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Mussolini’s March on Rome
Benito Mussolini's Blackshirts infamously March on Rome, seizing total control over the Italian government. The March on Rome marked the beginning of Fascist rule over Italy, ending all social-liberal parliamentary regimes. -
Hitler writes Mein Kampf
Hitler began writing Mein Kampf in 1924 in Landsberg prison, following his conviction for high treason for attempting to overthrow the German republic in November 1923 in the so-called Beer Hall Putsch. Although his coup failed, Hitler used his trial as a pulpit to spread Nazi propaganda. -
1st “five year plan” in USSR
The plan, overall, was to transition the Soviet Union from a weak, poorly controlled, agricultural state, into an industrial powerhouse. -
The Great Purge/Gulags
The Great Purge or the Great Terror, was a purge in the Soviet Union from 1936 to 1938. It was a large-scale "repression" of the more wealthy peasants. Ethnic minorities were murdered. The Gulag was a system of Soviet labor camps and accompanying detention and transit camps and prisons. From the 1920s to the mid-1950s it housed political prisoners and criminals of the Soviet Union. At its height, the Gulag imprisoned millions of people. -
Japan invades Manchuria
Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. By 1937 Japan controlled large sections of China, and war crimes against the Chinese became commonplace. -
Holodomor
The Holodomor, also known as the Terror-Famine or the Great Famine, was a famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. Collectivization led to a drop in production, the disorganization of the rural economy, and food shortages. It also sparked a series of peasant rebellions, including armed uprisings, in some parts of Ukraine. -
Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany
Following several backroom negotiations between industrialists, Hindenburg's son, former chancellor Franz von Papen, and Hitler himself; Hindenburg acquiesced and on 30 January 1933, he formally appointed Adolf Hitler as chancellor. -
“Night of the Long Knives” in Germany
Night of the Long Knives, in German history, was purged Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler on June 30, 1934. Fearing that the paramilitary SA had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization's leaders. -
Nuremberg Laws enacted
The Nuremberg Laws were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935. The two laws were the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, which forbade marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans and the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households; and the Reich Citizenship Law, which declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens. -
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War (1936–39) was the bloodiest conflict western Europe had experienced since the end of World War I in 1918. It was the breeding ground for mass atrocities. About 200,000 people died as the result of systematic killings, mob violence, torture, or other brutalities. -
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
The Italian invading forces steadily pushed back the ill-armed and poorly trained Ethiopian army, winning a major victory near Lake Ascianghi on April 9, 1936, and taking the capital, Addis Ababa, on May 5. -
Nanjing Massacre
The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing was the mass murder of Chinese civilians in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War, by the Imperial Japanese Army. Beginning on December 13, 1937, the massacre lasted for six weeks. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom, was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung paramilitary forces along with civilians throughout Nazi Germany on November 9 and 10th, 1938. -
Nazi Germany invades Poland
The invasion of Poland, also known as the September campaign, 1939 defensive war, and Poland campaign, was an attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. -
Japan Bombs Peal Harbor
To blunt that response, Japan decided to attack the U.S Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, hoping that the U.S would negotiate peace. The attack at Pearl Harbor was a huge gamble, but one which did not pay off. Though Japan took its objectives in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, the U.S did not respond as expected. -
Stalin becomes dictator of USSR
He held power as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941–1953). Initially governing the country as part of collective leadership, he consolidated power to become a dictator by the 1930s.