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Hitler joins the German Workers Party
In 1919 Hitler angry about Germany's defeat in World War 1 joined the German Worker's Party -
Hitler Assumes leadership of the Party
In July of 1921 Hitler assumed leadership of the organization which was renamed to the the National Socialist German Worker's (Nazi) Party -
Hitler staged the Beer Hall Putsch
In 1923, Hitler and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria, a state in southern Germany. Hitler was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years in prison, but spent less than a year behind bars (during which time he dictated the first volume of “Mein Kampf,” or “My Struggle,” his political autobiography). -
Germany in Economic depression
In 1929, Germany entered a period of severe economic depression and widespread unemployment. -
Hitler is Chancellor
In January 1933, Hitler was appointed German chancellor and his Nazi government soon came to control every aspect of German life.Under Nazi rule, all other political parties were banned. In 1933, the Nazis opened their first concentration camp, in Dachau, Germany, to house political prisoners. -
Hitler Breaks Treaty
In 1934, he destroyed the League of Nations Disarmament Conference by demanding equality of arms with France and Britain this broke the Treaty because it had set up the League with the stated aim of achieving disarmament. At first, Hitler broke the Treaty’s terms by building up his army in secret, drilling volunteers with spades instead of rifles. -
Hitler Builds up the army
In 1935, he openly held a huge rearmament rally. The other nations let him get away with it – Britain even made a naval agreement with Germany, accepting that Germany had a right to have a navy of 35% of the British navy (i.e. this broke the Treaty, which said that Germany could only have 6 battleships). -
Hitler Re Militarizing the RhineLand
In 1936, Hitler moved his troops into the zone, claiming that the recent treaty between France and Russia threatened Germany’s safety. His commanders had orders to retreat if the French army tried to stop them, but this time it was France who did nothing. The League of Nations, busy with the Abyssinian crisis, also did nothing. -
Hitler Annexing Austria
The Treaty forbade Anschluss between Germany and Austria. An attempted Nazi putsch in Austria failed in 1934, but in 1938 Hitler tried again. Austrian Nazis organised riots, while Hitler pressurized the Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg to declare Anschluss. Schuschnigg asked both France and Britain for help, but was refused, so he suggested instead a plebiscite. To prevent the possibility of a ‘no’ result, Hitler invaded. -
Hitler gains the SudetenLand
By the end of 1938, Hitler was doing the same thing in the Sudentenland, which the Treaty of Versailles had given to Czechoslovakia. Sudeten Nazis, led by Henlein, caused trouble, claiming that they were being oppressed by the Czechs.Hitler demanded union, and threatened war.This time, although the Czech leader Beneš was prepared to fight, it was Britain and France who, at Munich, broke the Treaty of Versailles and gave the Sudetenland to Germany. Which just left Danzig, and the Polish corridor -
Japanese Invasion of China (Rape of Nanking)
The Nanking Massacre was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing, then the capital of the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The massacre occurred over a period of six weeks starting on December 13, 1937, the day that the Japanese captured Nanjing. During this period, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants who numbered an estimated 40,000 to over 300,000. -
Hitler breaks treaty
By 1939, Germany had 95 warships, 8,250 airplanes and an army of nearly 1m. men (many more than the 0 planes and 100,000 men stated in the Treaty of Versailles). Hitler even war-tested his armed forces in the Spanish Civil War -
German Invasion of Poland
The Invasion of Poland was a joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Free City of Danzig, and a small Slovak contingent, that marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, while the Soviet invasion commenced on 17 September following the Molotov-Tōgō agreement that terminated the Russian and Japanese hostilities in the east on 16 September. -
Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a method of warfare whereby an attacking force, spearheaded by a dense concentration of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations with close air support, breaks through the opponent's line of defense by short, fast, powerful attacks and then dislocates the defenders, using speed and surprise to encircle them. Through the employment of combined arms in manoeuvre warfare, blitzkrieg attempts to unbalance the enemy by making it difficult for it to respond. -
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Dunkirk Evacuation
The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940, during World War II. The operation was decided upon when large numbers of Belgian, Canadian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by the German army during the Battle of France. -
The Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom from the Luftwaffe attacks from the end of June 1940 -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States' entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and as Operation Z during its planning. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia. -
Invasion of Normandy
The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 (termed D-Day) of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, and contributed to the Allied victory on the Western Front. -
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Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa was a series of battles fought in the Japanese Ryukyu Islands, centered on the island of Okinawa and April 1st 1945 invasion of Okinawa itself. The 82-day-long battle lasted from 1 April until 22 June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were planning to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations for the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. -
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6, 1945 the US dropped an atomic bomb ("Little Boy") on Hiroshima in Japan. Three days later a second atomic bomb ("Fat Man") was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. These were the only times nuclear weapons have been used in war. -
V-J Day
Victory over Japan Day (also known as Victory in the Pacific Day, V-J Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which the Empire of Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect ending the war. The term has been applied to both of the days on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made
