-
World War I was similar to World War II. German, Austrian, and Hungarian forces fought allied forces including Great Britain, France, Italy, and the Soviet Union. This war, like World War II, was about Germany trying to take over Europe. It ended on November 11, 1918 when the Treaty of Versailles was made and British, Soviet, French, and Italian forces prevailed.
-
Soviet Union (now Russia) dictator, Vladmir Lenin dies. A new ruthless dictator takes over named Joseph Stalin
-
Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi party (National Socialist German Workers Party) beat reigning chancellor of Germany, Paul von Hindenburg, in the German chancellor election. Hitler immediatley began strengthening German military and weapons.
-
German forces enter Rhineland on the border of France with no defenses against them.
-
Nazi Germany assists Nationalist leader of Spain, Francisco Franco, in the Spainish Civil War. It ended when Germany bombed the Spainish city of Guernica in 1937.
-
Germany hosts the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Hitler, being a racist, was furious that US African-American runner, Jesse Owens had beaten German runner Lutz Long.
-
Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sign the Rome-Berlin Axis Pact, which made the two countries allies.
-
German forces invade neighboring country Austria, disobeying the agreements of the Treaty of Versailles. No one stops them.
-
European leaders, including British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, and German chancellor, Adolf Hitler, made the Munich Pact. This allowed Germany to occupy part of Czechoslovakia.
-
Italian forces invade Albania.
-
France, Great Britian, and Commonwealth countries (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada) declare war on Germany. This marks the beginning of the war; the United States stay neutral. Germany invades Poland
-
Germany takes over Scandinavian areas such as Norway and Denmark.
-
Neville Chamberlain, British prime minister, resigns; Winston Churchill takes over as prime minister
-
German tanks push through to invade Belgium and Netherlands.
-
German forces push into France to invade.
-
Germany attempts to invade Great Britian in the Battle of Britian using blitz (German for "Lightning") to bomb ports. They fail.
-
With his team at Bletchley Park, Alan Turing cracks the German Enigma code used to send messagets to German boats
-
Japanese planes, lead by Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, bomb Pearl Harbor in Hawai'i; President Franklin D. Roosevelt enters the United States in World War II
-
Germany and Italy threaten the United States, while the United States threaten Japan.
-
The "Final Solution" law issued that all Jews must be put in concentration camps. This majorly decreased the Jewish population
-
Lt. Col. James "Jimmy" Doolittle orders attack on Tokyo, the capital of Japan; it does little damage, but a huge morale victory for the United States.
-
Jews rebel against officers in Warsaw Ghetto
-
Allied troops (United States, Great Britain, etc.) lead by General Dwight Eisenhower attacked the beaches of Normandy ; it lead to the retreiving of France.
-
Admiral Chester Nimimitz fights a series of battles in the Leyte Gulf near the Philippines; this victory took southern Asian islands from Japan.
-
Lead by General George Patton, allied forces fought German forces in France; the Germans were defeated
-
United States President Franklin D. Rooselvelt dies; vice president, Harry S. Truman, takes over.
-
Soviet forces pushed to Hitler's underground air-raid bunker, where he shot himself and his newly wed wife, Eva Braun
-
United States drops 14 lb. plutonium bomb on the Japanese port city called Nagasaki to end the war; three days before, the United States also bombed Japanese city Hiroshima
-
Japanese emperor, Hirohito, surrenders to the United States; this marks the end of World War II.