-
Mussolini and the Fascists come to power in Italy
Mussolini organized a para-military unit known as the "Black Shirts," who terrorized political opponents and helped increase Fascist influence. By 1922, as Italy slipped into political chaos, Mussolini declared that only he could restore order and was given the authority. He gradually dismantled all democratic institutions, and by 1925, had made himself dictator. -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Beginning in September of 1931, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria and captured the city of Shanghai in China itself. By February 1932, the Japanese had conquered the whole of Manchuria, and set up a Japanese-controlled state called Manchukuo, run by the former Emperor of China.Thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians had been killed by the modern but ruthless Japanese army. -
Hitler and the Nazis come to power in Germany
In January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, the head of the German government. Economic distress contributes to a meteoric rise in the support for the Nazi party. Many Germans believed that they had found a savior for their nation. -
Neutrality Acts passed in the U.S
The 1935 act imposed a general embargo on trading in arms and war materials with all parties in a war. It also declared that American citizens traveling on warring ships traveled at their own risk. However, the act was set to expire after its first six months. -
Munich Conference
The Munich Agreement was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined. -
Kristallnacht
Also known as "The NIght of Broken Glass," the name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938. This wave of violence took place throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops. -
Germany and the USSR sign the Non-Aggression Pact
In the Non-Aggression Pact, the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. The pact also contained a secret agreement in which the Soviets and Germans agreed how they would later divide up Eastern Europe. The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact fell apart in June 1941, when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union. -
Germany invades Poland -- Beginning of World War II
On this day in 1939, German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun. -
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the Kriegsmarine (German navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, and Allied merchant shipping. -
Rescue at Dunkirk
Also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 27 May and 4 June 1940, during World War II. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53zjkw9I2xE -
Fall of France
French second-rate divisions in the area were not prepared or equipped to deal with the major armoured thrust that developed, and were hammered by incessant attacks by German bombers. -
Formation of the Axis Powers
The Axis powers consisted of Germany, Italy, and Japan. These countries signed the Tripartite Pact and became also known as the Axis Alliance. -
Presidential election of 1940
Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected 39th president of the United States of America. -
Congress passes the Lend Lease Act
The lend-lease act allowed the president to sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of, to any such government any defense article. This included warships and warplanes and in return to the United States, they given leases on army and naval bases in Allied territory during the war. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
A date that will live in infamy, Pearl Harbor was purposely bombed by Japanese kamikaze pilots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=21-JOiL4DOE -
Relocation of Japanese Americans to camps
President FDR signed Executive Order 9066 ordering Japanese Americans to leave the west coast and to move into concentration camps more of into the middle of the United States. These individuals lost all they had, whether it was their houses to businesses that they own, they had to leave all these things behind to move into half the size of a school classroom rooms in camps. -
Bataan Death March
Japanese troops forced 60-80,000 Philipino and american prisoners of war from Saisaih Pt. and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell. About 2,500–10,000 Filipino and 100–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach their destination. The 60 mile march was characterized by occasional severe physical abuse. It was later judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime. -
Battle of Midway Island
This was a battle held between the U.S and Japan just six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The United States were able to decipher Japan's planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers; therfore, they were able to inflict permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. This victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a project created in New York to produce the first US nuclear weapon in fear that Germany would use a nuclear weapon in World War II. https://youtu.be/Ru2PWmGIoB8 -
Rosie the Riveter campaign encourages women to get a job
Rosie was the image of a muscular, determined worker, hair tucked under a kerchief, graced countless magazines and posters. She was one of the main influences who helped fought for women and minorities to spur stronger efforts to ensure equal rights after the war was over. -
D-Day Invasion
156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. -
Allied Invasion/ Victory in the Philipines
This was the American and Filipino campaign to defeat and expel the Imperial Japanese forces occupying the Philippines, during World War II. In the end, the allies came out on top in defeating the Japanese forces. -
Presidential election of 1944
The presidential election of 1944 proved to be the 4th term for President Roosevelt. Yet, he was not able to serve it because he died before the term started and was suceeded by vice president, Harry S. Truman. -
Battle of the Bulge
The German's objective was to split the Allied armies by means of a surprise blitzkrieg attack through the Ardennes to Antwerp, marking a repeat of what the Germans had done three times previously in the war. However, the Allies’ leadership miscalculated and left the Ardennes lightly defended by only two inexperienced and two battered American divisions. -
Yalta Conference
This was a meeting of British prime minister Winston Churchill, Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The meeting was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. The meeting had became a source of conttoversy and to some extent had remained that way. Yalta was the second of three wartime conferences among the Big Three. -
V-E day
Victory in Europe 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. -
Bombing of HIroshima and Nagasaki
August 6, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb that was ever used was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan where immediatley 80,000 people were killed and tens of thousands affected by radiation. Three days later, the U.S dropped its second bomb on Nagasaki that had similar effects as the first one. -
Surrender of Japan
Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945—the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction. the Japanese officials officially signed their surrender on Sep. 2, 1945. This brought the hostilities of World War 2 to a close. -
Formation of the United Nations
In 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organization to draw up the United Nations Charter. Those delegates deliberated on the basis of proposals worked out by the representatives of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States at Dumbarton Oaks, United States in August-October 1944.
