World War II: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tarawa" id="mwoQ" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Battle of Tarawa">Battle of Tarawa</a> (<a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Galvanic" id="mwog" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Operation Galvanic">Operation Galvanic</a>) begins: <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marines" id="mwow" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="United States Marines">United States Marines</a> land on <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarawa_Atoll" id="mwpA" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Tarawa Atoll">Tarawa Atoll</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Islands" id="mwpQ" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Gilbert Islands">Gilbert Islands</a> and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns.