June 4, 1940 – On this day German military forces entered the city of Paris while allied troops including free French forces and the British Expeditionary Force complete their evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk (Dunkurque). This evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo, successfully rescued 338,226 British and French soldiers using a hodge-podge fleet of 860 civil and military vessels. The German occupation of Paris would last for four long years.

June 4, 1942 – The Battle of Midway begins in the Pacific Ocean near the Midway Atoll pitting forces of the United States Navy and Army Air Corp against those of the Japanese Imperial Navy.  The battle resulted in the defeat of the Japanese Imperial Navy with the loss of four of their aircraft carriers and many of their experienced pilots, effectively ending Japanese offensive naval activity in the Pacific Theatre.  The U.S. lost the carrier Yorktown (CV-5) and one destroyer, USS Hammann.

June 4, 1944 – Rome falls to Allied Forces becoming the first Axis capital to be captured.