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1921, Jan. 30 Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party
By early 1921, Adolf Hitler was becoming highly effective at speaking in front of ever larger crowds. He was amazing at convincing large crowds of people that he knew best. Leader of the Nazi pary -
1922 Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
Benito Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until his ousting in 1943. italian facist dictator. -
1929 Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR)
Joseph Stalin was a powerful Communist leader in the early years of the Soviet Union. He was a dictator who terrorized the population and sent many people to prisons and labour camps. -
1931 Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
In 1931, the Japanese Kwangtung Army attacked Chinese troops in Manchuria in an event commonly known as the Manchurian Incident. This was an attempt by the Japanese Empire to gain power. This proved to be one of the causes of World War IIs -
1933, March 21 - Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
The year 1932 had seen Hitler's prominence in Germany was rising. German people's frustration with dismal economic conditions. Harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty. Hitler channeled popular discontent with the post-war Weimar government into support for his Nazi party. -
1935 Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
Neutrality Act, law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Franklin Roosevelt. It was designed to keep the United States out of a possible European war by banning shipment of war materiel, forbidding U.S. citizens from traveling on belligerent vessels except at their own risk -
1935 Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
League of Nations was faced with Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader of Italy, had adopted Adolf Hitler's plans to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German. Mussolini claimed that his policies of expansion were not different from that of other colonial powers in Africa. -
1936 Militarist take control of Japanese Government
The military had a strong influence on Japanese society from the Meiji Restoration. Almost all leaders in Japanese society during the Meiji period were descendants of samurai, and shared a set of values and outlooks. The early government viewed Japan as threatened by western imperialism, -
1936 Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty
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. -
1937 Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people.
1936 - Adolf Hitler sends his troops into the Rhinelands. This was, for Germany, a violation of the Versailles Treaty. Pictured: German troops march into Rhineland. -
1938 Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany
In the spring of 1938, Hitler began openly to support the demands of German-speakers living in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia for closer ties with Germany. Hitler had recently annexed Austria into Germany, and the conquest of Czechoslovakia was the next step in his plan of creating a "greater Germany." The Czechoslovak government hoped that Britain and France would come to its assistance in the event of German invasion, but British Prime Minister Chamberlain was intent on averting war. -
1938 Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
In Poland for example, they would pass legislation restricting where Jews could live, forming a ghetto that could be walled in. In Russia, they would just post a notice that all Jews within a certain area were required to assemble at a prescribed location from which they would board the deportation trains.The German soldiers took them from their houses and sent them on a carriage type thing where they were placed in concentration camps. -
1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin
On August 23, 1939, representatives from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union met and signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, which guaranteed that the two countries would not attack each other. -
1939 Sept 1st - Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. -
1940 Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control
Franco's forces began a bloodbath against targeted opponents, while Franco also began programs to rebuild war-damaged communities. The German and Italian military men in Spain returned home. And in September, when Germany attacked Catholic Poland, Catholic Spain was disconcerted, and Franco declared Spain to be neutral. -
1940 Battle of Britain – Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. -
1940 Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
In the Second World War, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the successful German invasion of France and the Low Countries defeating primarily French forces. -
1940 First time Peacetime Draft in US
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, was the first peacetime conscription in United States history. This Selective Service Act required that men between the ages of 21 and 35 register with local draft boards. Later, when the U.S. entered World War II, all men aged 18 to 45 were made subject to military service, and all men aged 18 to 65 were required to register -
1941 Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades - USSR which now joins England in fighting the Germans
Challenging established social and political structures through internal subversion, armed violence and terrorism, the Soviet Union was considered an outlaw state. It advocated the overthrow of all capitalist regimes and supported anti-colonial "independence movements" in underdeveloped territories -
1941 Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a joint declaration released by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on August 14, 1941 following a meeting of the two heads of state in Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter provided a broad statement of U.S. and British war aims. -
1941 Japanese invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia)
In September 1940, the Japanese invaded Vichy French Indochina in order to prevent the Republic of China from importing arms and fuel through French Indochina along the Sino-Vietnamese Railway, from the port of Haiphong through Hanoi to Kunming in Yunnan. -
1941, Dec. 7 Pearl Harbor in Hawaii attacked by Japanese Naval and Air forces, US declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the US dec 9
The first wave targeted airfields and battleships. The second wave targeted other ships and shipyard facilities. The air raid lasted until 9:45 a.m. Eight battleships were damaged, with five sunk. Three light cruisers, three destroyers and three smaller vessels were lost along with 188 aircraft. The Japanese lost 27 planes and five midget submarines which attempted to penetrate the inner harbor and launch torpedoes. -
1942 Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death March
Japanese butchery, disease, exposure to the blazing sun. Many prisoners were bayoneted, shot, beheaded or just left to die on the side of the road. The stronger were not permitted to help the weaker. The Japanese forced the prisoners to sit for hours in the blazing sun without water. inhumane conditions. -
1942 Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps
After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941, the U.S. War Department suspected that Japanese Americans might act as saboteurs, despite a lack of hard evidence to support that view. Some political leaders recommended rounding up Japanese Americans, particularly those living along the West Coast, and placing them in detention centres inland -
1942 Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow
The German Army never fully recovered from the beating it took in Russia around Moscow and elsewhere during the winter of 1941-42 when it suffered over a million casualties. For a time, the entire Eastern Front had teetered on the verge of collapse as division upon division of well-equipped Russians materialized seemingly out of nowhere and attacked. -
1942, June 4-7 Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific
On 7 December 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In little more than an hour, the Pacific Fleet was decimated and the Japanese fleet sailed home victorious. The Japanese went on to conquer a large proportion of Southeast Asia and the southern Pacific Ocean in their bid to guarantee access to raw materials for their expanding economy and to create a defensive perimeter against any Allied counterattack. -
1943 British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia. -
1943 Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots in 1943 during World War II that broke out in Los Angeles, California, between Anglo American sailors and Marines stationed in the city, and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored. Mexican Americans and European-American military personnel were the main parties in the riots, and some African American and Filipino/Filipino American youths were involved as well. -
1943 July - Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Min.
Italy has signed an unconditional armistice with the Allies, General Dwight D Eisenhower has announced.
The surrender was signed five days ago in secret by a representative of Marshal Pietro Badoglio, Italy's prime minister since the downfall of Benito Mussolini in July. -
1944 June 6 - D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion by and establishment of Western Allied forces in Normandy, during Operation Overlord in 1944 during World War II; the largest amphibious invasion to ever take place. -
1944 Aug. - Paris retaken by Allies Forces
After more than four years of Nazi occupation, Paris is liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. German resistance was light, and General Dietrich von Choltitz, commander of the German garrison, defied an order by Adolf Hitler to blow up Paris' landmarks and burn the city to the ground before its liberation. -
1944 Dec. Battle of the Bulge – last offensive of German Forces
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. Hitler planned the offensive with the primary goal to recapture the important harbor of Antwerp. -
1945 Jan. – US forces return to recapture the Philippines
The Battle of Manila also known as the Liberation of Manila, fought between American plus Filipino joined forces and Japanese forces in Manila from 3 February - 3 March 1945, was part of the 1945 Philippine campaign. The one-month battle, which culminated in a terrible bloodbath and total devastation of the city, was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific theater, and ended almost three years of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines -
1945 April 16th - FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States. As the final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. Under Truman, the Allies successfully concluded World War II; in the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War. -
1945 May 8th - V-E Day, war ends in Europe
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day, or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
1945 Aug. 14th – V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces
Victory over Japan Day is a name chosen for the day on which Japan surrendered, in effect ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. The term has been applied to both of the days on which the initial announcement of Japan’s surrender. -
1946 War Crimes Trials held in Nuremburg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan.
The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Germany.
