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Germany invaded Poland, where the 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.
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The Germans referred the Phoney War as Sitzkrieg (sitting war).
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France signed an armistice with Germany. Hitler insisted that it be done in the same railway car in which Germany had surrendered to France in 1918, at the end of World War I.
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A significant turning point of World War II was the Battle of Britain where German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date.
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The Destroyers-for-Bases Deal gave 50 US naval destroyers to Britain in exchange for the use of naval and air bases in eight British possessions: on the Avalon Peninsula, the coast of Newfoundland and on the Great Bay of Bermuda.
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The America First Committee was orgainzed to oppose America's potential intervention in WW2
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Congress imposed a draft for the war where men between the ages of 21 and 36 are registered to be selected to go fight in the war.
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The Four Freedoms were an attempt by FDR to move the nation away from a foreign policy of neutrality. The Four Freedoms were the freedom of speech and expression, the freedom to worship God in his own way, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
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The Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II,
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USS Kearny (DD 432) was torpedoed on her starboard side by a German U-boat while on patrol off Greenland but did not sink.
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American destroyer U.S.S. Reuben James was torpedoed and sunk with the loss of 115 of 160 crewmen, including all officers, by German u-boats
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Japanese planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, killing more than 2,000 Americans. After this attack, US declared war on Japan.
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The Battle of Bataan represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II, ending in a Japan victory.
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The Manhattan Project was a secret military project to produce the first nuclear weapon, in fear that Nazi Germany would have nuclear weapons.
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After the US surrender of the Bataan Peninsula, 75,000 Filipino and American troops were forced to walk 65 miles to prison camps.
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The Battle of Coral Sea was the first air-sea battle in history. The Allied forces intercepted Japanese plans to try and take over the Coral Sea. When they arrived in New Guinea, they were attacked by American aircraft carriers.
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In the Battle of Midway, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy and resulted in the defeat of Japan.
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The Battle of Stalingrad stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies.
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General MacArthur and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz launched an "Island Hopping" campaign in which they were trying to capture the Pacific islands one by one, advancing towards Japan and bypassing and isolating centres of resistance.
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The Battle of El Alamein marked the culmination of the World War II North African campaign between the British Empire and the German-Italian army.
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The Casablanca Conference was a meeting between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in the city of Casablanca, Morocco. They finalized Allied strategic plans against the Axis powers, and the promulgation of the policy of “unconditional surrender”.
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During the Tehran Conference, FDR, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin coordinated their military strategy against Germany and Japan and made a number of important decisions concerning the post World War II era.
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On D-Day, 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history.
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U.S. General Douglas MacArthur wades ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte, fulfilling his promise to return to the area he was forced to flee.
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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented fourth term in office.
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Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. The Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle’s name.
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During the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin Roosevelt agreed to demand Germany’s unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world.
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Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, but US marines wipped out the defending forces after just one month of fighting.
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Allied forces invade the island of Okinawa and engage the Japanese in the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War.
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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passes away after four momentous terms in office, leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power.
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VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) is celebrated on May 8 because that is the day that German troops throughout Europe laid down their weapons and surrendered.
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The Potsdam Conference, which was held by Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, had various agreements on German economy, punishment for war crimes, land boundaries and reparations.
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The "Little Boy" bomb, weighing 9,700lbs., was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and was the first nuclear weapon used in a war.
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The "Fat Man" bomb, which weighed 10,800lbs., was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, Japan, and was the second nuclear weapon used in the war.
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News of the surrender of Japan was spread through the country, which sparked celebration for the end of WW2. After the surrender, President Truman declared September 2 VJ Day.
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The Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials where the defendants, such as Nazi Party officials, high-ranking military officers, German industrialists, lawyers and doctors, were indicted on charges as crimes against peace and crimes against humanity.
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The Japanese war crime trials were trials against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II. 25 of the 28 on trial were appointed guilty.
