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Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
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The Japanese defeat Chinese forces in a clash near Peking, taking control of North China.
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German Chancellor Adolf Hitler announces support for Japan.
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In a speech in Rome, Benito Mussolini, fascist leader of Italy, promises to fight the democracies alongside Adolf Hitler's should war break out.
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During the German Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), 7,500 Jewish businesses are looted, 191 synagogues are set afire, nearly 100 Jews are killed, and tens of thousands are sent to concentration camps.
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Germany and the Soviet Union agree to a nonaggression pact leaving the Soviets free to strengthen their western frontier, and Hitler free to attack Poland.
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German troops invade Poland on the ground while Hitler's air force bombs Polish cities from the sky.
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Britain and France declare war on Germany honoring their commitment to Poland. President Franklin D. Roosevelt invokes the Neutrality Act but notes, "Even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind or his conscience."
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The Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies is founded.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt moves the United States Pacific Fleet base from San Diego, California to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
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Congress appropriates $16 billion for defense needs, and enacts the first peacetime draft in American history.
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United States Naval Intelligence cryptographers crack Japan's secret communications code and learn that Japan intends to conquer China.
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German fighter planes and ground troops pummel France.
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France, crushed, surrenders to Germany and signs an armistice. Great Britain now stands alone against the Axis powers.
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Benito Mussolini's Italian forces attack France from the south.
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Responding to the embargoes imposed by the United States, Japan joins the German-Italian coalition.
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Germany invades the Soviet Union violating the Nonaggression Pact. U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson estimates that it will take Hitler less than three months to conquer the Soviet Union.
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Japanese fighter planes attack the American base at Pearl Harbor, destroying U.S. aircraft and naval vessels, and killing 2,355 U.S. servicemen and 68 civilians.
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Germany and Italy, Japan's Axis partners, declare war on the United States. The United States declares war on Germany, Italy, and Japan.
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The Italian government officially surrenders to the Allied powers. Still, German forces occupy much of Italy.
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D-Day: The first of nearly 3 million Allied soldiers arrive in Normandy, on the northern shores of France.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia.
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Italian insurgents capture Mussolini, murder him, and mutilate his body.
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Adolf Hitler commits suicide in Berlin.
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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.
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A second atomic bomb is dropped in Nagasaki.
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A formal surrender ceremony is conducted in Tokyo Bay on the U.S. battleship Missouri. World War II officially ends.