World War 2

Manchuria

Sep 18, 1931

Japan invades Manchuria.

Anti-Cominterm

Nov 25, 1936

Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the Soviet Union and the international Communist movement.

WW2 Pacific

Jul 7, 1937

Japan invades China, initiating World War II in the Pacific.

Munich

Sep 29, 1938

Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement which forces the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudetenland, including the key Czechoslovak military defense positions, to Nazi Germany.

Germany & Russia

Aug 23, 1939

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a nonaggression agreement and a secret codicil dividing eastern Europe into spheres of influence.

WW2 Europe

Sep 1, 1939

Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe.

Germany gains France

May 10, 1940

May 10, 1940–June 22, 1940
Germany attacks western Europe—France and the neutral Low Countries. Luxembourg is occupied on May 10; the Netherlands surrenders on May 14; and Belgium surrenders on May 28. On June 22, France signs an armistice agreement by which the Germans occupy the northern half of the country and the entire Atlantic coastline. In southern France, a collaborationist regime with its capital in Vichy is established.

Axis

Nov 20, 1940

Slovakia (November 23), Hungary (November 20), and Romania (November 22) join the Axis.

Germany turns

Jun 22, 1941

Nazi Germany and its Axis partners invade the Soviet Union. Finland, seeking redress for the territorial losses in the armistice concluding the Winter War, joins the Axis just before the invasion. The Germans quickly overrun the Baltic States and, joined by the Finns, lay siege to Leningrad by September. In the center, the Germans capture Smolensk in early August and drive on Moscow by October.

Pearl Harbor

Dec 7, 1941

Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. The United States declares war on Japan, entering World War II.

Germany Advance

Jun 28, 1942

Germany and her Axis partners launch a new offensive in the Soviet Union. German troops fight their way into Stalingrad on the Volga River by mid-September and penetrate deep into the Caucasus after securing the Crimean Peninsula.

Mussolini

Jul 25, 1943

The Fascist Grand Council deposes Benito Mussolini, enabling Italian marshall Pietro Badoglio to form a new government.

Allies free

Aug 20, 1944

Allied troops reach Paris. Free French forces, supported by Allied troops, enter the French capital. By September, the Allies reach the German border; by December, virtually all of France, most of Belgium, and part of the southern Netherlands are liberated.

Hitler

Apr 30, 1945

Hitler commits suicide.

Bombs

Aug 6, 1945

The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

The End

Sep 2, 1945

Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.