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Mussolini and Facists come to power in Italy
Mussolini rose to power at start of WWI and created the Facist movement -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
On this day, Japan launched and attack on Manchuria and within seven days occupied strategic points in South Manchuria -
Neutrality Acts passed in the US
A series of acts to protect US from getting involved in foreign wars -
Munich Conference
On September 28-29, 1938, the leaders of Great Britain, France, and Italy agreed to allow Germany to annex certain areas of Czechoslovakia -
Kristallnacht
Night of Broken Glass. The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938, throughout Germany -
Hitler and Nazis come to power
Came to power and took over during the Great Depression while people was desperate for better lives -
Germany and USSR sign Non-Agression Pact
On August 23, 1939. Shortly before World War II broke out in Europe, enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact -
Germany invades Poland
Adolfo Hitler invades Poland on this day. Britain and France declares war on Germany right after. Thus, starting WWII -
France falls to Germany
Germany strikes quick, and powerful on France in their quest to also take Britain -
Rescue at Dunkirk
Occurred when survivals from Germany's attack on France, fled across the waters to Great Britain -
Formation of Axis Powers
On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact -
Presidential Election of 1940
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a third term in office -
Congress passed Lend Lease Act
The principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating -
Relocation of Japanese Americans to camps
Two months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 ordering all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast -
Bataan Death March
Approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps -
Battle of Midway Island
United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. -
D-Day Invasion
On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which, “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” -
Presidential Election of 1944
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a fourth term in office -
Battle of Bulge
In December 1944, a major German offensive is launched against the Allies in the Ardennes Mountains region on the Western Front. -
Battle of Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest battle of World War II. It began immediately upon the British declaration of war against Germany in September 1939 and ended with Germany's surrender to the Allies in May 1945 -
V-E Day
On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day -
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6, 1945, during World War II, 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. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people -
Surrender of Japan
Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”
