World War II Timeline

By Jean-Luc Gilbert

  • World War I ends with German defeat.

  • League of Nations founded.

  • Signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

  • Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist (Nazi) Party.

  • Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch.

  • Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" published.

  • Germany admitted to League of Nations.

  • Germans elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany.

  • Stock Market on Wall Street crashes.

  • Franklin Roosevelt elected President of the United States.

  • Nazis open Dachau concentration camp.

  • Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.

  • The German Reichstag burns.

  • First concentration camp opened at Oranienburg outside Berlin.

  • Enabling Act gives Hitler dictatorial power.

  • Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops.

  • Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops.

  • Nazi Party declared Germany's only political party.

  • Germany quits the League of Nations.

  • The Nazi "Night of the Long Knives."

  • Nazis murder Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss.

  • German President Hindenburg dies.

  • Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.

  • German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws.

  • Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.

  • The German Gestapo is placed above the law.

  • German troops occupy the Rhineland.

  • Mussolini's Italian forces take Ethiopia.

  • Civil war erupts in Spain.

  • Olympic games begin in Berlin.

  • Franco declared head of Spanish State.

  • Soviet leader Josef Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals.

  • Hitler reveals war plans during Hossbach Conference.

  • Peenemunde research center opens on the Baltic Sea for experiments in military rocketry.

  • Germany announces 'Anschluss' (union) with Austria.

  • German military mobilizes.

  • British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich

  • German troops occupy the Sudetenland; Czech government resigns.

  • Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.

  • Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations.

  • Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.

  • Nuclear Fission

    The discovery of Nuclear Fission by German scientists is reported in the British science journal Nature.

  • Hitler threatens Jews during Reichstag speech.

  • Nazis take Czechoslovakia.

  • Spanish Civil war ends.

  • Nazis sign 'Pact of Steel' with Italy.

  • Nazis and Soviets sign Pact.

  • Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty.

  • British fleet mobilizes; Civilian evacuations begin from London.

  • All Television sets are banned.

    Britain bans television for the duration of the coming conflict. The ban will not be lifted until 7 years have passed.

  • Nazis invade Poland.

  • Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.

  • British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.

  • United States proclaims its neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland.

  • Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins.

  • Soviets invade Poland.

  • Warsaw surrenders to Nazis; Reinhard Heydrich becomes the leader of new Reich Main Security Office

  • Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.

  • Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.

  • Soviets attack Finland.

  • German army invaded Denmark and Norway.

  • Marshal Pétain of France asked for an armistice.

  • Following the Japanese bombardment of the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan and Germany and immediately mobilized the country for war.

    Following the Japanese bombardment of the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan and Germany and immediately mobilized the country for war.

  • A Marine survivor emerges after two days and nights of Hell on the beach of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands.

    A Marine survivor emerges after two days and nights of Hell on the beach of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands.

  • Winston Churchill became prime minister of the British.

  • Five Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman raise the flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, using a piece of Japanese pipe as a mast.

    Five Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman raise the flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, using a piece of Japanese pipe as a mast.