World War II

On June 13, 1942, four Nazi spies disembarked their U-Boat on a beach near Long Island, New York. Four days later, a similar group landed on Ponte Verda Beach, Florida. Their goal: to harm American economic targets in the hope of turning the war back in favor of Germany. The men had been extensively trained at a sabotage school near Berlin and carried enough explosives, primers, and incendiaries to support two years worth of destruction. They carried plans with them that outlined attacks of New York’s Hell Gate Bridge, hydroelectric plants at Niagara Falls, aluminum plants in Philadelphia, the canal lock systems in Cincinnati and St. Louis, and other targets.

In January 1943, with World War II raging, Major League Baseball commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis issued a mandate that teams must conduct spring training close to home rather than traveling South. The ruling sent the Washington Senators scrambling to find new digs, but they didn't have to look far.

During World War II, the job market in D.C. exploded; between 1940 and 1945, the number of civilians employed by the government almost quadrupled. The Defense Housing Registry, created by the DC government to help these new employees find housing, processed around 10,000 newcomers every month. The result? A housing crunch.

Poland’s famed pianist and one‑time prime minister died in New York in 1941 and was honored at Arlington National Cemetery. His coffin stayed in the USS Maine vault for 51 years before returning to a free Poland in 1992.

At Arlington National Cemetery, one of the most haunting features is the Tomb of the Unknowns, also known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. On the rear of the monument, there's a haunting inscription: Here rests in honored glory, an American soldier known but to God. But the story of how the first official unknown soldier from World War I was selected for burial in the graves alongside the monument is a strange one. For one, he wasn't actually the first unidentified casualty to be entombed at Arlington.

During World War II, the We Will Never Die – a Mass Memorial to the Two Million Dead of Europe pageant at Constitution Hall helped bring truth to power about the horrors of the Holocaust. 

On February 3, 1943, four military chaplains—Rabbi Alexander Goode, George Fox, Clark Poling, and Father John Washington—gave their life jackets to fellow soldiers and went down with the troopship Dorchester after a U-boat torpedo strike, a selfless act remembered each year with stamps, memorials, and ceremonies that honor their interfaith courage

The year is 1943. You’re new to the area and looking for a place to live that’s close enough to the city that the commute to your government job won’t be completely terrible. The war is going on and Washington is buzzing with activity. Where are you going to live? Well, if you were looking in Arlington, there’s a good chance you might end up in the new Fairlington neighborhood.