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Asia I
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler announces support for Japan. -
Europe I
Germany announces their annexation of Austria. Austrian government wanted to become of Germany, they felt they were truly Germans. -
Holocaust I
Hermann Goering, marshal of the Third Reich and Hitler's second in charge, warns all Jews to leave Austria. -
Home Front I
U.S. recognizes Austria as an new government. -
Home Front II
The U.S. passes the Naval Expansion Act which gave FDR 1 billion dollars to grow the navy. -
Period: to
World War II
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Europe II
German army occupies demilitirized Sudetenland. France, Britain sign the Munich agreement which forces the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudetenland, -
Holocaust II
During the German Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), 7500 Jewish businesses are looted, 191 synagogues are set afire, nearly 100 Jews are killed, and tens of thousands are sent to concentration camps. -
Asia II
East Asia is declared by Japan, leading to weaker relationships with westeren countries. -
Europe I
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, -
Asia I
Battle of Nanchang: Japanese victory breaks Chinese National Revolutionary Army supply lines, threatens all southeast China. -
Home Front I
President Franklin D. Roosevelt writes letters to both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, requesting they promise not to attack a list of nations for at least ten years. -
Home Front II
Passenger ship St. Louis, containing 907 Jewish refugees, begins its journey back to Europe after the United States refuses to grant it permission to dock. -
Holocaust I
German Jews are denied the right to hold government jobs. -
Europe II
Germany invades Poland which leads to beginning of World War II in Europe. -
Asia II
Japan attacks Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, Chinese cut Japanese supply lines and defeat the Imperial Army -
Holocaust II
Heydrich issues instructions to SS Einsatzgruppen (special action squads) in Poland for the treatment of Jews, stating they are to be gathered into ghettos near railroads for the future "final goal." He also orders a census and the establishment of Jewish administrative councils within the ghettos to implement Nazi policies, -
Holocaust I
Auschwitz is chosen as the town to build a concentration camp because of its proximity to Krakow. -
Holocaust II
The first German Jews are deported into Polish concentration camps and ghettos. -
Europe I
Germany attacks western Europe, France and the neutral Low Countries. Luxembourg is occupied on May 10; the Netherlands surrenders on May 14; and Belgium surrenders on May 28. -
Home Front I
President Franklin D. Roosevelt moves the United States Pacific Fleet base from San Diego, California to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. -
Asia I
Japanese successfully drive toward new Chinese provisional capital, Chongqing -
Europe II
The air war of Britain begins and ends with Nazi defeat in October of the same year. -
Home Front II
The United States orders gasoline withheld from Japan sparking protest from the Japanese government. -
Asia II
Responding to the embargoes imposed by the United States, Japan joins the German-Italian coalition. -
Home Front I
President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Coast Guard to seize German ships that sail into American ports. 65 Axis ships are held in "protective custody." -
Europe I
Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria invade and dismember Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia surrenders on April 17. -
Home Front II
Before the U.S. Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a "lend-lease" program, which would deliver arms to Great Britain to be paid for following the war's end. Congress approves the bill. -
Holocaust I
Jews are orded to wear Yellow Stars of David to distinguish them. -
Asia I
Japanese fighter planes attacks Pearl Harbor. Destroying U.S. aircraft and naval vessels, and killing 2,355 U.S. soldiers and 68 civilians. -
Asia II
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. -
Holocaust II
Chelmno extermination camp becomes functiona, its first victims being 5,000 Gypsies who had been deported from the Reich to Lodz. -
Europe II
Nazi Germany and its Axis partners declare war on the United States. -
Home Front I
President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his State of the Union address in which he proposes a massive government spending budget, the largest in American history. -
Holocaust I
Wannsee Conference is held to determine the "Final Solution" for the Jews. -
Europe I
First American forces arrive in Great Britain to begin their battle to free Europe. -
Asia I
Battle of Midway, Japan is pushed out of Midway just west of Hawaii. -
Europe II
Hitler gives the order to execute all the British POWs. -
Home Front II
Under the leadership of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. troops land in Algiers, Oran, and Casablanca in North Africa. -
Asia II
Battle of Guadalcanal; decisive American naval victory in campaign for Solomon Islands, but 1,700 dead on US side including 2 admirals, 1,900 Japanese -
Holocaust II
First arrival of German Jews to the Polish extermination camp of Auschwitz. -
Home Front I
Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt meet in Casablanca in North Africa to plan attacks on all fronts, to invade Sicily and Italy, to send forces to the Pacific, and to better aid the Soviet Union. -
Asia I
Japanese forces wtihdraw from the island of Guadalcanal -
Holocaust I
All German ghettos are liquidated and sent to Poland on Himmler's orders. And the number of Jews killed reaches over 1 million in 1943. -
Home Front II
US and British troops land on Sicily. By mid-August, the Allies control Sicily. -
Europe II
Italy declares war on Germany; Second American air raid on Schweinfurt. -
Asia II
American Navy lands on Tarawa and Makin heading toward the Japanese mainland -
Holocaust II
Auschwitz Kommandant Höss is promoted to chief inspector of concentration camps. The new kommandant, Liebehenschel, then divides up the vast Auschwitz complex of over 30 sub-camps into three main sections. -
Europe I
British air raid of Berlin, Germany. -
Home Front I
Roosevelt created War Refugee Board to help Jews from Europe. -
Europe I
Fearing Hungary’s intention to desert the Axis partnership, the Germans occupy Hungary. -
Holocaust I
Jews from Hungary arrive at Auschwitz. Eichmann arrives to personally oversee and speed up the extermination process. By May 24, an estimated 100,000 have been gassed. Between May 16 and May 31, the SS report collecting 88 pounds of gold and white metal from the teeth of those gassed. By the end of June, 381,661 persons - half of the Jews in Hungary - arrive at Auschwitz. -
Home Front II
British and US troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans. -
Holocaust II
Auschwitz and Birkenau records its highest-ever daily number of persons gassed and burned at just over 9,000. Six huge pits are used to burn bodies, as the number exceeds the capacity of the crematories. -
Asia I
US troops land in the Philippines -
Asia II
First American attacks on Tokyo. B-29s hit the city of Tokyo with bombs. -
Europe II
The Germans launch a final offensive in the west, known as the Battle of the Bulge, in an attempt to re-conquer Belgium and split the Allied forces along the German border. By January 1, 1945, the Germans are in retreat. -
Europe I
The Germans launch a final offensive in the west, known as the Battle of the Bulge, in an attempt to re-conquer Belgium and split the Allied forces along the German border. By January 1, 1945, the Germans are in retreat. -
Holocaust I
Russian troops liberate Auschwitz. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there. -
Home Front I
U.S. troops cross the Rhine River -
Holocaust II
Hitler commits suicide and later in May Himmler also commits suicide. -
Europe II
Germans surrender to Soviets. -
Home Front II
Demobilization of the American army begins -
Asia I
The United States drops an atomic bomb—the first to be used in warfare on Hiroshima, killing 75,000 people instantly, and injuring more than 100,000. -
Asia II
Japanese Emperor Hirohito formally surrenders, Ending World War II