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Congress Institutes the Draft
Authorized the United States federal government to raise a national army for service in World War I through conscription. -
Nazi Germany Invaded Poland
Germany invaded, breaking their agreement, so Britain and France declared war, starting World War II. -
Sitzkreig
All of Europe fell rather silent at the shock of Hitler's move of removing his forces from Poland and focusing on Britain and France and this silence and period of inactivity in Europe came to an end when Hitler again moved his forces, and attacked the weaker Norway and Denmark. -
France Fell to Germany
German forces defeated Allied forces by mobile operations and conquered France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. -
Battle of Britain
The prolonged bombardment of British cities by the German Luftwaffe during World War II and the aerial combat that accompanied it and a major turning point in the war. -
Destroyers-for-Bases Deal
US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the United States Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions. -
America First Committee Launched
It was the foremost United States non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into World War II. -
Four Freedoms
Roosevelt proposed four points as fundamental freedoms humans "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy: speech and expression, religion, want, fear. want and fear were new ideas which excited Americans by going beyond the constitutional values. -
Lend-Lease
A program by which the United States supplied Free France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of China, and later the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945. -
USS Kearny Attacked
It torpedoed by a German U-boat in October 1941, before the U.S. had entered the war and survived the attack. -
Reuben James Sank
The destroyer was sunk by a torpedo attack from German submarine U-552 near Iceland. -
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
The US thought the Japanese would attack British Malaya or the Philippines, but instead they attacked here, at several naval bases wiping out many ships and killing 3000 men and the next day the US declares war on Japan. -
Battle of Bataan
Forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy invaded Luzon along with several islands in the Philippine Archipelago after the bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. -
Bataan Death March
After the Japanese landed in the Philippines in May 1942, nearly 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners were forced to endure a 60-mile forced march; during the ordeal, 10,000 prisoners died or were killed. -
Battle of Coral Sea
The battle is historically significant as the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, as well as the first in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon the other(Japanese vs. U.S and Australia). -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a turning point in the Pacific War( U.S. won over Japanese). -
Battle of Stalingrad
The most major confrontation of World War II in which Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia. -
Battle of El Alamein
The Allied victory at El Alamein lead to the retreat of the Africa Corps and the German surrender in North Africa in May 1943. -
Island Hopping Campaign Begins
A military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan and the Axis powers during World War II. -
Casablanca Conference
Held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, French Morocco, from January 14 to 24, 1943, to plan the Allied European strategy for the next phase of World War II. -
Tehran Conference
At Tehran, the three Allied leaders discussed important issues concerning the fate of Eastern Europe and Germany in the postwar period. -
D-Day
The day in World War II on which Allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy. -
MacArthur Returned to the Philippines
MacArthur waded ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte and that day, he made a radio broadcast in which he declared, “People of the Philippines, I have returned!” -
FDR Elected to a 4th Term
He was elected to an unprecedented fourth term in office and remains the only president to have served more than two terms. -
Battle of the Bulge
Was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. -
Yalta Conference
During the conference, the three leaders( Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt) agreed to demand Germany's unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
A major battle in which the United States Marine Corps landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army. -
Battle of Okinawa
A major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Marine and Army forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. -
FDR Died/ Harry Truman Became President
FDR died of an intracerebal hemorrhage and Truman became the 33rd President. -
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day was the public holiday celebrated to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
Manhattan Project Began
Was a secret military project created to produce the first US nuclear weapon because of the fear that Nazi Germany would build and use a nuclear weapon during World War II triggered the start of the Manhattan Project. -
Potsdam Conference
The agreement between three of the Allies of World War II, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union and it concerned the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany, its borders, and the entire European Theater of War territory. -
Little Boy Dropped on Hiroshima
The code name for the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
Fat Man Dropped on Nagasaki
It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the first being Little Boy, and its detonation marked the third-ever man-made nuclear explosion in history. -
VJ Day
Victory over Japan Day is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect ending the war. -
Nuremberg Trials
Judges from the Allied powers—Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States—presided over the hearings of twenty-two major Nazi criminals. -
Japanese War Crime Trials
A military trial convened to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for "Class A" crimes, which were reserved for those who participated in a joint conspiracy to start and wage war.
