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Germany invades Poland
On this day in 1939, German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun -
Germany invades France
The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries during the Second World War. In six weeks from 10 May 1940, German forces defeated Allied forces by mobile operations and conquered France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, bringing land operations on the Western Front to an end until 6 June 1944. Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940 and attempted an invasion of France. -
Germany bombs London
On 4 September Hitler, frustrated by the RAF's superiority over the Luftwaffe and enraged by its bombing of German cities, vowed to destroy the British capital and the spirit of its people. -
United States gives Britain war supplies
An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States was to supply France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of China, and later the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between march 11, 1941 and August 1945. This included warships and warplanes, along with other weaponry. The policy was signed into law on March 11, 1941 and ended during September 1945. The aid was free for some countries, although some countries were repaying with gold. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, starting Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. The operationstemmed from Nazi Germany's ideologilal aims to conquer the western Soviet Union so that it could be repopulated by Germans, to use Slavs as a slave-labour force for the Axis war-effort, and to seize the oil reserves of the Caucasus and the agricultural resources of Soviet territories. -
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu Hawaii and was a devastating surprise attack by Japan forces on December 7, 1941. Just before 8 a.m on that Sunday morning, 100's of Japanese fighter planes bombed the base they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels including 8 battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack and 1,000 people were wounded. The day after President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. -
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor
The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of the 77th United States Congress. Roosevelt called December 7 "a date which will live in infamy". Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan amid outrage at the attack, the deaths of thousands of Americans, and the late delivery of the note from the Japanese government breaking off relations with the U.S. government. Roosevelt signed the declaration of war later the same day. -
The Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war vfromSaysainPoint, Bagac, Bataan and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, via San Fernando, Pampanga, where the prisoners were loaded onto trains. The transfer began on April 9, 1942, after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. The total distance marched from Mariveles to San Fernando. -
United States victory over Japan
months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. -
Germnay invades the Soviet Union
Under the codename Operation "Barbarossa," Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, in the largest German military operation of World War II. -
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II and opposed Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka. Started on April 19 when the Ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who ordered the burning of the Ghetto block by block ending on may 16. A total of 13,000 jews died. largest revolt by Jews during WWII. -
American troops allied in Normandy
The Western Allies of World War II launched the largest amphibious invasion in history when they assaulted Normandy, located on the northern coast of France, on 6 June 1944. The invaders were able to establish a beachhead as part of Operation Overlord after a successful "D-Day," the first day of the invasion. -
Battle of The Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. American forces brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany's armored forces, and were largely unable to replace them. German personnel and, later, Luftwaffe aircraft also sustained heavy losses. -
The Liberation of the concentration camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of war. On July 23, 1944, they entered the Majdanek camp in Poland and later overran several other killing centers. On January 27, 1945, they entered Auschwitz and there found hundreds of sick and tired prisoners. The Germans had been forced to leave these prisoners behind in their retreat from the camp. Also left behind were victims' belongings men's suits, women's coats, and thousands of pairs of shoes. -
United States drops two atomic bombs
The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War.
