex's exterior walls.

Gordon D. Gayle, a retired Marine Corps brigadier general who received the Navy Cross after a fierce World War II battle in the Pacific and who later directed an influential study of tactics and battlefield planning, died April 21 at an assisted-living facility in Farnham, Va. He was 95. He had an intracerebral hemorrhage, his son Mike Gayle said. In World War II, "Lucky" Gayle served in the 1st Marine Division. He took part in all the division's campaigns from the struggle for...

Melvin James Kaminsky, known far and wide and forever as Mel Brooks, turns 87 next month. He is one of those comedy legends who can't complain about lacking respect or accolades, which might make it difficult to find another 90 minutes to spend watching PBS's appreciative retrospective, "Mel Brooks: Make a Noise," airing Monday night on the "American Masters" series. He seems plenty honored enough . The good news is that the film, directed by Robert Trachtenberg, makes a fast...

In 2010, Ken Follett published " Fall of Giants ," the opening movement of his vast, dauntingly ambitious "Century Trilogy. " In the course of that 1,000-page epic, Follett introduced readers to five families from a variety of countries — England, Wales, Russia, Germany, the United States — and used their lives to illuminate the events of the early 20th century. Those stories encompassed the struggle for women's suffrage; the increasingly bitter relations between the...

It wasn't the toll from lugging a heavy tool box to work that finally sent Ray Clark to the gym. It was something more profound. He lost his wife of 67 years. Then he lost his daughter. He was looking for something to fill the empty hours. "I was getting a little lazy at home, and I decided I'd go down to the exercise club," he recalled. That was more than three years ago, when Clark was 98. As he turned 102 last week, Clark was able to curl 40 pounds, work out vigorously on a...

Since the end of the military draft in 1973, every person joining the U.S. armed forces has done so because he or she asked to be there. Over the past decade, this all-volunteer force has been put to the test and has succeeded, fighting two sustained foreign wars with troops standing up to multiple combat deployments and extreme stress . This is precisely the reason it is time to get rid of the all-volunteer force. It has been too successful. Our relatively small and highly adept military has made it all too easy for...

Photographer David Levinthal has made a career out of photographing toys. His collection of miniature action figures — which he shoots up close, often against lifelike dioramas — includes athletes, soldiers, office workers, bathing beauties, cowboys and Indians, religious icons and caricatures of African Americans. He examines such deep themes as sex, race, war, politics and religion as if under a microscope, simultaneously pulling us closer and pushing us further from the subject.

"The Guns at Last Light: the War in Western Europe, 1944-45" (Henry Holt), by Rick Atkinson Fruitless combat in places like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan can evoke a certain wistfulness for World War II. Often characterized as our last "good war," it combined a sense of purpose with universal public support and ended decisively with good triumphing over evil. The Western European phase of America's war against the Nazis lasted a mere 11 months, from D-Day to Germany's...

Paul Pfeiffer Jr., 99, co-founder of the now-defunct Exacta Business Services, a financial and administrative services company in Washington, died April 11 after suffering complications from a fall. His wife of 52 years, Jane G. Pfeiffer, 92, who co-founded the business with her husband and once served as an assistant to Nobel Peace laureate Ralph Bunche, died May 6 of complications from breast cancer. Both died at their home at the Residences at Thomas Circle in Washington. Their deaths...

TOKYO — An outspoken nationalist mayor said the Japanese military's forced prostitution of Asian women before and during World War II was necessary to "maintain discipline" in the ranks and provide rest for soldiers who risked their lives in battle. The comments made Monday are already raising ire in neighboring countries that bore the brunt of Japan's wartime aggression and have long complained that Japan has failed to fully atone for wartime atrocities. Toru Hashimoto, the...

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Yang Jingtao did what many young, brave Chinese did — he left his home as a teenager to fight the invading Japanese in World War II. The problem was he fought while wearing the uniform of the Nationalist Chinese Army, condemning Yang to be shunned and reviled in China's often brutal politics after the Communist Party defeated the Nationalists and took control of the country four years after the end of the war. But now,...

Today is Saturday, May 11, the 131st day of 2013. There are 234 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On May 11, 1973, the espionage trial of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo in the "Pentagon Papers" case came to an end as Judge William M. Byrne dismissed all charges, citing government misconduct. On this date: In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor of New Netherland. In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.

Lonnie Bunch Founding director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture The notion that Abraham Lincoln purposely provoked the Civil War by attempting to resupply Fort Sumter in April 1861 became a cornerstone of the reinterpretation of the Civil War after the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865. Most notably, the memoirs of the president and vice president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens, argued that Lincoln wanted war and maneuvered the Confederacy...

Here is the full transcript of President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address , as delivered: Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Please, be seated. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans, last month I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought, and several...

Gerard DeGroot is a professor of modern history at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and the author of "The Bomb: A Life. " Lt. Gen. Alexander Patch's exploits as commander of the Seventh Army in France were celebrated across America. "This temporary notoriety will soon die out," he assured his wife in September 1944. "God protect me from being spoiled by it. " Those words proved too prophetic. Two months later, glory morphed into despair when his son was killed...

WASHINGTON — Britain's Prince Harry saluted America's war dead in somber remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, pausing, too, to place flowers on the tombstone of President John F. Kennedy and visit the grave of a British World War II hero buried far from home. There were none of the shrieking throngs that greeted his arrival Thursday on Capitol Hill at the opening of his weeklong U.S. visit, only solemn reflection at gravesites and time-honored...