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The Italians invade Greece.
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Invasions
2-7 August.
Germany invades Luxembourg and Belgium. France invades Alsace. British forces arrive in France. Nations allied against Germany were eventually to include Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia, Romania, Greece, France, Belgium, United States, Canada, Serbia, India, Portugal, Montenegro, and Poland. -
Archduke Francis Ferdinand is assassinated.
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, beginning World War I -
Austria-Hungary makes demands on Serbia for retribution. Serbia does not meet demands
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Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. Russia begins mobilizing its troops
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Germany declares war on Russia.
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Germany declares war on France as part of the Schlieffen Plan.
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Germany invades Belgium. Britain declares war on Germany.
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August 23 to 30
The Battle of Tannenberg is fought between Germany and Russia. The Germans defeat the Russian Second Army. -
First Battle of the Marne begins.
The Germans had advanced to within 30 miles of Paris, but over the next two days, the French are reinforced by 6,000 infantrymen who are transported to the front by hundreds of taxis. The Germans dig in north of the Aisne River, and the trench warfare that is to typify the Western Front for the next four years begins. -
Allied forces halt German advance into France during First Battle of the Marne.
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Austria-Hungary invades Russia.
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Germany begins naval blockade of Great Britain.
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Allied forces land on the Gallipoli Peninsula of the Ottoman Empire.
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German submarine sinks the passenger liner Lusitania during crossing from New York to Liverpool, England, killing 128 Americans.
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Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
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Bulgaria enters the war by declaring war on Serbia.
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Germany begins the attack on Verdun.
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Naval Battle of Jutland takes place between British and German fleets.
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Allied offensive begins the Battle of the Somme.
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Battle of Verdun ends with 550,000 French and 450,000 German casualties.
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Germany returns to unrestricted submarine warfare halted after the sinking of the Lusitania.
In his address to Congress four days earlier, U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson had cited Germany’s practice of unrestricted submarine warfare and the “Zimmermann Telegram” as key reasons behind the abandonment of his long-standing policy of neutrality. -
United States severs diplomatic relations with Germany.
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The United States declares war on Germany.
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General John J. Pershing, newly selected commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, arrives in England with his staff.
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American combat forces arrive in France.
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Russia signs armistice with Germany.
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President Woodrow Wilson presents to Congress his outline of Fourteen Points required for peace.
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The Stars and Stripes begins publication with a first issue of one thousand copies. Second Lieutenant Guy T. Viskniskki is the first managing editor of the newspaper.
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Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany.
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Germany begins its final offensive of the war.
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United States forces are victorious in the Battle of Cantigny, the first independent American operation.
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American forces stop German attempt to cross the Marne River at Chateau-Thierry.
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The Stars and Stripes suspends the Sporting Page.
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American First Army attacks St. Mihiel salient.
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Allied forces begin the attack at Meusse-Argonne, the final offensive of the war.
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Germany signs the Armistice at Compiègne, ending World War I.
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British and American forces enter Germany.
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The Treaty of Versailles is signed by Germany and World War I comes to an end.
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Czechoslovakia surrenders after Adolf Hitler annexes the country into the Third Reich
Although the Czechs had warmly welcomed the Germans when they entered the Sudetenland months earlier, they stood silently in despair when the Nazis entered Prague. -
Germany's Adolf Hitler signs the order for an assault on Poland.
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Germany invades Poland.
The coordinated air-and-land attack is conducted with such brutal efficiency that "blitzkrieg" becomes a feared offensive tactic. -
Honoring their treaty with Poland, France and Great Britain enter the war against Germany.
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Japan, engaged in war with China, declares its neutrality in the European War.
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As war broke out in Europe, American sentiment heavily favored isolationism.
With the nation still skeptical of Allied propaganda after it had lured the U.S. into the first World War, the United States declares its neutrality in the European War. -
Canada declares war on Germany.
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The British drop the first bombs on German soil as the RAF hits the seaplane base at Hornum.
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Germany invades Denmark and Norway with the first major airborne attacks on Allied forces.
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Germany invades Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg.
Because of the failure of his appeasement policies, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns. Forming a coalition government, Winston Churchill replaces him. Standing alone, Churchill soon began conferring with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt for aid to the British cause. -
Italy joins the war as an ally of Germany.
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Italy declares war against the Allies.
Great Britain, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India and South Africa declare war on Italy. General Hering, the military governor of Paris, declares the French capital an open city to prevent its destruction. -
The Battle of Britain begins.
The air war designed to destroy the RAF and ease the German invasion opens with the Luftwaffe outnumbering its opponent in operational aircraft: 2,669-to-704. -
The London Blitz starts as Germany, attempting to weaken the country's resolve, bombs the British capital.
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Germany, Italy and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact. It recognizes their right to establish a new order in Europe and Asia.
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Despite opposition from isolationists, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease act to provide aid to Great Britain.
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Japan and Russia sign a neutrality pact.
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At 7:55 AM on a Sunday, hundreds of Japanese warplanes, launched from aircraft carriers far out at sea, attack the American Pacific fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, based on a plan by Isoroku Yamamoto.
Eight battleships, including the U.S.S. Arizona, three light cruisers, three destroyers and four other naval vessels are either sunk or damaged. One hundred-sixty-four American aircraft, mostly on the ground, are destroyed. And 2,403 Americans are killed. On the day that President Roosevelt would call "a date which will live in infamy," the Japanese also hit Guam, Wake Island, the Philippines, Malaya and Hong Kong. -
The U.S. declares war on Japan.
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Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S.
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The Battle of the Coral Sea rages.
The first air-naval battle in history prevents the Japanese from landing a large invasion force at Port Moresby and signals America's move from a purely defensive strategy in the Pacific to a mixed defensive-offensive one. -
Period: to
The Battle for Stalingrad rages.
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The Russians launch a major counter-offensive at Stalingrad. It would end with the annihilation of the German 6th Army.
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At the Casablanca Conference, Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announce that only an unconditional surrender will be accepted from the Axis Powers.
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The Fascist Grand Council passes a vote of no confidence in Benito Mussolini. He is arrested. Martial law is declared in Italy the next day.
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Life magazine runs pictures of three dead American soldiers. It is the first time such photos are shown to the American public since the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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Italy declares war on Germany.
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Hoping to break the impasse near the Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino,
Allied forces land at Anzio. Despite catching the enemy by surprise, General John P. Lucas takes nine days to strengthen his position rather than dash inland. His army would remain pinned down by the Germans for four miserable months. -
The German resistance group fails in its attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
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Operation Cobra, designed to create a gap in the German lines, mistakenly strikes
Allied forces in the worst friendly-fire incident of the war. Among the 111 killed is Lt. General Leslie J. McNair. The commanding general of the Army Ground Forces is the highest-ranking U.S. casualty of the war. -
After four years of Nazi occupation, Paris, the City of Light, is liberated.
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Americans attack Japanese installations in Manila and other parts of the Philippines.
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Yalta Conference, U.S.Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin pledge to hold free elections after the war in Eastern Europe and divide Germany and Austria into three zones of occupation.
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President Roosevelt dies. Harry S. Truman is sworn in as the 33rd President.
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American and Soviet forces link up at Torgau on the Elbe River. Germany has been cut in half.
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The Russians enter Berlin.
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A successful test of the atomic bomb takes place at Alamogordo, New Mexico.
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Period: to
At the Potsdam Conference, the Big Three
U.S. President Harry S. Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin — decide the fate of Europe and that Japan must submit to unconditional surrender or face "utter destruction." -
The USS Indianapolis delivers its mysterious cargo — the atomic bomb — to the B-29 base on Tinian.
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Developed to drop on the Germans, the first atomic bomb tumbles through the bomb-bay doors of the Enola Gay.
Forty-three seconds later, six miles below but still high above the city of Hiroshima, it detonates. With a single bomb, 40,000 men, women and children are obliterated in an instant. .One hundred thousand more die within days of burns and radiation. Another hundred thousand would succumb to radiation poisoning over the next five years. Despite the devastation, the Japanese still would not accept the Allied surrender terms. -
The Soviet Union declares war on Japan. The islands now face invasion on two fronts.
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A second atomic bomb drops, this time on Nagasaki.
Some 40,000 more civilians die instantly. In Tokyo, the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War remains split between those still determined to fight on and those willing finally to give up. That evening all six members of the Council call upon the Emperor, who breaks the deadlock. -
Japan requests conditional surrender terms but is denied.
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Japan accepts unconditional surrender terms.
Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II. -
The Allies' planned invasion of the Japanese mainland was to begin this day with the island of Kyushu.
More than 500,000 Japanese troops were already in position to repel them and another six million were either under arms or ready to be called up. Women and school children were drilling with sharpened bamboo spears.
