On This Date in 1944...

A tiny diversion from the normal pursuits, with your approval, to commemorate  that sixth day of June in 1944; namely, "D"-Day - that fateful morning when the  massive  liberation of a suffering continent began. Nothing like that military operation had ever been formulated before, and in less than a year, the  regime that Hitler had declared would last a thousand years collapsed and died after just twelve.
Of equal import and  significance, in my view,  was an event that occurred during another first week in June, this happening during the year 1942. The Battle of Midway, which lasted just four days (June 4 - 7), signaled the beginning of the end for Imperial Japan, only six months after Pearl Harbor. This battle destroyed the offensive capabilities of the Japanese, and even though the war was not won  until 1945, the Battle of Midway sealed  and certified the inexorable outcome of the conflict in the Pacific.
I am writing this simply as a reminder that the first week in June in the years 1942 and 1944 were, essentially, equally defining, in terms of the eventuality of  history's greatest conflict.