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Period: to
World War 2 Wagner
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HItler Becomes Leader of Nazi party
The party originates from the German nationalist, racist and populist Freikorps culture. They fought against the communist uprisings in post-World War I Germany. -
Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
Benito Mussolini was one of the founders of the Fascist Movement in Italy. He was the leader of the National Fascist Party. He was a powerful and merciless leader. Low and behold he became prime minister of Italy. -
Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR)
He was the unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union By the late 1920s. He remained general secretary until the post was abolished in 1952, concurrently serving as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1941 onward. -
Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
The Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, which had decided upon a policy of localizing the incident. Kwantung Army commander in chief General Shigeru Honjō ordered that his forces quickly proceed to expand operations all along the South Manchurian Railway. -
1933, March 21 - Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. -
Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
The Neutrality Acts were passed by the United States Congress in the 1930s, in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia that eventually led to World War II. -
Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
Politically, the war is best remembered for exposing the inherent weakness of the League of Nations. Like the Mukden Incident in 1931 (the Japanese annexation of three Chinese provinces), the Abyssinia Crisis in 1935 is often seen as a clear demonstration of the ineffectiveness of the League. -
Militarist take control of Japanese Government
Japanese militarism refers to the ideology in the Empire of Japan that militarism 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. -
1936 Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany
Hitlers sending was in violation of the Versailles Treaty -
Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people.
The Nanking Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against Nanking (current official spelling: Nanjing) during the Second Sino-Japanese War. -
1938 Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany
The Munich Agreement was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined -
1938 Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
By genocide, the murder of hostages, reprisal raids, forced labor, "euthanasia," starvation, exposure, medical experiments, and terror bombing, and in the concentration and death camps, the Nazis murdered from 15,003,000 to 31,595,000 people, most likely 20,946,000 men, women, handicapped, aged, sick, prisoners of war, forced laborers, camp inmates, critics, homosexuals, Jews, Slavs, Serbs, Germans, Czechs, Italians, Poles, French, Ukrainians, and many others. Among them 1,000,000 were children -
Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
As the Germans advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, the Germans gained an undisputed advantage. Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom -
1939 Sept 1st - Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War or the Fourth Partition of Poland -
1940 Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control
In the early morning of 9 April 1940 (Wesertag; "Weser Day"), Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a preventive manoeuvre against a planned, and openly discussed, Franco-British occupation of Norway. After the invasions, envoys of the Germans informed the governments of Denmark and Norway that the Wehrmacht had come to protect the countries' neutrality against Franco-British aggression. Significant differences in geography, location and climate between the two countries made the act -
1940 Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
German forces invaded Norway and Denmark. Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger and Naravik were rapidly taken. Navarik was retaken by a British force, but the British were soon forced to withdraw from the town. -
1940 Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control
In November, Russians and Japanese forces were fighting along the border between the Soviet Union and Manchuria. And on November 30 another war erupted -- between the Soviet Union and Finland. Finland had refused a request from the Soviet Union to lease the port of Hanko, and Finland had refused other requests, mainly a strip of land around Leningrad to improve that city's defenses. -
Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
Date of peace treaty ending war. By February, both Finland and the USSR were eager to sign a peace treaty to end the war. The Finns, who had defended themselves admirably, had nearly exhausted their ammunitions, while the Soviets were eager to end what had turned out to be an embarrassing war. -
1940 Battle of Britain – Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island
The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces,[17] and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date. The German objective was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command. From July 1940, coastal shipping convoys and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth, were the main targets; one month later, the Luftwaffe shifted its attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. -
1940 First time Peacetime Draft in US
On October 16, 1940, the first peacetime program of compulsory military service takes effect. Under the Selective Training and Service Act, all males between the ages of 21 to 35 are required to register for the draft. A lottery system determines who will be called into service. -
1941 Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades
In addition to stipulations of non-aggression, the treaty included a secret protocol that divided territories of Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland into Nazi and Soviet "spheres of influence", anticipating potential "territorial and political rearrangements" of these countries. -
1941 Japanese invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia)
Laos was added in 1893 and Kouang-Tchéou-Wan (Guangzhouwan) in 1900. The capital was moved from Saigon (in Cochinchina) to Hanoi (Tonkin) in 1902 and again to Da Lat (Annam) in 1939 until 1945, when it moved back to Hanoi. After the Fall of France during World War II, the colony was administered by Vichy France and was under Japanese supervision until a brief period of full Japanese control between March and August 1945. Beginning in May 1941, the Viet Minh, a communist army led by Ho Chi Minh, -
1941 Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades - USSR which now joins England in fighting the Germans
From the outset, both states sought to overthrow the system that was established by the victors of World War I. Germany, laboring under onerous reparations and stung by the collective responsibility provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, was a defeated nation in turmoil. This and the Russian Civil War made both Germany and the Soviets into international outcasts, and their resulting rapprochement during the interbellum was a natural convergence -
1941 Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement issued in August 14, 1941 that, early in World War II, defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. It was drafted by the leaders of Britain and the United States, and later agreed to by all the Allies. The Charter stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; reduction of trade restrictions; global coope -
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii attacked by Japanese Naval and Air forces, US declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the US
The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. There were simultaneous Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. -
Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death March
The 128 km (80 mi) march was characterized by wide-ranging physical abuse and murder, and resulted in very high fatalities inflicted upon prisoners and civilians alike by the Japanese Army, and was later judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime. -
1942 Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps
The internment of Japanese Americans was the World War II internment in "War Relocation Camps" of over 110,000 people of Japanese heritage who lived on the Pacific coast of the United States. The U.S. government ordered the internment in 1942, shortly after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. -
Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow
The German Army never fully recovered from the beating it took in Russia around Moscow and elsewhere during the winter of 1941-42 when it suffered over a million casualties. For a time, the entire Eastern Front had teetered on the verge of collapse as division upon division of well-equipped Russians materialized seemingly out of nowhere and attacked. -
Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific
On 7 December 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In little more than an hour, the Pacific Fleet was decimated and the Japanese fleet sailed home victorious. -
Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots in 1943 during World War II that broke out in Los Angeles, California, between Anglo American sailors and Marines stationed in the city and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored. -
British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War) and in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch) and Tunisia (Tunisia Campaign). -
Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Min.
Italy has signed an unconditional armistice with the Allies, General Dwight D Eisenhower has announced. -
1944 June 6 - D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wou -
\Paris retaken by Allies Forces
Paris, the capital city of France, had been governed by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Second Compiègne Armistice on 22 June 1940, when the German Army occupied northern and western France and the puppet regime of Vichy France was established in the town of Vichy in central France. This was called the Military Administration in France. -
1944 Aug. - Paris retaken by Allies Forces
Paris, the capital city of France, had been governed by Nazi Germany since the signing of the Second Compiègne Armistice on 22 June 1940, when the German Army occupied northern and western France and the puppet regime of Vichy France was established in the town of Vichy in central France. This was called the Military Administration in France. -
1944 Dec. Battle of the Bulge – last offensive of German Forces
The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard and became the costliest battle in terms of casualties for the United States, whose forces bore the brunt of the attack. It also severely depleted Germany's war-making reso -
1945 April 16th - FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President
On this day in 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passes 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
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day,VE Day, or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 (7 May in Commonwealth realms) to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces.[1] It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
US forces return to recapture the Philippines
he Philippines campaign of 1944–1945, the Battle of the Philippines 1944–1945, or the Liberation of the Philippines was the American and Filipino campaign to defeat and expel the Imperial Japanese forces occupying the Philippines, during World War II. The Japanese Army had overrun all of the Philippines during the first half of 1942. The Liberation of the Philippines commenced with amphibious landings on the eastern Philippine island of Leyte on October 20, 1944, and hostilities in a small part -
V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces
Victory over Japan Day (also known as Victory in the Pacific Day, V-J Day, or V-P Day) is a name chosen for the day on which Japan surrendered, in effect ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. -
First Atomic Bombs dropped
In the early morning hours of July 16, 1945, great anticipation and fear ran rampant at White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project, could hardly breathe. Years of secrecy, research, and tests were riding on this moment. -
War Crimes Trials held in Nuremburg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan
Japanese war crimes occurred in many Asian countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust[1] and Japanese war atrocities
