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Japan invades Manchuria
Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. -
Night of the Long Knives
A purge of Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler. Fearing that the paramilitary had become too powerful, he ordered his elite guards to murder the organization's leaders. -
Italy invades Ethiopia
Italy invaded Ethiopia without a declaration of war, and for doing so the League of Nations instructed its member states to impose limited economic sanctions on Italy. -
Appeasement (Chamberlain)
Chamberlain's policy of appeasement emerged from the failure of the League of Nations and the failure of collective security. -
Anschluss
The annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany -
Non-Aggression Pact
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. -
Kristallnacht
A pogrom against Jews carried out by SA paramilitary forces and civilians throughout Nazi Germany -
Germany invades Poland
German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. -
France surrenders to Germany
The French government signed an armistice with Nazi Germany just six weeks after the Nazis launched their invasion of Western Europe. -
Battle of Britain
A military campaign in which the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. -
Final Solution
The Nazi policy of exterminating European Jews. -
Japan Bombs Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise preemptive military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii -
Battle of Stalingrad
The largest confrontation of World War II, in which Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia. -
Battle of Midway
The United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll, marking a turning point in the war in the Pacific theatre. -
D-Day
the day in World War II on which Allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy. -
Battle of the Bulge
the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II -
Liberation of Auschwitz
the Soviet army entered Auschwitz and liberated more than 7,000 remaining prisoners, who were mostly ill and dying. -
Hiroshima and Negasaki
The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. -
V-E Day
a day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces -
V-J Day
the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II