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Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party
Hitler was know as the greatest speaker of the nazi party. Hitler knew that the growth in the party was mainly due to his skills as a apeaker and in the autumn of 1921 he challenged Anton Drexler for the leadership of the party. After brief resistance Drexler accepted the inevitable, and Hitler became the new leader of the Nazi Party. -
Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
Benito Mussolini marched into Rome with his Blackshirt legion, and King of Italy (Emmanuel III), fearing civil war, appointed Mussolini as Prime Minister, replacing Luigi Facta, who had tried and failed several times to form a stable government. -
Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR)
While the office was initially not highly regarded, Stalin used it to gather more power after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, slowly putting down all opposition. This included Leon Trotsky, the main critic of Stalin among the early Soviet leaders.Trotsky advocated world permanent revolution, While Stalin's concept of socialism in one country became the primary policy as he emerged the leader of the Soviet Union. -
Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began when Manchuria was invaded by the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan.The Japanese established a state, called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II. -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor after two further parliamentary elections, in July and November 1932, had not resulted in the formation of a majority government. -
Neutrality Acts Passed by US Congress
Roosevelt's State Department had lobbied for embargo provisions that would allow the President to impose sanctions selectively. This was rejected by Congress. The 1935 act, imposed a general embargo on trading in arms and war materials with all parties in a war. It also declared that American citizens traveling on ships traveled at their own risk due to the tension between Germany and the U.S. -
Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
Benito Mussolini, the leader of Italy, adopted Hitler's plans to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German. Mussolini followed this policy when he invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Mussolini claimed that his policies of expansion were not different from that of other colonial powers in Africa. The aim of invading Ethiopia was to boost Italian national prestige. -
Militarist Take Control of Japanese Government
On 26 February 1936, fanatical army officers assassinated two of Emperor Hirohito's key advisers, and army mutineers surrounded the Japanese Foreign Office and held much of Tokyo city for three days. Prime Minister Keisuke Okada escaped the assassins' bullets when they killed his brother-in-law by mistake. The plot to overthrow civilian government failed when the Army High Command refused to support the mutineers. The leaders of the mutiny were persuaded to commit suicide to avoid a trial which -
Hitler Sends Troops into Rhineland of Germany in Violation of the Versailles Treaty
Hitler ordered that his troops should openly re-enter the Rhineland thus breaking the terms of Versailles once again. He did order his generals that the military should retreat out of the Rhineland if the French showed the slightest hint of making a military stand against him. This did not occur. Over 32,000 soldiers and armed policemen crossed into the Rhineland -
Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China
Was a mass murder and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanking (Nanjing), the former capital of the Republic of China. During this period, hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers were murdered by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army -
Nazis Begin Rounding up Jews for Labor Camps
Nazis begin rounding up jews for labor camps -
Munich Pact Signed
A settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakia's areas along the country's borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, where Germany, among the major powers of Europe attended, without the presence of Czechoslovakia. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact Signed by Hitler and Stalin
A promise not to go to war with each other and (secretly) a promise to invade Poland and split it between them. -
Nazis Invade Poland; Britain and France Declare War on Germany
Britain and France subsequently agreed to support Poland in the event of a German invasion. But their agreement did little to stop Hitler, who attacked Poland. The outbreak of war led to large-scale evacuation of women and children from London and other large cities. Other emergency measures were also declared. -
Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium and take control
Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium and take control -
Germany Invades France and Forces it to Surrender
Using the Blitzkrieg tactic, Germany defeated France. -
Battle of Britain
Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their Island -
First Time Peacetime Draft in US
President Roosevelt's signing of the STSA began the first peacetime draft in the United States. Requiring registration of all men between 21 and 45, with selection for one year's service by a national lottery. The term of service was extended by one year in August 1941. -
Japanese Invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia)
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, to prevent China from importing arms and fuel through French Indochina, via the Sino-Vietnamese Railway from the port of Haiphong through Hanoi to Kunming in Yunnan. Japan occupied northern Indochina, which tightened the blockade of China, and made continuation of the drawn out Battle of South Guangxi unnecessary. -
Hitler breaks Pact with Stalins Russia and invades the USSR
The USSR now joins England in fighting the Germans -
Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was the statement of principles agreed to by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill of Great Britain at their first wartime conference, August 9-12, 1941. The conference was held on board naval vessels anchored in Placentia Bay, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The Charter was not an official document, but rather a joint statement expressing the war aims of the two countries--one technically neutral and the other at war. -
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii attacked by Japanese Naval and Air forces.
Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The U.S.S. Arizona was completely destroyed and the U.S.S. Oklahoma capsized. A total of twelve ships sank or were beached in the attack and nine additional vessels were damaged. More than 160 aircraft were destroyed and more than 150 others damaged. -
Japanese Americans Interned in Isolated Camps
Japanese Americans were rounded up and taken to isolatation camps where they were to live for the next five years. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway, fought over and near the tiny U.S. mid-Pacific base at Midway atoll, represents the strategic high water mark of Japan's Pacific Ocean war. Prior to this action, Japan possessed general naval superiority over the United States and could usually choose where and when to attack. After Midway, the two opposing fleets were essentially equals, and the United States soon took the offensive. Thsi was the turning point of the war in the Pacific. -
Russians Stop Nazi Advance at Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major and decisive battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the southwestern Soviet Union. By doing this, they saved Moscow. -
Philippines Fall to Japanese
That led to the Bataan Death March. Which was the forcible transfer, by the Imperial Japanese Army, of 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. -
British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
A massive Allied attack pushed through Bizerte and Tunis, and the last of some 275,000 Germans and Italians surrendered on the Cape Bon Peninsula on May 12, 1943. -
Zoot Suit Riots
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots in 1943 during World War II that exploded in Los Angeles, California, between white sailors and Marines stationed throughout the city and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored.The Zoot Suit Riots were in part the effect of the infamous Sleepy Lagoon murder which involved the death of a young Latino man in a barrio near Los Angeles. -
Italy Surrenders
Mussolini dismissed as Prime Minister -
D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. -
Paris retaken by Allies Forces
The Liberation of Paris (also known as the Battle for Paris) took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the surrender of the occupying German garrison on 25 August.The Liberation of Paris started with an uprising by the French Resistance against the German garrison. On 24 August, the French Forces of the Interior (Forces françaises de l'intérieur, FFI) received reinforcements from the Free French Army of Liberation and from the U.S. Third Army under General Patton. -
Battle of the Bulge
Last offensive of German Forces -
US forces Return to Recapture the Philippines
The Battle for the Recapture of Corregidor pitted American liberation forces against the defending Japanese garrison on the island fortress. -
FDR dies,
Harry S. Truman becomes President -
V-E Day,
War ends in Europe -
\V-J Day,
Japan surrenders to Allied Forces -
First Atomic Bombs dropped
The first atomic bomb has been dropped by a United States aircraft on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
War Crimes Trials held in Nuremburg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan.
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or simply the Tribunal, was convened on April 29, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of war crimes.