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Mussolini takes power in Italy
Mussolini became the 40th Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and began using the title Il Duce by 1925. -
US Stock Market Crashes
Americans were very optomistic during the 1920s. They believed that the stock prices were only going to rise. People were buying stocks on margin which was a big risk if they lost money because they would not be able to pay back their loans. -
Japan seizes Manchuria
Because of Japan's growing population, Japan's military leaders had seized Manchuria. Disobeying their government, they had continued the invasion. The league of Nations had strongly critized Japan for the invasion. Japan simply withdrew from the from the league of Nations. -
FDR is elected president
After Hoover failed to help the country recover from the economic downfall of th Great Depression. FDR was able to win the election easily. FDR helped rebuild the nations economy. He was also president when WWII began. FDR thought that The US should have gone into war, but was unable to convince people until the attack on pearl harbor. -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
The absence of an effective government prompted two influential politicians, Franz von Papen and Alfred Hugenberg, along with several other industrialists and businessmen, to write a letter to von Hindenburg. The signers urged Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent from parliamentary parties", which could turn into a movement that would "enrapture millions of people" -
US Neutrality Act
The Neutrality Acts were laws that were passed by the United States Congress in the 1930s, in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia that eventually led to World War II. They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US following its costly involvement in World War I, and sought to ensure that the US would not become entangled again in foreign conflicts. -
Italy invades Ethopia
On October 3, 1935, shortly after the League exonerated both parties in the Walwal incident, Italian armed forces from Eritrea invaded Ethiopia without a declaration of war leading Ethiopia to declare war on Italy beginning the Second Italo–Abyssinian War. -
France militarized the Rhineland
The treaty of Versailles declared that Germany’s troops were to stay out of an area in the Rhine River Valley which was located along the French border. This was done in order to protect France from Germany’s aggression. -
Civil war erupts in Spain
The Spanish Civil War broke out with a military uprising in Morocco on July 17, triggered by events in Madrid. Within days, Spain was divided in two: a "Republican" or "Loyalist" Spain consisting of the Second Spanish Republic and a "Nationalist" Spain under the insurgent generals, and, eventually, under the leadership of General Francisco Franco. -
Japan Invades China
when a crucial access point to Beijing was assaulted by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). Because the Chinese defenders were the poorly equipped infantry divisions of the former Northwest Army, the Japanese easily captured Beiping and Tianjin. -
Anschluss
The German Republic Austria was annexed into the German Third Reich on 12 March 1938. There had been several years of pressure by supporters from both Austria and Germany for the "Heim ins Reich" movement. Earlier, Nazi Germany had provided support for the Austrian National Socialist Party (Austrian Nazi Party) in its bid to seize power from Austria's Austrofascist leadership. -
Munich Conference
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without the presence of Czechoslovakia. -
Kristallnacht
Also referred to the Night of Broken Glass, Kristallnacht was a program or series of coordinating attacks against Jewish throughout Nazi Germany. The attacks left the streets covered with broken glass from the windows of Jewish-owned stores, and buildings. -
Nazi Soviet Pact
The Nazi- Soviet Pact was an agreement between Germany and Russia that promised neither would attack the other for 10 years. There was also an economic agreement attached it to that said Germany would exchange manufactured goods for Russia's raw materials. The pact only lasted 2 years before Germany invaded Russia. It was said that from the beginning Hitler considered the agreement a very tactical, temporary movement. -
Germany invades Poland
The Invasion of Poland was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe. The invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, and ended on 6 October 1939 with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland. -
Phony war
The Phony War was a phase early in World War II—in the months following Britain and France's declaration of war on Germany in September 1939 and preceding the Battle of France in May 1940—that was marked by a lack of major military operations by the Western Allies against the German Reich. War was declared by each side, but no Western power had committed to launching a significant land offensive, notwithstanding the terms of the Anglo-Polish militar -
Churchill is elected Prime Minister in England
Churchill became Prime Minister on May 10, 1940. His steadfast refusal to consider defeat, surrender, or a compromise peace helped inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult early days of the War when Britain stood alone in its active opposition to Hitler. Churchill was particularly noted for his speeches and radio broadcasts, which helped inspire the British people. He led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured. -
Miracle on Dunkirk
The Dunkirk evacuation, commonly known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and the early hours of 3 June 1940, because the British, French and Belgian troops were cut off by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk. -
France surrenders
France's capital of Paris was occupied on 14 June. On 17 June, Philippe Pétain publicly announced France would ask for an armistice. On 22 June, an armistice was signed between France and Germany, going into effect on 25 June. For the Axis Powers, the campaign was a spectacular victory. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain (German: Luftschlacht um England or Luftschlacht um Großbritannien, literally "Air battle for England" or "Air battle for Great Britain") is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force, especially Fighter Command. -
Japan seizes French Indo-China
The Japanese Invasion of French Indochina, also known as the Vietnam Expedition, was a move by the Empire of Japan in September 1940, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, to prevent China from importing arms and fuel through French Indochina, via the Sino-Vietnamese Railway from the port of Haiphong through Hanoi to Kunming in Yunnan. Japan occupied northern Indochina, which tightened the blockade of China, and made continuation of the drawn out Battle of South Guang -
Lend lease Act
Lend-Lease Act was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939 but nine months before the U.S. entered the war in December 1941. -
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement first issued in August 1941 that early in World War II defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. It was drafted by Britain and the United States, and later agreed to by all the Allies. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions
