President Roosevelt announces ‘first crack in the Axis,’ ends coffee rationing 70 years ago today (1943)


Video: 'Franklin D. Roosevelt's War Progress Report'

(Wednesday, July 28, 1943, 9:30 p.m. EWT; during the Allied invasion of Sicily, part of the Italian Campaign of World War II) — During a speech on the fall of Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt informed the nation that “the first crack in the Axis has come.” He also announced the end of coffee rationing, which had limited people to one pound of coffee every five weeks since it began in November 1942.