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Japan invades Manchuria
Japan was becoming overcrowded and it did not have enough resources for its population. Without the approval of the government, military leaders decided to attack the Chinese province of Manchuria. The goal was to get land and resources for the Japanese people. The Japanese government ordered for them to stop, but they did not listen. The League of Nations criticized Japan for its actions, so Japan withdrew from this organizations. -
United States passed the first Neutrality Act
This law was meant to keep the United States out of the war. The Congress Strengthened this act as it outlawed making loans to warring countries. In the years that follow other parts would be added to the neutrality act to make it stronger. -
Italy Invades Ethiopia
Italy wanted to get back at Ethiopia because in the 1800s, Italy tried to establish a colony there. But they were defeated at the hands of the Ethiopians. Mussolini used a dispute about the border between Italy and Ethiopia to launch an invasion. -
Germany militarized the Rhineland
Hitler sent troops into the area between France and Germany and was not supposed to have any military in it. Hitler reasoning for this was that there was a French military agreement with the Soviet Union that threatened Germany. -
Japan starts a war against China
The Japanese troops massacred an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Chinese in the capital of Nanjing. The force that they used to take over China was ruthless and cruel. They would kill anybody in their path which would include women, children, men, and the elderly. -
The Anschluss
Hitler wanted to take control of their neighbor, Austria. He wanted to unite all ethnic Germans. Anschluss means that Austria would have a union with Germany . Hitler sent troops into Austria to take it over, and the League of Nations did nothing to stop him. -
The Munich Conference
At this conference British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and French premier Edouard Daladier met with Hitler to appease him. They gave Hitler the Sudetenland, which was the German-speaking portion of Czechoslovakia. -
Hitler and Stalin sign Nonaggression Pact
Stalin agreed to stay out of Germany's way as they were expanding and taking over other countries. In return, the Soveit Union would not be attacked, and they would get some of the land that Hitler would be taking over. -
Hitler invades Poland - official start of World War II
Hitler was wanting to find an excuse to invade Poland, and he used a German criminal to help him accomplish his goal. The German criminal dressed in a Polish uniform, and he was shot so Germany could claim that Poland attacked Germany. This gave Hitler his opporunity to invade Poland, and this was the opening of World War II. -
Great Britain and France declare war
Great Britain and France declare war on Germany. They became known as the Allies. They had been forming their own strategy. They had decided not to attack Germany, so they were going to let Hitler make the next move. -
Evacuation of Dunkirk
In the largest evacuation ever, Allied ships and hundreds of civilian boats took nearly 340,000 troops from the coast of France and carried them to Great Britain. The saving of these forces would serve vital to the outcome of the war. -
France signs an armistice with Germany
As the country of France falls to the forces of Germany, they signed an armistice with Germany. The northern part of France was known as the occupied France. The unoccupied part of France was known as Vichy France. This part was a puppet government with Germany telling them what to do. -
First German air raids on London
The German's wanted to break the will of Great Britain to fight by bombing the major cities such as London. The will and might of the English people was more than Hitler thought. Hitler was not able to destroy the spirit of Britain with bombs. -
The Lend-Lease Act
This allowed the United States to help Great Britain with the war by sending them weapons regardless of their ability to pay. This was based off of Roosevelt's goal of making the United States the "arsenal of democracy." -
The Atlantic Charter
Roosevelt and British leader Winston Churchill met on a ship off the coast of Canada. There they agreed on the Atlantic Charter which was their goals for the United States and Great Britain against Hitler and his allies. -
First experimental use of gas chambers in Auschwitz
The Germans used the gas chambers for the mass killing of the Jewish population. This mass killing is called genocide. This experiment marked the beginning of the end for the lives of many people who were of Jewish descent in Europe at this time. -
Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor
Japanese strike force went into action on this day as they took America by surprise. The Japanese bombs and torpedoes took heavy tolls on American warships and planes. The destruction was enormous with nearly 200 aircrafts destroyed and some 2,400 Americans dead. While America lost so many, Japan only lost a handful of submarines and fewer than 30 planes. -
The Battle of Midway
The Americans won a big victory at Midway. It all started when the Americans broke the Japanese code, and they knew their plan to attack the American naval ships. The American leaders placed everything perfectly, and the American planes were able to destory the carriers that the Japanese had brought to the battle. -
The War Refugee Board
This organization was in charge of all of the people that was in imminent danger of death. With this board into effect, the United States was able to help 200,000 Jews who might have fallen into the hands of the Nazis. -
D-Day
The attack was at Normandy, and there were many different parts of the attack. First, parachuting soldiers tried to secure key sites. Then, the ships offshore hit the coastline with shells to try to destroy the German defenses. Next, the Allied aircrafts filled the sky to provide the cover for the troops that were to come. The soldiers had to wade to shore as German forces were firing on them. During this invasion, there was an estimated 10,000 Allied casualites, including 6,600 Americans. -
Hitler Commits Suicide
Hitler recognized that he was not going to be able to win the war as the Allied forces was putting heavy bombardment on Berlin. -
V-E Day
This day was celebrated throughout the world, as the war was over. As Hitler commited suicide, Karl Donitz, the next leader who took charge, agreed to surrender on May 7, 1945. -
United States drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima
The American B-29 named Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on this Japanese city. When the bomb exploded some 80,000 residents died and 350,000 were injured. Also, two-thirds of the city's 90,000 buildings were destroyed. -
United States drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki
This was the second atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Japan. The death toll was less, but it was about 40,000 dead. -
The end of World War II
This was the day when World War II ended. All of the miseries of the soldiers and many other people were now over. Nobody had to worry about Hitler coming back to power because he committed suicide before he could be captured by the Allied Powers.
