World War II

  • Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.

  • Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy form the Rome-Berlin Axis treaty.

  • Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact.

  • Japan invades China.

  • Hitler annexes the country of Austria into Germany.

  • Germany invades Poland. World War II begins.

  • France and Great Britain declare war on Germany.

  • Although President Roosevelt has declared American neutrality in the war in Europe, a Neutrality Act is signed that allows the US to send arms and other aid to Britain and France.

  • Germany invades and takes control of Denmark and Norway.

  • Winston Churchill becomes leader of the British government.

  • Italy enters the war as a member of the Axis powers.

  • Germany launches an air attack on Great Britain. These attacks last until the end of October and are known as the Battle of Britain.

  • Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact creating the Axis Alliance.

  • Germany and the Axis Powers attack Russia with a huge force of over four million troops.

  • The Japanese attack the US Navy in Pearl Harbor.

  • The U.S. enters the world on the allies side.

  • The US Navy defeats the Japanese navy at the Battle of Midway.

  • D-day and the Normandy invasion. Allied forces invade France and push back the Germans.

  • he Allies invade and take the island of Sicily.

  • Italy surrenders to the Allies, however Germany helps Mussolini to escape and set up a government in Northern Italy. .

  • Paris is liberated from German control.

  • The Germans launch a large attack in the Battle of the Bulge. They lose to the Allies sealing the fate of the German army.

  • US Marines invade the island of Iwo Jima. .

  • The US Third Army under General Patton crosses the Rhine River.

  • US President Franklin Roosevelt dies. He is succeeded by President Harry Truman.

  • Adolf Hitler commits suicide as he knows Germany has lost the war.

  • Germany surrenders to the Allies.

  • The United States drops the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

  • Another atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

  • Japan surrenders to US General Douglass MacArthur and the Allies.