fries_A Storm Cloud Gathers

  • Stock Market Crash

    Stock Market Crash

    Most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout. The crash signaled the beginning of the 12-year Great Depression.
  • Japan Seizes Manchuria

    Japan Seizes Manchuria

    Japan launched an attack on Manchuria. Within a few days Japanese armed forces had occupied several strategic points in South Manchuria.
  • Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany

    Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany

    President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, as chancellor of Germany. So begins Hitler's plan for world domination.
  • FDR is elected president

    FDR is elected president

    He passed more bills through congress in first 100 days than most presidents in entire first term in office.
  • Hitler defies the Treaty of Versailles

    Hitler defies the Treaty of Versailles

    Hitler defies the treaty of Versailles by building up his army, taking back the Rhineland.
  • Italy invades Ethiopia

    Italy invades Ethiopia

    The aim of invading Ethiopia was to boost Italian national prestige.
  • France militarizes the Rhineland

    France militarizes the Rhineland

    Violated the terms of the Locarno Treaties and was the first time since the end of World War I that German troops had been in this region.
  • Japan seizes French Indo-China

    Japan seizes French Indo-China

    Prevent China from importing arms and fuel through French Indochina.
  • Civil War erupts in Spain

    Civil War erupts in Spain

    Spain was divided in two: a "Republican" or "Loyalist" Spain
  • Japan invades China

    Japan invades China

    Attempt by the Japanese Empire to gain control over the whole province, in order to eventually encompass all of East Asia
  • Anschluss

    Anschluss

    Occupation and annexation of the German Republic Austria into Nazi Germany.
  • Mussolini takes power in Italy

    Mussolini takes power in Italy

    Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism.
  • Munich Conference

    Munich Conference

    Agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.
  • Kristallnacht

    Kristallnacht

    series of co-ordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria carried out by SA stormtroopers and civilians
  • U.S. Neutrality Act

    U.S. Neutrality Act

    1939 laws that were passed by the United States Congress in the 1930s, in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia.
  • Nazi-Soviet Pact

    Nazi-Soviet Pact

    Agreement between Germany and Russia that promised neither would attack the other for 10 years.
  • Germany invades Poland

    Germany invades Poland

    Invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe.
  • Phony War

    Phony War

    Phase early in World War II—in the months following Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany.
  • Churchill is Elected Prime Minister in England

    Churchill is Elected Prime Minister in England

    British Conservative politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II.
  • Miracle at Dunkirk

    Miracle at Dunkirk

    Evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, France.
  • France Surrenders

    France Surrenders

    For the Axis Powers, the campaign was a spectacular victory.
  • Battle of Britain

    Battle of Britain

    The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign.
  • Lend-Lease Act

    Lend-Lease Act

    Program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with weapons between
  • Atlantic Charter

    Atlantic Charter

    Pivotal policy statement first issued in August 1941 that early in World War II defined the Allied goals for the post-war world.
  • Attack on Pearl Harbor

    Attack on Pearl Harbor

    Surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.