-
Stalin becomes dictator of USSR
Serving in the Russian Civil War before overseeing the Soviet Union's establishment Stalin assumed leadership over the country. -
Mussolini’s March on Rome
Benito Mussolini's so-called march on Rome took place in Italy. This moment was of global importance. It marked the first fascist takeover of power in the world, set in place a regime that would govern for 20 years, and inspired other far-right movements. -
Hitler writes Mein Kampf
Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf (‘My Struggle’) was published. He wrote it in prison, where he was serving a sentence for a failed coup he attempted. -
1st “five year plan” in USSR
Stalin launched his First Five-Year Plan to speed up the process of industrialization in the Soviet Union so that it could compete with output levels in developed capitalist economies. -
Japan invades Manchuria
Japan invades Manchuria seeking to get raw materials to fuel its growing industries. -
Holodomor begins
A man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union. -
Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany
The Nazi Party assumes control of the German state when German President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler as Chancellor at the head of a coalition government. -
“Night of the Long Knives” in Germany
The Night of the Long Knives represented a triumph for Hitler and a turning point for the German government. It established Hitler as "the supreme leader of the German people", as he put it in his 13 July speech to the Reichstag. -
Nuremburg Laws enacted
The Nazi regime's Nuremberg Race Laws of September 1935 made Jews legally different from their non-Jewish neighbors. -
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
A war of aggression that was fought between Italy and Ethiopia. -
The Great Purge begins
Joseph Stalin imprisoned in Gulag labor camps and executed rival communists, military officers, ethnic minorities, wreckers, and citizens accused of plotting against Communism. -
Spanish civil war
Military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides -
Anti-Comintern Pact
The Anti-Comintern Pact was an agreement between Germany, Italy, and Japan, that they would work together to stop the spread of Communism around the globe. -
The Rape of Nanking
A mass killing and the ravaging of Chinese citizens and capitulated soldiers by soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army after its seizure of Nanjing, China. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom, was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's Sturmabteilung paramilitary and Schutzstaffel.