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Mussolini takes over Italy's Government
Benito Mussolini rose to power in the beginning of World War I. he forged the paramilitary Fascist movement in 1919. Mussolini allied himself with Hitler to pop up his leadership.
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Beer Hall Putsch
Adolf Hitler and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria, a state in southern Germany.
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Nazis, Rise. "Beer Hall Putsch - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.Com". HISTORY.com. N. p., 2017. Web. 7 Feb. 2017. -
Kellogg- Briand Pact
The Kellogg–Briand Pact is a 1928 international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve "disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise
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U.S. Stock Market Crash
A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a significant cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic as much as by underlying economic factors. They often follow speculative stock market bubbles.
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Japan Invades Manchuria
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 18, 1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident
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Hitler becomes Germany's Chancellor
On January 30th Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. The supposed 1,000 year Reich has started.
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First Anti-Semitic Law is passed in Germany
Nazi leaders began to make good on their pledge to persecute German Jews soon after their assumption of power. During the first six years of Hitler's dictatorship, from 1933 until the outbreak of war in 1939, Jews felt the effects of more than 400 decrees and regulations that restricted all aspects of their public and private lives.
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Hitler openly announces to his cabinet he will defy the Treaty of Versailles
On Friday, March 15, 1935, Hitler departed his mountain retreat and returned to Berlin. He immediately convened a Cabinet meeting and also assembled members of the Army's General Staff. He then announced a major decision he had just come to – Germany would openly defy the military limitations set by the Treaty of Versailles and re-arm.
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Creation of the Nuremberg Laws
The History Place - World War II in Europe Timeline: September 15, 1935 - The Nuremberg Race Laws. The Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship, giving them the status of "subjects" in Hitler's Reich.
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Italy invades Ethiopia
Italy invades Ethiopia. In 1935, the League of Nations was faced with another crucial test. Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader of Italy, had adopted Adolf Hitler's plans to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German.
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Hitler Militarizes the Rhineland
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by sending German military forces into the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone along the Rhine River in western Germany.
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Rape of Nanking
“Rape of Nanking,” the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male “war prisoners,” massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. Click here for resources -
Germany Annexes Austria
Nazis conspired for the second time in four years to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, learning of the conspiracy, met with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the hopes of reasserting his country’s independence but was instead bullied into naming several top Austrian Nazis to his cabinet.
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Munich Conference
The Munich Agreement was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined.
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Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, literally, "Night of Crystal," is often referred to as the "Night of Broken Glass." The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938. This wave of violence took place throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops.
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Hitler demands the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia
On this day, Hitler’s forces invade and occupy Czechoslovakia–a nation sacrificed on the altar of the Munich Pact, which was a vain attempt to prevent Germany’s imperial aims.
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Einstein’s letter to FDR, “The Manhattan Project”
The Einstein–Szilárd letter was a letter written by Leó Szilárd and signed by Albert Einstein that was sent to the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 2, 1939. ... It prompted action by Roosevelt, which eventually resulted in the Manhattan Project developing the first atomic bombs.
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Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Hitler disliked the photograph taken when the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact was signed in the Kremlin because it showed Stalin with a cigarette in his hand. Hitler felt the cigarette was unsuited to the historic occasion and had it airbrushed from the photo when it was published in Germany.
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* Nazi invasion of Poland
Hitler's army attacked Poland, and Russia attacked Poland from east. Hitler's troops invaded from north, south, and west. Poland awaited backup from Britain and France, but received very little. This marked the beginning of World War II, Because Britain and France both had pacts with Poland, they declared war on Germany.
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France Surrenders
On June 17, in the southern city of Bordeaux, what remained of the French government decided to seek an armistice. Hitler insisted on the armistice being signed in the Compiegne Forest, where, in a railroad dining car, 22 years earlier Germany had been forced to sign the armistice ending World War I
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* Battle of Britain
Operation Sea lion was Germany's strategy for attacking Britain. The German airforce would attack the Royal Air Force. The UK used radar to figure out where the Germans would attack from. While the UK lost 1,000 planes, the Germans lost 1,700. The Germans bombed everything they could, but ultimately radar saved the UK from falling to Germany.
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The tripartite Pact
The Tripartite Pact, also known as the Berlin Pact, was an agreement between Germany, Japan and Italy signed in Berlin on 27 September 1940 by, respectively, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Saburō Kurusu and Galeazzo Ciano.
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Lend Lease Act
Proposed in late 1940 and passed in March 1941, the Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II.
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* Germany Invades USSR Opening
Germany attacked Russia in June of 1941. Hitler sent three armies into Russia to the north, east, and south. Hitler would not let his men surrender, and most of them died during the brutal winter and from starvation and disease. 91,000 men surrendered to the USSR in 1943, but only 5,000 would ever return to Germany. This attack led to the opening of the eastern front.
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Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941
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* Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. They attacked in two ways The first way was the main attack to take out ships and airfield. The second way they would finish off whatever was left. The objective was to prevent US from influencing Japan's war effort in southeast Asia.
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The Wannsee Conference and the “Final Solution
On January 20, 1942, 15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
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* Bataan Death March
Douglas MacArthur was commander of US forces in Asia. He underrated the strength of Japan and had to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. Mac Arthur retreated to Australia, but he left his US troops behind. Japanese took Philippines and most US forces surrendered. Japan forced US troops to march 55 miles and more than 7,000 died.
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Battle of Midway
Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy under Admirals Chester Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku .
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Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of the Second World War which started on 8 November 1942
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Island Hopping
Leapfrogging, also known as island hopping, was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan and the Axis powers during World War II.
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* Battle of Stalingrad
Stalingrad was the turning point of the war in Europe. It ended plans of Hitler dominating Europe. Soviet troops forced Nazi armies to retreat toward Germany. This opened the eastern front of the war.
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* Allies Drive Germany out of North Africa
The British were fighting the Germans and Italians in North Africa since 1940. Forcing Germany out of North Africa would provide the Allies with an opportunity to invade Italy.
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The Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg trials (German: die Nürnberger Prozesse) were a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II, which were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political
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* D-Day and Operation Overlord
The D-Day invasion was officially called Operation Overlord. The Allies created a fake army of wood and cardboard tanks and ships to convince the Germans that the invasion would come to Calais and not in Normandy.
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Discovery of Majdanek
During the entire period of its existence, the Majdanek camp was under construction. Construction on the camp began in October 1941 with the arrival of about 2,000 Soviet prisoners of war. Most of the Soviet prisoners of war at Majdanek were too weak to work
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Battle of Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive campaign of World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, on the Western Front, towards the end of World War II, in the European theatre.
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Hitlers Suicide
holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler's dreams of a “1,000-year” Reich
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* V-E Day
the third reich ended, that lasted 12 years. On May 7, Germany surrendered in a French schoolhouse that had acted as Eisenhower's headquarters. Americans celebrated Victory in Europe Day. Click here for resources -
* Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
After bombing Japan multiple times, they would still not surrender. Truman decided to use the atomic bomb to spare the American lives that would have been lost.
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V-J Day
Japan surrendered to there allies ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or “V-J Day.”
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Creation of the United Nations
representatives of 26 nations at war with the Axis powers met in Washington to sign the Declaration of the United Nations endorsing the Atlantic Charter, pledging to use their full resources against the Axis and agreeing not to make a separate peace.
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The Japanese War Crime Trials
passed death sentences on seven of the men, including General Hideki Tojo, who served as Japanese premier during the war, and other principals, such as Iwane Matsui, who organized the Rape of Nanking
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