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On the 2nd day in the Battle of Henderson Field. Mitchell Paige (1918-2003), US Marine platoon sergeant, held his position against Japanese forces at Guadalcanal as all his men were killed or wounded, until reinforcements arrived. He received a battlefield commission and later a Medal of Honor. In 1975 he authored the autobiography "A Marine Named Mitch."

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Japanese planes badly damaged the US ship Hornet in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands, in the South Pacific Solomon Islands. 300 survivors were rescued by the destroyer Barton. The Hornet sank early the next morning.

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In the Battle of Santa Cruz the USS South Dakota shot down a record 32 enemy planes

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Battle of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal began.

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In the first of four attacks, two Japanese battleships sail down the slot and shelled Henderson field on Guadalcanal, in an unsuccessful effort to destroy the American Cactus Air Force.

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In the World War II Battle of Cape Esperance in the Solomon Islands, U.S. cruisers and destroyers decisively defeated a Japanese task force in a night surface encounter.

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Fight at Matanikau, Guadalcanal

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The USS Wasp was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine at Guadalcanal; the US Navy ended up sinking the badly damaged aircraft carrier.

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The 3-day Battle of Edson's Ridge at Guadalcanal continued.

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Battle of Edson's Ridge began at Guadalcanal.

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Following the Battle of Midway, American forces at Guadalcanal--code-named "Cactus"--took delivery of 12 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers and their escort of 19 Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat fighters, the advance squadrons of Marine Air Group (MAG) 23. Within 12 hours the fledgling "Cactus Air Force" helped finish off a Japanese infantry assault.

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In the battle of the Eastern Solomons, the third carrier-versus-carrier battle of the war, U.S. naval forces defeated a Japanese force attempting to screen reinforcements for the Guadalcanal fighting.

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The 1st US flights landed on Guadalcanal.

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U.S. Marines turned back the first major Japanese ground attack on Guadalcanal in the Battle of Tenaru.

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Japan sent a crack army to Guadalcanal to repulse the U.S. Marines fighting there.

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U.S. Marines captured the Japanese airstrip on Guadalcanal.

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The U.S. 1st Marine Division under General A. A. Vandegrift landed on the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon islands. This was the first American amphibious landing of the war and the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II.

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Japanese forces began the evacuation of Guadalcanal

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Raymond Firth (1901-2002), authored, "We the Tikopia,' a study of an organization of some 1,200 Tikopia islanders of the British Solomons. He later wrote 9 more books on the Tikopia.

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The first recorded sighting of Tulagi Islands by Europeans was by the Spanish expedition of Álvaro de Mendaña.

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The Lapita people took once again to open the seas about this time.