This day in history

Free French divisions march into Paris followed by the U.S. Fourth Infantry Division and liberate the city from German occupation.

In spite of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s orders to burn the city to the ground, German resistance was light, and a quick surrender was negotiated. The French capital had fallen to German forces on 14 June, 1940, two weeks after the Allied defenders of Europe were evacuated from Dunkirk to Britain. One week later, French Premier Henri Petain signed an armistice with the Nazis.

Elsewhere, however, General Charles de Gaulle and the Free French kept fighting, and on 25 August, 1944, they entered Paris in triumph. The next day, de Gaulle led a joyous liberation march down the Champs d’Elysees. He became head of the French provincial government, but resigned in 1946.

From 1958 to 1969, de Gaulle served as French president under the Fifth Republic.

Former East German leader, Egon Krenz, is sentenced by a court in Germany to six years in prison for instigating a shoot-to-kill policy against people trying to escape East Germany during the Cold War.

John Birch, an American missionary to China before the war and a captain in the Army during the war, is killed by Chinese communists days after the surrender of Japan, for no apparent reason.

Polish-Soviet War: Poland defeats the Bolshevik Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw.