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Franklin D. Roosevelt elected as the 32nd president of the United States
Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. -
Adolf Hitler comes to power in Germany.
Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by German President Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party. The full name of the Nazi Party was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Its members were often called Nazis. The Nazis were radically right-wing, antisemitic, anticommunist, and antidemocratic. -
Neutrality Act of 1935
Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war” from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license. -
Hitler annexes Austria and Sudetenland
German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. -
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
This agreement is commonly referred to as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It is also known as the Nazi-Soviet Pact or the Hitler-Stalin Pact. The arrangement included a 10-year non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union. -
Beginning of World War II in Europe
World War II began in Europe on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany on September 3. -
Germany invades Poland
The Second World War began with the Wehrmacht invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. -
President Roosevelt re-elected for a third term
Roosevelt won a third term by defeating Republican nominee Wendell Willkie in the 1940 United States presidential election. He remains the only president to serve for more than two terms. -
Lend-Lease Assistance Plan begins for England
First protocol period from October 1, 1941, to June 30, 1942. These supplies were to be manufactured and delivered by the UK with US credit financing. -
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. -
United States officially enters World War II
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor catapulted the United States into World War II. The American people were outraged. Though diplomatic relations between the United States and Japan were deteriorating, they had not yet broken off at the time of the attack. -
Germany & Italy declare war on the United States
Italy declared war on the United States in response to the latter's declaration of war upon the Empire of Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor four days earlier. Germany also declared war on the U.S. the same day. -
Japanese Internment Camps opened in America
The first internment camp in operation was Manzanar, located in east-central California. Between 1942 and 1945 a total of 10 camps were opened, holding approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans for varying periods of time in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas. -
Battle of Midway Island
The Battle of Midway was a key battle to secure dominance in the Pacific in World War II. -
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first time since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that the enemy’s seemingly relentless advance into the Pacific was checked -
American troops engage in combat in North Africa
Before dawn on November 8 1942, American soldiers waded through the surf of North African beaches in three widely separated areas to begin the largest amphibious operations that had ever been attempted in the history of warfare. -
Casablanca released
Casablanca, a World War II-era drama starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premieres in New York City; it will go on to become one of the most beloved Hollywood movies in history. -
United Mine Workers strike
The UMWA led the struggle to establish collective bargaining in American industrial life in the twentieth century. Its principles and policies, its strength and unity and its outstanding leaders have been an inspiration to generations of working families for over 125 years. -
Allied armies invade Sicily
American, British, and Canadian troops landed on Sicily, Italy. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the overall commander whilst the naval command was led by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew B. -
D-Day Invasion
invasion of the beaches at Normandy in northern France by troops from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries during World War II. -
President Roosevelt defeats Thomas Dewey and is re-elected to a fourth term
American presidential election held on Nov. 7, 1944, in which Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Thomas E. Dewey and thus secured his fourth term as president. -
Beginning of the Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge started on December 16, 1944, when German forces launched a surprise attack on Allied forces in the forested Ardennes region in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. -
Yalta Conference
Roosevelt's goals included consensus on establishment of the United Nations and gaining Soviet agreement to enter the war against Japan once Hitler had been defeated. -
Truman becomes the 33rd president of the United States
In July 1944, Truman was nominated to run for Vice President with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On January 20, 1945, he took the vice-presidential oath, and after President Roosevelt's unexpected death only eighty-two days later on -
FDR dies in Warm Springs, Georgia
President Franklin Roosevelt died at the Little White House in warm springs. -
Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies
The unconditional surrender of the German Third Reich was signed in the early morning hours of Monday, May 7, 1945, at Supreme Headquarters -
Nazi Concentration Camps discovered by Allied forces
When the Allies liberated the first camps, the ghastly images of what they found were not widely shared. -
Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of people, and their effects are still being felt today. -
Japan surrenders unconditionally
The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on September 2, 1945