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Japan invades Manchuria, a small part of China.
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Japan invades China, initiating WWII in the Pacific.
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Germany incorporates Austria in the Anschluss.
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Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement which forces the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudetenland, including the key Czechoslovak military defense positions, to Nazi Germany.
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Under German pressure, the Slovaks declare their independence and form a Slovak Republic. The Germans occupy the rump Czech lands in violation of the Munich agreement, forming a Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
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Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a nonaggression agreement and a secret codicil dividing eastern Europe into spheres of influence.
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Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe.
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Honoring their guarantee of Poland’s borders, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.
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Italy enters the war. Italy invades southern France on June 21
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Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. 20 warships, 200 aircraft destroyed. 2,400 Americans killed. Destroyed isolationism.
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The United States declares war on Japan, entering World War II. Japanese troops land in the Philippines, French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), and British Singapore. By April 1942, the Philippines, Indochina, and Singapore are under Japanese occupation.
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British and U.S. troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germany
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The Soviets launch their final offensive, encircling Berlin.
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Hitler commits suicide.
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Germany surrenders to the Soviets.
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Germany surrenders to the Soviets.
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The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
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The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria
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The US drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
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Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.
