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Japan invades Manchuria to gain raw materials for its war effort because of the American embargo of the Dutch West Indies.
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Fascist Italy invades, conquers, and annexes Ethiopia.
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Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sign a treaty of cooperation.
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The Rome-Berlin Axis is announced to the world.
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Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign a pact that is directed against the Soviet Union and the international Communist movement.
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Japan invades China, initiating World War II in the Pacific.
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Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement which forces the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.
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Germany invades Poland.
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France and Great Britain declare war on Germany due to Germany's invasion of Poland.
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The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east.
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The new state includes the province of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Croatia joins the Axis powers formally on June 15, 1941.
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Yugoslavia is forced to surrender after Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria invade and dismember the country.
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A Soviet counteroffensive group drives the Germans from a Moscow suburb in chaotic retreat.
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Japan drops bombs on Pearl Harbor in the United Startes.
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British and US troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans.
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Finland concludes an armistice with the Soviet Union, leaving the Axis partnership.
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Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot in his Führerbunker in Berlin. His wife Eva (née Braun) committed suicide with him by ingesting cyanide.
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Germany surrenders to the Western Allies.
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Germany also surrenders to the Soviets.
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The United States Air-Force drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
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The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan in an effort to end the war.
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Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II. The World is in Peace.
