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Mussolini's March on Rome
March on Rome, the insurrection by which Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy in late October 1922. The March marked the beginning of fascist rule and meant the doom of the preceding parliamentary regimes of socialists and liberals. -
Hitler writes Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926. The book was edited first by Emil Maurice, then by Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess -
First Five year plan of USSR
The five-year plans for the development of the national economy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics consisted of a series of nationwide centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union, beginning in the late 1920s. The first five year plan was created in order to initiate rapid and large-scale industrialization across the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). -
Stalin becomes dictator of USSR
He served as both General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (1941–1953). Initially governing the country as part of a collective leadership, he consolidated power to become the Soviet Union's de facto dictator by the 1930s. -
Japan Invades Manchuria
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on 18 September 1931. During 1931 Japan had invaded Manchuria without declarations of war, breaching the rules of the League of Nations. Japan had a highly developed industry, but the land was scarce of natural resources. Japan turned to Manchuria for oil, rubber and lumber in order to make up for the lack of resources in Japan. -
Holodomor
The Holodomor, also known as the Terror-Famine and sometimes referred to as the Great Famine, was a famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. Drought has been mentioned as the major reason for the Holodomor by Soviet sources since 1983. This explanation has been modified by the Western historian Dr. Mark Tauger, who concluded that the famine was not fundamentally "man-made". He says that rustic plant disease, rather than drought, was the cause of the famine. -
Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933 following a series of electoral victories by the Nazi Party. He ruled absolutely until his death by suicide in April 1945. This marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. From that moment on, Nazi Germany was off and running, and there was little Hindenburg or von Papen—or anyone—could do to stop it. -
Night of the Long Knives
Night of the Long Knives, in German history, purge of Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler on June 30, 1934. Fearing that the paramilitary SA had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization's leaders, including Ernst Röhm. This destroyed all opposition to Hitler within the Nazi Party and gave power to the brutal SS. It also showed the rest of the world what a tyrant Hitler was. This removed any internal Nazi Party opposition to Hitler. -
Nuremburg Laws Enacted
The Nuremberg Laws were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. -
Italian Invasion of Ethiopia
Italo-Ethiopian War, (1935–36), an armed conflict that resulted in Ethiopia’s subjection to Italian rule. Often seen as one of the episodes that prepared the way for World War II, the war demonstrated the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations when League decisions were not supported by the great powers. A border incident between Ethiopia and Italy that December gave Mussolini an excuse to intervene. Rejecting all arbitration offers, the Italians invaded Ethiopia on October 3, 1935. -
The Great Purge and the Gulags
A campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union that occurred from 1936 to 1938. They were quickly executed by shooting, or sent to the Gulag labor camps. Many died at the penal labor camps of starvation, disease, exposure, and overwork Historians estimate the total number of deaths due to Stalinist repression in 1937–38 to be between 950,000 to 1.2 million. -
Spanish Civil War
was a civil war in Spain fought from 1936 to 1939. Republicans loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic, in alliance with anarchists, of the communist and syndicalist variety, fought against a revolt by the Nationalists, an alliance of Falangists, monarchists, conservatives and traditionalists, led by a military group among whom General Francisco Franco soon achieved a preponderant role. -
The rape of Nanking
The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Imperial Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing, at that time the capital of China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. In what became known as the “Rape of Nanking,” the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male “war prisoners,” massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht or Night of the Broken Glass was a pogrom against Jews carried out by SA paramilitary forces and civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938. The German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht ("Crystal Night") comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings and synagogues were smashed. -
Nazi Germany invades Poland
The invasion of Poland, also known as September campaign, 1939 defensive war and Poland campaign, was an attack on the Second Polish Republic by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. -
Japan Bombs Pearl Harbor
The Attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 08:00, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.