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Nazi invasion of Poland
The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack -
Warsaw surrenders
Warsaw surrenders on September 27. The Polish government flees into exile via Romania. Germany and the Soviet Union divide Poland between them -
Germany invades many countries
Germany invades Denmark, Norway, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg. All fall within weeks. -
Pearl Harbor attacked
The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the US Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. US enters the war, opening the Pacific Theatre. -
Nazis declare war on U.S.
Nazi Germany and its Axis partners declare war on the United States -
Battle of Stalingrad
Germany's entire Sixth Army is lost, and the war begins turning in favor of the Allies. -
Badoglio surrenders
The Badoglio government surrenders unconditionally to the Allies. The Germans immediately seize control of Rome and northern Italy, establishing a puppet Fascist regime under Mussolini, who is freed from imprisonment by German commandos -
D-Day
The Allied Expeditionary Force under Dwight Eisenhower lands on the coast of northern France on what will later be called "D-Day". The "Second Front" that Stalin has been demanding for three years is now open. -
Hitler commits suicide
Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin[1][2] His wife Eva (née Braun), committed suicide with him by ingesting poison.[3] That afternoon in accordance with Hitler's prior instructions, their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's emergency exit, -
The 1st atomic bomb dropped on Japan
Together with the United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum. So U.S. conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only active deployments of nuclear weapons in war to date.
