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1921 Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party
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1922 Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
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1929 Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR)
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1931 Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
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1933, March 21 - Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
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1935 Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
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1935 Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
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1936 Militarist take control of Japanese Government
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1936 Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty
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1937 Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people.
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1938 Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany
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1938 Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
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1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin
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1939 Sept 1st - Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
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1940 Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
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1940 Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control
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1940 Battle of Britain – Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island
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1940 First time Peacetime Draft in US
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1941 Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades -USSR which now joins England in fighting the Germans
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1941 Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
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1941 Japanese invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia)
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1941, Dec. 7 Pearl Harbor in Hawaii attacked by Japanese Naval and Air forces, US declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the US - Dec. 9
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1942 Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps
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1942 Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death March
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1942, June 4-7 Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific
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1942 Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow
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1943 British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
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1943 Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA- these suits were very popular amoung Latinos.
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1944 June 6 - D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
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1943 July - Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Min.
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1944 Aug. - Paris retaken by Allies Forces
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1944 Dec. Battle of the Bulge – last offensive of German Forces
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1945 Jan. – US forces return to recapture the Philippines
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1945 April 16th - FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President, he had only been Vice President for a Short period of time
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1945 May 8th - V-E Day, war ends in Europe, allies celebrate
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1945 Aug. - First Atomic Bombs dropped
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1945 Aug. 14th – V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces
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1946 War Crimes Trials held in Nuremburg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan.
