The bombing of Dresden was an Allied air raid on the German city in the last months of the Second World War, carried out by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces. The raids dropped high-explosive and incendiary bombs that created a firestorm, destroying the historic city center, which was known as the Florence on the Elbe for its baroque architecture and was crowded with refugees. A commission of historians concluded in 2010 that up to about twenty-five thousand people were killed, far fewer than the figures spread by Nazi propaganda. The raid remains controversial, with some arguing that Dresden was a rail hub and industrial target and others that it was a needless act of destruction. Kurt Vonnegut, who was a prisoner of war there, used it in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five.
Before and after
- 1 February 1945Founding of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- from 3 February 1945 to 3 March 1945Battle of Manila
- from 4 February 1945 to 11 February 1945Yalta Conference
- 6 February 1945Birth of Bob Marley
- from 13 February 1945 to 15 February 1945Bombing of Dresden
- from 15 February 1945 to 18 February 1945Operation Solstice
- from 5 March 1945 to 1 January 1951Denazification
- from 19 March 1945 to 8 May 1945Western Allied invasion of Germany
- 22 March 1945Founding of Arab League
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 12 March 1947 to 25 December 1991Cold War
- from 3 April 1948 to 1 December 1951Marshall Plan
- 26 July 1953Cuban Revolution
- from 14 October 1962 to 28 October 1962Cuban Missile Crisis
- from 2 April 1982 to 14 June 1982Falklands War
- 26 December 1991Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.