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The First Radio
In the year 1895, a young Italian invented a radio that was capable of communicating through radio waves. With the help of radio waves he was able to send messages through morse code. -
Airplanes Transform Travel
In 1919, two British pilots made the first successful flight across the Atlantic, from Newfoundland to Ireland. In 1927, an American pilot named Charles Lindbergh captured world attention with a 33-hour solo flight from New York to Paris. Most of the world's major passenger airlines were established during the 1920s. At first only the rich were able to afford air travel. -
Weimar Republic is established in Germany
Germany's new democratic government, known as the Weimar Republic, was set up in 1919. This government had some flaws. They consisted of Germany lacking a strong democratic tradition and postwar Germany had several major political parties and many minor ones. Worst of all, millions of Germans blamed the Wiemar government. -
Albert Einstein recieves Nobel Prize
Albert Einstein received his Nobel Prize in 1922. During the selection process in 1921, the Nobel Committee for Physics decided that none of the year's nominations met the criteria as outlined in the will of Alfred Nobel. According to the Nobel Foundation's statutes, the Nobel Prize can be reserved until next year. Albert Einstein received his Nobel Prize for 1921 one year later, in 1922. -
Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact
The Kellogg-Briand Pact was an agreement to outlaw war signed on August 27, 1928. The pact was one of many international efforts to prevent another World War, but it had little effect in stopping the rising militarism of the 1930s or preventing World War II. Fifteen nations signed the pact at Paris. Nations like France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand -
Great Depression
People could not pay the money they owed on margin purchases. Within months of the crash, unemployment rates began to rise as industrial production, prices, and wages declined. A long business slump, which would come to be called the Great Depression. -
Hitler is named German Chancellor
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed as the chancellor of Germany by President Paul Von Hindenburg. In one year Hitler was able to exploit the death of Hindenburg and became the Fuhrer, the supreme leader of Germany. -
Spanish Civil War begins
The Spanish Civil War started in 1936 and finished in 1939. The forces on the right (known as the Nationalists) were lead by Generals Franco and Sanjurjo. The forces on the left (known as the Republicans) were lead by Azana. -
German & Soviet Union sign nonaggression pact
The German-Soviet Pact, also known as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact after the two foreign ministers who negotiated the agreement, had two parts. An economic agreement, signed on August 19, 1939, provided that Germany would exchange manufactured goods for Soviet raw materials. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a ten-year nonaggression pact on August 23, 1939, in which each signatory promised not to attack the other. -
Germany invades Poland
On this day in 1939, German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun. The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war–what would become the “blitzkrieg” strategy. -
France surrenders to Germany
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Allies invade North Africa
The Allies planned an Anglo-American invasion of north-western Africa — Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, territory nominally in the hands of the Vichy French government. With much of North Africa already under Allied control, this would allow the Allies to carry out a pincer operation against Axis forces in North Africa. -
Germans surrender at Stalingrad
On Feb. 2, 1943, the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered, thereby ending one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles in the history of war. It was a pivotal victory for the Soviets who, after two years of being pushed back by Nazi forces, turned the tide of the war and began advancing toward Germany later in the year. -
D-Day
The battle of Normandy took place in the summer of 1944 during World War II. The war was between the Allied forces and Germany. 12 nations contributed to sending infantry/units to the war. Nearly 1 million English troops were entrenched in the beginning of the war. The allies assembled nearly 3 million troops and 16 million tons of arms, munitions, and supplies in Britain. The main reason for this war was for the Allies to bring the fight to the western border of Germany. -
Germany surrenders
On May 7, 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender to the Allied forces led by the USSR, Great Britain and the USA. Adolph Hitler, the leader of Germany under Nazi rule, is believed to have committed suicide one week earlier when it became clear that his forces could not win the war. In Asia, fighting between the Allied forces and Japan continued for another four months until Japan also surrendered and the Second World War was finally over.
