Japan invades China, initiating WWII in the Pacific.
World War II begins
Soviet Union invades Poland.
Warsaw captured.
UK wins war's first sea battle.
The SS decides to construct a concentration camp near Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and the first prisoners arrive on May 20th.
Norway invaded.
Churchill becomes prime minister.
Italy enters the war.
Paris falls to Nazis (Fall of France)
Expansion of Auschwitz I and the building of a camp near Birkenau is ordered.
The first gassing of prisoners occur in Auschwitz I. Zyklon B gas was successfully tested in a makeshift gas chamber which led to the adoption of it for future killing centers.
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.
U.S. declares war on Japan entering WWII.
Day the Allied landings in northern France.
SS Chief Himmler orders the destruction of the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers and crematoria in an attempt to destroy evidence.
Soviet units approach, the SS evacuates ~60,000 prisoners who are forced on death marches to be put on unheated trains set for deportation to camps in Germany. ~15,000 die during these marches and thousands more were killed before the evacuation.
Liberation of Auschwitz; the SS killed nearly one million Jews from across Europe.
Hitler commits suicide.
Germany surrenders to the Soviets.
The U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.