-
In 1921, Adolf Hitler, a German politician, led the Nazi party. The party was made up of a group of people who were against rival politicians and political parties, and people who did not fit the mold of the Aryan "master race" (blonde-haired, blue-eyed, pure Germans. Economic distress in Germany from World War 1 led people to trust Adolf Hitler and agree with his ideals.
-
When Mussolini was first appointed Prime Minister of Italy, he ruled in a democratic and constitutional manner. This changed when he turned Italy into a one-party, totalitarian state, appointing himself as the sole leader.
-
Joseph Stalin was first the General Secretary of the Communist Party, but later became a Soviet dictator after Vladimir Lenin's death.
-
Japan launched an attack on Manchuria, and after a few days, the Japanese armed forces had taken over many strategic points in the South of Manchuria.
-
In 1933, Hitler was appointed the Chancellor of Germany, which is the head of the German government. Many Germans thought that they had found a savior for their nation in Hitler.
-
-
Congress enacted a series of laws stating the U.S's neutrality in order to prevent foreign war.
-
Extreme militarists used intimidation, assassination, and manipulation in order to gain control of the government in Japan.
-
Contrary to the treaties of Versailles, Locarno, and his nonaggression agreement with Stalin and the USSR, Hitler led his German troops into Rhineland.
-
In the Chinese city of Nanjing, Imperial Japanese Army forces brutally murdered from 200,000-300,000 people, both soldiers and civilians. This tragic and horrific event is now recognised as the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanking, since about 20,000-80,000 women were sexually assaulted. It took many decades for the city to recuperate and rebuild what was left over.
-
Hitler began enacting Jewish registration of businesses and individuals in order to keep track of all the Jews. Hitler then placed them all in concentration, or labor, camps.
-
One of Hitler's demands as a leader was to reclaim Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak government were hoping that Britain and France would help it resist German invasion, but British Prime Minister Chamberlain wanted to avoid war. On September 30, the Czechoslovak government chose submission over destruction after Germany annexed the Sudetenland.
-
This German-Soviet Nonaggression pact promised neutrality with one another, and was made only a few days before the beginning of World War 2.
-
After the Nazis invaded Poland, Britain and France declare war on Germany. Britain dropped anti-Nazi pamphlets over Germany, and France began an offensive against Germany's western border.
-
After Britain violated Norwegian neutrality, Hitler enacted his plans to occupy Norway. His admirals persuaded him to occupy the nation, and persuaded him in doing so before the British occupied Norway's surrounding waters, thus cutting Germany from its major source of iron ore.
-
The Battle of Britain began when German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom. They were at war during the largest sustained bombing campaign ever seen until then. The Battle finished when Germany’s Luftwaffe was unable to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force. Britain won, and the decisive victory saved the country from the possibility of a ground invasion and occupation by German forces.
-
After German forces started pressing French and British forces from the northeastern border, the French abandoned Paris, the capital. The French were moved southward.
-
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was a peacetime draft that required all men from ages 21-36 to register to local draft boards.
-
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the neutrality pact between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, was forgotten when the German force invaded Poland. The Russians decided to join the Allied forces to fight against the Germans.
-
France was defeated by the Germans in the colonial administration of French Indochina: now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
-
The Atlantic Charter was a joint declaration between Winston Churchill, the British Prime minister, and FDR. The charter described the U.S. and British war aims.
-
The Japanese military forces commit a surprising attack on the U.S. Pacific military base on the island of O'ahu in Hawaii. They sank 6 powerful military battleships, and killed more than three thousand soldiers. The next day, FDR asked Congress to declare war against Japan, and three days later, Italy and Germany declare war on the United States.
-
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR convinced Congress to declare war on Japan. Three days later, Italy and Germany declare war on the U.S.
-
The Russians were the victors at Stalingrad, and were able to save Moscow from Germany's brutal hands.
-
After Pearl Harbor began the relocation of Japanese-American about 110,000 to 120,000 immigrants into internment (concentration) camps.These immigrants were supposed "terrorists" who were against the U.S., but were mostly just innocent families. They were left in terrible conditions.
-
After the U.S. surrender of the Bataan peninsula on Luzon, the main island of the Philippines, the Japanese captured 75,000 Filipino and American troops, and forced them to walk 65 miles to prison camps. Those captured had to endure extreme heat, lack of food and water, and if they gave, couldn't keep going any longer, or stood up to the Japanese, they were brutally killed and left for dead.
-
The United States Navy, under Admirals Chester Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku. This occurred six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea,
-
British and U.S. military forces ended Germany's army and Italy's reign in North Africa.
-
A conflict between American servicemen stationed in Southern California and Mexican-American youths in Los Angeles County, California, United States.
-
Mussolini, Adolf Hitler's junior partner steps down as Prime Minister.
-
The largest amphibious invasion in history by the Western Allies of World War II. The Allies they assaulted Normandy, located on the northern coast of France. The invaders were able to establish a beachhead as part of Operation Overlord after a successful "D-Day," the first day of the invasion.
-
Paris is liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division after four years of Nazi occupation. German resistance was light, and General Dietrich von Choltitz, commander of the German garrison, defied an order by Adolf Hitler to blow up Paris’ landmarks and burn the city to the ground before its liberation.
-
The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was the last major German offensive campaign of World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, on the Western Front, towards the end of World War II, in the European theatre.
-
The U.S. government decided to send troops back to reclaim the Phillipines.
-
On April 12, 1945, while on vacation in Warm Springs, Georgia, Roosevelt suffered a massive stroke and died. His death marked a critical turning point in U.S. relations with the Soviet Union, as his successor, Harry S. Truman, decided to take a tougher stance with the Russians.
-
Generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945. It marked the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It also marked the end of World War II in Europe.
-
President Harry S. Truman was warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties. He instead ordered a new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton nuclear bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
-
Allied supreme commander General Douglas MacArthur, as well as the Japanese foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, and the chief of staff of the Japanese army, Yoshijiro Umezu, signed the official Japanese surrender on the U.S. Navy battleship Missouri, ending World War II.
-
Twenty-four former Nazi officials were tried at a series of war crime trials of accused Nazi war criminals, conducted by a U.S., French, and Soviet military tribunal based in Nuremberg, Germany. When it ended one year later, half were sentenced to death by hanging.
