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Hitler takes over
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany -
Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.
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Kristallnacht riots across Germany
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Germany invades Poland; WWII begins
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US Congress passes first peacetime draft
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Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
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FDR signs Executive Order 9066 which will lead to JapaneseAmericans being sent to internment camps
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The Germans launch a massive tank offensive near Kursk in the Soviet Union.
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US and British troops land on Sicily. By mid-August, the Allies control Sicily.
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The Fascist Grand Council deposes Benito Mussolini, enabling Italian marshall Pietro Badoglio to form a new government.
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Soviets launch offensives on the Ukrainian front.
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Rome falls to Allied forces.
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U.S. forces, aided by a Free French division, liberate Paris from Nazi control.
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Italian insurgents capture Mussolini, murder him, and mutilate his body.
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Adolf Hitler commits suicide in Berlin.
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The German army signs an unconditional surrender.
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The American air force in Europe heads for the war in the Pacific.
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Allied leaders meet in Potsdam, Germany to send an ultimatum to Japan. Japanese military leaders ruling the government issue no surrender.
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The United States drops an atomic bomb—the first to be used in warfare—on Hiroshima, killing 75,000 people instantly, and injuring more than 100,000.
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A formal surrender ceremony is conducted in Tokyo Bay on the U.S. battleship Missouri. World War II officially ends.
