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Japan Invades Manchuria
Japan unleashed military and political forces which led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It happened because Japan wanted to show they were the ultimate race. It unleashed military and political forces which eventually led to the attack on Pearl Harbor. -
Hitler Takes Power
Hitler did not gain his power all at once but acually gained it over time. Hitler legitimately gained power to become Chancellor. Hitler became asolute ruler of Germany because of his rise to power. -
Mussolini Invades Ethiopia
Mussolini invaded Ethiopia and added it to his new Italian Empire. He conquered Ethiopia to add to his empire. The effect of incorporrating Ethiopia brought nazi Germany closer and created The Steel Pact. -
US Neutrality Acts
By the mid-1930s, events in Europe and Asia indicated that a new world war might soon erupt and the U.S. Congress took action to enforce U.S. neutrality. On August 31, 1935, Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting 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. -
The Munich Conference
Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sign the Munich Pact, which seals the fate of Czechoslovakia, virtually handing it over to Germany in the name of peace. -
Hitler Annexes Austria
German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich.In early 1938, Austrian Nazis conspired for the second time in four years to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. Austria existed as a federal state of Germany until the end of World War II, -
Germany Invades Sudetenland
22 September 1938, Chamberlain met Hitler again at Godesberg. With the reluctant agreement of the Czechoslovakian government, Chamberlain offered Hitler control of the Sudetenland.The Czechs had to either accept or face the might of the German army alone. They accepted. -
Germany Invades Poland (what happens next... who declares war on whom??)
The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war--what would become the "blitzkrieg" strategy.The Polish army made several severe strategic miscalculations early on. Although 1 million strong, the Polish forces were severely under-equipped and attempted to take the Germans head-on with horsed cavaliers in a forward concentration, rather than falling back to more natural defensive positions.Great Britain would respond with bombing raids over Germany three days later. -
Germany Invades Rhineland
Hitler had signed the Treaty of Versailles, but after a few years he cancelled it and invaded The Rhineland. It happened because Hitler promised to avenge his people. It lead to the outbreak of WW2. -
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
On August 23, 1939–shortly before World War II (1939-45) broke out in Europe–enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. -
The Phony War (sitzkrieg)
‘Phoney War’ is the name given to the period of time in World War Two from September 1939 to April 1940 when, after the blitzkrieg attack on Poland in September 1939.The term 'Phoney War' was first used, allegedly, by an American senator called Borah. Winston Churchill referred to the same period as the ‘Twilight War’ while the Germans referred to it as ‘Sitzkrieg’ – 'sitting war'. -
Fall of France
The French collapse was as sudden as it was unexpected. It ripped up the balance of power in Europe, and overnight left the strategic assumptions on which Britain had planned to fight Hitler completely obsolete. With France out of the equation, Britain's war for the next four years was fought in the air, at sea, and in the Mediterranean - but not on the Western Front. Not until D-Day, 6 June 1944, did a major British army return to France. -
Rescue at Dunkirk
At 18:57 hours on 26 May 1940, the signal was received to start Operation Dynamo.
The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and French troops from Dunkirk's beaches on the north coast of France was about to begin.On 29 May, the evacuation was announced to the British public, and many privately owned boats started arriving at Dunkirk to ferry the troops to safety. This flotilla of small vessels famously became known as the 'Little Ships'. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was the German air force's attempt to gain air superiority over the RAF from July to September 1940. Their ultimate failure was one of the turning points of World War Two and prevented Germany from invading Britain. -
Yugoslavia and Greece fall
The German air force launches Operation Castigo, the bombing of Belgrade, on this day in 1941, as 24 divisions and 1,200 tanks drive into Greece.The attack on Yugoslavia was swift and brutal, an act of terror resulting in the death of 17,000 civilians--the largest number of civilian casualties in a single day since the start of the war. -
US Lend-Lease Program
Proposed in late 1940 and passed in March 1941, the Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. It authorized the president to transfer arms or any other defense materials for which Congress appropriated money to “the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States.” By allowing the transfer of supplies without compensation to Britain, China, the Soviet Union and other countri -
Germany invades the Soviet Union
German forces have invaded the Soviet Union.The invasion breaks the non-aggression pact signed by Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939.Soviet arms and ability, however, are considered vastly inferior to the Germans. -
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter included eight common principles. Among them, the United States and Britain agreed not to seek territorial gains from the war, and they opposed any territorial changes made against the wishes of the people concerned. The two countries also agreed to support the restoration of self-government to those nations who had lost it during the war. Additionally, the Atlantic Charter stated that people should have the right to choose their own form of government. Other principles incl -
Pearl Harbor
Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked -
Bataan Death March
After the April 9, 1942, U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March. -
Battle of the Coral Sea
On this, the first day of the first modern naval engagement in history, called the Battle of the Coral Sea, a Japanese invasion force succeeds in occupying Tulagi of the Solomon Islands in an expansion of Japan's defensive perimeter.
The United States, having broken Japan's secret war code and forewarned of an impending invasion of Tulagi and Port Moresby, attempted to intercept the Japanese armada.
