-
Period: to
WWI-WWII
-
Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War I -
U.S President Woodrow Wilson annouces the U.S. will stay neutral.
President Woodrow Wilson saw the Zimmerman Telegram as an important reason for war with Germany in 1917 when he had been working so hard to keep the United States neutral up to that time and given that the German government claimed it wanted to keep the USA neutral. -
The Battle of Tannernberg begins.
The Battle of Tannenberg was an engagement between the Russian and the German Empires in the first days of World War I. -
Battle of Ypres begins.
The First Battle of Ypres, also called the First Battle of Flanders was a First World War battle fought for the strategically important town of Ypres in western Belgium. -
The unofficial Christmas truce is declared.
The Christmas truce was a series of widespread, unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas 1914, during World War I. -
The Second Battle of Ypres begins.
The Second Battle of Ypres comprised the only major attack launched by the German forces on the Western Front. -
The Battle of Verdun begins.
The Battle of Verdun was the longest battle of World War I and was one of the bloodiest. -
The Battle of the Somme begins.
During the Battle of the Somme, tanks are first introduced into battle. -
Russia signs the Treaty of Brest Litovsk
It is a peace treaty between Russia and the Central Powers. -
Germany signs the armistice at Compiegne, France.
Fighting ends on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. -
The Treaty of Versailles officially ends WWI.
World War I is over. -
Japan invades Manchuria.
This was an attempt by the Japanese Empire to gain control over the whole province, in order to eventually encompass all of East Asia. This proved to be one of the causes of World War II. -
Japan invades China.
This initiates World War II in the Pacific. -
Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement.
It forces the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudetenland, including the key Czechoslovak military defense positions, to Nazi Germany. -
Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
Denmark surrenders on the day of the attack; Norway holds out until June 9. -
Italy enters the war.
Italy invades southern France on June 21. -
The Soviet Union occupies the Baltic States on June 14–18
There are Communist coup d’états in each of them on July 14–15, and then annexing them as Soviet Republics on August 3–6. -
Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact.
The Tripartite Pact, also the Three-Power Pact, y was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany which established the Axis Powers of World War II. -
The air war known as the Battle of Britain ends.
The Nazi Germany are defeated. -
Bulgaria joins the Axis.
The southeastern European nation of Bulgaria joins the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact. -
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.
The 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. -
The United States declares war on Japan, entering World War II.
The U.S. decides to seek revenge on Japan. -
Nazi Germany and its Axis partners declare war on the United States.
Although Hitler had made an oral agreement with his Axis partner Japan that Germany would join a war against the United States, he was uncertain as to how the war would be engaged. -
Hitler commits 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. -
Germany surrenders to the western Allies.
Without Hitler Germany was lost. -
Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.
Japan agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945,
