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Archduke and Archduchess visit Sarajevo
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Gavrilo Princip fired two shots at Archduke and his wife Sophie
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Gavrilo Princip is arrested
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Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
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Austria-Hungary sends ultimatum to Serbia
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Serbia agrees to two of the three terms of the ultimatum
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Russia mobilizes to defend Serbia
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France mobilizes to support its Russian ally
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Germany orders France and Russia to stop mobilizing
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Germany declares war on Russia
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Germany declares war on France
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Germany invades Belgium
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Britain declares war on Germany
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Canada is automatically at war against Triple Alliance
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Germany begins the Schlieffen Plan
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Hitler Becomes Chancellor
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Nuremberg Laws against Jews.
At their annual party rally, the Nazis announce new laws that revoke Reich citizenship for Jews and prohibit Jews from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood." "Racial infamy," as this becomes known, is made a criminal offense. The Nuremberg Laws define a "Jew" as someone with three or four Jewish -
Italians invaded Ethiopia
A border incident between Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland that December gave Benito Mussolini an excuse to intervene. Rejecting all arbitration offers, the Italians invaded Ethiopia -
Anti-Cominterm Pact
The Anti-Comintern Pact was signed by Germany and Japan on November 25, 1936, and joined by Italy on November 6, 1937. Disguised as an effort to combat the influence of the Communist International, the treaty was intended to serve as a military alliance aimed at the Soviet Union. In reality, the treaty did not result in any coordinated German-Japanese military action, but instead became the foundation for growing distrust and betrayal between the two fascist allies themselves. -
Anschluss
Hitler’s forces in Austria tried to suppress any opposition to the Anschluss. After the Anschluss was announced on March 13th, as many as seventy thousand people were arrested. During the time between the Anschluss and the vote, authorities arrested many Communists, Social Democrats, Jews, and other political dissenters, putting them in prison or sending them to concentration camps. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Hitler’s forces invade and occupy Czechoslovakia–a nation sacrificed on the altar of the Munich Pact, which was a vain attempt to prevent Germany’s imperial aims. -
German- Soviet Nonaggression Pact
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. Hitler used the pact to make sure Germany was able to invade Poland unopposed. The pact also contained a secret agreement in which the Soviets and Germans agreed how they would later divide up Eastern Europe. -
Germans invade Poland
To Hitler, the conquest of Poland would bring living space for the German people. According to his plan, the “racially superior” Germans would colonize the territory and the native Slavs would be enslaved. Hitler hoped that his invasion of Poland would likewise be tolerated. -
Battle of Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic, which lasted from September 1939 until the defeat of Germany in 1945, was the war’s longest continuous military campaign. German U-boats and warships – and later Italian submarines – were pitted against Allied convoys transporting military equipment and supplies across the Atlantic to Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Also the battle was bravely fought by the men and women of the Canadian Merchant Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
In response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany. -
Canada declares war on Germany
the government and people were united in support of Britain and France. After Parliament debated the matter, Canada declared war on Germany on 10 September. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King promised a war of "limited liability"- Canada's principal contributions to the war effort would be money and weapons rather than military. -
Battle of Britain
The battle, which was the first major military campaign in history to be fought entirely in the air, was the result of a German plan to win air superiority over Southern Britain and the English Channel by destroying the British air force and aircraft industry. Hitler saw victory in the battle as a prelude to the invasion of Britain. -
Invasion of Soviet Union
Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. What followed was a war of annihilation, a horrific clash of totalitarianism, and the most destructive war in history. -
Pearl Harbour Attack
Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, 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. The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. -
Battle of El Alamein
Between the British Empire and the German-Italian army. Deploying a far larger contingent of soldiers and tanks than the opposition, British commander Bernard Law Montgomery launched an infantry attack at El Alamein on Oct. 23, 1942. Hitler blocked an initial retreat in early November, Rommel managed to escape annihilation by withdrawing his men to Tunisia. -
Dieppe Raid
The Dieppe Raid was one of the most devastating and bloody chapters in Canadian military history. Of the 4,963 Canadians who embarked from England for the operation, only 2,210 returned, and many of them were wounded. Casualties totalled 3,367, including 916 dead and 1,946 prisoners of war. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Russians consider it to be one of the greatest battles of their Great Patriotic War, and 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. -
Italian Campaign
The Italian Campaign was an important military effort for Canada during the war. More than 93,000 Canadians, along with their allies from Great Britain, France and the United States, played a vital role.Canadians faced difficult battles against some of the German army’s best troops. They fought in the dust and heat of summer, the snow and cold of winter, and the rain and mud of the spring and fall. -
D-Day
When 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. The Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. -
Germany Surrenders
Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Reims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War 2 -
Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
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. -
Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki
Three days later, 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 World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”
