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August 23 - Germany and the Soviet Union sign theNazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
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Germany Invades Poland
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. To Hitler, the conquest of Poland would bring Lebensraum, or "living space," for the German people. -
WW2 began
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Fall of Warsaw
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War (Polish: Kampania wrześniowa or Wojna obronna 1939 roku) in Poland and the Poland Campaign (German: Polenfeldzug) or Fall Weiß (Case White) in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the beginning of World War II in Europe. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, while the Soviet inv -
Germany invades France, Belgium, and the Netherlands
The campaign against the Low Countries and France lasted less than six weeks. Germany attacked in the west on May 10, 1940. Initially, British and French commanders had believed that German forces would attack through central Belgium as they had in World War I, and rushed forces to the Franco-Belgian border to meet the German attack. The main German attack however, went through the Ardennes Forest in southeastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. German tanks and infantry quickly broke through th -
Evacuation begins of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France
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Swastika flag rises over Versailles and Paris
A swastika flag flies above the Versailles castle, where in 1871 German fate was molded, and where in 1918 German humiliation was sealed. Paris, the longed-for goal, is ours. France's heart and soul, the center of the French arms industry, the birthplace of democracy and liberalism, is now in German hands. The Reich's military flag is hoisted at the Eiffel Tower. -
Italy declares war on France and Great Britain
On this day in 1940, after withholding formal allegiance to either side in the battle between Germany and the Allies, Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, declares war on France and Great Britain. -
The United States begins its first peacetime draft
The template below (Infobox U.S. legislation) is being considered for merging. ... the personnel of the armed forces of the United States and providing for its training. ... Signed into law by Franklin Roosevelt in 1940, the Act established the first peace-time draft in United States history. ... The draft began in October 1940. -
Coventry Blitz
The Coventry blitz (blitz: from the German word Blitzkrieg meaning "lightning war" -
The British ship Hood is sunk by Germany's Bismarck
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The Bismarck is sunk
The Bismarck is sunk -
Germany invades the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa)
Under the codename Operation "Barbarossa," Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, in the largest German military operation of World War II. -
Japan attacks Peal Harbor
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US inters ww2
Although the war began with Nazi Germany's attack on Poland in September 1939, the United States did not enter the war until after the Japanese bombed the American fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941 -
Germany and Italy declare war on the United States; then the United States declares war on Germany and Italy
On this day, Adolf Hitler declares war on the United States, bringing America, which had been ... to nail the Germans down on a formal declaration of war against America. -
The Wannsee Conference
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. -
Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066, which allows the internment of Japanese Americans
Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, dated February 19, 1942, gave the military ... of Italian background were arrested and more than 300 of them were interned. -
The Doolittle Raid on Japan
The April 1942 air attack on Japan, launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet and led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, was the most daring operation yet undertaken by the United States in the young Pacific War. Though conceived as a diversion that would also boost American and allied morale, the raid generated strategic benefits that far outweighed its limited goals. -
Anne Frank and her family go into hiding
12 June 1929 – early March 1945) was a diarist and writer. She was one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Her wartime diary The Diary of a Young Girl has been the basis for several plays and films. Born in the city of Frankfurt in Weimar Germany, she lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. Born a German national, Frank lost her citizenship in 1941. She gained international fame posthumously after her diary was published. It documents her experiences h -
The Germans surrender at Stalingrad, Soviet Union
On this day, the last of the German forces fighting at Stalingrad surrender, despite ... and urging German troops to surrender on other battlegrounds in the USSR. -
D-Day
On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high. More than 9,000 Allied Sold
