Wilma Betty Gray's WAC journey began when she boarded a train, destination unknown. Her assignment was Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for the Manhattan Project.

While most people are familiar with the names of “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” as the atomic weapons used over Japan, what they may not be familiar with was how different the respective technologies of each bomb were and why this difference mattered. 

On July 16, 1945, the world’s first atomic bomb detonated in the New Mexican desert, releasing a level of destructive power unknown in the existence of humanity. Emitting as much energy as 21,000 tons of TNT and creating a fireball that measured roughly 2,000 feet in diameter, the first successful test of an atomic bomb, known as the Trinity Test, forever changed the history of the world.

More than 80 years after the Battle of Tassafaronga, a team of scientists and explorers aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus found and imaged the wrecked bow of the New Orleans at the bottom of Iron Bottom Sound.

In the June 26, 1945, edition of her newspaper column My Day, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reflected on the efforts of the delegates at the San Francisco Conference to create the United Nations Charter and her hope that its ratification would help prepare the way for lasting peace in the world.

Historian Nathan Stoltzfus has done so much to throw light on intermarriage in Nazi Germany and the remarkable stories of resilience and resistance of everyday people. 

Though the 52 men inducted with Company I in 1940 rendered excellent service, their “band of brothers” did not endure much past their first months in combat. 

Louis M. Prevost, the father of newly elected Pope Leo XIV, participated in the landings in Normandy and Southern France during World War II.

Within 48 hours of the amphibious assault, over 130,000 GIs and some 17,000 vehicles came ashore. With more troops and equipment arriving daily, the amount of supplies required to support this force grew exponentially. 

Visitors often ask, “Why is the Museum in New Orleans?” The answer to this simple question requires an understanding of the city’s involvement in World War II, politics, and American memory.

The Allied capture of Rome in June 1944 marked the fall of the first Axis capital but was ultimately overshadowed by the D-Day landings in Normandy.

Early on the morning of June 6, 1944, photojournalist Robert Capa landed with American troops on Omaha Beach. Before the day was through, he had taken some of the most famous combat photographs of World War II.