1943: Americans secure Guadalcanal

History.com has this for 8 February:

On 8 February 1943, Japanese troops evacuated Guadalcanal, leaving the island in Allied possession after a prolonged campaign. The American victory paved the way for other Allied wins in the Solomon Islands. Guadalcanal is the largest of the Solomons, a group of 992 islands and atolls, 347 of which are inhabited, in the South Pacific. The Solomons, located northeast of Australia, have 87 indigenous languages and were discovered in 1568 by the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendana de Neyra (1541-95). In 1893, the British annexed Guadalcanal, along with the other central and southern Solomons. The Germans took control of the northern Solomons in 1885, but transferred these islands, except for Bougainville and Buka (which eventually went to the Australians) to the British in 1900.The Japanese invaded the Solomons in 1942 during World War Two and began building a strategic airfield on Guadalcanal. On 7 August 1942, American Marines landed on the island, signaling the Allies’ first major offensive against Japanese-held positions in the Pacific. The Japanese responded quickly with sea and air attacks. A series of bloody battles ensued in the debilitating tropical heat as Marines sparred with Japanese troops on land while, in the waters surrounding Guadalcanal, the American Navy fought six major engagements with the Japanese between 24 August and 30 November. In mid-November of 1942, the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, died together when the Japanese sank their ship, the USS Juneau.Both sides suffered heavy losses of men, warships and planes in the battle for Guadalcanal. An estimated sixteen hundred American troops were killed, over four thousand were wounded, and several thousand more died from disease. The Japanese lost twenty-four thousand soldiers. On 31 December 1942, Emperor Hirohito told Japanese troops they could withdraw from the area; the Americans secured Guadalcanal about five weeks later.The Solomons gained their independence from Britain in 1978. In the late 1990s, fighting broke out between rival ethnic groups on Guadalcanal, and continued until an Australian-led international peacekeeping mission restored order in 2003. Today, with a population of over half a million people, the Solomons are known as a scuba diver and fisherman’s paradise.

Rico says its yet another war he's glad he missed... (And, after the Sullivan brothers died, they passed a law forbidding family members from serving together.)