1935-1942

  • benito mussolini

    During a speech in Milan, Benito Mussolini referred to the existence of a "German-Italian axis
  • signed the anti comintem

    Japan and Nazi Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact
  • The Munich Agreement Brings ‘Peace in Our Time’…

    eference to the Munich agreement of 1938, when the British and the French agreed to let Hitler have a section of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland in exchange for promising to go no further than that, is a cliché of modern politics, uttered most often in this country at least by politicians of the far right who always presume that they would have seen things clearly while sitting on the other side of the conference table from the Nazi leader
  • 'IT IS PEACE FOR OUR TIME'

    Chamberlain has returned from Munich, completing his third round-trip to Germany by air in as many weeks
  • The Hitler-Stalin Pact

    On this day in 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact, stunning the world, given their diametrically opposed ideologies
  • Germans invade Poland

    At 4:45 a.m., some 1.5 million German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea.
  • Britain and France declare war on Germany

    On this day in 1939, in response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany.
  • Soviet Union invades Poland

    On this day in 1939, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov declares that the Polish government has ceased to exist, as the U.S.S.R. exercises the “fine print” of the Hitler-Stalin Non-aggression pact—the invasion and occupation of eastern Poland.
  • Germany invades Norway and Denmark

    On this day in 1940, German warships enter major Norwegian ports, from Narvik to Oslo, deploying thousands of German troops and occupying Norway. At the same time, German forces occupy Copenhagen, among other Danish cities
  • Hitler Gains Victory Over France

    On June 22, 1940, Germany and France signed an armistice in the forest of Compiègne. The treaty provided that hostilities between the two nations would end six hours after the signing of an armistice treaty between France and Italy, Germany’s axis partner
  • The Battle of Britain begins

    On this day in 1940, the Germans begin the first in a long series of bombing raids against Great Britain, as the Battle of Britain, which will last three and a half months, begins
  • soldiers

    On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory.
  • Pearl Harbor bombed

    At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appears out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States irrevocably into World War II.
  • The United States declares war on Japan

    On this day, as America’s Pacific fleet lay in ruins at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt requests, and receives, a declaration of war against Japan