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The Nazis invade Poland, causing France and the UK to declare war on the Nazis. This is considered to be the start of WWII. -
After the Blitzkrieg of Poland, France and Britain officially declare war on Germany. -
Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Luxembourg was occupied that same day. The Netherlands surrendered on 15 May, Belgium on the 28th. -
As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation of British and other Allied forces to Britain from 26 May to 4 June 1940. -
The Battle of Britain was important because it kept Nazi materials of war focused on Britain, steeled the will of the British people to find the war to the end, and demonstrated that the Nazis were not invincible. By denying the Germans the ability to invade, the British were able to keep the war in mainland Europe. -
On September 16, 1940, the United States instituted the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which required all men between the ages of 21 and 45 to register for the draft. This was the first peacetime draft in United States' history. -
Passed on March 11, 1941, this act set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed "vital to the defense of the United States." -
The Japanese military launched a surprise attack on the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. -
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US declared war on Japan, and joined WWII -
In response to the US declaring war on Japan, Germany and Italy declared war on the US. -
The battle ended the proposed Japanese sea-borne invasion of Port Moresby. When they attacked the American fleet at Midway the next month, the weakened Japanese were met by a stronger Allied fleet than they had expected, and were defeated. This was the end of Japanese naval power in the Pacific. -
Battle of Midway, (June 4–7, 1942), World War II naval battle, fought almost entirely with aircraft, in which the United States destroyed Japan's first-line carrier strength and most of its best trained naval pilots. -
The successful Operation Torch saw the American armies gain their first major victory in World War II. Paratroopers and Rangers from the U.S. Army were also successfully used for the first time at the landings around the city of Oran. -
The conquest of Sicily took a little more than a month and it led directly to the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and the surrender of the Italian government to the Allies. -
The D-Day operation of June 6, 1944, brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The operation, given the codename OVERLORD, delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. -
The Majdanek was the first Nazi camp to be discovered by the Allies and liberated. -
The Battle of the Bulge started on December 16, 1944, when German forces launched a surprise attack on Allied forces in the forested Ardennes region in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. The battle lasted until January 16, 1945, after the Allied counteroffensive forced German troops to withdraw. -
At Yalta, the Big Three agreed that after Germany's unconditional surrender, it would be divided into four post-war occupation zones, controlled by U.S., British, French and Soviet military forces. The city of Berlin would also be divided into similar occupation zones. -
On Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, Germany unconditionally surrendered its military forces to the Allies, including the United States. On May 8, 1945 - known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day - celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe. -
When they dropped two bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the world had never experienced anything like it before. The dropping of the device – codenamed 'Little Boy' – on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, claimed the lives of an estimated 140,000 people. -
The US dropped a second bomb, named Fat Man, on Nagasaki from the Bockscar, also a B-29 bomber on August 9, 1945. -
The next day, August 15th, 1945, was proclaimed Victory over Japan (VJ) Day, although the signing of the official instrument of surrender was not to occur until September 2nd, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri, in Tokyo Bay. There, representatives of nine Allied nations were present to accept the Japanese surrender.