Fascist Italy invades, conquers, and annexes Ethiopia.
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the Soviet Union and the international Communist movement.
Germany incorporates Austria in the Anschluss.
France and Great Britain guarantee the integrity of the borders of the Polish state.
Fascist Italy invades and annexes Albania.
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a nonaggression agreement and a secret codicil dividing eastern Europe into spheres of influence.
Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe.
Honoring their guarantee of Poland’s borders, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.
The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east.
Germany invades Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrenders on the day of the attack; Norway holds out until June 9.
Italy enters the war. Italy invades southern France on June 21.
The Soviet Union forces Romania to cede the eastern province of Bessarabia and the northern half of Bukovina to the Soviet Ukraine.
The air war known as the Battle of Britain ends in defeat for Nazi Germany.
The Italians invade British-controlled Egypt from Italian-controlled Libya.
Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact.
Italy invades Greece from Albania on October 28.
Bulgaria joins the Axis.
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.
Nazi Germany and its Axis partners declare war on the United States.
British and US navies halt the Japanese naval advance in the central Pacific at Midway.
Axis forces in Tunisia surrender to the Allies, ending the North African campaign.
The Germans launch a massive tank offensive near Kursk in the Soviet Union. The Soviets blunt the attack within a week and begin an offensive initiative of their own.
US and British troops land on Sicily. By mid-August, the Allies control Sicily.
Allied troops land on the beaches of Salerno near Naples.
Soviet troops liberate Kiev.
Allied troops liberate Rome. Within six weeks, Anglo-American bombers could hit targets in eastern Germany for the first time.
British and US troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans.
Anglo-American forces break out of the Normandy beachhead and race eastward towards Paris.
Allied forces land in southern France near Nice and advance rapidly towards the Rhine River to the northeast.