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October 14 1918
Hitler was partially blinded in a mustard gas attack near Ypres in Belgium. -
September 12 1919
Hitler attends an early meeting of the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei-DAP), which will later become the Nazi Party under his leadership. -
November 8 1923
Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party lead a coalition group in an attempt to overthrow the government of Bavaria and initiate a “national revolution.” This so-called Beer Hall Putsch fails. Hitler and others are arrested for treason. -
1923-1925
Hitler is convicted of high treason and sentenced to five years imprisonment, although he serves only nine months. While in prison, he writes Mein Kampf (My Struggle). This infamous memoir proves significant in promoting key components of Nazism and its racial ideology. Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, it would sell one million copies in 1933, Hitler's first year in office. -
April 10 1932
Hitler loses a run-off election for the German presidency to the elderly incumbent, General Paul von Hindenburg. -
January 1933
The Nazi Party comes to power with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor. -
March 23 1933
Following the burning of the German parliament building, the Reichstag, by unknown arsonists, the German parliament passes the Law for Rectification of the Distress of Nation and Reich, commonly known as the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz). This law allows Hitler, as Chancellor, to initiate and sign legislation into law without obtaining parliamentary consent. The act effectively establishes a dictatorship, under Hitler, in Germany. -
September 1 1939
Nazi Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II. -
June 22 1941
The German army invades the Soviet Union in "Operation Barbarossa." As opposed to their conquests in western Europe, Hitler and other Nazi leaders see war against the Soviet Union in racial and ideological terms. -
April 30 1945
Hitler commits suicide in an underground bunker in Berlin rather than face capture by advancing Soviet forces. -
