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Mussolini takes over Italy's Government
Groups of fascists crowded outside Rome to protest and fight, and their leader, King Victor Emmanuel III, refused to sign an order that was made for his people to fight back. Which ended up switching the power over to Mussolini when he took charge of the people and formed a cabinet References
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Beer Hall Putsch
Hitler had wanted to overthrow the Weimar Republic, so when Gustav Kahr was speaking to over 3000 men at a beer hall, Hitler made his move. He and about 35,000 Nazis went into Munich and flooded the hall, threatening people and trying to persuade Kahr to help Hitler reign. In the end, the police were notified, he fled, and this plan did not succeed. References More Info -
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Also called the Paris Peace Pact, this agreement involved 15 different nations and proclaimed that they would do everything they could to prevent another world war. Although, this did very little to stop WWII from beginning. It was awarded for effort, but there was no way they coud stop the ongoing fighting that was about to begin. References More Info -
U.S. Stock Market Crash
After a great rise in the US stock market, it had a large downfall. Specifically on Black Tuesday is when it all fell. It took about two weeks for it all to go, because people were trading in their stocks for others, the prices fell, and soon it was just over. This is what started the Great Depression. References More Info -
Hitler Becomes Germany's Chancellor
The Nazi party had a large majority of votes in an election, but the President was nervous with Hitler's way of dealing with things. He had appointed another person, but after some persuasion, he named Hitler Chancellor of Germany. References
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Japan Withdraws from the League of Nations
After Japan was blamed for the troubles in Manchuria in a League of Nations assembly, they simply left and stated they weren't returning. It was later formally figured out, but they were so infuriated that they left on the spot. References
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First Anti-Semitic Law is passed in Germany
Hitler created the first anti-semetic law which basically made it impossible for any Jew to get a state job in Germany. The President had been worrysome over the Jewish Veterans rights with this, so Hitler excluded them from it, but after the president's death, he changed it back. References
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Nazi's Reach a Political Majority in Germany
A law is passed for no more political parties to be formed, making the Nazi party the only one in Germany. References
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The Night of the Long Knives (Rohm Purge)
When the Nazis cut the SA, Storm Troopers, off from leadership they also took it to themselves to go and kill some of their foes. Because of this the German army allowed Hitler to call himself the Fuhrer of National Socialist Germany and he claimed total power. References
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Hitler Openly Announces to his Cabinet he will defy the Treaty of Versailles
After Hitler had some time to think over this decision, he held a conferece and announced that Germany would not be following the restrictions stated by the Treaty of Versailles. No one showed any opposition, and so they worked through it all and when Hitler announced it to the people, they cheered. References
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Creation of the Nuremberg Laws
Germany created the Nuremurg Laws mainly to protect themseves and to give more privileges to people of the Reich, furthermore taking away citizenship from the Jews. Some Germans were worried of what was to come, but wouldn't speak up because of their fear. References
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Italy Invades Ethiopia
The Italians had tried and failed at taking over Ethiopia before, and so when they were having some land issues they turned it into a fight. The League of Nations had put the blame towards Italy, but no one dared oppose them. It ended with a sort-of resolvement, but no one was generally pleased besides Mussolini. References More Info -
Hitler Militarizes the Rhineland
After the Germans defied the Treaty of Versailles, the Rhineland was demilitarized. So when Hiter came to power he remilitarized them, this was a key part to the beginning of WWII. References
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Rape of Nanking
After China's capital fell to Japan, they were ordered to destroy it completely. They murdered thousands of people of all ages through terrible circumstances. It was a very rough time for the people of Nanking, there was no happiness spread during it all. References
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Germany Annexes Austria
Hitler met with the leader of Austria, Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, to discuss Hitler's wanting of annexation. Kurt was proud of his country's independence, but eventually gave in. Hitler's troops came to Austria and formed a government there. References
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Hitler Demands the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia
There were many German people in the Sudetenland, and Hitler wanted to expand his territory, so he aimed there. He also wanted to stir up trouble, because he was aiming for all of Czechoslovakia. References
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Munich Conference
Hitler annexed Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, with permission. He also had people make agreements that places with more than 50% Sudeten German be returned to Germany. The Czech's opposed it, but were eventually forced to give in. After the Munich conference, the Czechs could either fight them alone or give into their requests, they chose to give in. Refererences
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Kristallnacht
Nazis in Germany basically took it into their own hands out of anger and destroyed anything they could get their hands on, killing 100 Jews, wrecking buildings with fire, and vandalizing everywhere. Afterwards they also ended up sending 30,000 Jewish men to concentration camps. References
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Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
Hitler and Stalin made this agreement over territories for after they had succeded in invading Poland. They each split up control over certain countries, and Poland was split in three. Russia got Latvia, Estonia and Finland, and Germany got Lithuania and Danzig. References
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Nazi Invasion of Poland
The Nazis brought in their forces grandly by coming in along its border, bombing its air forces and attacking their ships. They said it was defense, but others didn't buy it so they declared war on Germany. References
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Einstein's Letter to FDR, "The Manhattan Project"
Einstein wrote a letter to president Franklin Roosevelt that stated how so much uranium can start a huge chain reaction. What he wanted was for them to do more research in atomic energy, and so they set up a committee and looked into it. This led to the creation of the atomic bomb. References
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Evacuation of Dunkirk
When Germany had come to attack the lower countries, Dunkirk was one of them. And so about 338,000 people were saved by ship when they evacuated to England. References
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France Surrenders
After the French fled from Dunkirk, they also had to flee from Paris, leaving it for the Germans. After that they had no where else to go, and so they Surrendured. They wanted the Germans to come form an armstice at the same place they ended WWI. They were stuck with their own humiliation and the invasion of Germans coming their way. References
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Battle of Britain
Britain stood alone after France backed out, but they wanted to keep going. They had a great air-defense system, and Germany only had minimum people left that were tired and unprepared. Britain made great progress with their air team and so Hitler had to postpone the fighting. In the end, Britain made the overall victory which was proof that the air fields were effective. References
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The Tripartite Pact
This pact was created for the joining of Japan, Germany, and Italy. It stated that they would each assist another if a country that isn't in the war attacked. It was aiming for places like America that were very non-chalant about their involvement. References
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Lend Lease Act
America decided to support people by giving supplies in the war, but not actually getting involved in the fighting. They specifically started with Great Britain when they formed the Lend lease act. References
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Operation Barbarossa
The most powerful invasion ever. Hitler wanted to invade Russia because he felt that they were trying to come and raid his oil supplies, so he set up a three way attack. They came in on land and the air and got pretty far into Russia, with advantages from them not being prepared. References
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Bombing of Pearl Harbor
This was what finally got America into the fighting of WWII. Japan planes attacked America's bases, ruining ships, airplanes along with 1000 wounded men and more than 2000 dead. They immediately declared war on Japan, and so Germany and Italy declared war on them. References
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The Wannsee Conference and the "Final Solution"
This conference was held to discuss what they were going to do with the Jews in Germany. They all talked it over in Wannsee, and eventually came to the idea of evacuating them to Poland into concentration camps. In the end they did things similar to that. References
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Bataan Death March
When about 100,000 Americans were caught by the Japanese, they were fored to walk a total of 63 miles to Camp O'Donnell, and along the way they were treated terribly. Beaten, starved, and if they fell they were killed. The leader of this march was later executed because of it. References
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Doolittle Raid
Colonel James Doolittle was chosen to be the one to lead a dangerous bombing over Japan. They targeted Tokyo for the raid, and it ended up being very long, but successful. These events only made Japan want to get stronger and attack harder. References
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Battle of Midway
Japan was aiming for Hawaii after their attack on Tokyo. When they began to fly towards them, American planes had been coming their way already and they sunk 4 of the Japanese planes. They fought, and eventually Japan went back home. The US still hit some of their ships, weakening their forces. References
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Operation Torch
This meeting was made to discuss who would take control of France, it was held in Algiers. After long discussions and planning, they decided to make General Giraud lead them because he had connections to two big groups there. References
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Battle of Stalingrad
Greatest Russian battle of the entire war, it stopped the Soviets from invading into Stalingrad. Buildings were destroyed and there was fighting in the streets from the Soviets, but they were experiencing lots of losses. They created two German armies into an encirclement. References
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Island Hopping
After the Japanese had captured some of the islands along the pacific that the US were aiming for, they went around some of them and fought at the less powerful ones. In the end they fought the Japanese at Okinawa and the Japanese surrendured because of how violent it had been and their losses. References
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Operation Overlord and D-Day
American, British and Canadian forces attacked five beaches that were along a French region. They used many amphibious attacks, and before it even started they had thousands of vehicles and artillery placed and ready. They worked their way into Normandy, and Hitler had been focusing on other places. References
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Operation Valkyrie
Assaniation attempt on Hitler by Staufenburg.He put a bomb in a briefcase and when he attended a conference with others where Hitler was, he hid the case in one of Hitler's areas and left. Later it was moved and in the end Hitler lived and others died. References
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Discovery of Majdanek
There had been rumors of concentration camps, but when the Soviet army went past the remains of the Majdanek camp, it was clear they were true. Although the people that were there were marched away and they attempted to completely burn the place down, there were remains of gas chaimbers which made it clear. References
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Battle of the Bulge
Although the illy supported Ardennes Forest. US, was being invaded by Germans, they were strong enough to hold them off for a bit. It was cold and more Americans came to help, so slowly the Germans weren't advancing at all. Eventually the Germans had no way to go forth and the fighting stopped. References
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Hitler's Suicide
After lots of losses and many struggles, Hitler came to the point that his only destination was to commit suicide to end it all. He swallowed a cyanide pill and shot himself in the head with his service pistol. Later, Germany surrendured to the Allies. References:
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V-E Day
The day after Germany surrendured, AKA Victory in Europe Day,was a day where people everywhere celebrated the end of this horrible war. The US, Soviet Union and UK weren't notified of the signing of surrendur until the 8th, and so this day was just remembered better. References
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Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
America dropped the first atomic bomb that wiped out almost all of Hiroshima and the next day the same thing happened in Nagasaki. It killed thousands of people and this led Japan to surrenduring from the war. References
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Japan Invades Manchuria
To declare war on Japan, about one million Soviets flooded into Manchuria. The Japanese were preoccupied with other fights and the bombings so they weren't worried or prepared for the surprise attack. They resulted to coming back to fight. References
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V-J Day
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Creation of the United Nations
The U.S., Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and China formed this agreement to ensure peace after the war and to help keep things straight for people's rights after the fighting. References
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The Japanese War Crime Trials
Trials to decide the fate of the Japanese that were guilty of the war crimes. 25 out of 28 Japanese defendants were found guilty. The other three weren't alive and one was claimed insane. Some were sentenced death, such as the man that created the rape of Nanking, some were in prison. References
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The Nuremberg Trials
13 trials that were made to punish the Nazi party. Since they had defied many peace agreements and other rights, they were greatly charged. References
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The Beginning of the Cold War
The Soviet Union wanted to rid of imperialism after the war, America continued using it. They started to clash and their arguments led to the U.S. being against the U.S.S.R. and this started the Cold War. References
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