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Mussolini and the Fascists come to power in Italy
Mussolini was the founder of Fascism and leader of Italy from 1922 to 1943. -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 18, 1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria. -
Hitler and the Nazis come to power in Germany
Hitler Comes to Power ... In January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, the head of the German ... -
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Neutrality Acts passed in the US
The Neutrality Acts were laws passed in 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1939 to limit U.S. involvement in future wars. -
Formation of the Axis Powers
Finally, on September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, which became known as the Axis alliance. -
Munich Conference
The Munich Conference came as a result of a long series of negotiations. -
Kristallnacht
A massive, coordinated attack on Jews throughout the German Reich on the night of November 9, 1938. -
Germany and the USSR sign the Non-Aggression Pact
On August 23, 1939–shortly before World War II (1939-45) broke out in Europe–enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. -
Germany invades Poland-Beginning of WWII
On this day in 1939, German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun. -
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Battle of the Atlantic
the Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. -
Rescue at Dunkirk
German army seized the French port of Dunkirk, ending the evacuation that had begun nine days earlier and had saved 338,000 Allied troops. -
France falls to Germany
By May 1940, Europe had been at war for nine months. Yet Britain and France, despite having declared war on Germany in September 1939 following Hitler’s attack on Poland, had seen little real fighting. -
Presidential election of 1940
American presidential election held on Nov. 5, 1940, in which Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Wendell L. Willkie. -
Congress passes the Lend Lease Act
President Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease bill into law on 11 March 1941. -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Sunday, December 7 - Washington D.C. - The last part of the Japanese message. -
Formation of the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. -
Relocation of Japanese Americans to camps
Two months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 ordering all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. This resulted in the relocation of approximately 120,000 people, many of whom were American citizens, to one of 10 internment camps located across the country. -
Bataan Death March
The American and Filipino forces fought from an untenable position until formally surrendering to the Japanese on April 9. -
Battle of Midway Island
Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. -
Rosie the Riveter campaign encourages women to get a job
American women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers during World War II, as widespread male enlistment left gaping holes in the industrial labor force. -
D-Day Invasion
The Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. -
Presidential Election of 1944
The United States presidential election of 1944 took place while the United States was preoccupied with fighting World War II. -
Battle of the Bulge
In December 1944, Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. -
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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held from February 4 to 11, 1945. -
V-E Day
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. -
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
Allied Invasion/Victory in the Philippines
At the start of WW2, the Philippine Islands were United States territory as per the 1898 Treaty of Paris. The archipelago was home to 19 million people, and was at a strategic location between Japan and the South Pacific. -
Surrender of Japan
The surrender of the Empire of Japan was announced by Imperial Japan on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close. -
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