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Adolf Hitler becomes German Chancellor
On this day in 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. -
Black Tuesday of 1929
Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. -
Roosevelt’s Hundred Days
March 4, 1933, the day Franklin Roosevelt assumed the presidency, was desperate. A quarter of the nation's workforce was jobless. -
Roosevelt’s Bank Holiday
After a month-long run on American banks, Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed a Bank Holiday, beginning March 6, 1933, that shut down the banking system. -
Tennessee Valley Authority founded
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer -
Works Progress Administration created
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious American New Deal agency, employing millions of unemployed people to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. -
The Dust Bowl
More and more dust storms had been blowing up in the years leading up to that day. In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the Plains. In 1933, there were 38 storms. -
Social Security Act passed
It was a social welfare legislative act which created the Social Security system in the United States. -
FDR elected to second presidential term
In contrast to his first term, little major legislation was passed during Roosevelt's second term. -
Adolf Hitler invades Poland
One of Adolf Hitler's first major foreign policy initiatives after coming to power was to sign a nonaggression pact with Poland in January 1934. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt elected to first presidential term
FDR was well-known prior to the election and had allies among politicians and in the media. -
The London Blitz
The Blitz was the period of sustained strategic bombing of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Between 7 September 1940 and 21 May 1941 there were major aerial raids on 16 British cities. -
FDR elected to third presidential term
Roosevelt's third term was dominated by World War II. Roosevelt slowly began re-armament in 1938, although he was facing strong isolationist sentiment from leaders like Senators William Borah and Robert A. Taft. -
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. -
Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 9066 is a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones. -
Battle of Midway Island
The Battle of Midway was a crucial and decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. -
FDR elected to fourth presidential term
On this day in 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented fourth term in office. FDR remains the only president to have served more than two terms. -
D-Day
During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. -
Auschwitz liberated by Allied Forces
On the Eastern front, the Soviets have amassed more than 2.5 million troops along a line thinly defended by Germans, who are more attentive to the Western front. -
FDR dies
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known by his initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States. -
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day, or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms) to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
A uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki on August 9. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
A uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki on August 9. -
V-J Day
V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays an American sailor kissing a woman in a white dress on Victory over Japan Day in Times Square in New York City, on August 14, 1945.
