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Japanese Invasion of Manchuria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_aZWY2Pm3g On September 18th, 1931, two years before Hitler would seize power in Germany and eight years before the official start of the Second World War, the Japanese would invade the northern region of China called Manchuria. Although there is no official estimate for the death toll it is without question that thousands of innocent Chinese and Japanese lost their lives for nothing more than the ambition of Japanese military. War had returned. -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
On January 30th, 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. After years of leading the National Socialist German Workers' Party, Hitler had finally obtained a position within the government and was received with admiration and worship from all those who attended his appointment. Within weeks of his appointment he would seize absolute power within Germany and his 12-year reign of terror would soon begin. -
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Second Italo-Abyssinian War
http://steelpulse.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ethiopiainvasion.jpg On October 3rd, 1935 Italian General Emilio De Bono crossed into Ethiopia with his large Italian army. In response to this, Ethiopia officially declared war on Italy. The fighting would continue in East Africa for another six months. By the end of the war over 480,000 men were either wounded or killed in order for Italy to gain another colony and form Italian East Africa. The world was being brought closer to war. -
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Marco Polo Bridge Incident
http://quest.eb.com/images/109/109_1185/109_118564-W.jpg?rand=0.4847126258876111 Following the Invasion of Manchuria tensions between Japan and China continued to increase until it all reached a boiling point. On June 7th, 1937 Japanese forces opened up on 100 Chinese soldiers defending the Marco Polo bridge. This conflict escalated and resulted in the full scale invasion and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in which thousands of Chinese and Japanese would lose their lives. -
Pact of Steel
Six years after seizing absolute power in Germany, Adolf Hitler was aware of his potential ally to the south, Italy. A fascist government headed by Benito Mussolini, both governments were distrusting and fearful of the other. To solve this problem Mussolini came to Hitler and proposed an alliance that would serve as a defensive alliance against the Western democracies. The Pact of Steel would later become the basis for the eventually Axis of Germany, Italy, and Japan. -
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is Signed
Not being able to reach an agreement with Britain and France, Joseph Stalin, leader of the USSR, was worried that the growing German Wehrmacht would soon invade the weakened Soviet Union. To fix this problem, Stalin hired Vyacheslav Molotov as his foreign minster. Molotov, soon after his appointment, met with German foreign minster, Joachim von Ribbentrop. The two men eventually came to an agreement that would result in a non-aggression pact between the two nations. -
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Germany invades Poland
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/world-war-ii-history/videos/germany-invades-poland Wanting to follow through on his foreign policy plan and wanting to bring Danzig back into the German Empire, Hitler began an invasion of Poland that began on September 1st, 1939. During the two months of fighting the Polish would suffer over 190,000 in casualties. The start of the Second World War had come and within a few short years millions of men would die. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
Two days after German forces invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The declaration resulted in the deaths of 112 passenger aboard the SS Athenia, a British passenger ship. The British responded with 13 tons of anti-Nazi propaganda being dropped into Germany and the bombing of German ships . Two weeks later, the French would attempt to invade Germany but would not succeed. The war in Europe had finally begun and soon millions of young men would lose their lives. -
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Operation Barbarossa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RePOWFtsInw On June 22, 1941, three German Army groups invaded Russia. With over three million German troops and roughly three thousand tanks the German Army crushed through the Soviet main lines and began to move into the Soviet heartland. Though winter came too soon and the German Army began a long Eastern Front war that would continue until 1945. Operation Barbarossa resulted in the death of over 5 million soldiers. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
"A Date Which Will Live In Infamy" At 8 a.m. on December 7th, 1941 hundreds of Japanese fighter planes began to barrage an American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The barrage lasted for two hours and resulted in the death of thousands of Americans and left thousands more wounded. Within a week after the attack the United States would declare war on Japan and Germany and Italy would declare war on the U.S. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad/videos On August 23rd, 1942 the deadliest battle of the Second World War took place. It would continue until February of the next year and resulted in the death of 2 million Germans and Russians. -
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Operation Overlord
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d4/35/ba/d435ba80447c04c18e1e6ef9b70f55cf.png Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied Invasion of Normandy and the liberation of France from the Nazis. Over 150,000 Allied soldiers attacked five beaches on the coast of Northern France on June 6th, 1944. Over 2,000 Americans died the morning of June 4th and close to a million Allied and German soldiers would die by August 1944. -
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Battle of Berlin
https://fthmb.tqn.com/LMbss5aVE5TVBAE9nv-aIqLlSz4=/768x0/filters:no_upscale()/about/SovietsBerlin-56a61a603df78cf7728b575e.jpg Beginning on April 16th, 1945 and ending on May 2nd, 1945, the Battle of Berlin was the final major battle of European Theatre during World War II and would result in the death of over 200,000 German and Russian troops, the destruction of Berlin, and the death of 22,000 German civilians. -
Adolf Hitler commits suicide
With his empire falling apart all around him and the Russians only a day away, Adolf Hitler decided the only solution was suicide. Hidden inside his underground bunker, Hitler and his wife Eva Braun swallowed cyanide pills before Hitler shot himself with his pistol. -
V-E Day
Eight days after Hitler committed suicide, the war in Europe finally in ended. Victory in Europe Day, V-E Day, signifies the day when German soldiers announced their surrender and laid down their arms. After six years of war the young men in Europe could finally live in peace knowing that their lives were no longer in danger. -
Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima
Fearing the war in the Pacific would drag on further and wanting to demonstrate the military capability of the United States, President Harry S. Truman made the decision to use atomic weaponry for the first time in human history. On August 6th, 1945 the U.S. bomber Enola Gay, dropped "Little Boy" a 5-ton bomb over the city of Hiroshima an resulting the death of hundreds of thousands innocent Japanese civilians. The war would still claim thousands of more lives. -
Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki
Three days after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima another atomic bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man" was dropped at 11:02 a.m. over the city of Nagasaki killing tens of thousands more Japanese civilians and bringing the death and violence one step closer to being over. Soon Japan would unconditionally surrender and the war would be over. -
V-J Day
Victory over Japan Day or V-J Day, marks the official end of the war. On September 2nd, 1945, six years and one day after the start of the war, the deadliest war in history came to a close. Over 60 million people died over the course of the war. This was an astonishing 3% of the global population at the time. The world had been forever changed and a war of this scale would never be repeated.
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