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Honoring their guarantee of Poland’s borders, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.
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Italy enters the war. Italy invades southern France on June 21.
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Japan Bombs Pearl Harbor.
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The United States declares war on Japan, entering World War II. Japanese troops land in the Philippines, French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), and British Singapore. By April 1942, the Philippines, Indochina, and Singapore are under Japanese occupation.
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The British bomb Köln (Cologne), bringing the war home to Germany for the first time. Over the next three years Anglo-American bombing reduces urban Germany to rubble.
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British and US navies halt the Japanese naval advance in the central Pacific at Midway.
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US and British troops land at several points on the beaches of Algeria and Morocco in French North Africa. The failure of the Vichy French troops to defend against the invasion enables the Allies to move swiftly to the western border of Tunisia, and triggers the German occupation of southern France on November 11.
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Allied troops liberate Rome. Within six weeks, Anglo-American bombers could hit targets in eastern Germany for the first time.
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Germany surrenders to the Soviets.
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The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
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Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.