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Bolshevik Revolution
A repossession of state power active in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917 -
Paris Peace Conference
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. -
Treaty of Versailles Signed
One of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers
1919. -
Washington Naval Conference
A military conference called by President Warren G. Harding and held in Washington from 12 November 1921 to 6 February 1922 regarding interests in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia. -
Rapallo Treaty
The Treaty of Rapallo was an agreement signed at the Hotel Imperiale in the Italian town of Santa Margherita Ligure on 16 April, 1922 between Germany and Russia under which each renounced all territorial and financial claims against the other following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and World War I. -
Benito Mussolini Comes to Power in Italy
Benito Mussolini ruled as dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943. -
England Refuses to Renew its Alliance with Japan
Political breakthrough that saw an end to Britain's seclusion, the alliance was renewed and expanded twice, in 1905 and 1911, before its demise in 1923. -
Beer Hall Putsch
aAfailed attempt by the Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler to seize power in Munich, Bavaria, during 8–9 November 1923. -
Stalin Comes to Power in Russia
He managed to gain power following the 1924 death of Vladimir Lenin through destroying Lenin's criticisms and expanding his role, all the while eliminating any bitterness. -
Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan of 1924 was formulated to take Weimar Germany out of hyperinflation and to return Weimar’s economy to some form of stability. The Dawes Plan got its name as the man who headed the committee was an American called Charles Dawes. -
Mein Kamph Published
An autobiographical manifesto by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, in which he outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925. -
Stock Market Crash
From 1920 to 1929 stocks more than quadrupled in value. Many investors became convinced that stocks were a sure thing and borrowed heavily to invest more money in the market. The values dropped, people took their money out of the banks, and it hit rock bottom. -
French begin Constructing the Maginot Line
Work on the Maginot Line proper started in 1930 when the French government gave a grant of 3 billion dollars. The work continued until 1940. Maginot himself died in 1932, and the line was named after him in his honor. -
Japan invades Manchuria
In 1931, the Japanese Kwangtung Army attacked Chinese troops in Manchuria in an event commonly known as the Manchurian Incident. Essentially, this was an attempt by the Japanese Empire to gain control over the whole province, in order to eventually control all of East Asia. -
Ukrainian Famine
The Soviet famine of 1932–33 affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union, leading to the deaths of millions in those areas and severe food insecurity throughout the USSR. -
Hitler made Chancellor of Germany
On this day in 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. -
Hitler Declares himself Vice Chancellor and Fuhrer of Germany
January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed as the chancellor of Germany by President Paul Von Hindenburg. -
First Concentration Camps Established
The first concentration camps in Germany were established soon after Hitler's appointment as chancellor in January 1933. -
Night of Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives, sometimes called Operation Hummingbird or, mistakenly, sometimes in Germany, the Röhm-Putsch, was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders. -
US Neutrality Acts
A series of acts intended to prevent the U.S. from being drawn into a war in the 1930’s. -
Stalin begins Military Purges and The Great Terror
The Great Purge was a campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1936. -
Berlin Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event that was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. -
Rape of Nanking
An episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against Nanking during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. -
Hitler Invades the Sudetenland
In 1938, Hitler turned his attention to the Sudeten area of Czechoslovakia. -
Hitler Invades Austria
On March 12, 1938, German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. -
Munich Conference
29 and 30 of September 1938, representatives of France, Britain, Italy and Germany met at Munich to discuss the Sudetenland problem. Hitler traded the promise of peace in Europe for the Sudetenland. The Czechs had to either accept or face the might of the German army alone. They accepted. -
Krystallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, or Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and non-Jewish civilians. -
Hitler Conquers the Rest of Czechoslovakia
16 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, Hitler proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. -
Enigma Machine used in Britain
The Poles managed to reconstruct an Enigma machine, complete with internal wiring, to read the German forces’ messages between 1933 and 1938. -
Einstein writes a letter to FDR on the possibility of Atomic Weapons
The letter that launched the arms race. A warning to President Roosevelt of the possibility of constructing "extremely powerful bombs of a new type" with hints that the German government might be doing just that. Addressed and dated Peconic, Long Island, August 2nd 1939, it was most likely written by Leo Szilard, the scientist who invented the chain reaction. -
Nazi Soviet Anti -Aggression Pact
23 August 1939 Hitler made the Nazi-Soviet pact with Stalin. This was a promise not to go to war with each other, and a secret promise to invade Poland. -
Hitler Invades Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. -
Manhattan Project Begins
The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that produced the first atomic bombs during World War II. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. -
Britain and France Declare War on Germany
In 1939, in response to Hitler's invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany. -
Winter War between Finland and Russia
A military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940. It began with Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939 and ended with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. -
Scandinavian Wars
After planning for months, Germany invaded both Denmark and Norway the same day, 9 April 1940. -
Nazi Occupation of Norway
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940. -
Defeat of French army by the Nazis
The successful German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, defeating primarily French forces. -
Winston Churchill Comes to Power in England
In May 1940, Neville Chamberlain resigned as prime minister and Churchill took his place. His refusal to surrender to Nazi Germany inspired the country. -
Desert Campaigns in Africa Begin
The North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts. -
Battle of Britain
"Air battle for England" is the name given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. -
Hitler Launches Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa beginning 22 June 1941, was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. -
Nazi Final Solution Developed
A solution that started in the summer of 1941 and was believed to create an end to the Jews. -
Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941 brought the United States into World War II. -
FDR Signs Executive Order 9066
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, issued February 19, 1942, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones," from which "any or all persons may be excluded." -
Battle of Midway
Midway: naval battle of World War II (June 1942); American planes based on land and on carriers decisively defeated a Japanese fleet on its way to invade the Midway Islands. -
Nimitz and McArthur begin Island Hopping in the Pacific
1943 General MacArthur and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz seized the initiative, launching an ‘Island Hopping’ campaign. -
D-Day
June 6, 1944 in World War II on which Allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy. -
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden (17–25 September 1944) was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time. -
Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Ardennes Bulge: a battle during World War II; in December 1944 von Rundstedt launched a powerful counteroffensive in the forest at Ardennes and caught the Allies by surprise. -
US victory at Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. -
Death of FDR
On this day in 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passes away after four momentous terms in office, leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power. -
Hitler Commits Suicide
Der Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945. -
Surrender of Germany
The first Instrument of Surrender was signed at Reims, at 02:41 Central European Time on 7 May 1945. -
First successful test of atomic bomb
1945 The United States conducts the first test of the atomic bomb at at the Trinity bomb site in central New Mexico. -
US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The atomic bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in 1945. -
Surrender of Japan
The surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, brought the hostilities of World War II to a close.
