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Joseph Stalin became the leader of the USSR
Serving in the Russian Civil War before overseeing the Soviet Union's establishment in 1922, Stalin assumed leadership over the country following Lenin's death in 1924. Under Stalin, socialism in one country became a central tenet of the party's ideology. -
Benito Mussolini became the leader of Italy
Benito Mussolini was an Italian political leader who became the fascist dictator of Italy from 1925 to 1945. -
European appeasement of Hitler began
Instituted in the hope of avoiding war, appeasement was the name given to Britain's policy in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked. -
Japan invaded Manchuria
Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. -
Holocaust began
The Holocaust was the persecution and murder of millions of Jews, Romani people, dissidents and homosexuals by the German Nazi regime from 1933-1945. -
Adolf Hitler became the leader of Germany
Following several backroom negotiations – which included industrialists, Hindenburg's son, the former chancellor Franz von Papen, and Hitler – Hindenburg acquiesced and on 30 January 1933, he formally appointed Adolf Hitler as Germany's new chancellor. -
FDR began his Good Neighbor Policy
In the field of world policy I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others. -
Congress passed the Neutrality Acts
Congress passed three "Neutrality Acts" that tried to keep the United States out of war, by making it illegal for Americans to sell or transport arms, or other war materials to belligerent nations. -
Italy invaded Ethiopia
Italy announced the annexation of the territory of Ethiopia on 7 May and Italian King Victor Emmanuel III was proclaimed emperor. -
Japan invaded China
Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, was a prolonged series of violent attacks on Jewish people, homes, businesses and synagogues in 1938 Germany. -
Battle of the Atlantic
The Atlantic was the route by which all resources came to Britain, without which the country would have collapsed -
Germany and Russia signed a nonaggression pact
Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact., known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. -
Germany began the blitzkrieg into Poland
Germany launched the unprovoked attack at dawn on September 1, 1939, with an advance force consisting of more than 2,000 tanks supported by nearly 900 bombers and over 400 fighter planes. -
Cash and Carry
Roosevelt bypassed these restrictions by persuading Congress to permit the government to sell military supplies to France and Britain on a cash-and-carry basis -
The Tripartite Pact was signed
It created a defense alliance between the countries and was largely intended to deter the United States from entering the conflict. -
Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American soldiers to successfully complete their training and enter the Army Air Corps -
Battle of Britain
The decisive factors were British capability and determination, but German mistakes, before and during the battle, contributed significantly to the outcome. -
Churchill became the Prime Minister of Great Britain
Winston Churchill is forever remembered for his contributions as Prime Minister (PM) during World War II. -
Atlantic Charter
publicly affirmed the sense of solidarity between the U.S. and Great Britain against Axis aggression. -
OPA created
to stabilize prices and rents and prevent unwarranted increases in them; to prevent profiteering, hoarding and speculation; to assure that defense appropriations were not dissipated by excessive prices. -
Four Freedoms
The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Monday, January 6, 1941. -
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. The United States was a neutral country at the time; the attack led to its formal entry into World War II the next day. -
Lend Lease Act
Britain had sustained the loss of 11 destroyers to the German Navy over a 10-day period, newly elected British Prime Minister Winston Churchill requested help from President Roosevelt. -
Nazis developed the Final Solution
The "Final Solution to the Jewish question" was the official code name for the murder of all Jews within reach, which was not restricted to the European continent. -
WAAC formed
In May 1941, U.S. Representative Edith Nourse Rogers proposed a bill for the creation of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps to help with the war effort. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was the deadliest battle to take place during the Second World War. -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project is one of the most transformative events of the 20th century. -
Bataan Death March
The prisoners of war were forced to march through tropical conditions, enduring heat, humidity, and rain without adequate medical care. -
Doolittle Raids
The attack aimed to lift Allied spirits and incite fear in the Japanese population in retribution for the recent Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. -
Double V
Victory Abroad and Victory at Home -
Battle of Midway
Japan hoped to defeat the US Pacific Fleet and use Midway as a base to attack Pearl Harbor, securing dominance in the region and then forcing a negotiated peace. -
Navajo Code Talkers used
The U.S. Marine Corps, in an effort to find quicker and more secure ways to send and receive code, enlisted Navajos as code talkers. -
Development of Rosie the Riveter
J. Howard Miller from Westinghouse created the “We Can Do It” war campaign and in 1942 created the iconic image of Rosie the Riveter. -
Japanese put in internment camps in the U.S.
In February 1942, just two months later, President Roosevelt, as commander-in-chief, issued Executive Order 9066 that resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans. -
Operation Torch
Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of securing victory in North Africa while allowing American armed forces the opportunity to engage in the fight against Nazi Germany on a limited scale. -
Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was a meeting between U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in Tehran, Iran, between November 28 and December 1, 1943. -
Casablanca Conference
The Casablanca conference was a meeting between US president Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Casablanca, Morocco. -
Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act
The Act allowed the federal government to seize and operate industries threatened by or under strikes that would interfere with war production, and prohibited unions from making contributions in federal elections. -
Battle of the Bulge
The "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the third-deadliest campaign in American history. -
D-Day
'Once defeated the enemy will never again try to invade'. A victory would allow him to redeploy his forces to the East, to 'revolutionise the situation there…' He went on: 'the whole outcome of the war depends on each man fighting in the West, and that means the fate of the Reich as well! -
MacArthur “returned” to the Philippines
On October 20, 1944, a few hours after his troops landed, MacArthur waded ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte. That day, he made a radio broadcast in which he declared, “People of the Philippines, I have returned!” In January 1945, his forces invaded the main Philippine island of Luzon. -
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, condenadme Operation Iceberg, was a battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. -
V-E Day
On May 8, 1945 - known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day - celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe. -
V-J DAY
When President Harry S. Truman announced on Aug. 14, 1945, that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, war-weary citizens around the world erupted in celebration. -
Nuremberg Trials
Germany was completely occupied and was unable to resist, so the trials went ahead. -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference failed but Yalta Europe was not forever. The strategic vision that Roosevelt spelled out in the Atlantic Charter and sought to realize at Yalta—even if miserably—now seems the right one. -
FDR died
Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States. Not only did he serve an unprecedented four terms in office, but he was also the first president with a significant physical disability. FDR was diagnosed with infantile paralysis, better known as polio, in 1921, at the age of 39. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
After the battle, Iwo Jima served as an emergency landing site for more than 2,200 B-29 bombers, saving the lives of 24,000 U.S. airmen.