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Hitler Becomes Chancellor
On this day, President Paul von Hindenburg named Adolf Hitler leader of the Nazi Party, as chancellor of Germany. Hitler earned many supporters in 1932 when he raised frustration within the citizens of Germany with corrupted economic conditions, the fresh wounds inflicted by defeat in the WW2, and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty. -
Nuremberg Laws In Effect Against Jews
Hitler created laws that allowed German police to do whatever they would like to Jews. This meant it was legal to beat, rape, and kill Jewish people. These laws also striped Jews of their German citizenship and made it illegal for them to marry any non-Jew. -
Italy into Ethiopia
This was an armed conflict that resulted in Ethiopia’s subjection to Italian rule. It is 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. -
Italy, Germany & Japan Signed Anti-Comintern Pact, Against Russia
This treaty was sought by Adolf Hitler, who was interested in Japan’s successes in the opening war against China. The Japanese were angered by a Soviet-Chinese nonaggression treaty of August 1936 and by the subsequent sale of Soviet military aircraft and munitions to China. -
Anschluss - Germany Takes Over Austria With No Fighting
Hitler invited the Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg to Germany and forced him to agree to give the Austrian Nazis a free hand. Schuschnigg later refused to accept the agreement and announced a vote on the Anschluss question. He was bullied into canceling the voting, and he obediently resigned, ordering the Austrian Army not to resist the Germans. -
Full Invasion & Takeover Of Czechoslovakia
In 1938, the Munich Pact was signed, virtually handing Czechoslovakia over to Germany in the name of peace. Although the agreement was to give into Hitler’s hands only the Sudetenland, it also handed over to the Nazi war machine many useful resources such as coal, iron, steel, etc. Without those resources, the Czech nation was left vulnerable to give in to German domination. -
German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. -
Germany Invades Poland With Blitzkrieg Warfare
1.5 million German troops invaded Poland all along its border with German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action. -
Britain Declares war on Germany
On this day in 1939, in response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, allies Britain and France both declared war on Germany. Britain began bombing German ships, and also worked under orders not to harm German civilians. The German military had no such restrictions. -
Battle of the Atlantic (duration of the war)
This was the longest continuous battle of WWII. The first shots on the Atlantic were fired just hours after Britain formally declared war on Germany. Off the coast of Ireland, a German submarine attacked a passenger ship en route to Montréal with more than 1,400 passengers and crew on board. -
Canada Declares War On Germany
Britain's declaration of war did not automatically commit Canada, as had been the case in 1914. However, there was never real doubt about Canada's response, the Canadian government and people were united in support of Britain and France. -
Battle of Britain
German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom. This was a significant turning point of World War II as the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases. Britain’s victory saved the country from a ground invasion and possible occupation by German forces. -
Invasion of Soviet Union
Under the code name "Barbarossa," Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest German military operation of World War II. Hitler had always regarded the German-Soviet nonaggression pact as a temporary tactical maneuver. In July 1940, just weeks after the German conquest of France and the Low Countries, Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union within the following year. -
Pearl Harbor Attack
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours and managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, more than 300 airplanes, and many soldiers. -
Japanese-Canadian Internment
Beginning after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and lasting four years after World War II had ended. Canadians of Japanese heritage were removed from their homes and businesses and sent to internment camps in the B.C. and to farms and internment camps across Canada. -
Battle of El Alamein
Battle of El Alamein marked the culmination of the World War II North African campaign between the British Empire and the German-Italian army. After Hitler blocked an initial retreat in early November, Rommel managed to escape annihilation by withdrawing his men to Tunisia. -
Battle Of Stalingrad
This battle was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. Most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. -
Dieppe Raid
The raid on Dieppe, France was a crucial moment in WWII. With virtually all of continental Europe under German occupation, the Allied forces faced a well-grounded enemy. The Raid on Dieppe offered invaluable lessons for the successful D-Day invasion in 1944, saving countless lives in that momentous offensive. -
Italian Campaign
Canada’s longest WWII army campaign was in Italy. Canadian forces served in the heat and snow, nearly two-year Allied battle across Sicily and up the Italian peninsula — prying the country from Germany's grip, at a cost of more than 26,000 Canadian casualties. -
D-Day June 6, 1944
The battle began when 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches of the coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. -
Germany Surrenders
Germany officially surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to the European conflict in WWII. General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of both east and west forces in Reims, France, which would take effect the following day. -
Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
During WWII, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. 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. -
Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki
Three days after the attack on Hiroshima, 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 WWII in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”
