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Mussolini becomes Prime MInister of Italy
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini rose to power in the wake of World War I as a leading proponent of Facism. Originally a revolutionary Socialist, he forged the paramilitary Fascist movement in 1919 and became prime minister in 1922. -
Stalin comes to power
Joseph Stalin's Rise to Power in November 1917. The Soviet Union was founded in 1922, with Lenin as its first leader. -
Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany
Germany's new Chancellor took power on January 30th, 1933. Adolf Hitler was not elected to power in Germany by an overwhelming upsurge of popular demand. -
Non-aggression pact
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world 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. -
Invasion of Poland and start of WWII
Germany invaded Poland only days after signing the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, under which the Soviet Union agreed not to defend Poland from the east if Germany attacked it from the west. -
Lend-lease Act passed in US
The lend-lease program provided for military aid to any country whose defense was vital to the security of the United States. -
Pearl Harbor attack
A surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor. The attack led to the United States entry into World War II. -
America declares war on Japan and enters WWII
The United States Congress declared war on the Empire of Japan in response to that country's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the prior day. -
War Production Board crated
The War Production Board was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. -
Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. -
European Battle: Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of the Second World War. -
Office of War Mobilization created
An independent agency of the United States government formed during World War II to coordinate all government agencies involved in the war effort. -
European Battle: D-Day
156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France's Normandy region. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
A major battle in which the United States Marine Corps landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. -
Battle of Okinawa
It was the largest amphibious landing in the Pacific theater of World War II. It also resulted in the largest casualties with over 100,000 Japanese casualties and 50,000 casualties for the Allies. -
Holocaust
A genocide in which some six million European Jews were killed by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, and the World War II collaborators with the Nazis. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
The Americans used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima because the Japanese refused to surrender when facing conventional warfare. -
End of WWII
World War 2 ended with the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. On 8 May 1945, the Allies accepted Germany's surrender, about a week after Adolf Hitler had committed suicide.
