FDR signs the 1937 Neutrality Act, banning travel on belligerent ships, forbids the arming of American merchant ships trading with belligerents, and issues an arms embargo with warring countries
FDR signs the 1937 Neutrality Act, banning travel on belligerent ships, forbids the arming of American merchant ships trading with belligerents, and issues an arms embargo with warring countries
FDR forbids U.S. ships from carrying arms to China or Japan
In response to Japanese action in China, FDR delivers a speech in which he calls for peace-loving nations to act together to “quarantine” aggressors
Japanese warplanes dive-bomb the American gunboat Panay in the Yangtze River in China, then apologizes and pays reparations for the lives lost
Time Inc. releases an anti-Nazi propaganda newsreel entitled March of Time in Nazi Germany
Hitler announces support for Japan
Hermann Goering, marshal of the Third Reich and Hitler’s second in charge, warns all Jews to leave Austria
Benito Mussolini agrees to fight alongside Hitler if war should break out
Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht); 7500 Jewish businesses are looted, 191 synagogues were set on fire, about 100 Jews were killed, and tens of thousands are sent to concentration camps
Germany and the Soviet Union agree to a nonaggression pact, allowing the Soviets to strengthen their western frontier
Britain and France declare war on Germany
Congress lifts the embargo on arms so that munitions could be sold to Britain and France
In a speech to Congress, FDR requests new defense spending, an enlarged army, and an expanded air fleet
France surrenders to Germany
FDR was elected for a third term
U.S. seizes Axis ships that sail into American ports
Germany invades the Soviet Union
Japanese fighter planes bomb Pearl Harbor
Winston Churchill and FDR meet to plan attacks
D-Day: Nearly 3 million Allied soldiers arrive in Normandy, on the northern shores of France