-
Adolf Hitler is made Chancellor of Germany. His Nazi Party, or the Third Reich, takes power and Hitler is essentially the dictator of Germany.
-
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. This was a pact against communism and Russia.
-
In response to Hitler's invasion of Poland, Britain and France both allies of Poland, declared war on Germany.
-
In 1939, Norway declared itself neutral. German troops invaded the country and quickly took over Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik. Three weeks later the war was abandoned in southern Norway.
-
Germany used quick strikes called blitzkrieg, which means lightning war, to seize much of western Europe including the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern France.
-
Italy enters the war as a part of the Axis powers.
-
Germany launched an air attack on Great Britain. These attacks lasted until the end of October and are commonly known as the Battle of Britain.
-
Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, creating the Axis Alliance.
-
Germany and the Axis Powers attacked Russia with a huge force of over four million troops.
-
The Japanese attack the US Navy in Pearl Harbor. The next day the US enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
-
The US Navy defeated the Japanese navy at the Battle of Midway.
-
Italy surrendered to the Allies, however Germany helped Mussolini to escape and set up a government in Northern Italy. He was rescued from detention in the Abruzzi mountains and made him leader of a puppet state in north Italy.
-
Allied forces invaded France and push back the Germans.
-
Paris was liberated after more than four years of Nazi occupation.
-
The Germans launch a large attack in the Battle of the Bulge. They lose to the Allies sealing the fate of the German army.
-
US President Franklin Roosevelt dies. He is succeeded by President Harry Truman.
-
When Hitlers soldiers warned him of the Soviets' approach, he chose to commit suicide rather than flee. It is believed that this is because he didn't want to be caught and publicly humiliated, so Hitler chose to leave the world with some form of dignity.
-
Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies in Reims, France, ending World War II and the Third Reich.
-
The United States drops the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The city is devastated.
-
A second atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan
-
Japan surrenders to US General Douglass MacArthur and the Allies.