-
Japan invades Manchuria
-
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the Soviet Union and the international Communist movement.
-
Japan invades China, initiating World War II in the Pacific.
-
Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement which forces the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudetenland, including the key Czechoslovak military defense positions, to Nazi Germany.
-
France and Great Britain guarantee the integrity of the borders of the Polish state.
-
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a nonaggression agreement and a secret codicil dividing eastern Europe into spheres of influence.
-
Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe.
-
Honoring their guarantee of Poland’s borders, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.
-
Sovient Union invades poland from the east
-
Italy enters the war. Italy invades southern France on June 21.
-
Italy enters the war. Italy invades southern France on June 21.
-
The Soviet Union forces Romania to cede the eastern province of Bessarabia and the northern half of Bukovina to the Soviet Ukraine.
-
The Soviet Union forces Romania to cede the eastern province of Bessarabia and the northern half of Bukovina to the Soviet Ukraine.
-
The Italians invade British-controlled Egypt from Italian-controlled Libya.
-
Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact.
-
Italy invades Greece from Albania on October 28.
-
Bulgaria joins the Axis.
-
A Soviet counteroffensive drives the Germans from the Moscow suburbs in chaotic retreat.
-
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
-
U.S. Enters World War two
-
British and US navies halt the Japanese naval advance in the central Pacific at Midway.
-
US and British troops land at several points on the beaches of Algeria and Morocco in French North Africa. The failure of the Vichy French troops to defend against the invasion enables the Allies to move swiftly to the western border of Tunisia, and triggers the German occupation of southern France on November 11.
-
Axis forces in Tunisia surrender to the Allies, ending the North African campaign.
-
The Fascist Grand Council deposes Benito Mussolini, enabling Italian marshall Pietro Badoglio to form a new government.
-
British and US troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans.
-
Anglo-American forces break out of the Normandy beachhead and race eastward towards Paris.
-
Hitler commits suicide
-
U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
-
The United Sates drops the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
-
Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.
