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First Aircraft
On December 17,1903 Orville Wright piloted the first aircraft. Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first to build and successfully fly planes. The first flight lasted twelve seconds and went up 1200 feet high.The brothers first started experimenting on aircraft in 1886 at their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. -
Total War
The start of "Total War" began in Britian in May 1915 until November 1918. Total War was threatening to the whole courtry because the government controlled it. -
Mussolini Takes Power in Italy
In October 1922 Italy was failing politically. The "Black Shirts" took a march in Rome and Mussolini was the only man capable of taking order. By 1925 he became dictator and went out to re-establish Italy to a great European power. After leading the Italian military, being imprisoned and running the government Mussolini was shot on April 28, 1945. -
Invention of Rocket Engines
Robert Goddard was the first to conduct a "Rocket Engine". Using a steel monitor and tapered nozzle he created efficient rockets for his time. During World War I Robert Goddard developed a number of small rockets to use as weapons with lightweight hand launchers. His weapon became the model before bazookas which were made in World War II. -
Stalin Takes Power in Russia
Joseph Stalin took power on the Soviet Union after Vlladimar Lenin's death in January 1924. He did not take sole power until 1929. Under Stalin's power he turned the Soviet Union from a peasant society to a indutrial and military super power. He ruled by terror adn most of his citizens died durng his reign, During his power he had the government control farming and he put his enemies into labor camps. -
Hitler Takes Power in Germany
In January 1933 Hitler became chancellor of Germany with plans to become absolute ruler using Article 48. Hitler was a great speaker with power to make people want to support him. After the depression of 1929 people were angry and wanted to believe in a new government. Hitler gained power because people believed that he would overturn the Treaty of Versailles. Industialists believed in Hitler and gave him money to also support him. -
The Beginning of Nuremberg Laws
A confrence was held on August 20, 1935 to discuss economic effects of party actions against the Jews. The month after the annual Party Rally introduced the Nuremberg Laws. The Nuremberg Laws formalized the unofficial measures against the Jews up to 1935. It demanded the Jews should be deprived their rights as citizens. -
Invention of Computers
In 1936 Konrad Zuse created the first binary computer called the Z1 which was a calculator. Zuse earned the semioffical title of "inventor of the modern computer" for his series of automatic calculators. In 1939 Zuse completed the Z2, the first electro-mechanical computer. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht also known as "Night of Broken Glass". The night of November 9-10, 1938 German Nazis attacked Jewish people and property. The violenced continued in some places for several more days. This made it impossible for Jewish survival in Germany. Few days after Jews were removed from their schools and homes to be taken to concentration camps. -
The St. Louis
On May 13,1939 the German transatlantic liner "St.Louis" sailed from Hamburg, Germany to Havana Cuba. There were 938 passangers one wasnt a refugee, almost all were Jews, and most were German citizens. The Jews were hoping to stay in Cuba until they could enter the US. Cuba denied the entry of the passangers on the St. Louis. -
Hitler Invades Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the Polish army was defeated within early weeks of invasion. From east Prussia and Germany there were German units with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes. With the use of these weapons Germany broke through Polish defenses along the border and on Warsaw. After heavy bombing Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27, 1939. Nazi Germany occupied the remainder of Poland when it invaded the USSR in June 1941 and remained until 1945. -
Tripartite Act
On September 27, 1940 the Axis powers formed as Germany, Italy, and Japan which become allies with the signing og the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. The Pact provided assistance should any of the signatories suffer attack by any nation not involved in war. Forming of the alliance was aimed directly at America (neutral) to force the US not to venture on the side of the Allies.The pact also recogonized "the leadership of Germany and Italy in the establishment of new order in Europe. -
Hideki Tojo becomes Prime Minister of Japan
In the summer of 1940, Tojo becamed the Minister of war in the government. He saw that Japans future laid with European dictatord including Hitler. As Minister of war, Tojo made it clear that Japan should push far east and take land owned by European nations. On October 14, 1941 he was appointed Prime MInister of Japan. Tojo was convinved that war with America could not be avoided and he put Japan on war alert. Tojo authorised the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. -
Lend Lease Act
The Lend-Lease Act was the principle means for providing the U.S military aid to foreign nations during World War II. This act authorized the president to tranfer arms or any other defense materials for which Congress appropriated money to "the government of any country whose defense the President deemed vital to the US. Britain, the USSR, China, Brazil and other coutried recieved weapons under this law. This act brought the US one step closer to entry into war. -
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
On the morning of December 7, 1941 the Japanese launched a suprise air attack on the U.S at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. After two hours of bombing more than 2,400 americans were dead. 21 ships had either sunk or been damaged and more than 188 U,S aircraft were destroyed. The U.S abandoned the policy of isolationism and declared war on Japan the day after which offically started World War II. -
U.S Declaration of War
State of war now existed between the U.S and the imperial government of Japan. The unprovoked attacks by Japan on Pearl Harbor started the Declaration of War. The senate and house of representatives agreed that the entire naval and military forces to carry war against Japan. -
Japanese Internment Camps
During the beginning months of World War II the U.S government imprisoned 120,000 Japanese Americans in which two thirds were citizens of the U.S. This action was done because the Americans fearded that Japanese ancestory might commit acts of treason against the U.S. The Japanese americans were forced to leave their homes, sell their property, and mvoe into the internment camps. -
The Beginning of the Final Solution
The beginning of the Final Solution is when Hitler started his plan to exterminate all Jews in early to mid 1941. Hitler ordered Himmler, his secretary to murder all Jews. It started when Hitlers army invaded the Soviet Union and shot 500,000 Jews between July and December 1941. By 1942 Hitler sent the Jews to gas chambers and concentration camps where the Holocaust began. -
D-Day
D-Day whch took place on June 6, 1944 was the day the allied forces crossed the English border and landed on Normandy, France beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control. In three months part of France was freed and prepartion was started to enter Germany where they would meet the Soviet Union. -
The LIberation of Death Camps
U.S forces liberated the first death camp at Buchenwald near Weimar Germany on April 11.1945. A few days later the Nazis began evacuting the camps. British forces then liberated concentration camps in northern Germany. Liberators confronted the unspeakable conditions in the Nazi camps and after the horrors were exposed to the world. -
Truman becomes President
Truman was elected president on April 12, 1945 and he had to make some of the most crucial decisions in history. Truman ordered atomic bombs on cities for war. Two were on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered quickyly after the atomic bombs. In June 1945 he witnessed the sognong of the charter of the United Nations to preserve peace. In 1947 he passed the "Truman Doctrine". When he was 88 he retired to independence. -
Death of President Roosevelt
On April 12, 1945 president Roosevelt died of cerebal hemorrhage. HIs health was deteriorating day by day. He died while at Warm Springs, Georgia. The same day vice president Truman took his place and became president when World War II started. -
Death of Adolf Hitler
On April 30, 1945 Hitler committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth. He killed himself to abandon his responsibilities and it was in a way that he would condemn a "coward". His success was not going in his favor as he wanted so he and his wife choose to end their lives. -
V-E Day
On May 8, 1945 Britain and the U.S celebrated Victory in Europe day. Cities in both places put out flags and banners rejoicing the defeat against the Nazis. This day was the one where German troops throughout Europe finally laid their guns and surrendered. -
Nuclear Weapons
Over the course of six years from 1939 to 1945 more than two billion dollars was spent on the Manhattan Project. The formulas for refining uranium to put together an atomic bomb. In the mid summer of 1945 in early morning the bomb started the atomic age and changed history, The bomb shot 360 feet per second and vaporized 30,000 feet. -
Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima
On August 6, 1945 during WW2 America dropped their first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a japanese city. It wiped out 90% of the city and immediatly killed 80,000 people. Three days later America launched another atomic bomb on Nagasaki another Japanese city which killed 40,000 people. -
Japan Surrenders
After two atomic bombs hit Japan in less than a week, Japan finally surrendered to America on September 2, 1945. Japan was not prepared to loose so much because of the unexpected bombs. They did not have any weapons as powerful as the atomic bombs America created.
