Timeline of World War II

On August 24th of 1912, Hazel Ying Lee was born in Portland, Oregon.

On August 5th, 1923, Maggie Gee was born in Berkeley, California.

The Japanese army invades Manchuria, a province of China. Japan continued to occupy Manchuria until near the end of the war in August of 1945.

The Chinese Flying Club of Portland was a group of Chinese American pilots who formed a school to train pilots. All the members of the Flying Club sig...

Hazel rides in an airplane for the very first time and she loves it. She decides that she has to learn how to fly, and signs up for flying lessons.

Hazel received her pilot's license on October 24, 1932. She was one of the first Chinese American women to receive a pilot's license. Hazel was part...

On July 7th, 1937, Japan invaded China in a city near Beijing. This date is usually considered the beginning of World War II in East Asia.

Nazi Germany, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland in September 1939. Great Britain and France both declared war on Germany on Septemb...

The Japanese military attacked American Navy ships in Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii. Many ships and airplanes were sunk, and almost 2,500 Americans w...

The United States government declares that the United States is at war with Japan.

The United States, Germany, and Italy all declare war on each other.

Two female pilots, Nancy Harkness Love and Jacqueline Cochran, came up with the same idea independently. The US military needed trained male pilots to...

The two women's pilot groups, the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), combined to form a sin...

Like many women, Hazel Ying Lee and Maggie Gee were both dedicated to supporting the United States during World War II. Both women joined the Women's ...

On November 23rd, 1944, Hazel's plane was in an accident in Great Falls, Montana. Hazel died of her injuries on November 25th, 1944.

The WASPs were disbanded in December of 1944. Maggie Gee and the other pilots were given Honorable Discharges. An Honorable Discharge means that the s...

Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945. Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945. World War II was officially over!

The WASP pilots were honored for their service by being awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010. More than 200 former WASP pilots attended the ce...

Maggie Gee died in 2013 at the age of 89. During her life after World War II, she worked as a nuclear scientist in Berkeley’s Lawrence Livermore Nat...