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Germany annexes Austria
Anschluss refers to the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. In early 1938, Austrian Nazis conspired for the second time in four years to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. -
German invasion of Poland
Action by Germany that started World War II in 1939. Germany invaded Poland only days after (September 1) signing the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, under which the Soviet Union agreed not to defend Poland from the east if Germany attacked it from the west. Britain and France, which had pledged to protect Poland from German attack, soon declared war on Germany. The Soviet Union would later join Germany September 17 -
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World War II
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Surrender of France
On June 22, 1940, the French government signed an armistice with Nazi Germany just six weeks after the Nazis launched their invasion of Western Europe and more than half of France was occupied by Nazi troops -
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
The Attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Territory, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The Japanese attack had several major aims: they intended to destroy important American fleet units, thereby preventing the Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya and to enable Japan to conquer Southeast Asia without interference. -
Doolittle Raid
The Doolittle Raid (or Tokyo Raid), on Saturday, April 18, 1942, was an air raid by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and the island of Honshu during World War II, the first air operation to strike the Japanese Home Islands. It demonstrated that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to American air attack and served as retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid was led by Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle of the United States Army Air Forces. -
Battle of Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought from 4 to 8 May 1942, was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces from the United States and Australia, taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. In the end the battle was a draw, but two things made it an important battle. It stopped the Japanese from invading Port Moresby (capital of Papua New Guinea) and threatening Australia -
Battle of Midway
Battle of Midway, (June 3–6, 1942), World War II naval battle, fought almost entirely with aircraft, in which the United States destroyed Japan's first-line carrier strength and most of its best trained naval pilots. It was a turning point in World War II in the Pacific. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a military campaign between Russian forces and the Nazi Germany with the Axis powers during World War II. The battle is infamous as one of the largest, longest and bloodiest engagements in modern warfare: From August 1942 through February 1943, more than two million troops fought in close quarters. It happened in Stalingrad, one of Russia most important cities. Russia and the Allied powers defeated Germany and the Axis Powers. -
Mussolini is killed
The death of Benito Mussolini, the deposed Italian fascist dictator, occurred on 28 April 1945, in the final days of World War II in Europe, when he was summarily executed by Italian partisans in a small village in northern Italy. He and his mistress were publicly executed. -
Germany surrenders
By the spring of 1945, the Soviets were approaching the German capital of Berlin from the east and the Western Allies were approaching it from the west. Knowing that defeat was imminent, Hitler committed suicide, leaving Karl Dönitz to carry out the surrender of the Nazis. -
Bombing of Nagasaki
During the final stage of World War II, the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. The United States dropped the bombs after obtaining the consent of the United Kingdom, as required by the Quebec Agreement. The two bombings killed 129,000–226,000 people, mostly civilians. They remain the only use of nuclear weapons in the history of armed conflict. -
Japan Surrenders
The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945, bringing World War II to an end. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was incapable of conducting major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent, leaving surrendering as the only option left for Japan
