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Adolf Hiter becomes the leader of the Nazi party
After slowly gaining popularity, Hitler skillfully manipulated the Nazi party into electing him as their chairman and granting him dictoral powers. Adolf Hitler was introduced as Führer of the Nazi Party, marking the first time that title was publicly used to address him. -
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Events leading up to WWII
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Stock market on Wall Street crashes
Despite the dangers of speculation, many believed that the stock market would continue to rise indefinitely. On March 25, 1929, after the Federal Reserve warned of excessive speculation, a mini crash occurred as investors started to sell stocks at a rapid pace, exposing the market's shaky foundation.onsumers were building up high debts because of easy credit. Despite all these economic trouble signs and the market breaks of March and May 1929, stocks resumed their advance. -
Franklin Roosevelt is elected U.S. President
FDR was elected president on November 8th, 1932 after a landslide victory over Herbert Hoover. Upon introducing his "new deal" which permanently changed the federal government’s relationship to the U.S. populace. -
Nazi Party declared Germany's only political party.
On July 14, 1933, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party officially declared itself the only political party in Germany and outlawed the formation of any other parties. The Nazi government passed the Law Against the Establishment of Parties, which stated, “The National Socialist German Workers Party constitutes the only political party in Germany.” Anyone attempting to establish a party other than a Nazi Party would be “punished with penal servitude up to three years or with imprisonment or with imprisonment -
Germany quits the League of Nations
In 1926 "peace-loving” Germany joined. The country had been kept out initially, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. But it would only be a member for seven years.
Then, in January 1933 Adolf Hitler became German Chancellor. The League was at the time fixated on reaching an international disarmament agreement, but efforts to limit army sizes prompted the departure of Japan in March 1933 and then Germany a few months later. -
Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
Reich Chancellor Hitler planned to use President Hindenburg's death as an opportunity to seize total power in Germany by elevating himself to the position of Führer, or absolute leader, of the German nation and its people. -
Germans invade Poland....WWII begins
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack. After heavy shelling and bombing, Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27, 1939. -
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WWII
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The next 3 days
September 3, 1939 - Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany; standing by their guarantee of Poland's border, had declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. September 4, 1939 - British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy. September 5, 1939 - United States proclaims its neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland. -
The U.S. joins the fighting
December 7, 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor December 8, 1941 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan. December 11, 1941 - Hitler declares war on the United States. -
Battle of Stalingrad begins.
Battle of Stalingrad ws one of the major battles in WWII. Marked by constant close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it was the single largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare. The heavy losses inflicted on the Wehrmacht make it arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the whole war. It was a turning point in the European theatre of World War II–the German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force. -
First Surrender
Nearly 91,000 german troop were captured and the Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies. -
Leningrad relieved after a 900-day siege.
On this day, Soviet forces permanently break the Leningrad siege line, ending the almost 900-day German-enforced containment of the city, which cost hundreds of thousands of Russian lives. -
D-Day landings on the northern coast of France
The largest amphibious assault in history and by far the most pivotal. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. -
The Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. United States forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred the highest casualties for any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany's armored forces on the western front which Germany was largely unable to replace. -
Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
At first, General Jodl hoped to limit the terms of German surrender to only those forces still fighting the Western Allies. But General Dwight Eisenhower demanded complete surrender of all German forces, those fighting in the East as well as in the West. If this demand was not met, Eisenhower was prepared to seal off the Western front, preventing Germans from fleeing to the West in order to surrender, thereby leaving them in the hands of the enveloping Soviet forces. -
V-J (Victory over Japan) Day.
Japanese sign the surrender agreement; Since the European Axis Powers had surrendered three months earlier (V-E Day), V-J Day would be the official end of World War II.
