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Mussolini and the Fascists come to power in Italy
Fascism arose in Europe after World War I when many people yearned for national unity and strong leadership. In Italy, Benito Mussolini used his charisma to establish a powerful fascist state. -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
In September 1931, they claimed that Chinese soldiers had sabotaged the railway, and attacked the Chinese army. By February 1932, the Japanese had conquered the whole of Manchuria. Thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed. -
Hitler and the Nazis come to power in Germany
The Nazi Party’s meteoric rise to power began in 1930, when it attained 107 seats in Germany’s parliament, the Reichstag. In July 1932, the Nazi Party became the largest political party in the Reichstag with 230 representatives. -
Neutrality Acts Passed in the U.S.
The Neutrality Acts were a series of acts passed by the United States Congress in the 1930's in response to the growing threats and wars that led to World War II. They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US following its disillusionment after World War I, and sought to ensure that the US would not become entangled again in foreign conflicts. -
Formation of the Axis Powers
The major Axis Powers were Germany, Italy, and Japan. The alliance began to form in 1936. First, on October 15, 1936 Germany and Italy signed a friendship treaty that formed the Rome-German Axis. It was after this treaty that Italian dictator Benito Mussolini used the term Axis to refer to their alliance. -
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement was an astonishingly successful strategy for the Nazi party leader Adolf Hitler.the powers of Europe willingly conceded to Nazi Germany's demands for the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to keep "peace in our time." -
Kristallnacht
Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. -
Germany and the USSR sign the Non-Aggression pact
German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, pact signed on August 23, 1939, between Germany and the Soviet Union that was concluded a few days before the beginning of World War II and which divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. The pact was voided when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa in 1941. -
Germany invades Poland-Beginning of WWII
Germany invaded Poland to regain lost territory and ultimately rule their neighbor to the east. The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war–what would become the “blitzkrieg” strategy. -
France falls to Germany
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. On 3 September 1939 France had declared war on Germany, following the German invasion of Poland. In early September 1939, France began the limited Saar Offensive. By mid-October, the French had withdrawn to their start lines. -
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the Naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. The campaign peaked from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. -
Rosie the Riveter campaign encourages women to get a job
Rosie the Riveter was the star of a campaign aimed at recruiting female workers for defense industries during World War II, and she became perhaps the most iconic image of working women. American women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers during the war, as widespread male enlistment left gaping holes in the industrial labor force. -
The Rescue at Dunkirk
The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week Battle of France. -
Presidential election of 1940
The 1940 United States presidential election was the 39th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1940. The election was contested in the shadow of World War II in Europe, as the United States was emerging from the Great Depression. -
Relocation of Japanese Americans to camps
Japanese American internment, the forced relocation by the U.S. government of thousands of Japanese Americans to detention camps during World War II. That action was the culmination of the federal government’s long history of racist and discriminatory treatment of Asian immigrants and their descendants that had begun with restrictive immigration policies in the late 1800's. -
Congress passes the Lend Lease Act
Despite strong protests from isolationists, including Father Charles E. Coughlin, the Lend-Lease Act passed both houses of Congress by wide margins, clearing the Senate on March 8, 1941. President Roosevelt signed it into law on March 11. -
bombing of the Pearl Harbor
Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Over 1000 people died in this attack. Japan wanted the U.S. to fear them. -
Bataan Death March
The Bataan Memorial Death March is a challenging march through the high desert terrain of the White Sands Missile Range. The memorial march is conducted in honor of the heroic service members who defended the Philippine Islands during World War II, sacrificing their freedom, health, and, in many cases, their very lives. -
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Battle of Midway Island
The Battle of Midway—fought northeast of the islands on June 3–6, 1942, and characterized mainly by the actions of carrier-based airplanes—marked the turning point of the war in the Pacific. As a result of the battle, Japan lost most of its best naval pilots and first-line aircaft carriers and, in consequence, its ability to wage an offensive war in the Pacific. -
D-Day invasion
On June 6, 1944, soldiers swarmed the beaches of Normandy, France, to begin the liberation of German-occupied western Europe. On D-Day, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed on 50 miles of beaches in Normandy, France, to fight Nazi Germany. -
Allied Invasion/ Victory in the Philippines
The Battle of Luzon was a land battle of the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II by the Allied forces of the U.S., its colony the Philippines, and allies against forces of the Empire of Japan. The battle resulted in a U.S. and Filipino victory. -
Presidential Election of 1944
The 1944 United States presidential election was the 40th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 1944. The election took place during World War II. Incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Thomas E. Dewey to win an unprecedented fourth term. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was the bloodiest battle for U.S. forces in World War II. British casualties totaled 1,400 with 200 deaths. The German High Command estimated that they lost between 81,834 and 98,024 men in the Bulge between 16 December 1944 and 28 January 1945; the accepted figure was 81,834, of which 12,652 were killed -
The Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimea Conference and code-named Argonaut, held February 4–11, 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe. -
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the end of World War II in Europe. Several countries observe public holidays on the day each year, also called Victory Over Fascism Day, Liberation Day or Victory Day. -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom (which initiated the original Tube Alloys project) and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, -
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict. -
The surrender of Japan
The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced by Japanese Emperor Hirohito on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was incapable of conducting major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent.
