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Mussolini’s March on Rome
The March on Rome was an organized mass demonstration in October 1922, which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. The March marked the beginning of fascist rule and meant the doom of the preceding parliamentary regimes of socialists and liberals. -
Stalin becomes the dictator of USSR
Lenin died on 21 January 1924. Stalin was given the honor of organizing his funeral. Upon Lenin's death, Stalin was officially hailed as his successor as the leader of the ruling Communist Party and of the Soviet Union itself. Stalin used his position as general secretary to gain control of the Communist party, he established programs that changed agriculture and industry and strengthened his control over the party by eliminating all opposition. -
Hitler writes Mein Kampf
Mein Kamp, also known as My Struggle, was a political manifesto written by Adolf Hitler. It was his only complete book, and the work became the bible of National Socialism (Nazism) in Germany's Third Reich. It promoted the key components of Nazism: rabid antisemitism, a racist worldview, and an aggressive foreign policy geared to gaining Lebensraum (living space) in eastern Europe. -
1st “five year plan” in USSR
The first five-year plan was created in order to initiate rapid and large-scale industrialization across the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet Union's achievements were tremendous during the first five-year plan, which yielded a fifty-percent increase in industrial output. To achieve this massive economic growth, the Soviet Union had to reroute essential resources to meet the needs of heavy industry. -
Japan invades Manchuria
Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. In September 1931, they claimed that Chinese soldiers had sabotaged the railway, and attacked the Chinese army. By February 1932, the Japanese had conquered the whole of Manchuria. Thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed. By 1937 Japan controlled large sections of China, and war crimes against the Chinese became commonplace. -
Holodomor
The term Holodomor refers to the starvation of millions of Ukrainians in 1932–33 as a result of Soviet policies. Holodomor was a man-made famine that convulsed the Soviet republic of Ukraine. It was part of a broader Soviet famine (1931–34) that also caused mass starvation in the grain-growing regions of Soviet Russia and Kazakhstan. -
Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933 following a series of electoral victories by the Nazi Party. Hitler's emergence as chancellor on January 30, 1933, marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. -
The Great Purge and gulags
The Gulag was a system of Soviet labor camps and accompanying detention and transit camps and prisons. It housed political prisoners and criminals of the Soviet Union. It was a period of time when millions of Russians in the Communist Party- the army, the arts, sciences, and many other walks of life were arrested and were either sent to labor camps or shot. -
“Night of the Long Knives” in Germany
The Night of the Long Knives, or the Röhm purge, also called Operation Hummingbird, was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany. It represented a triumph for Hitler and a turning point for the German government. It established Hitler as "the supreme leader of the German people", as he put it in his July 13 speech to the Reichstag. Fearing that the paramilitary SA had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization's leaders, including Ernst Röhm. -
Nuremberg Laws enacted
The Nuremberg Laws were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. This law stripped Jews of their German citizenship, jobs, and property. To make it easier for the Nazis to identify them, Jews had to wear a bright yellow Star of David attached to their clothing. -
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
It was a war of aggression that was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. The aim of invading Ethiopia was to boost Italian national prestige, which was wounded by Ethiopia's defeat of Italian forces at the Battle of Adowa in the nineteenth century (1896), which saved Ethiopia from Italian colonization. -
Spanish Civil war
Spanish Civil war was a military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. The main cause of the Spanish Civil War was the failure of Spanish democracy. The war resulted in great loss of life, much human suffering, disruption of the society and the economy, distortion and repression in cultural affairs, and truncation of the country's political development. -
The Rape of Nanking
The Rape of Nanking was the mass killing and the ravaging of Chinese citizens and capitulated soldiers by soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army after its seizure of Nanjing, China, on December 13, 1937, during the Sino-Japanese War that preceded World War II. Nanking should be remembered not only for the number of people slaughtered but for the cruel manner in which many met their deaths. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also called Night of Broken Glass or November Pogroms, was the night of November 9–10, 1938, when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property. The name Kristallnacht refers ironically to the litter of broken glass left in the streets after these pogroms -
Nazi Germany invades Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. To justify the action, Nazi propagandists accused Poland of persecuting ethnic Germans living in Poland. They also falsely claimed that Poland was planning, with its allies Great Britain and France, to encircle and dismember Germany. -
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. This unprovoked attack brought the United States into World War II, as it immediately declared war on Japan.
