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Mussolini takes power in italy
Mussolini was asked by the king to form a government. -
Stalin comes to power
Joseph Stalin gained the effective leadership of Russia in 1929 -
The U.S. stock market crashes
Thursday, October 24, 1929, stock values declined rapidly following a five-year period in which the average price of common stocks on the New York Stock Exchange had more than doubled. -
Japan invades Manchuria
When Manchuria was invaded by the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state, called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II. -
FDR was elected president
Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." -
Hitler is named chancellor of Germany
Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or Nazi Party, grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany through totalitarian means from 1933 to 1945 -
The U.S. passes the Neutrality Act
The United States Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts because they feared that the United States would end up getting pulled into the conflicts that were occurring in Europe, and the United States had a strong feeling of isolationism at that time. -
Italy invades Ethiopia
Benito Mussolini, ordered Italian troops to invade Ethiopia. The Italian Fascist government had embarked upon a policy of colonial expansion in northeast Africa. Haile Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia, appealed to the League of Nations for assistance to halt Italian aggression. -
Germany remilitarizes the Rhineland
In 1936 Germany sent troops into the Rhineland, which had been demilitarized under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. The purpose of remilitarization in 1936 was to show the public in Germany that Hitler was 'putting right' the wrongs of Versailles and also in order to build military installations and fortifications there. -
Civil war erupts in spain
The Spanish Civil War had its beginnings in Spain’s elections of February 1936. The Republicans, consisting of the Communists, Socialists, and Basque and Catalonian separatists, won by a narrow margin. Under the leadership of Jose Calvo Sotelo, the right wing (monarchists, the military, and the Fascist Party) continued to oppose the elected government. In July, the Republicans arrested, then assassinated Sotelo, ostensibly in retaliation for the killing of a policeman by the Fascists. -
Anschluss
The Anschluss took place in Austria when the Germans unified Austria into part of the “Greater Germany”. -
The "Phony War"
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, seemingly nothing happened. Many in Great Britain expected a major calamity – but the title ‘Phoney War’ summarises what happened in Western Europe – near enough nothing. -
The Munich Conference
This was a conference held in Munich on September 28--29, 1938, during which the leaders of Great Britain, France, and Italy agreed to allow Germany to annex certain areas of Czechoslovakia. -
Germany occupies the Sudetenland
Hitler's plan to take the Sudetenland from the Czechs was formalized in March, 1938 when he met with Konrad Helein, head of the Sudeten-German political party in Czechoslovakia. Helein offered the party and his personal influence to the German leader, who was soon to give the political leader his personal instructions. Soon after, Helein issued the Carlsbad Decrees, a list of demands made to the Czech government. -
Kristallnacht
The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938, throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops. -
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
The Nazi- Soviet Pact was an agreement between Germany and Russia that promised neither would attack the other for 10 years. There was also an economic agreement attached it to that said Germany would exchange manufactured goods for Russia's raw materials. The pact only lasted 2 years before Germany invaded Russia. It was said that from the beginning Hitler considered the agreement a very tactical, temporary movement. -
Germany invades Poland
Almost immediately after the invasion of Poland began the British and French ambassadors in Berlin delivered identical messages to the German Foreign Ministry Stating that if Germany did not withdraw their troops from Poland Britain and France would "fulfil their obligations to Poland without hesitation -
France surrenders
Most of the leadership of France fled the country, and they left Marshall Petain to conclude the surrender terms under his leadership of Vichy France. He did the best he could under horrible conditions. Most of France stayed without the German army occupying it, but he also helped the German War effort, and supported the Holocaust. He was sentenced to death after the liberation, but DeGaulle commuted it to life imprisonment because of his advanced age and great service to France in WW1. -
Miracle at Dunkirk
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Miricale at dunkirk
More than 300000 troops were rescued from Dunkirk and the surrounding beaches in May and June 1940 - Prime Minister Winston Churchill -
The Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was the intense air battle between the Germans and the British over Great Britain's airspace from July 1940 to May 1941, with the heaviest fighting from July to October 1940. -
Japan seizes French Indo-China
President Franklin Roosevelt seizes all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China. -
The Lend-Lease Act
The Lend-Lease Act of March 11, 1941, was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. -
The Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement first issued in August 1941 that early in World War II defined the Allied goals for the post-war world -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii -
Churchill is elected prime minister of england
Friday 10 May 1940 was one of the most dramatic days in British history. The government was in disarray as Winston Churchill became PM
