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Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party
Hitler joined the party the year it was founded and became its leader in 1921. In 1933, he became chancellor of Germany and his Nazi government soon assumed dictatorial powers -
Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
Benito was the leader of the Fascist party. He also made himself dictator prior to WW2 -
Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR)
He turned the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state. Totalitarian state: a nation in which a single party controls the government and every aspect of people's lives. -
Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
When 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. -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany -
Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war” from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license -
Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
Ethiopia (Abyssinia), which Italy had unsuccessfully tried to conquer in the 1890s, was in 1934 one of the few independent states in a European-dominated Africa. A border incident between Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland that December gave Benito Mussolini an excuse to intervene. Rejecting all arbitration offers, the Italians invaded Ethiopia. -
Militarist take control of Japanese Government
Japan struck a depression and unlike the fascist and Europe, militarists did not try to establish a new system of government. They wanted to restore traditional control of the government to the military. Therefore the militarist took control themsleves. -
Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty
In May 1935 France signed a treaty of friendship and mutual support with the USSR. Germany claimed the treaty was hostile to them and Hitler used this as an excuse to send German troops into the Rhineland in March 1936, contrary to the terms of the treaties of Versailles and Locarno -
Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people.
Over a period of six weeks, Imperial Japanese Army forces brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people–including both soldiers and civilians–in the Chinese city of Nanking (or Nanjing). The horrific events are known as the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanking, as between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted. Nanking, then the capital of Nationalist China, was left in ruins, and it would take decades for the city and its citizens to recover from the savage attacks. -
Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
the Nazis increasingly exploited the forced labor of "enemies of the state," so-called asocials, and so-called criminal elements for economic gain and to meet desperate labor shortages. In 1938, the German Criminal Police conducted two major roundups of so-called asocials and so-called criminals to increase the number of forced laborers available in the camps. -
Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany
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 -
Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised everyone by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. With Europe on the brink of another major war, Stalin viewed the pact as a way to keep his nation on peaceful terms with Germany, while giving him time to build up the Soviet military. Hitler used the pact to make sure Germany was able to invade Poland unopposed. -
Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
In response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany. -
Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control
Hitler sent his troops into Belgium and the Netherlands without forewarning – although he had promised to respect their neutrality. His excuse was that the Belgians and Dutch had been conducting military talks with the Western powers and that Germany had to take power in these countries to protect their neutral status -
Battle of Britain begins – Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island
After Germany had conquered most of Europe, including France, Great Britain was the only country left to fight them. Germany wanted to invade G.B but, in order to do that they first had to destory their airforce (RAF). It started when Germany bombed G.B in hopes of defeating the RAF and invading the country. -
Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
The Second Armistice at Compiègne was signed by France and Germany, which resulted in a division of France, whereby Germany would occupy the north and west, Italy would control a small occupation zone in the south-east and an unoccupied zone in the south, the zone libre, would be governed by the officially neutral Vichy government led by Marshal Philippe Pétain. This led to the end of the French Third Republic. France was not liberated until the summer of 1944 -
First time Peacetime Draft in US
This Selective Service Act required all men from their 18th birthday until the day before their 45th birthday were made subject to military service, and all men from their 18th birthday until the day before their 65th birthday were required to register -
Japanese invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia)
France was swiftly defeated by Nazi Germany, and colonial administration of French Indochina, modern-day Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, passed to the Vichy French government, a Puppet state of Nazi Germany. The Vichy government ceded control of Hanoi and Saigon in 1940 to Japan, and in 1941, Japan extended its control over the whole of French Indochina -
Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades - USSR which now joins England in fighting the Germans
Hitler launched an invasion of the Soviet Union. Stalin was confident that the total Allied war machine would eventually stop Germany, and with Lend Lease from the West, the Soviets stopped the Wehrmacht some 30 kilometres from Moscow. -
Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
It defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. The Charter stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people, self-determination; restoration of self-government; 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 -
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii attacked by Japanese Naval and Air forces, US declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the US
It was the most successful surprise attack, Japanese fighter jets bombed the harbor. Only lasting two hours the results were terrible. 8 American battleships sunk making it 20 ships down, over 300 airplanes, over 2,000 soldiers and sailors down, and over 1,000 wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States. -
Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps
The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II was the forced relocation and incarceration in camps in the interior of the country of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the Pacific coast. Sixty-two percent of the internees were United States citizens. These actions were ordered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor -
Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death March
U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II, the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps -
Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific
The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable. -
Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow
During their advance on Moscow, the Germans were hindered by the Russian weather, and soviet troops near the city of Stalingrad. For several months the soviet troops and the Nazi troops fought in and around the city. In the end, it was a clear Soviet victory. -
British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
The North African Campaign began in June of 1940 and continued for three years, as Axis and Allied forces pushed each other back and forth across the desert. In November, Operation Torch brought in thousands of British and American forces. They landed across western North Africa, and joined the attack, eventually helping force the surrender of all remaining Axis troops in Tunisia. -
Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA
White servicemen and civilians attacked youths who wore zoot suits because the outfits were considered unpatriotic and extravagant during wartime, in which rationing of fabric was required for the World War II war effort. While most of the violence was directed toward Mexican American youth, young African American and Filipino Americans were attacked as well because they also sported zoot suits. -
Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Minister
The Germans had snapped into action. Ever since Mussolini had begun to falter, Hitler had been making plans to invade Italy to keep the Allies from gaining a foothold that would situate them within easy reach of the German-occupied Balkans. Hitler launched Operation Axis, the occupation of Italy. As German troops entered Rome, General Badoglio fled Rome for southeastern Italy to set up a new antifascist government. Italian troops began surrendering to their former German allies. -
D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
Supreme Allied Commander General Eisenhower gives the go-ahead for the largest military operation in history: Operation Overlord, code named D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern France. -
Paris retaken by Allies Forces
60 British soldiers, commanded by Major Roy Farran, fight their way east from Rennes toward Orleans, through German-occupied forest, forcing the Germans to retreat and aiding the French Resistance in its struggle for liberation. Code-named Operation Wallace, this push east was just another nail in the coffin of German supremacy in France -
Battle of the Bulge – last offensive of German Forces
This 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. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. American forces took the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany's armoured forces on the Western Front, and they were largely unable to replace them. -
US forces return to recapture the Philippines
United States and Philippine Commonwealth military forces were progressing in liberating territory and islands when the Japanese forces in the Philippines were ordered to surrender by Tokyo on August 15, 1945, after the dropping of the atomic bombs on mainland Japan. -
FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passes away after four terms in office, leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power. -
V-E Day, war ends in Europe
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, was to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
First Atomic Bombs dropped
President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces
The surrender of Imperial Japan brought the hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent. -
War Crimes Trials held in Nuremberg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan
General Tomoyuki Yamashita was hanged in Manila on February 23, 1946. The fate of this officer, a first-class fighting man,affirmed something new in the annals of war. For Yamashita did not die for murder, or for directing other men to do murder in his name. Yamashita lost his life not because he was a bad or evil commander, but simply because he was a commander, and the men he commanded had done unspeakably evil things
