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Adolf Hitler becomes the leader of the Nazi Party
The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party, grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany through totalitarian means from 1933 to 1945. Founded in 1919 as the German Workers’ Party, the group promoted German pride and anti-Semitism, and expressed dissatisfaction with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until his ousting in 1943. He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship. -
Josef Stalin sole dictator of the Soviet Union (USSR)
Josef Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953 -
Japan’s Army seizes Manchuria, China
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 19, 1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II. -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
Hitler's Nazi Party became the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, leading to his appointment as chancellor in 1933. -
Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
The Neutrality Acts were passed by the United States Congress in the 1930s, in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia that eventually led to World War II. They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US following its costly involvement in World War I, and sought to ensure that the US would not become entangled again in foreign conflicts. -
Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
The second Italo-Ethiopian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire (also known at the time as Abyssinia). The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia. -
Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
On 10 June 1940, Mussolini entered World War II and joined Hitler as his Axis ally. As a result, the colony of Italian East Africa proved to be short-lived. -
Militarist take control of Japanese Government
The Allied occupation of Japan at the end of World War II was led by Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, with support from the British Commonwealth. Unlike the occupation of Germany, the Soviet Union was allowed little to no influence over Japan. -
Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty
The remilitarization of the Rhineland by the German Army took place on 7 March 1936 when German military forces entered the Rhineland. -
Japan’s army pillages Nanjing, China; massacre a quarter of a million people
The Nanking Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanking during the Second Sino-Japanese War. -
Munich Pact signed giving the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany
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. -
Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
Jews were targeted and methodically murdered in a genocide, one of the largest in history, and part of a broader aggregate of acts of oppression and killings of various ethnic and political groups in Europe by the Nazis -
Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, officially the Treaty of Non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact or Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact signed between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939. -
Nazis invade Poland; Britain and France declare war on Germany
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War -
Germany invades France and forces it to surrender
The Fall of France, was the successful German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, defeating primarily French forces. -
Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium – take control
The Battle of the Netherlands was part of Case Yellow (German: Fall Gelb), the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) and France during World War II. -
First time Peacetime Draft in US
This Selective Service Act required that men between the ages of 21 and 35 register with local draft boards. Later, when the U.S. entered World War II, all men aged 18 to 45 were made subject to military service, and all men aged 18 to 65 were required to register. -
Battle of Britain – Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. -
Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin’s Russia and invades - USSR which now joins England in fighting the Germans
The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, on 23 August 1939. -
Churchill and FDR issue the Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement issued in August 14, 1941 that, early in World War II, defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. -
Japanese invade French Indochina (Viet. Laos, Cambodia)
French Indochina was officially known as the Indochinese Union after 1887 and the Indochinese Federation after 1947, was a grouping of French colonies and protectorates in southeast Asia. -
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii attacked by Japanese Naval and Air forces, US declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy declare war on the US
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxIsVYdB0lA -
Philippines fall to Japanese – Bataan Death March
German–Soviet Union relations date to the aftermath of the First World War. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, dictated by Germany ended hostilities between Russia and Germany; it was signed on March 3, 1918. -
Japanese Americans interned in isolated camps
The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States was the forced relocation and incarceration during World War II of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the Pacific coast in camps in the interior of the country -
Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad save Moscow
The Battle of Stalingrad 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 the south-western Soviet Union. -
Battle of Midway, turning point of war in the Pacific
The Battle of Midway was a crucial and decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. -
British and US forces defeat German and Italian armies in North Africa
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. -
Zoot Suit Riots – Los Angeles, CA
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots in 1943 during World War II that broke out in Los Angeles, California, between Anglo American sailors and Marines stationed in the city, and Latino youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored. Mexican Americans and European-American military personnel were the main parties in the riots, and some African American and Filipino/Filipino American youths were involved as well. -
Italy surrenders, Mussolini dismissed as Prime Min.
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D-Day invasion of France at Normandy by Allies
The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the invasion of German-occupied western Europe, led to the liberation of France from Nazi control, and contributed to an Allied victory in the war. -
Paris retaken by Allies Forces
The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion by and establishment of Western Allied forces in Normandy, during Operation Overlord in 1944 during World War II; the largest amphibious invasion to ever take place. -
Battle of the Bulge – last offensive of German Forces
The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. -
US forces return to recapture the Philippines
On this day in 1944, more than 100,000 American soldiers land on Leyte Island -
1945 April 16th - FDR dies, Harry S. Truman becomes President
Franklin D Roosevelt died on April 16th 1945 -
V-E Day, war ends in Europe
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First Atomic Bombs dropped
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1945 Aug. 14th – V-J Day, Japan surrenders to Allied Forces
Victory over Japan Day is a name chosen for the day on which Japan surrendered, in effect ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. -
War Crimes Trials held in Nuremburg, Germany; Manila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trials, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, or simply the Tribunal, was convened on April 29, 1946, to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three types of war crimes.
