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Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi party
He joined the Nazi party and assumed the role of dictator -
Period: to
WW2
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Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
Was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party -
Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR)
The Soviet Union was transformed from a peasant society into an industrial and military superpower. However, he ruled by terror, and millions of his own citizens died during his brutal reign. -
Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
The Japanese established a puppet state called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II. -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
He began embraced much of the German population, wanted to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. -
Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
It prohibited the export of arms, ammunition, and implements of war. -
Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
It originated from a disputed treaty which, the Italians claimed, turned the country into an Italian protectorate. -
Militarist take control of Japanese Government
They believed the empire of Japan should dominate the political and social life of the nation, and that the strength of the military is equal to the strength of a nation. -
Militarist takes control of Japanese Government
Japan had to be able to export. Western tariffs limited exports, while discriminatory legislation in many countries and anti-Japanese racism served as barriers to emigration. Chinese and Japanese efforts to secure racial equality in the League of Nations covenant had been rejected by Western statesmen -
Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people.
mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing (then spelled Nanking), then the capital of the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War -
Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany
It was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined -
Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
Jews were told to follow, and if they resisted, face punishments. They were separated and sent off to labor camps to work in terrible conditions. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin
Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact, stunning the world, given their diametrically opposed ideologies. But the dictators were, despite appearances, both playing to their own political needs. -
Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
In response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany -
Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control
Churchill became Britain's prime minister, Hitler sent his troops into Belgium and the Netherlands without forewarning, although he had promised to respect their neutrality. -
Battle of Britain begins – Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island
In the summer and fall of 1940, German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date -
Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
he Vichy government, under Marshall Henri Petain, declared neutrality in the war between Germany and Great Britain, but was committed by the armistice provisions to cooperation with Germany. -
First time Peacetime Draft in US
Burke-Wadsworth Act is passed by Congress, by wide margins in both houses, and the first peacetime draft in the history of the United States is imposed. Selective Service was born. -
1941 Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades - USSR which now joins England in fighting the Germans
The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact fell apart in June 1941, when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union. -
Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
In January 1942, a group of 26 Allied nations pledged their support for this declaration, known as the Atlantic Charter. -
Japanese invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia)
They did this to prevent the Republic of China from importing arms and fuel through French Indochina along the Sino-Vietnamese Railway, from the port of Haiphong through Hanoi to Kunming in Yunnan -
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii attacked by Japanese Naval and Air forces, US declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the US
American politicians and citizens had argued for years about whether to remain neutral or to fight to help Britain and France and other friends. -
Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death March
U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II, approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make a 65-mile march to prison camps. -
Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps
Forced relocation and incarceration in camps in the interior of the country of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the Pacific coast. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens. -
Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific
Six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy. -
Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow
The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the largest Soviet city. Moscow was one of the primary military and political objectives for Axis forces in their invasion of the Soviet Union. -
British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
They landed across western North Africa, and joined the attack, eventually helping force the surrender of all remaining Axis troops in Tunisia in May of 1943 and ending the Campaign for North Africa. -
Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA
Conflict between American servicemen stationed in Southern California and Mexican-American youths led to rioting. -
Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Min.
Ruled the country as Prime Minister from 1922 to 1943 and constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship. -
D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. -
Paris retaken by Allied Forces
Allied forces were near Paris, and workers in the city went on strike as Resistance fighters emerged from hiding and began attacking German forces and fortifications. -
Battle of the Bulge – last offensive of German Forces
The last major German offensive campaign of World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, on the Western Front, towards the end of World War II, in the European theatre. -
US forces return to recapture the Philippines
United States and Philippine Commonwealth military forces were progressing in liberating territory and islands when the Japanese forces in the Philippines were ordered to surrender by Tokyo on August 15, 1945, after the dropping of the atomic bombs on mainland Japan. -
FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President
Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power. -
V-E Day, war ends in Europe
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
First Atomic Bombs dropped
President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. -
V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces
surrender of Imperial Japan was announced on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, -
War Crimes Trials held in Nuremberg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan.
to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of war crimes. "Class A" crimes were reserved for those who participated in a joint conspiracy to start and wage war
