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WWII Timeline

  • Japan begin takeover of Manchuria, which is later renamed Manchukuo.

  • Hindenburg appoints Hitler chancellor of Germany.

  • Adolph Hitler seizes power in Germany. Hindenburg is reduced to a figure head.

  • Hitler assumes the presidency of Germany when Hindenburg dies and thus gains full control of the government.

  • In Germany, the first Nuremberg Laws are passed revoking citizenship from Jews and prohibiting them from marrying non-Jews.

  • Italy invades Ethiopia.

  • Berlin Olympic Games. Nazis disguise outward signs of anti-Semitism

  • Japan invades China.

  • Kristallnacht- the Night of the Broken Glass. Nazis violently attack Jews and destroy Jewish property, 91 Jews are killed and others are beaten.

  • The Jewish refugee ship the St. Louis arrives in Belgium after being denied access to Cuba and the United States. Most of the passengers are eventually murdered by the Nazis.

  • Germany invades Poland from the west.

  • Britain declares war on Germany at 11 am, France declares war on Germany six hours later.

  • British troops arrive in France.

  • In Poland, the process of moving the Jewish population into ghettos begins.

  • Albert Einstein and others inform FDR of the possibility of creating an atomic bomb.

  • Rationing is introduced in Britain.

  • Holland surrenders to Germany.

  • Belgium surrenders to Germany.

  • Norway surrenders to Germany.

  • Italy declares war on Britain and France.

  • Germans enter Paris

  • First all night air raid on London.

  • Germany attacks the Soviet Union.

  • Over 62,000 Jews are murdered in western Russia.

  • Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary, and Rumania. Japanese bomb the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor.

  • Britain and the United States declare war on Japan. Japan invades Malaya.

  • Germany and Italy declare war on United States.

  • United States institutes extended military conscription for men ages 20-44.

  • 14 Nazi leaders attend a short meeting to discuss the elimination of the remaining European Jews. The genocidal plan is dubbed "The Final Solution."

  • The United States first attacks the Japanese by air.

  • Battle of Midway Island.

  • Germans advancing in Russia and start the Leningrad offensive on the 28th.

  • Battle of Guadalcanal, heavy losses on both sides, eventual United States victory.

  • Italy surrenders.

  • D-Day, Allied invasion of Normandy.

  • Germans in retreat from Normandy.

  • Battle of the Bulge, the last German offensive in the west.

  • Americans land on Iwo Jima.

  • Hitler commits suicide.

  • V-E Day: German surrender confirmed.

  • Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.

  • Atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.

  • V-J Day.