World War II

  • Hitler moves tanks into Austria

    Hitler called it a union between Austria and Germany. No countries took action against Germany.
  • Roosevelt begins arms buildup

    Asked Congress for military appropriation and instructed the Army Air Corps to plan for mass production of airplanes.
  • Kristallnacht

    Tension between Germans and Jews reached a maximum. Mass destruction, looting, and killing of jews throughout Germany
  • Hitler occupies Czechoslovakia

    Nazi troops occupy Czechoslovakia violating the Munich accords
  • Nonaggression Pact

    Hitler and Stalin sign the Nonaggression Pact saying their nations would not fight one another. Also divided Poland between the two
  • Germany invades Poland

    Nazi troops invade Poland starting World War II
  • Great Britain and France declare war

    GB and France declare war on Germany
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    Germany's Blitzkrieg (lightning war)

    Germany captures Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg
  • Winston Churchill

    Churchill became prime minister of the United Kingdom replacing Chamberlain
  • Germany occupies France

    Germany invades and captures Paris, controlling France
  • Roosevelt formed the Office of Scientific Research and Development

    The OSRD were scientists to beat the Axis powers in an arms race
  • Atlantic Charter

    Roosevelt met with Churchill to issue the Atlantic Charter. Condemned international Aggression, affirmed the right of national self-determination, and endorsed the principle of free trade
  • Manhattan Project starts

    Race to build a nuclear bomb starts
  • Pearl Harbor

    Japanese fleet along with fighter planes attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Most devastating loss in American history. Attack crippled the US pacific fleet
  • War on Japan

    Congress approved war on Japan
  • Germany and Italy declare war on US

    Germany and Italy declare war on US
  • FDR ordered all Japanese-Americans to evacuated from the west coast

  • Congress of Racial Equality founded

    sought to desegrate public facilities in a nonviolent way
  • Office of War Information is created

    Employed artists, writers, and advertisers to explain the war and counter enemy propoganda.
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    Battle of Stalingrad

    Turning point of the war, Russia drove Germans out of Russia
  • National Congress of American Indians formed

    Sought to end reservations and trust protections
  • D-Day

    Thousands of British, Americans, and Canadian troops landed at Normandy to try and take back France. Largest amphibious invasion in history
  • Labor-Union membership rose to 14.8 million

  • FDR, Churchill, and Stalin met at the Yalta Conference

    talked about postwar europe and Asia. Russians wanted to regain land lost to Japan and punish Germany. Roosevelt wanted a new United Nations
  • Roosevelt passes away

  • Russia encircles Berlin

    Russia encircled Berlin. Hitler committed suicide
  • First Atomic bomb exploded

    US exploded first atomic bomb over a desert in New Mexico
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    Truman, Churchill, and Stalin met in Germany to discuss postwar Europe

    could not agree on anything
  • Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima

  • Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

  • Japan accepts American terms of durrender