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Nazi Germany Invades Poland
German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. -
Sitzkrieg
The Phoney War refers to an eight-month period at the start of World War II, during which there were no major military land operations on the Western Front -
France Falls to Germany
The first one was Case Yellow or Fall Gelb and is when the armored units of Germany cut off allied units which had advanced into the country of Belgium at the Ardennes. -
Battle of Britain
A significant turning point of World War II, the Battle of Britain ended when Germany's Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain's air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population. -
Destroyers-for-Bases Deal
In the Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, fifty mothballed Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson-class US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the United States Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions. -
America First Committee Launched
The America First Committee was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II. -
Congress Institutes the Draft
Initially, it required civilian males from the ages of 21 through 35 to register with their local draft boards. -
Four Freedoms
In an address known as the Four Freedoms speech Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy. -
Lend-Lease
It permitted him to "sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of, to any such government [whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States] any defense article." -
USS Kearny Attacked
Eleven men died in the attack, it was one more incident hardening the attitude of the American people. -
Reuben James Sank
The first United States Navy ship sunk by hostile action in the European theater of World War II and the first named for Boatswain's Mate Reuben James, who distinguished himself fighting in the Barbary Wars. -
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, thus sending the US into World War 2. -
Battle of Bataan
Represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II. -
Bataan Death March
the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war from Saysain Point, Bagac, Bataan and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, via San Fernando, Pampanga, where the prisoners were loaded onto trains. -
Battle of Coral Sea
A major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. -
Battle of Midway
The United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll, marking a turning point in the war in the Pacific theatre. -
Island Hopping Campaign Begins
The idea was to bypass heavily fortified Japanese positions and instead concentrate the limited Allied resources on strategically important islands that were not well defended but capable of supporting the drive to the main islands of Japan. -
Battle of El Alamein
The Allied victory at El Alamein lead to the retreat of the Afrika Korps and the German surrender in North Africa in May 1943. -
Casablanca Conference
The most notable developments at the Conference were the finalization of Allied strategic plans against the Axis powers in 1943, and the promulgation of the policy of “unconditional surrender.” -
Battle of Stalingrad
A major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe. -
Tehran Conference
At Tehran, the three Allied leaders also discussed important issues concerning the fate of Eastern Europe and Germany in the postwar period. Stalin pressed for a revision of Poland's eastern border with the Soviet Union to match the line set by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon in 1920. -
D-Day
Codenamed Operation 'Overlord', the Allied landings on the Normandy beaches marked the start of a long and costly campaign to liberate north-west Europe from German occupation. -
MacArthur Returned to the Philippines
After advancing island by island across the Pacific Ocean, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur wades ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte, fulfilling his promise to return to the area he was forced to flee in 1942. -
FDR Elected to a 4th Term
The only president to be elected to three terms in office, is inaugurated to his fourth term. -
Battle of the Bulge
Germany's defeat and the end of the war in Europe came sooner, and at a lower cost in Allied lives than it would have otherwise. The Battle of the Bulge, or Ardennes Offensive was the last major Nazi offensive in World War II. -
Yalta Conference
During the conference, the three leaders agreed to demand Germany's unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was strategically important: it provided an air base for Japanese fighter planes to intercept long-range B-29 Superfortress bombers, and it provided a haven for Japanese naval units in dire need of any support available. -
Battle of Okinawa
Iwo Jima and Okinawa were said to be the areas in which they could use as landing strips for the atomic bombs that would later destroy the Japanese homeland. -
FDR Died / Harry Truman Became President
On this day in 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passes away after four momentous terms in office, leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power. -
VE Day
Marked the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
Manhattan Project Began
The first atomic bomb — a weapon that atomic scientists had nicknamed "Gadget." -
Potsdam conference
The Big Three met in Potsdam, Germany to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. -
Little Boy Dropped on Hiroshima
It was the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare. -
Fat Man Dropped on Nagasaki
It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the first being Little Boy, and its detonation marked the third nuclear explosion in history. -
VJ Day
News of the surrender was announced to the world. This sparked spontaneous celebrations over the final ending of World War II -
Nuremberg Trials
Held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, the Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949. -
Japanese War Crime Trials
Called to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of war crimes.
