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Period: to
World War 2
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Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party
The Nazi party was founded in 1919 as the German Workers’ Party, the group promoted German pride and anti-Semitism. They strongly disagreed with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
Mussolini was a minister with dictatorial powers. In May 1938, Mussolini promised to fight alongside Adolf Hitler in any war against the democracies of the world. -
Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union
Stalin changed the Soviet Union from a poor peasant country to an industrial and military society. He ruled with terror and many of his people died during his reign. -
Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
The invasion of Manchuria was when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Mukden Incident was a staged event engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the Japanese invasion in 1931 of northeastern China, known as Manchuria. Link to video of invasion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_aZWY2Pm3g -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
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Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
The acts passed prohibited the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war” from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license. -
Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia. -
Militarist take control of Japanese Government
The Japanese Government that that the military should dominate the political and social life of the nation, and that the strength of the military is equal to the strength of a nation. -
Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty
The Rhineland was a demilitarized zone along the Rhine River in western Germany -
Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people
This event is known as the Nanking Massacre. Between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted, causing the event to also be referred to as the Rape of Nanking. -
Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany
The agreement avoided the outbreak of war but gave Czechoslovakia up to German rule. The French and British leaders didn't want to give it up but they were hoping to keep peace. -
Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
Throughout 1938 many events took place regarding the mistreatment of Jews. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin
Hitler and Stalin stunned the world with this anti-agression act. The agreement stated that the two countries would not conduct any military aggression against one another for the next 10 years. -
Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
After getting news of the Nazi invasion of Poland, Britain and France declare war on Germany. The United States stay neutral, as they are still coming out of the depression and can't really afford to go to war at this time. -
Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control
The Nazi army was too much for the smaller and less powerful armies of Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium. The captures of these countries pulled neutral countries into the war. -
Battle of Britain begins
Royal Air Force defeated the German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island. This event lasted three and a half months. -
Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
The capital of France was overtaken on this date, marking the full invasion and surrender of France. -
First time Peacetime Draft in US
This act enlisted men of ages from 21-36. The president read the selections outloud for public announcement. -
Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades
USSR joined England in fighting the Germans. Germany sent around 3 million soldiers into the Soviet Union. -
Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
It was set out as a vision for the postwar world. In January 1942, a group of 26 Allied nations pledged their support for this declaration, known as the Atlantic Charter. The document is considered one of the first key steps toward the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. -
Japanese invade French Indochina
The Japanese invaded Vichy French Indochina to prevent the Republic of China from importing arms and fuel through French Indochina along the Sino-Vietnamese Railway, from the port of Haiphong through Hanoi to Kunming in Yunnan -
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii attacked by Japanese Naval and Air forces, US declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the US on December 9th
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. -
Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death March
U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II, resulted in the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. -
Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps
The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II was the forced relocation and incarceration in camps in the interior of the country of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the Pacific coast. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens. -
Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific
The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, 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. -
Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe. -
British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
Fighting in North Africa started with the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940. On 14 June, the British Army's 11th Hussars (assisted by elements of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, 1st RTR) crossed the border from Egypt into Libya and captured the Italian Fort Capuzzo. -
Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Min.
With Mussolini deposed from power and the earlier collapse of the fascist government in July, Gen. Pietro Badoglio, the man who had assumed power in Mussolini’s stead by request of King Victor Emanuel, began negotiating with Gen. Eisenhower for weeks. Weeks later, Badoglio finally approved a conditional surrender, allowing the Allies to land in southern Italy and begin beating the Germans back up the peninsula. -
Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of racist attacks in June 1943 in Los Angeles, California, United States, between Mexican American youths and European American servicemen stationed in Southern California. White servicemen and civilians attacked youths who wore zoot suits because the outfits were considered unpatriotic and extravagant during wartime, in which rationing of fabric was required for the World War II war effort. -
D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
D-Day was when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. -
Paris retaken by Allies Forces
After more than four years of Nazi occupation, Paris is liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. 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. -
Battle of the Bulge – last offensive of German Forces
Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. Caught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle’s name. -
US forces return to recapture the Philippines
The Liberation of the Philippines commenced with amphibious landings on the eastern Philippine island of Leyte on October 20, 1944. United States and Philippine Commonwealth military forces were progressing in liberating territory and islands when the Japanese forces in the Philippines were ordered to surrender by Tokyo on August 15, 1945, after the dropping of the atomic bombs on mainland Japan. -
FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed away after four momentous terms in office, leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power. -
V-E Day, war ends in Europe
The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944,[4] in anticipation of victory. On 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germany's surrender, therefore, was authorised by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government. The act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France and on 8 May in Berlin, Germany. -
V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces
Victory over Japan Day is the day on which Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect ending the war. The term has been applied to both of the days on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made – to the afternoon of August 15, 1945, in Japan, and, because of time zone differences, to August 14, 1945 – as well as to September 2, 1945, when the signing of the surrender document occurred, officially ending World War II. -
First Atomic Bombs dropped
President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the 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 bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
War Crimes Trials held in Nuremberg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan.
General Tomoyuki Yamashita was hanged in Manila on February 23, 1946. The fate of this officer, a first-class fighting man,affirmed something new in the annals of war. For Yamashita did not die for murder, or for directing other men to do murder in his name. Yamashita lost his life not because he was a bad or evil commander, but simply because he was a commander, and the men he commanded had done unspeakably evil things.
