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Adolf Hitler appointed chancellor
The National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP), more commonly known as 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. The Nazis and the German Nationalist People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei; DNVP) are members of the coalition. -
united states declares war on Japan
President Franklin D. Roosevelt asks the US Congress to declare war on Japan following the previous day's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. In his speech to Congress, Roosevelt states: "Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, [the] United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of Japan. ... -
euthanasia killings
operations continued, however, involving both adults and children with physical and intellectual disabilities. Among the methods used were starvation, lethal injection, and deliberate failure to treat serious diseases. Hitler's call for a halt to the T4 action did not mean an end to the "euthanasia" killing operation -
Wannsee conference
The "Final Solution" was the code name for the systematic, deliberate, physical annihilation of the European Jews. At some still undetermined time in 1941, Hitler authorized this European-wide scheme for mass murder. Heydrich convened the Wannsee Conference -
German defeat at Stalingrad
Stalingrad proved a decisive psychological turning point, ending a string of German victories in the summer of 1942 and beginning the long retreat westward. Germany proved unable to defeat the Soviet Union, which together with Great Britain and the United States, seized the initiative from Germany. Germany became embroiled in a long war, leading ultimately to its defeat in May 1945. -
Raphael Lemkin dies
Raphael Lemkin coined the word "genocide" in his 1944 book, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. He tirelessly lobbied the United Nations for genocide to be added to international law, and his efforts to enlist the support of national delegations and influential leaders eventually paid off. On December 9, 1948 -
international criminal court
The Rome Statute establishes the International Criminal Court (ICC), the first permanent judicial body set up to try genocide and war crimes in The Hague The Rome Statute is so named because it was adopted in Rome, Italy, on July 17, 1998, by the United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court. -
united states declares genocide in Darfur
For the first time in US government history, an ongoing crisis is referred to as “genocide” when Secretary of State Colin Powell argued that events in Darfur could be labeled as such. In his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Powell said, “We concluded—I concluded—that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility—and that genocide may still be occurring.”