June 1940

Monday 03:

World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ends with a German tactical victory and with Allied forces in full evacuation.

Tuesday 04:

The Destroyer War Badge for Kriegsmarine was instituted.

Friday 07:

King Haakon VII of Norway, Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government leave Tromsø and go into exile in London.

Monday 10:

World War II: Norway Surrenders to German forces.

Tuesday 11:

World War II: First attack of the Italian Airforce on the island of Malta.

Wednesday 12:

World War II: 13,000 British and French troops surrender to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.

Friday 14:

A group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów become the first residents of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Sunday 16:

A Communist government is installed in Lithuania

Monday 17:

The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.

Tuesday 18:

Finest Hour speech by Winston Churchill

Friday 21:

First successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage begins at Vancouver, British Columbia.

Saturday 22:

France forced to sign armistice with Nazi Germany.

Sunday 23:

World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France.

Monday 24:

France and Italy sign an armistice.

Wednesday 26:

World War II: Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and northern part of Bukovina.

Friday 28:

Romania cedes Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union.