Dunkirk evacuation begins as thousands prepare to flee

On Memorial Day, May 26, 1940 marked the start of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied troops from Dunkirk, France—an early World War II turning point still remembered for its urgency and scale.

Memorial Day often brings a quiet kind of remembering, but May 26, 1940 was anything but quiet.

As Operation Dynamo began on this date during World War II. more than 338. 000 Allied troops were pulled out of Dunkirk. France. It was the start of an evacuation that would become shorthand for survival under pressure—men moving from the edge of defeat to the uncertain safety of the sea and the waiting boats.

May 26 also carries a wide sweep of American and world history beyond the evacuation. In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed a measure creating the Montana Territory. In 1924. President Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924. barring immigration from Asia and restricting the total number of immigrants from other parts of the world to 165. 000 annually.

The day also marks moments of political tension and cultural milestones. In 1938, the House Un-American Activities Committee was established by Congress. In 1967, the Beatles album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released.

Across the decades, May 26 recorded both diplomacy and catastrophe. In 1954, an explosion occurred aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bennington off Rhode Island, killing 103 sailors. In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty in Moscow. The U.S. later withdrew from the treaty under President George W. Bush in 2002.

Other May 26s in history include the end of an automotive era, a U.S. Supreme Court nomination, and a long-closed war crime chapter. In 1927. the Ford Model T officially ended production as Henry Ford and his son Edsel drove the 15 millionth Model T off the Ford assembly line in Highland Park. Michigan. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The same year brought a legal decision that echoed far beyond the courthouse. In 2009. California’s Supreme Court upheld the state’s Proposition 8 same-sex marriage ban but said the 18. 000 same-sex weddings that had taken place before the prohibition passed were still valid. Same-sex marriage became legal nationwide in June 2015.

There was also a late-life pursuit of justice. In 2011. Ratko Mladić. the Bosnian Serb general suspected of leading the massacre of 8. 000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. was arrested after a 16-year manhunt. Extradited to face trial in The Hague. Netherlands. Mladić was convicted in 2017 on genocide and war crimes charges and is serving a life sentence.

For people counting time through headlines and birthdays, May 26 is also a calendar marker of famous lives. Singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks is 78. Actor Pam Grier is 77. Country singer Hank Williams Jr. is 77. Celebrity chef Masaharu Morimoto is 71. Actor Genie Francis is 64. Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait is 64. Musician Lenny Kravitz is 62. Actor Helena Bonham Carter is 60. Actor Joseph Fiennes is 56. Actor-producer-writer Matt Stone is 55. Singer-songwriter Lauryn Hill is 51. Singer Jaheim is 48. NHL player Mathew Barzal is 29. Actor Lola Flanery is 21.

And in the background of all those dates and names is the one that comes back most sharply on Memorial Day: May 26, 1940, when Operation Dynamo began and the world watched Allied troops—over 338,000 of them—fight for a way out of Dunkirk.

Today in History May 26 1940 Operation Dynamo Dunkirk evacuation Memorial Day World War II Allied troops Abraham Lincoln Montana Territory Immigration Act of 1924 USS Bennington explosion Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty