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Italian army to invade ETHIOPIA
Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini ordered the Italian army to invade Ethiopia. -
Hitler and Mussolini formed the Rome-Berlin Axis
an alliance that its leaders believed that the line that connected the two capitals would be the axis around which the entire world would revolve. -
Hitler marched troops into the Rhineland of Germany
This caused a breach to the Treaty of Versailles. -
NEUTRALITY ACT OF 1936
Under the Neutrality Act of 1936 no loans could be made to belligerent nations. Americans were not permitted to travel on the ships of nations at war. The act also limited the trade of even non-munitions to belligerent nations to a "cash and carry basis." This meant that the nation in question would have to use its ships to transport goods to avoid American entanglements on the high seas. -
a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese troops broke out at the MARCO POLO BRIDGE
Japanese government used it as a pretext to launch a full-scale invasion of China. -
Hilter's troops enter Austria
Hitler annexed Austria. After that he set his eyes on Sudetenlands. -
Roosevelt attempts to repeal arms embargo
Roosevelt urged Congressional leaders to repeal the arms embargo of the earlier Neutrality Acts. Senators from both parties refused the request. -
Nazi troops crossed into Poland
Germany and the Soviet Union signed a ten-year nonaggression pact. Hitler was now free to seize the territory Germany had lost to Poland as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. Nazi troops crossed into Poland from the west. -
Ended shipments to Japan
the United States had ended shipments of scrap metal, steel, and iron ore to Japan. Simultaneously, the United States began to send military hardware to the nominal leader of the Chinese forces resisting Japanese takeover. -
Pearl Harbor Attack
almost 3,000 Americans were killed. Six battleships were destroyed or rendered unseaworthy, and most of the ground planes were ravaged as well. Americans reacted with surprise and anger.