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Mussolini takes power in Italy
Mussolini had dictatorial powers from 1922 until he was overthrown in 1943. In May 1938, Mussolini promised to fight alongside Adolf Hitler in any war against the democracies of the world. -
U.S. Stock Market Crashes
This was a leading cause of the Great Depression. The U.S. economy would not fully turn around until after 1939, when World War revitalized American industry. -
Japan seizes Manchuria
In 1931, the Japanese Kwangtung Army attacked Chinese troops in Manchuria in an event commonly known as the Manchurian Incident. Essentially, this was an attempt by the Japanese Empire to gain control over the whole province, in order to eventually encompass all of East Asia. This proved to be one of the causes of World War II. -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
Hitler's sudden rise to prominence in Germany spurred largely by the German people's frustration with miserable economic conditions and the still hurtful wounds caused by the defeat in the Great War and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty. His determination to take over Europe was a leading cause of World War II. -
Hitler defies the Treaty of Versailles
Hitler came to power in 1933, he was determined to overthrow the Treaty of Versailles, he intended to follow an expansionist foreign policy, and he intended to make Germany great again. The League of Nations had failed to stop aggression in the early 1930s and Hitler was prepared to exploit this weakness. -
U.S. Neutrality Act
By the mid-1930s, events in Europe and Asia indicated that a new world war might soon erupt and the U.S. Congress took action to enforce U.S. neutrality so congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war” from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license. On February 29, 1936, Congress renewed the Act until May of 1937 and prohibited Americans from exten -
Italy invades Ethiopia
Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader of Italy, had adopted Adolf Hitler's plans to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German. Mussolini followed this policy when he invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) the African country situated on the horn of Africa. -
France militarizes the Rhineland
Under the terms of Versailles, the Rhineland had been made into a demilitarized zone. Germany had political control of this area, but she was not allowed to put any troops into it. In March 1936, Hitler took what for him was a huge gamble - he ordered that his troops should openly re-enter the Rhineland thus breaking the terms of Versailles once again. -
Civil War erupts in Spain
The Spanish Civil War had its beginnings in Spain’s elections of February 1936. The Republicans, consisting of the Communists, Socialists, and Basque and Catalonian separatists, won by a narrow margin. Under the leadership of Jose Calvo Sotelo, the right wing (monarchists, the military, and the Fascist Party) continued to oppose the elected government. The right wing, now united as Nationalists, used this as their justification for launching a revolution. -
FDR is elected as president
FDR was president during the World War II and he was a strong war leader. He personally became involved with most of the important war decisions, such as the decision to give priority to defeating Germany before Japan. -
Japan invades China
The Japanese invaded China, launching the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese Kwantung Army turned a small incident into a full-scale war. Chinese forces were unable to effectively resist the Japanese. The Japanese military was not only better armed and organized, they were also incredibly brutal. The rape of Nanking was some of the most terrible atrocities of World War II. -
Japan invades China
The Japanese invaded China, launching the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese Kwantung Army turned a small incident into a full-scale war. Chinese forces were unable to effectively resist the Japanese. The Japanese military was not only better armed and organized, they were also incredibly brutal. The rape of Nanking was some of the most terrible atrocities of World War II. -
Anschluss
On this day, Adolf Hitler announces an "Anschluss" (union) between Germany and Austria, in fact annexing the smaller nation into a greater Germany. Union with Germany had been a dream of Austrian Social Democrats since 1919. -
Munich Conference 29 September 1938
Here Hitler met with representatives of the heads of state from France, the United Kingdom, and Italy. An agreement was reached that Hitler could annex the Sudetenland provided he promised not to invade anywhere else. All four countries signed the agreement: Adolf Hitler (Germany), Neville Chamberlain (UK), Edouard Daladier (France), and Benito Mussolini (Italy). -
Kristallnacht
Prior to Kristallnacht, theNazi policies had been primarily nonviolent. After Kristallnacht, conditions for German Jews grew increasingly worse. During World War II, Hitler and the Nazis implemented their "Final Solution" to the "Jewish problem," and carried out the systematic murder of some 6 million European Jews in what came to be known as the Holocaust. -
The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Representatives from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union met and signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, which guaranteed that the two countries would not attack each other. By signing this pact, Germany had protected itself from having to fight a two-front war in the soon-to-begin World War II. -
Germany invades Poland Sep. 1 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. -
Phoney War
Phoney War is the name given to the period of time in World War Two from September 1939 to April 1940 when, after the blitzkrieg attack on Poland in September 1939, seemingly nothing happened. Many in Great Britain expected a major calamity – but the title ‘Phoney War’ summarizes what happened in Western Europe – near enough nothing. -
Churchill is Elected Prime Minister in England May 10 1940
Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, is called to replace Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister following the latter's resignation after losing a confidence vote in the House of Commons. Churchill promised his country and the world that the British people would "never surrender." -
Miracle at Dunkirk May 26 1940
Over 350,000 men, including the entire British army and elements of the French and Belgian armies, were trapped in the port of Dunkirk in France. The navy put out a call for help from the civilian population and boats from all over Britain began appearing to help, fishing boats, yachts, pleasure boats, row boats, you name it. -
France Surrenders
Hitler dictates that the French capitulation takes place at Compiegne, a forest north of Paris. This is the same spot where twenty-two years earlier the Germans had signed the Armistice ending World War I. Hitler intends to disgrace the French and avenge the German defeat. To further deepen the humiliation, he orders that the signing ceremony take place in the same railroad car that hosted the earlier surrender. -
Battle of Britain
In the summer and fall of 1940, German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. A significant turning point of World War II, the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population. -
Japan seizes French Indo-China
With the fall of France in 1940, Indochina was internationally isolated, and largely left to her own devices by the Petain regime. The Japanese, realizing the weakness of the French colony, pressured the administration into granting various concessions (all aimed at aiding the Japanese war effort in China). This involved a steadily increasing Japanese military presence in Indochina, while the French were also fighting native uprisings in the Mekong Delta and a Thai assault on Cambodia. -
The Lend-Lease Act
This principle was the means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. The act authorized the president to transfer arms or any other defense materials for which Congress appropriated money to "the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States." -
Atlantic Charter
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard a warship off the coast of Newfoundland during the Atlantic Conference. The conference took place from August 9-12, 1941, and resulted in the Atlantic Charter, a joint proclamation by the United States and Britain declaring that they were fighting the Axis powers to "ensure life, liberty, independence and religious freedom and to preserve the rights of man and justice." -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. After just two hours of bombing, more than 2,400 Americans were dead, 21 ships had either been sunk or damaged, and more than 188 U.S. aircraft destroyed.
