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  Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party
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  Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
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  Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR)
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  Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
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  Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
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  Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
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  Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
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  Militarist take control of Japanese Government
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  Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty
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  Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people.
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  Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany
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  Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
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  Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin
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  Sept 1st - Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
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  Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium to take control
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  Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
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  Battle of Britain – Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island
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  First time Peacetime Draft in US
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  Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades - USSR which now joins England in fighting the Germans
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  Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
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  Japanese invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia)
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  Pearl Harbor in Hawaii attacked by Japanese Naval and Air forces, US declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the US - Dec. 9
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  Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death March
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  Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps
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  Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific
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  Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow
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  British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
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  Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA
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  July - Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Min.
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  June 6 - D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
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  Aug. - Paris retaken by Allies Forces
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  Dec. Battle of the Bulge – last offensive of German Forces
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  April 16th - FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President
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  Jan. – US forces return to recapture the Philippines
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  Aug. - First Atomic Bombs dropped
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  Aug. 14th – V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces
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  1945 May 8th - V-E Day, war ends in Europe
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  War Crimes Trials held in Nuremburg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan.