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Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi party.
Adolf Hitler was an extreme nationalist. By 1921 Hitler had become leader of a small group known as he National Socialist, or Nazi, Party. Nazism was a form of fascism. The cornerstone of Hitler's racial theories was ant-Semitism, or hatred to Jews. -
Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy.
Benito promised to restore order through strong leadership in Italy. Benito became prime minister in October 1922 by threatening Italy. He turned Italy into a fascism state. -
Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR).
In 1929 Stalin became the dictator of the Soviet Union. Stalin turned the Soviet Union into a totalitarian state. Stalin took brutal measures. -
Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China.
In 1931, acting without the approval of Japan's elected government, the Japanese army siezed Manchuria in northeastern China. The League of Nations, which had been founded to halt aggression, protested but took no action. -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany.
Hitler fasley claimed that Germany had not lost World War I but had been betrayed by Jews and other "traitors." This idea appealed to Germans eager to find a scapegoat, someone on whom to blame their problems. The Great -
Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress.
The Neutrality Act was desighned to keep the U.S. at peace. It also forbade the president from selling Arms, making loans, or giving any other kind of assistance to any Nation involved in war. -
Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa.
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 Ethopia. Mussolini claimed that his policies of expansion were not different from that of other colonial powers in Africa. -
Militarist take control of Japanese Government.
Hard-line militarists in the Japanese government and army pointed to Japan's samurai military traditions, and accused moderate politicians, bureaucrats, and armed service leaders of disregard for Japan's national interests if they opposed military spending or territorial expansion by force. The views of hard-line militarists became increasingly influential in shaping Japan's foreign policy during the 1930s, and they used intimidation and assassination of moderate politicians, bureaucrats and ar -
Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty
On 7 March 1936 German troops marched into the Rhineland. This action was directly against the Treaty of Versailles which had laid out the terms which the defeated Germany had accepted. It was Hitler’s first illegal act in foreign relations since coming to power in 1933 and it threw the European allies, especially France and Britain, into confusion. -
Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people.
Many refugee women in China were raped and killed by Japanese soliders. -
Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps.
The Nazis developed an efficient system to mass murder for the Jews at Labor camps also known as Death camps. -
Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany.
British and French prime ministers Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier sign the Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The agreement averted the outbreak of war but gave Czechoslovakia away to German conquest. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin.
In late 1939, Hitler and Stalin two sworn and bitter enemies- had sighned a nonagression agreement. -
Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27, 1939. Britain and France, standing by their guarantee of Poland's border, had declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. Nazi Germany occupied the remainder of Poland when it invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Poland remained under German occupation until January 1945. -
Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control.
Hitler admirals had persuaded him to take Norway before the British occupied it or its territorial waters, cutting Germany from its major source of iron ore.The Germans conqured Denmark in one day and conquered the Netherlands in five days. -
Germany invades France and forces it to surrender.
On 5 June, the Germans swung southwards and French resistance finally collapsed, although not without heavy fighting. On 10 June, Italy opportunistically entered the war on Germany’s side. Four days later, the French capital fell, provoking the flight of the French Government to Bordeaux. The Government capitulated on 25 June, just seven weeks after the beginning of the invasion. -
Battle of Britain
Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island. -
First time Peacetime Draft in US
On October 16, 1940, the first peacetime program of compulsory military service takes effect. Under the Selective Training and Service Act, all males between the ages of 21 to 35 are required to register for the draft. A lottery system determines who will be called into service. -
Japanese invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia).
Japan had complete control of China’s coastal ports and cut off supplies by sea transport of the Chinese government. To further cut China’s arms supply lines and forced the Chinese out of the war, Japan invaded French Indochina in order to cut off supply routes from there to China. While France, owing to its defeat in the European theater, was unable to compete against Japan. -
Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades - USSR which now joins England in fighting the Germans.
In a pre-dawn offensive, German troops pushed into the USSR from the south and west, with a third force making their way from the north towards Leningrad. -
Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter.
The Atlantic Charter was a joint declaration released by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on August 14, 1941 following a meeting of the two heads of state in Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter provided a broad statement of U.S. and British war aims. -
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii attacked by Japanese Naval and Air forces.
Japanese bombers launched a surprise attack on American naval, air, and ground forces at Pearl Harbor. -
US declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the US.
Germany and Italy have announced they are at war with the United States. America immediately responded by declaring war on the two Axis powers. -
Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps.
Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. Their crime? Being of Japanese ancestry. -
Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death.
Japanese captured nearly 70,000 soldiers. Already weak from hunger, the American and Filipino prisoners were than forced to walk 65- milies to a prision camp. -
Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific.
The United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll, marking a turning point in the war in the Pacific theatre. Having scored a decisive victory, American forces retired. The loss of four carriers stopped the expansion of the Japanese Empire in the Pacific, and put Japan on the defensive. It had been six months to the day since the attack on Pearl Harbor. -
Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow.
German armies surrounded the city and so the Russians were trapped and would remain so for several months. When reinforcements arrived for the Soviets they surrounded the Germans and forced them to surrender. The battle of Stalingrad not only destroyed much of the German army, but also ended their offensive in Russia and ultimately resulted in
Germany’s defeat in the second World War. -
British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa.
In November U.S. ground troops combat landed in North Africa. Under the comand of Dwight D. Eisenhower, they occupied Moroco and Algeria. Rommels armies surrendered May 1943 -
Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA.
Young Mexican Americans in Los Angeles often dressed in showy "Zoot Suits" June 1943, bands of saliors on shore leave attacked young mexican Americans, beating them. -
Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Min.
Italy, its army shattered, relinquishes its African colonies. Discontent among Italians culminates in a Fascist rebellion against Mussolini, his dismissal by the king, the dissolution of the Fascist Party, and the appointment of Fascist Pietro Badoglio as premier. -
D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies.
Overlord was the largest air, land, and sea operation undertaken before or since June 6, 1944. The landing included over 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes, and over 150,000 service men.Blanketed by small-arms fire and bracketed by artillery. When it was over, the Allied Forces had suffered nearly 10,000 casualties; more than 4,000 were dead. Yet somehow, due to planning and preparation, and due to the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of the Allied Forces, Fortress Europe had been breached. -
Paris retaken by Allied Forces.
After the D-Day the Allies are able to retake Paris in August. Through the summer and fall, the Allies pushed eastward through France towards Germany. In August, Allied troops also landed in the South of France. -
Battle of the Bulge – last offensive of German Forces.
In the morning of December 16, 1944, more than 200,000 German troops and 1,000 tanks attacked along a 75-mile stretch of the front in the Ardennes, covering parts of Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. The Germans planned the campaign in the utmost secrecy, with the goal of recapturing the harbor city of Antwerp. -
US forces return to recapture the Philippines.
Recapture of the Philippines would allow the United States to cut Japanese access to oil from the Netherlands East Indies. It also would provide vital strategic bases for further Allied operations against Japanese forces to the north. -
FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President.
Harry S. Truman became President of the United States with the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945. During his nearly eight years in office, Truman confronted enormous challenges in both foreign and domestic affairs. -
V-E Day, war ends in Europe.
VE Day officially announced the end of World War Two in Europe. On Monday May 7th at 02.41. German General Jodl signed the unconditional surrender document that formally ended war in Europe. -
First Atomic Bombs dropped.
Aerial view of an atomic bomb explosionA uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki on August 9. -
V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces.
V-J Day (with V-J denoting "Victory over Japan" or "Victory in Japan") is the day that the Empire of Japan surrendered to the Allied forces, effectively ending World War II. -
War Crimes Trials held in Nuremberg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan.
Following World War II, the victorious Allied governments established the first international criminal tribunals to prosecute high-level political officials and military authorities for war crimes and other wartime atrocities. The four major Allied powers—France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States—set up the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg, Germany, to prosecute and punish “the major war criminals of the European Axis.”
