Before President:

• 1884 - Harry S. Truman is born in Lamar, Missouri.
• 1917 - Harry S. Truman joins the army to fight in World War I. Harry was a leader of an artillery unit. This is when he first learned he was a good leader.
• 1919- Harry marries Bess Wallace. He had first met her in grade school and they were friends.
• 1922- Harry was elected Eastern Judge of Jackson County. He lost reelection in 1924. This was the only election he ever lost.
• 1926 - Harry was elected presiding judge of the Jackson County Court.
• 1934 - Harry was elected to the U.S. Senate.
• 1944 - Harry runs for office with Franklin D. Roosevelt and becomes vice president.
• 1945 - Harry becomes president after President Roosevelt dies.

President Truman and After:

• 1945 - On August 6th President Truman announces that the first atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later he orders a second bomb to be dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. A few days later Japan surrenders and World War II comes to an end.
• 1948 - Truman implements the Marshall Plan to help the people of Europe rebuild after World War II.
• 1948 - Truman orders airplanes to deliver food and other supplies (including candy!) to Berlin, Germany. This was called the Berlin Airlift. Truman did this to stop the Soviet Union from taking over the city.
• 1948 - Truman is reelected president. Most people thought he would lose to Thomas E. Dewey.
• 1949 - Truman announces the formation of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This was a group of countries who promised to help protect one another.
• 1950 - Truman orders troops to Korea to help stop a communist invasion.
• 1951 - Truman fires famous general Douglas MacArthur for not obeying orders. This was a very unpopular decision, but Truman felt he had to do it because MacArthur would not follow orders.
• 1953 - President Truman leaves Washington, D.C., to retire.
• 1955 - Work on the Truman Presidential Archives in Independence, MO, begins.
• 1972 - Truman dies on the 26th of December. He was 88 years old.