1921 Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party
1922 Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
1929 Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR)
1931 Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
1933, March 21 - Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
1935 Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
1935 Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
1936 Militarist take control of Japanese Government
1936 Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty
1937 Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people.
1938 Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
1938 Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany
1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin
1939 Sept 1st - Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
1940 Battle of Britain – Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island
1940 Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control
1940 First time Peacetime Draft in US
1940 Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
1940 First time Peacetime Draft in US
1941 Japanese invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia)
1941 Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades -USSR which now joins England in fighting the Germans
1941 Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
1941, Dec. 7 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
1942 Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow
1942 Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps
1942, June 4-7 Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific
1942 Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death March
1943 British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
1943 Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA
1943 July - Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Min.
1944 June - D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
1945 Jan. – US forces return to recapture the Philippines
1945 April 16th - FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President
1945 May 8th - V-E Day, war ends in Europe
1945 Aug. - First Atomic Bombs dropped
1945 Aug. 14th – V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces
1946 War Crimes Trials held in Nuremburg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan.