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German troops enter the demilitarized Rhineland
On Adolf Hitler's orders, German troops enter the demilitarized Rhineland. A clear violation of the Treaties of Versailles and Locarno, this maneuver also deals a blow to collective security because Britain and Italy, who pledged aid to France in the 1925 Locarno Pact, do nothing. -
Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.
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: With his country largely overrun by Italian troops
With his country largely overrun by Italian troops, Abyssinian leader Haile Selassie flees the capital of Addis Ababa. -
Like Japan and Germany before it,
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World War II Timeline: October 1935-July 17,
Italy began its World War II offensive when Benito Mussolini ordered his troops into Abyssinia in October 1935, then renounced its membership in the League of Nations in May 1936. The World War II timeline below summarizes these events and other important events that occurred from October 1935 to July 17, 1936 -
Popular Front government launches the Spanish Civil War.
A coup attempt led by General Francisco Franco against the Popular Front government launches the Spanish Civil War. The rebellion spreads like wildfire throughout Spain. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini send planes to fly Franco's troops from Spanish Morocco to Spain. They will later send planes and soldiers to help Franco fight the Spanish Republic. -
- German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws.
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The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
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Civil war erupts in Spain.
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- Olympic games begin in Berlin.
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Franco declared head of Spanish State.
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Soviet leader Josef Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals.
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Hitler reveals war plans during Hossbach Conference.
On November 5, 1937, Adolf Hitler held a secret conference in the Reich Chancellery during which he revealed his plans for the acquisition of Lebensraum, or living space, for the German people at the expense of other nations in Europe. -
Adolf Hitler abolishes the War Ministry
Adolf Hitler abolishes the War Ministry and creates the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces), giving him direct control of the German military. In addition, Hitler sacks political and military leaders considered unsympathetic to his philosophy or policies. General Werner von Fritsch is forced to resign as Commander of Chief of the German Army following accusations of homosexuality, and replaced by General Walther von Brauchitsch. Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neu -
Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany
Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany, accepts salutes and cheers from the Nazi controlled Reichstag after announcing the Anschluss (union) with Austria. Immediately after the Anschluss, Nazis began a brutal crackdown on Austrian Jews, arresting them and publicly humiliating them. Below: -
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British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy
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United States proclaims its neutrality
United States proclaims its neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland -
British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich
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Appearing before the Nazi Reichstag
Appearing before the Nazi Reichstag (Parliament) on the sixth anniversary of his coming to power, Adolf Hitler made a speech commemorating that event and also made a public threat against the Jews... -
Nazis take Czechoslovakia
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- Spanish Civil war ends
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Soviet Russia' Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact
Soviet Russia' Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Non-aggression Pact while German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop and Soviet leader Josef Stalin look on, while standing under a portrait of Lenin – August 23, 1939 -
war on Germany
Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany -
Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland
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Nazis invade
Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister -
Holland surrenders to the Nazis
Holland surrenders to the Nazis -
Evacuation of allied troops
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evacuation of allied troops
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Germans bomb Paris
British soldiers captured by the Germans at Dunkirk, France, in June 1940. -
Norway surrenders
Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France -
Hitler declares a blockade of the brittish
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romel attacks tobruk
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Greece surenders to the Natsis
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German attack
Terms of use: Private home/school non-commercial, non-Internet re-usage only is allowed of any text, graphics, photos, audio clips, other electronic files or materials from The History Place. -
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Pro-Allied government installed in Iraq.
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Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard a warship off the coast of Newfoundland during the Atlantic Conference. The conference took place from August 9-12, 1941, and resulted in the Atlantic Charter, a joint proclamation by the United States and Britain declaring that they were fighting the Axis powers to "ensure life, liberty, independence and religious freedom and to preserve the rights of man and justice." -
Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
A Jewish man wearing the yellow star walks along a street in Germany. The policy of requiring Jews to wear the stars was also extended to occupied areas, including Jewish ghettos. Below: Five year old Avram Rosenthal and two year old brother Emanuel of the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania are shown. Both boys were later deported to the death camp at Majdanek where they were murdered. -
Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations.
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SS Leader Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
On January 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS organization, convened a conference in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. At the meeting, 15 top Nazi bureaucrats and members of the SS met to coordinate the "Final Solution" in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the 11 million Jews of Europe and the Soviet Union. -
Japanese-Americans sent to relocation centers.
Young Americans of Japanese descent who have just arrived at an assembly center, wait to have their bags inspected. Below left: The assembly center at Santa Anita, California, where Japanese-Americans stayed before being moved inland to the relocation center. Below right: A relocation center seen during a dust storm. -
German summer offensive begins in the Crimea.
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Nazis liquidate Lidice in reprisal for Heydrich's assassination.
The bodies of the men and boys over age 16 of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, murdered by the Nazis on June 10, 1942, in reprisal for the assassination of SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich. Below: SS officers sift through the rubble of Lidice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBHfoQsF2Y4 -
First all-American air attack in Europe.
U.S. Army Air Force gunner Sgt. William Watts of Alexandria, Louisiana, fires his machine-gun at German fighter planes during a bombing run in 1942. -
A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
On October 5, 1942, by accident, Hermann Graebe, a German engineer and manager of a German construction firm in the Ukraine, and his foreman, came upon an Einsatz execution squad killing Jews from the small town of Dubno in the Ukraine. He gave the following eyewitness account: -
During the conference, Roosevelt announces the war can end only with "unconditional German surrender."
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Casablanca. Below: At the conclusion of the conference on January 24, French General Henri Giraud, Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill. Roosevelt surprisingly announced the Allies were now fighting for the "unconditional surrender" of Germany, Italy and Japan - a stand immediately endorsed by Churchill. -
Montgomery's Eighth Army takes Tripoli.
British tanks and crews line up on Tripoli's waterfront after capturing the city. -
Soviet troops take Kursk.
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Waffen-SS attacks Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.
Jews arrested during the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto in Poland by the SS, sent to be gassed at Treblinka extermination camp. -
- Allies land in Sicily.
During the invasion of Sicily, an American cargo ship is hit by a bomb from a German plane and its cargo of munitions explodes, off Gela, Sicily. July 1943. -
First attack toward Cassino, Italy.
A 240-mm Howitzer of Battery B from the U.S. 697th Field Artillery Battalion prepares to fire into German-held territory near Cassino, Italy. January 1944. -
Germans counter-attack against the Anzio beachhead
German prisoners at the Anzio beachhead below Rome, soon to be sent to prison camps. February 1944.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffqlj0QfvlI -
British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany.
Adolf Hitler, accompanied by other German officials, grimly inspects bomb damage in a German city in 1944.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBDuO2zq1Zc -
D-Day landings on the northern coast of France.
General Eisenhower gives the order of the day "Full victory - Nothing else" to paratroopers in England just before they board airplanes in the first D-Day assault -
Nazis liquidate the town of Oradour-sur-Glane in France.
On June 10, 1944, a Nazi SS Division (Das Reich) surrounded the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in France then ordered everyone in the town, 652 persons, to assemble in the town square. -
First German V-1 rocket attack on Britain.
A German V-1 bomb in flight about to crash and explode in London. -
Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Yalta.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, along with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and Soviet Leader Josef Stalin, attend the conference at Yalta. February 1945 -
Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen.
U.S. 1st Army soldiers and equipment pour across the Remagen bridge into Germany. Below: U.S. soldiers cross the Rhine River under heavy German fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qny1leRJhHE -
Allies discover stolen Nazi art and wealth hidden in German salt mines.
Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower, along with Generals Bradley and Patton, inspect art treasures stolen by the Nazis and hidden in underground salt mines. Below: Reichsbank wealth, SS loot, and Berlin museum paintings that were removed from Berlin to a salt mine in Merkers, Germany. -
- U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
At Dachau concentration camp, two U.S. soldiers gaze at victims of Hitler's Final Solution who died on board a death train. Below: Americans conduct on-the-spot executions of Nazi SS guards at Dachau -
Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
In April of 1945, Hitler moved into the Führerbunker, located 50 feet below the Chancellery buildings in Berlin. In this surrender to the Americans.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/adolf-hitler-commits-suicide -
Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan.
Moments after the atomic bomb was dropped by a U.S. B-29 Superfortress, a cloud forms over the Japanese city of Nagasaki rising over 60,000 feet. Below: After the bomb, a Catholic Cathedral on the hill is all that remains. -
United Nations charter was ratified and the Nuremberg trials opened.
Shortly after the end of World War II, the United Nations charter was ratified and the Nuremberg trials opened. The World War II timeline below details these and other events from late 1945 and early 1946. -
Nuremberg war crimes trials begin.
The former leaders of Hitler's Third Reich on trial in Nuremberg, Germany. -
Emperor Hirohito
Emperor Hirohito addresses his subjects and tells them that he is not, contrary to popular belief, a divine being. -
e United Nations Security Council convenes in London to agree
The United Nations Security Council convenes in London to agree on procedural rules for the international body. -
The International Atomic Energy Commission is established
The International Atomic Energy Commission is established to help regulate emerging nuclear weapons technology. -
Nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh is elected president of Vietnam.
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october 5 1945 up to this point
Shortly after the end of World War II, the United Nations charter was ratified and the Nuremberg trials opened. The World War II timeline below details these and other events from late 1945 and early 1946. -
Winston Churchill delivers his seminal "iron curtain" speech at Missouri's Westminster College.
