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Period: to
WWII
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Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party
By early 1921, Adolf Hitler was becoming highly effective at speaking in front of ever larger crowds. -
Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until his ousting in 1943 -
Joseph Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR)
Under Stalin, the Soviet Union was transformed from a peasant society into an industrial and military superpower. -
Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
The Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state, called Manchukuo. -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
On this day in 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. -
Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US following its costly involvement in World War I, and sought to ensure that the US would not become entangled again in foreign conflicts. -
Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
Seen as one of the episodes that prepared the way for WW II, the war demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations when League decisions were not supported by the great powers. -
Militarist take control of Japanese Government
While Japan was giving the appearance of being a good neighbour in the western Pacific during the 1920s by involvement in treaties designed to preserve peace, extremist elements in Japan's government, military and civilian population had privately never renounced the use of force to expand Japan's territory. -
Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty
The remilitarization of the Rhineland by the German Army took place on 7 March 1936 when German military forces entered the Rhineland. -
Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people.
The Nanking Massacre was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanking during the Second Sino-Japanese War. -
Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
It began with a simple boycott of Jewish shops and ended in the gas chambers at Auschwitz as Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers attempted to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe. -
Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany
British and French prime ministers Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier sign the Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. -
Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
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1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin
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. -
Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
The Polish army was able to mobilize one million men but was hopelessly outmatched in every respect. Rather than take a strong defensive position, troops were rushed to the front to confront the Germans and were systematically captured or annihilated. -
Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control
On April 8, the British violated Norwegian neutrality by laying ocean mines in the shipping channel Germans were using to bring iron ore from Sweden. Hitler already had plans to occupy Norway. -
Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
After months of nervous speculation, Germany brought war to western Europe on May 10, 1940, with the primary goal of conquering France. German bombers hit air bases in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands, destroying large numbers of Allied planes on the ground and crippling Allied air defenses. -
1940 Sept 16 - First time Peacetime Draft in US
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, also known as the Burke-Wadsworth Act, Pub.L. 76–783, 54 Stat. 885, enacted September 16, 1940 was the first peacetime conscription in United States history. -
Battle of Britain
Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island. -
Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades - USSR which now joins England in fighting the Germans
Hitler broke the psct with Stalin, so he joined England fighting against Germany. -
Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a joint declaration released by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on August 14, 1941 following a meeting of the two heads of state in Newfoundland. -
Japanese invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia)
This lead the United States to war and for them to stop sending Japan iron and steel scraps, and oil. -
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
This surprise attack for Japan, killed many people and made the US declare war on Japan. Then, Germany and Italy declared war on the US because they were allies with Japan. -
Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death March
The Japanese capture about 70,000 American and Filipino soldiers and forced them to march 65 miles to a prison camp. -
Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps
Since the US was scared of the Japanese, it issued the Executive Order 9066. It stated that Japanese Americans were to be temporarily imprisoned, or interned. This led to about 110,00 Japanese Americans interned during the war. -
Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific
The Battle of Midway was a crucial and decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. -
Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow
The German Army never fully recovered from the beating it took in Russia around Moscow and elsewhere during the winter of 1941-42 when it suffered over a million casualties -
British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert Campaign, also known as the Desert War) and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia. -
Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots in 1943 during World War II that broke out in Los Angeles, California, between Anglo American sailors and Marines stationed in the city, and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored. -
Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Min.
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D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
On this day in 1944, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the go-ahead for the largest amphibious military operation in history: Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern France. -
Paris retaken by Allies Forces
The Liberation of Paris (also known as the Battle for Paris) was a military conflict that took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944. -
Battle of the Bulge – last offensive of German Forces
The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. -
US forces return to recapture the Philippines
On this day, the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines is occupied by American troops, almost three years after the devastating and infamous Bataan Death March. -
FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President
Since Roosevelt died from a stroke, the vice president, Harry S. Truman, stepped up as president. -
V-E Day, war ends in Europe
As Germany was collapsing, Hitler hid in an underground bunker and commited suicide. After his death, the Germans surrendered which ended war in Europe. -
First Atomic Bombs dropped
The bombs were from the US to make Japan surrender. They dropped them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. -
V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces
Victory over Japan Day (also known as Victory in the Pacific Day, V-J Day, or V-P Day) is a name chosen for the day on which Japan surrendered, in effect ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. -
War Crimes Trials held in Nuremburg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan.
General Tomoyuki Yamashita was hanged in Manila on February 23, 1946. The fate of this officer, a first-class fighting man,affirmed something new in the annals of war.
