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The Nationalsozialistiche Deutscher Arbeiterspartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party) is founded by Anton Drexler, a Munich locksmith. The NSDAP promotes a platform of German ethnic nationalism, economic socialism, anti-communism, and anti-semitism, claiming the Jews were responsible for "stabbing Germany in the back" during the Great War.
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The Treaty of Versailles between Germany and the Allies is signed, forcing Germany to accept responsibility for the Great War and pay hefty compensation fees, destroying the German economy in the process.
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Adolf Hitler, the charismatic propaganda director of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, assumes total leadership of that organization.
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Benito Mussolini's Fascist Party marches on Rome in the aptly-titled March on Rome, where he is permitted to seize power by the prime minister.
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The Bavarian Prime Minister Eugen von Knilling declares a state of emergency amidst a climate of chaos and political tensions, giving the Bavarian government unrestrained powers. The newly appointed Staatskommissar (geht um), Gustav von Kahr, quickly bans meetings of the Nazi Party.
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The Nazi Party, led by Hitler, Erich Ludendorff, and Rudolf Hess, holds a "Push" at a beer hall in Munich, declaring a German Revolution with a stirring patriotic speech that sounded better if you were drunk. Having said their bit, Hitler and Ludendorff then realized that they didn't actually have any idea of what to do. Ludendorff took it into his head to march the Nazi partisans to the Bavarian defence ministry, where they were blocked by a police division, who opened fire, forcing a retreat.
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The Nazis hold the first Nuremberg Rally in (where else?) Nuremberg. The rally is intended to celebrate the glory of the Nazi Party and the German people.
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Following Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher's resignation, President Hindenburg offers Adolf Hitler the position of chancellor of Germany, on the advice of former chancellor and all-around loathsome cretin Franz von Papen.
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In response to the fire (officially an act of arson) at the German parliament building (the Reichstag) the day before, the Nazis suspend all articles of the constitution protecting personal freedoms, such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, etc. The Reichstag Fire Decree provided a legal basis for almost all of Hitler's suceeding decrees.
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The German army violates the Treaty of Locarno by entering the Rheinland (adjacent to France) on bicycles, encountering no resistance from France.
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A group of right-wing generals attempt a military coup against the Spanish Republic, with the intention of restoring the long-deposed monarchy. The partial failure of the coup begat a protracted civil war between the right-wing, Christian, monarchist Nationalists, backed by Italy, Portugal, and Nazi Germany, and the left-wing Republicans, backed by the Soviet Union. The result was a nationalist victory and the ensuing dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
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The Soviets and the Nazis sign a secret pact of non-aggression, allowing for Hitler to invade Poland untroubled by Soviet reprisals.
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Nazi Germany and Slovakia (!) submits a formal declaration of war against Poland, beginning the Second World War. Two days later, Britain and France declare war on Germany in response.
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The Soviets under Georgy Zhukov thwart a Japanese invasion of Mongolia at the Battle of Khalkin Gol.
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After months of deliberation on the Western Front while Hitler was invading Poland, Germany outflanks the French defences in the Ardennes forest and strikes France with unparalleled ferocity, capturing France in the space of a month. Northern France falls under direct German control, while the South becomes a Nazi puppet state led by Marshal Philippe Petain, a French general in the First World War.
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After months of deliberation on the Western Front while Hitler was invading Poland, Germany strikes Holland and Belgium with modern Blitzkrieg tactics, conquering the two in a matter of weeks.
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The Battle of Britain, a series of operations by the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe for aerial superiority of Britain, begins. The battle, intended as a prelude to a German amphibious invasion across the English Channel, is a rousing success for the Royal Air Force.
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Germany breaks the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union by invading Ukraine and the Baltics.
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The Japanese navy launch an attack on Pearl Harbour naval base in Hawaii, bringing the United States into the war.
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Thanks to the astute work of their codebreakers, the Americans thwart a Japanese attack on the American fleet at Midway Island in the Pacific.
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The Russians comprehensively defeat the Nazis at the gruesome 5 month long Battle of Stalingrad. German prisoners captured by the Russians are forced to listen to Walter Ulbricht talk.
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The Nazis mount a final offensive at Kursk, south of Moscow, but are repulsed within a month by the Soviets.
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In response to the Allied invasion of Sicily, King Victor Emmanuel III dismisses Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from office.
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From their base in Sicily, the Allies successfully invade mainland Italy, prompting the surrender of Italy five days later. Germany responds by invading Northern Italy and setting up a puppet state controlled by Mussolini.
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Atrocious weather allows a successful Allied military landing at Normandy in Northern France, providing a foothold for all further operations in the war.
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After six days of fighting, Paris is recaptured by the Allies.
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With the knowledge of impending German defeat, Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun commit suicide in the Hitlerbunker in Berlin. Believing everyone to be conspiring against him, Hitler leaves the drab and sycophantic Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as President, with Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as chancellor. After Goebbels kills his children and commits suicide, Dönitz is left as the sole leader of Germany.
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Dönitz and co negotiate a drab and sycophantic surrender to France, Britain, and reluctantly the Soviet Union, placing Germany under Allied occupation and officially ending the war in Europe.
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Despite German surrender, Japan refuses to capitulate, so the United States detonates a weapon of hitherto unknown destructive capacities, an atomic bomb, on the city of Hiroshima. Three days later, another atomic bomb destroys Nagasaki.
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Confronted with the powerful force of the atomic bomb, Japan sees no option but to surrender to the United States, officially ending the Second World War.
