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Hitler joined the Nazi Party. He proved to be such a powerful public speaker and organizer that he quickly became the party's leader.
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Facism strressed nationalism and placed the interests of the state above those of individuals.
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Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf "to secure for the German people the land and soil to which they are entitled on this earth."
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Japan launched a suprise attack and seized control of the Chinese province of Manchuria.
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Many men who were out of work joined Hitler's private army, the storm troopers.
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Hitler established the Third Reich once he dismantled Germany's democratic Weimar Republic.
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Hitler began a military buildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
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Tens of thousands of Italian soldiers stood ready to advance on Ethiopia.
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Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, a German region bordering France and Belgium that was demilitarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles.
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A group of Spanish army officers led by Francisco Franco, rebelled against the Spanish republic.
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German and Italian dictators signed a formal alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
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Germany announced that its Anschluss with Austria was complete.
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Daladier and Chamberlain signed the Munch Agreement, which turned the Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired.
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Stalin firmly established a totalitarian government that tried to exert complete control over its citizens. In a totalitarian state, individuals have no rights, and the government suppresses all opposition.
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Germany's newest military strategy, the blitzkrieg, was used when Germany invaded Poland.
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Stalin suprised everyone by signing a nonaggression pact with Hitler.
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Britain and France declared war on Germany two days following the terror in Poland.
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French and British troops on the Maginot Line, sat staring into Germany, waiting for something to happen. The blitzkrieg had given way to what the Germans called the sitzkrieg (sitting war), and what some newspapers referred to as the phony war.
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Hitler ordered the submarine raids against ships along America's east coast. The German aim in the Battle of the Atlantic was to prevent food and war materials from reaching Great Britiain and the Soviet Union.
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Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway in order "to protect ['those countries'] freedom ad independence."
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Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May. The phony war ended.
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The Germans began to assemble an invasion fleet along the French coast.
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Italy entered the war on the side of Germany and invaded France from the south as the Germans closed in on Paris from the north.
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A Nazi-controlled puppet government, headed by Marhal Philippe Petain, would be set up at Vichy, in southern France.
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The Germans had been fighting in the Soviet Union.
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A japanese dive-bomber, which was followed by more than 180 Japanese warplanes, swooped over Pearl Harbor.
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The Allies organzed their cargo ships into convoys. Convoys were escorted across the Atlantic by destroyers with sonar for detecting submarines underwater.
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U.S. and Britain invaded French North Africa.
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The battle lasted four moths and left about 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties.
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The Allied invasion was originally set for June 5, but bad weather forced a delay. Banking on a forecast for clearing skies, Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for D-Day.
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Eight German tank divisions broke through weak American defenses along an 80-mile front,
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Harry S. Truman becamethe nation's 33rd president after President Roosevelt died from a stroke.
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Hitler shot imself while his new wife swallowed poison
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Germany surrenders to the Allies
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The Allies celebrated V-E Day. The war in Europe was finally over.