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Benito Mussolini became the leader of Italy
Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until his ousting in 1943. He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship. -
Joseph Stalin became the leader of the USSR
Unchallenged leader of the Soviet Union. He remained general secretary until the post was abolished in 1952, concurrently serving as the Premier of the Soviet Union from 1941 onward. -
Congress passed the Neutrality Acts
imposed a general embargo on trading in arms and war materials with all parties in a war. It also declared that American citizens travelling on warring ships travelled at their own risk. The act was set to expire after six months. -
Japan invaded Manchuria
The Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state, called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II. -
Holocaust began
Jews in Europe were subjected to progressively harsher persecution that ultimately led to the murder of 6,000,000 Jews and the destruction of 5,000 Jewish communities. These deaths represented two-thirds of European Jewry and one-third of all world Jewry. -
FDR began his Good Neighbor Policy
Policy's main principle was that of non-intervention and non-interference in the domestic affairs of Latin America. It also reinforced the idea that the United States would be a “good neighbor” and engage in reciprocal exchanges with Latin American countries. -
Adolf Hitler became the leader of Germany
He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany (as Führer und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945. Hitler was at the centre of Nazi Germany, World War II in Europe, and the Holocaust. -
Italy invaded Ethiopia
Second Italo–Abyssinian War, was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire -
Japan invaded China
China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany,the largest Asian war in the 20th century.It also made up more than 50% of the casualties in the Pacific War if the 1937–1941 period is taken into account. -
European appeasement of Hitler began
Thinking that appeasing Adolf Hitler would avoid another general European war, Neville Chamberlain believed that peace was more important than confrontation. -
Nazis developed the Final Solution
Nazi Germany's plan during World War II to systematically exterminate the Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Europe, which resulted in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the destruction of Jewish communities in continental Europe. -
Kristallnacht
Night of Broken Glass,a series of coordinated attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and non-Jewish civilians. -
Germany began the blitzkrieg into Poland
1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, while the Soviet invasion commenced on 17 September 1939 following the Molotov-Tōgō agreement which terminated the Russian and Japanese hostilities -
Germany and Russia signed a nonaggression pact
Publicly, this agreement stated that the two countries -- Germany and the Soviet Union -- would not attack each other. -
Battle of the Atlantic
At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. -
Cash and Carry
It replaced the Neutrality Acts of 1939. The revision allowed the sale of material to belligerents, as long as the recipients arranged for the transport using their own ships and paid immediately in cash, assuming all risk in transportation. -
Navaho Code Talkers used
Code talkers were people who used obscure languages as a means of secret communication during wartime. The term is now usually associated with the United States soldiers during the world wars who used their knowledge of Native-American languages as a basis to transmit coded messages. -
Churchill became the Prime Minister of Great Britain
Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist.His steadfast refusal to consider defeat, surrender, or a compromise peace helped inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult early days of the War when Britain stood alone in its active opposition to Adolf Hitler. -
Battle of Britain
Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. -
The Tripartite Pact was signed
The Tripartite Pact, also the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany, Axis Powers of World War II. The pact was signed by representatives of Nazi Germany (Adolf Hitler), Fascist Italy (foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano), and Imperial Japan (Japanese ambassador to Germany Saburō Kurusu). -
Tuskegee Airmen
Popular name of a group of African-American pilots who fought in World War II. Formally, they formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces. -
Lend Lease Act
A total of $50.1 billion (equivalent to $656 billion today) worth of supplies were shipped. That represented 17% of the total war expenditures of the U.S. inll, $31.4 billion went to Britain, $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union, $3.2 billion to France, $1.6 billion to China, and smaller sums to other Allies. -
Atlantic Charter
Stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; equal access to raw materials; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of aggressor nations. -
OPA created
The functions of the OPA were originally to control money (price controls) and rents after the outbreak of World War II. -
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii -
Double V
The World War II-era effort of black Americans to gain “a Victory over racism at home as well as Victory abroad.” -
Development of Rosie the Riveter
Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller was hired by the Westinghouse Company's War Production Coordinating Committee to create a series of posters for the war effort. One of these posters became the famous "We Can Do It!" image -
Japanese put in internment camps in the U.S.
World War II internment in "War Relocation Camps" of over 110,000 people of Japanese heritage who lived on the Pacific coast of the United States. The U.S. government ordered the internment in 1942, shortly after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.[ -
Bataan Death March
Was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II.[ -
Doolittle Raids
an air raid by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu island during World War II, the first air raid to strike the Japanese Home Islands. It demonstrated that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack -
WAAC formed
was the women's branch of the United States Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, -
Battle of Midway
inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare. It was Japan's first naval defeat since the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits in 1863. -
Manhattan Project
Research and development project that produced the first atomic bombs during World War II. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the southwestern Soviet Union. -
Operation Torch
British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of the Second World War which started on 8 November 1942. -
Casablanca Conference
was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, then a French protectorate, from January 14 to 24, 1943, to plan the Allied European strategy for the next phase of World War II. -
Four Freedoms
Four Freedoms State of the Union address in which he identified essential human rights that should be universally protected The theme was incorporated into the Atlantic Charter. -
Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act
American law passed on June 25, 1943, over President Franklin D. Roosevelt's veto.The legislation was hurriedly created after 400,000 coal miners, their wages significantly lowered due to high wartime inflation, struck for a $2-a-day wage increase. -
Tehran Conference
strategy meeting held between Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943.main outcome of the Tehran Conference was the commitment to the opening of a second front against Nazi Germany by the Western Allies. -
D-Day
codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. the term D-Day was used for the day of the actual landing, which was dependent on final approval. -
MacArthur “returned” to the Philippines
he was poised to launch an invasion of the Philippines, but he needed the support of Nimitz's Pacific Fleet. After a period of indecision about whether to invade the Philippines or Formosa, the Joint Chiefs put their support behind MacArthur's plan, -
Battle of Bulge
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. -
Yalta Conference
World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union,purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. The conference convened in the Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields -
Battle of Okinawa
Campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). -
FDR died
The only man to be elected to four terms as president of the United States, Roosevelt is remembered--by friends and enemies alike--for his New Deal social policies and his leadership during wartime. -
V-E 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. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
United States during the final stages of World War II in August 1945. The two bombings were the first and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in wartime. -
V-J DAY
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 was made -
Nuremberg Trials
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.
