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Pan-American Conference
On October 2, 1889, the first Pan-American Conference began in Washington, D.C. The conference was a meeting between the United States and various countries in Latin America. Its goal was to improve economic and political relations between participants -
Weimar Republic Established in Germany
The Weimar Republic was created at a time of confusion and chaos after Germany had lost the first World War; many people felt that Germany had recieved a very harsh deal in the Treat of Versailles and they resented the government for signing it and agreeing to the Treaty's conditions. -
Adolf HItler Became the Leader of the Nazi Party
On July 29, 1921, after a power play within the Nazi party, Adolf Hitler became the party leader and began a system of authoritarian control. -
Washington Naval Conference
The Washington Naval Conference was a disarmament effort occasioned by the hugly expansive naval constrution rivalry that exsisted among Britain, Japan, and the United States. -
Washington Conference
The world's largest Naval powers gathered in Washington to discuss Naval disarmament and ways to relieve growing tensions in East Asia with three major treaties emerging out of this conference: The Five-Power Treaty, the Four-Power Treaty, and the Nine-Power Treaty. -
5 Power Treaty
The Five Power Treaty was signed by the U.S., Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy and was the cornerstone of the naval disarmament program, which called for each of the countries involved to maintain a set ratio of warship tonnage, which allowed the U.S. and Britain 500,00 tons, Japan 300,00 tons, and France and Italy each 175,00 tons. -
4 Power Treaty
The U.S., France, Britain, and Japan agreed to consult with eachother in the event of a future crisis in East Asia before taking action. -
9 Power Treaty
The final multilateral agreement made at the Washington Naval Conference was the Nine-Power Treaty, that promised that each of the signatories—the United States, Britain, Japan, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and China—would respect the territorial integrity of China. -
Joseph Stalin became the Leader of the U.S.S.R.
Upon Lenin's death, Stalin took power as the undisputed leader of Russia. -
Benito Mussolini became the Leader of Italy
King Victor Emmanuel III, who was from Rome, offered Mussolini the Italian Premiership amid political and social upheaval. -
Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf
While in prision, Hitler wrote this book that translates to "my struggle", to explain to anybody who would read it, his plans for Germany's future. -
Dawes Plan
Dawes Plan bailed out Germany by reworking the terms of reparation, provided short-term benefits to the German economy, and soften the burdens of war reparation, stabalized currency, nd brought foreign investments and loans to Germany. -
Hirohito Became the Emperor of Japan
Hirohito was the head of state under the limitation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan during Japan's imperial expansion, militarization, and involvement in World War II, and after the war, he was not prosecuted for war crimes as many other leading government figures were, despite his involvement -
Kellogg-Briand Pact Signed
This agreement, sometimes called the pact of Paris, for the city in which it was signed, was an agreement to outlaw war- but it had little effect in stoping the arising militarism of the 1930's or preventing WWII. -
Stock Market crashed in the U.S.
Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock exchange in a single day, creating a downward spiral for America into the Great Depression. -
Japan invaded Manchuria
The Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria following the Mukden Incident, where the Japanese established a puppet state called Manchukuo and their occupation there lasted until the end of WWII. -
Stimson Doctrine
The Doctrine is a poilicy of the U.S. government to Japan and China of non-recognition of international territorial changes that were executed by force. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) became President of the U.S.
Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover to become the 32nd President and was the only person who was elected President to four terms: 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944. -
The Holocaust Began
This is when Adolf Hitler was appointed German chancellor, setting in motion what would become the Nazi genocide against the Jews. -
Adolf Hitler Became the Chancellor of Germany
President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. -
Good Neighbor Policy
In FDR's inaugural address, he expressed determinantion to imporove relations with the nations of Central and South America- "the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others". -
London Economic Conference
A meeting, held in London, of the major economic powers to coordinate strategy for dealing with the Great Depression but collapsed after President after FDR sent a bombshell message that indicated the U.S. would not agree to the main proposal. -
U.S. Formally Recognized the Soviet Union
The United States remained hostile toward Russia and the Soviet Union (founded in 1922) until President Roosevelt took office in 1933 and sought to establish relations with the Soviets, in part because the United States was the only major power yet to recognize the Soviet Union. -
Tydings-McDuffie Act
A bill was signed by U.S. Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 24, 1934, Tydings-McDuffie Act, also called Philippine Commonwealth and Independence Act, that provided for Philippine independence, to take effect on July 4, 1946, after a 10-year transitional period of Commonwealth government. -
Reciprocal Trade Agreement
Provided for the negotiation of tariff agreements between the U.S. and seperate nations, particulary Latin American countries. -
Neutrality Acts
President FDR signs the Neurality Act to avoid any action, which might involve the U.S. in war. -
Italy Invaded Ethiopia
The League of Nations was faced with a crucial test when Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader of Italy, had adopted Adolf Hitler's plans to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German – leading Mussolini to invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) the African country situated on the horn of Africa. -
Adolf Hitler Defied the Treaty of Versailles
Hitler ordered German troops to re-enter the Rhineland, the area of Germany that borders France which was in direct violation of both the Versailles Treaty signed after World War I, and the Locarno Pacts signed in 1925. -
Germany Reoccupied the Rhineland
Hitler ordered German troops to re-enter the Rhineland, the area of Germany that borders France which was in direct violation of both the Versailles Treaty signed after World War I, and the Locarno Pacts signed in 1925. -
Francisco Franco Led a Fascist Revolt in Spain
Franco rose to power during the bloody Spanish Civil War when, with the help of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, his Nationalist forces overthrew the democratically elected Second Republic. -
Rome-Berlin Axis
Announced by Benitio Mussolini, Germany and Italy had come to an informal agreement that incase of war, Italy would stand by Germany. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht means "The Night of Broken Glass" refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish porgroms which took place throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in the areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German Troops. -
Japan Invaded China
Japan invades China, initiating World War II in the Pacific. -
Quarantine Speech
FDR made the Quarantine Speech in Chicago calling for an international "Quarantine of the Aggressor Nations" as an alternative to the political climate of American neutrality and non-intervention that was prevalent at that time. -
Rape of Nanking
Japanese troops captured the city of Nanking, then the capital of the Chinese Republic, and went on a six week campaign of reported and documented widespread rape and the indiscriminate killing of civilians; some death tolls estimate over a quarter of a million people killed. -
Anschluss
A political union of Austria with Germany, achieved through annexation by Adolf Hitler in 1938. -
Hitler Hosted Munich Conference
During this conference the leaders of Great Britain, France, and Italy agreed to allow Germany to annex certain areas of Czechoslovakia in which Adolf Hitler demanded the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. -
Adolf Hitler took the Sudetenland
Hitler encouragesd Konard Henlein, leader of the Sudeten Natzis, to rebel, and demanded a union with Germany. -
Hitler took the Sudetenland
In the early hours of Sept. 30, 1938, leaders of Nazi Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy signed an agreement that allowed the Nazis to annex the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia that was home to many ethnic Germans. -
Hitler Took Czechoslovakia
Hitler's forces invade and occupy Czechoslovakia--a nation sacrificed on the altar of the Munich Pact, which was a vain attempt to prevent Germany's imperial aims. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact Signed
Representatives from Natzi Germany and the Soviet Union met and signed this pact which guaranteed that the two countries would not attack each-other. -
Germany Invaded Poland (Blitzkrieg)
Germany bombed Polish airfields and German warships and U-Boats attacked Polish Naval Forces in the Baltic Sea. -
Manhattan Project Began
The Manhattan Project was committed to expediting research that would produce a viable atomic bomb. -
Sitzkrieg Began
‘Phoney War’ is the name given to the period of time in World War Two from September 1939 to April 1940 when, after the blitzkrieg attack on Poland in September 1939, seemingly nothing happened. -
Auschwitz Death Camp Opened
The Auschwitz concentration camp complex, located in Poland, was the largest of its kind established by the Nazi regime and included three main camps, all of which deployed incarcerated prisoners at forced labor. -
Winston Churchill Became the Prime Minister of GB
As Prime Minister and during the war, he was the most dominant figure in British politics – a role that received huge praise once the war was over. -
Allies Evacuate Dunkirk
The nine-day evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk on the Belgian coast ends as German forces capture the beach port and was the largest of its kind in history saving 338,000 Allied troops from capture by the Nazis. -
Vichy Government Estbalished in France
Vichy, France was established after France surrendered to Germany and took it's name from the government's administrative center in Vichy, southeast of Paris. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the WWII air campaign waged by the German airforce against the United Kingdom during the summer in autumn of 1940. -
Destroyers for Bases Deal
This deal gave fifty U.S. Naval Destroyers to Britain in exchange for the use of Naval and Airbases in eight British posessions: on the Avalon Peninsula, the coast of Newfoundland, and on the great Bay of Bermuda. -
Tripartite Pact Signed
The Axis powers are formed as Germany, Italy, and Japan become allies with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin which provided for mutual assistance should any of the signatories suffer attack by any nation not already involved in the war. -
Election of 1940
Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Wendell L. Willkie in the US Presidential Election and became the first president to win a third term. -
Four Freedoms
The Four Freedoms were goals articulated by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt in an address known as the Four Freedoms speech (technically the 1941 State of the Union address), he proposed four fundamental freedoms that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy: Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want, Freedom from fear. -
Lend-Lease Act
This act set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed "vital to the defense of the United States". -
Hitler enacted the Final Solution
It was a plan of Adolf hitler to kill all the Jews in Europe. -
Operation Barbarosa
Natzi Germany and its Axis allies began a massive invasion of the Soviet Union, named Operation Barbarosa, where 4.5 million troops launched a surprise attack deployed from German-controlled Poland, Finland, and Romania. -
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a joint declaration released by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that provided a broad statement of U.S. and British war aims. -
Shoot-On-Sight Orders
President Roosevelt issued an order to the U.S. Navy to shoot German or Italian warships in the West Atlantic on sight. -
Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor
The Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and after just two hours of bombing, more than 2,400 Americans were dead, 21 ships* had either been sunk or damaged, and more than 188 U.S. aircraft destroyed – this officially brought the US into WWII. -
The U.S. declared war on Japan
The United States Congress declared war on the empire of Japan in response to Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the prior day. -
War Production Board
FDR established this U.S. Government Agency by executive order to direct war production and the porcurement of materials in WWII. -
Double V
The Double V Campaign was a motivational tool used to propose two changes - one was to allow African Americans to fight in the war, and the other was to allow African Americans to be equal in society. -
Nisei were Interned in Relocation Centers in the U.S.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, which was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and much of Oregon, Washington and Arizona, except for those in internment camps. -
MacArthur's "I shall return" speech
President Roosevelt, fearing MacArthur would be captured or killed, ordered him to leave the Philippines and after General Douglas MacArthur climbed aboard a gun ship in the Philippines under cover of darkness, and ran a Japanese blockade he spoke to the press in Adelaide, Australia and told reporters, "I came through and I shall return." -
Doolittle Raids Over Japan
The air attack on Japan, launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet and led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, was the most daring operation yet undertaken by the United States in the young Pacific War which generated strategic benefits that far outweighed its limited goals. -
Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March was the forced 63 mile march of 72,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war by the Japanese during WWII that resulted in 7,000 to 10,000 deaths due to their harsh treatment during the march. -
Office of Price Administration
The U.S. created this Federal Agency in WWII to prevent wartime inflation by issuing a general maximum-price regulation that made prices charged in March 1942 the ceiling prices for most commodities and it was empowered to ration scarce consumer goods in wartime, including; tires, automobiles, sugar, gasoline, fuel oil, coffee, meats, and processed foods. -
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought in the waters southwest of the Solomon Islands and eastward from New Guinea, was the first of the Pacific Wars six fights between opposing aircraft carrier forces. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway, fought over and near the tiny U.S. Mid-Pacific base at Midway Atoll, represents the strategic high water mark of Japan's Pacific ocean war. -
Battle of El Alamein
The first Battle of El Alamein haulted a second advance by he Axis forces into Egypt; however, and axis presence near El Alamein, only 66 miles from Alexandria, was too dangerously close to major population centers and the Suez Canal for the Aliied forces to allow the status quo to remain- a second battle erupted. -
Battle of Guadalcanal
U.S. Marines landed at Guadalcanal unopposed - but it took the American six months to defeat the Japanese in what was to turn into a classic battle of attrition. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad is considered by many historians to have been the turning point in World War Two in Europe. -
Operation Torch
It was the first time that British and American forces worked together and they agreed to conduct landings in northwest Africa with the goal of clearing the continent of Axis troops and preparing the way for a future attack on southern Europe. -
Casablanca Conference
This first war conference between the Allied Powers (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) was held in Casablance, Morocco and it took steps toward planning the aliied strategy and the end of the war. -
The New Deal Started
At the height of the Great Depression, FDR delievered his first inaugural address before 100,00 people, within his speech, he addressed his plans of the New Deal to instill confidence in the American people, -
Rosie the Riverter
Norman Rockwell painted the cover of the May 29th, 1943 addition of The Saturday Morning Post with Rosie the Riverter that gave a visual form to this cultueral icon represtenting the six million women who entered the workforce for the first time during WWII. -
Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act
It was enacted by the U.S. Congress over Presidents FDR's veto, giving the President power to seize and opperate privately owned war plants when an actual or threatened strike or lockout interfered with war production. -
Allies Landed in Sicily
The Allied invasion in Sicily, operation Huskey, was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis Powers (Italy and Natzi Germany). -
Island Hopping Campaign
“Island Hopping” is the phrase given to the strategy employed by the United States to gain military bases and secure the many small islands in the Pacific - led by General Douglas MacArthur, Commander of the Allied forces in the South west Pacific, and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-chief of the Pacific fleet. -
Tehran Conference
This conference was a meeting between U.S. President FDR, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premire Josheph Stalin where they coordinated their military strategy against Germany and Japan and made a number or important decisions concerning the post WWII era. -
Operation Overlord (D Day)
Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces, Dwight D. Eisenhower, gave the go ahead for a massive invasion of Europe at Normandy, France. -
Kamikaze Pilots Appear in the Pacific
The Japanese emperor formed a special attack unit of 24 pilots who volunteered for the mission to crash their planes into Allied ships and kill as many sailors as possible. -
Gen. MacArthur Returned to the Philippines (Leyte Gulf)
After advancing island by island across the Pacific Ocean, 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 in 1942. -
Battle of the Bulge
This was a major German offensive surprise attack that caught the Allied forces completely off guard and became the costliest battle in terms of casualties for the United States, whose forces bore the brunt of the attack. -
Cost-Plus System
A government contract to pay a manufacturer the cost to produce an item plus a guaranteed percentage. -
FDR's 4th Term
FDR is the only President to be elected to three terms in office is augurated to his fourth term. -
Yalta Conference
At Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill discussed with Stalin the conditions under which the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan and all three agreed that, in exchange for potentially crucial Soviet participation in the Pacific theater, the Soviets would be granted a sphere of influence in Manchuria following Japan’s surrender. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was the only battle by the U.S. Marine Corps in which the overall American casualties (killed and wounded) exceeded those of the Japanese and was immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag on top of Mount Suribachi by five U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy battlefield Hospital Corpsman. -
The Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa has been called the largest sea-land-air battle in history and was the last battle of the Pacific War. -
Mussolini was Executed
After Mussolini was deafeated during the Allied invasion of Italy, he attempted to escape North, but was captured and executed near Lake Como by Italian Partisans; later his bosy was taken to Milan where it was hund up-side-down at a service station for public viewing and to provide conformation of his demise. -
Hitler Committted Suicide
Hold up in a bunker, under his headquarters in Berlin, Hitler committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsal and shooting himself in the head. -
Germany Surrendered
The German High Command, in the person of Generald Alfred Jodl, signed the unconditional surrender of all the German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northwestern France. -
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day was celebrated by both Great Britain and the United States where cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. -
United Nations Charter
The Charter of the United Nations was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, and came into force on 24 October 1945. -
Potsdam Conference
Allied conference of World War II held at Potsdam, attended by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin where they discussed the substance and procedures of the peace settlements in Europe but did not attempt to write peace treaties. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima
The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima and marked the end of World War II, -
Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki
American forces dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki- the second such attack on Japan, killing more than 73,000 people and is believed to have completely destroyed the city. -
V-J Day
The USS Missouri host the formal surrender of the Japanese Government to the Allies and victory over Japan was celebrated back in the States. -
Japan Surrendered
Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II. -
Nuremberg Trials
After WWII, some of those responisble for crimes committed during the Holocaust were brought to trial in Nuremberg, Germany where judges from Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States persided over the hearings of 22 major Natzi criminals.
