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End of WW1
Germany and the allies sign an armistice to end the fighting in WW1. -
18th Amendment
Congress ratifies the 18th amendment, prohibiting the sale of alcohol anywhere in the US. -
Treaty of Versailles lead to WWII
The Treaty of Versailles, which ended WWI, led to the start of WWII, less than 20 years later, because of how harshly it treated Germany and how angry Germans were about this. They took away all of Germany’s colonies. They prohibited Germany from having a full military. -
Seattle Strike
In Seattle, local trade unionists affiliated with both the mainstream American Federation of Labor and the radical Industrial Workers of the World organize a general strike, halting economic activity in the city for five days. The strike ultimately fails when workers, threatened with state violence and undermined by their own cautious labor leaders, return to their jobs. -
Immigration Quota Established
Congress passes immigration restrictions, for the first time creating a quota for European immigration to the United States. Targeted at "undesirable" immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, the act sharply curtails the quota for those areas while retaining a generous allowance for migrants from Northern and Western Europe. -
Stock Market Collapse
The American stock market collapses, signaling the onset of the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks in September 1929 at 381.17, a level that it won't reach again until 1954. The Dow will bottom out at a Depression-era low of just 41.22 in 1932. -
Chicago Mob
In the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, the single bloodiest incident in a decade-long turf war between rival Chicago mobsters fighting to control the lucrative bootlegging trade, members of Al Capone's gang murder six followers of rival Bugs Moran -
Food Riots
Food riots start in cities across the United States. Hungry Americans smash grocery store windows, take food, and run away because they do not have any other way of getting food to eat. -
New Deal
While campaigning for president of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt promises Americans "a new deal." The programs he creates after he is elected will be called The New Deal, to stabilize the economy and provide jobs, relief to those who were suffering. -
CCC
The first New Deal program, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is created. Thousands of young men go to camps to work on projects such as building parks, building roads, and fighting forest fires. -
Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority, another New Deal program, brings electricity and jobs to Americans living in the southern part of the United States. -
Emergency Banking Act
Congress passes the Emergency Banking Act. By the end of the month, almost all of the banks that had closed when the Depression started are open again. -
Social Security
The Social Security Act is signed. The Act provides money every month for senior citizens. Also it was to help the poor. -
Economy Recession
After showing some improvement, the economy starts to suffer again when more Americans lose their jobs. Many people begin to lose hope that things will ever get better. -
Germany Invades Poland
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. -
Neutrality Act of 1939
Roosevelt responded to the European war by issuing a proclamation of neutrality. At the same time, he took a number of steps designed to help Britain. He pushed a fourth Neutrality Act through Congress, which permitted belligerents to purchase war materials, provided that they paid cash and carried the goods away in their own ships. This act aided the British because Britain controlled the Atlantic's sea lanes. -
Canada Declares War
Britain’s declaration of war did not automatically commit Canada, but Canada declared war on Germany. They were unprepared for war. The regular army of 4500 men, augmented by 51,000 partly trained reservists, possessed virtually no modern equipment. The air force had fewer than 20 modern combat aircraft while the navy’s combat potential consisted of only six destroyers, the smallest class of ocean-going warships. It was a modest beginning -
Great Depression Ends
The United States declares war on Japan and joins World War II. Because the war creates so much money and jobs for the economy, the Great Depression ends soon after the U.S. goes to war. -
SS created concentration camps
The SS created a complex, monstrously orchestrated killing ground, 300 prison barracks, four “bathhouses” in which prisoners were gassed, corpse cellars, and cremating ovens. Thousands of prisoners were also used for medical experiments overseen and performed by the camp doctor -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii,by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the US into WWII. -
German U-boats attack
German U-boat attacks officially started against merchant ships along the Eastern Seaboard of North America. Both sides understood the key to Allied victory would be the restoration of America’s industrial might. Germany believed it could win the war by preventing the U.S. from supplying Britain with war materiel and fuel. -
US Drops Atomic Bombs
The United States drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and Nagasaki in Japan. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II. -
Soviets liberate Auschwitz
Japanese retreat to Chinese coast and Soviets liberate Auschwitz. Soviet troops enter Auschwitz, Poland, freeing the survivors of the network of concentration camp and finally revealing to the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there. -
Germany Surrenders
The German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northwestern France. General Jodl hoped to limit the terms of German surrender to only those forces still fighting the Western Allies. But General Dwight Eisenhower demanded complete surrender of all German forces, those fighting in the East as well as in the West. -
WWII Ends
WW2 ended with the unconditional surrender of the Axis forces. The Germans first surrendered on 29 April 1945 in Italy after Hitler’s death and total, unconditional surrender was signed on the 7th of May. By the 8th of May, Winston Churchill announced that the War had come to an end in Europe by announcing Victory in Europe.