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Japan Invasion of Manchuria
Kwantung Army of the empire of Japan invaded Manchuria after the Mukden incident -
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Italy attacks Ethiopia
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a colonial war from 3 October 1935 to 1939 between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and those of the Ethiopian Empire. -
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Olympic games in Germany
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, Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain, on 26 April 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona . It marked the second and final time the International Olympic Committee gathered to vote in a city that was bidding to host those Games. -
Anschluss
Anschluss refers to the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938 -
Germany takes Sudetenland
The German occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945) began with the German annexation of Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, formerly being part of German-Austria known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. German leader Adolf Hitler's pretext for this action was the alleged privations suffered by the ethnic German population living in those regions. New and extensive Czechoslovak border fortifications were also located in the same area. -
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German Invasion of Poland
A joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Free City of Danzig, and a small Slovak contingent, that marked the beginning of World War II -
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Battle of Britain
Hitler wanted to invade Britain, Adolf Hitler had expected the British to seek a peace settlement after Germany’s defeat of France in June 1940, but Britain was determined to fight on. The Battle of Britain was ultimately a test of strength between the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) and the RAF. The British developed an air defence network that would give them a critical advantage in the Battle of Britain. -
Tripartite Pact signed
The Tripartite Pact was directed primarily at the United States. Its practical effects were limited, since the Italian-German and Japanese operational theaters were on opposite sides of the world and the high contracting powers had disparate strategic interests. Some technical cooperation was carried out, and the Japanese declaration of war on the United States propelled, although it did not require, a similar declaration of war from all the other signatories of the Tripartite Pact. -
Lend Lease act
A program by which the United States supplied Free France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of China, and later the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and August 1945 -
Four Freedoms Speech
Roosevelt insisted that people in all nations of the world shared Americans' entitlement to four freedoms: the freedom of speech and expression, the freedom to worship God in his own way, freedom from want and freedom from fear. -
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Germany attacks Soviet Union
The operation stemmed from Nazi Germany's ideological aims to conquer the western Soviet Union so that it could be repopulated by Germans, to use Slavs as a slave-labor force for the Axis war-effort, and to seize the oil reserves of the Caucasus and the agricultural resources of Soviet territories. -
Atlantic Charter
A meeting between U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in response to the geopolitical situation in Europe by mid- 1941, defined goals post- world war. United Kingdom and United States working together on post world war strategies and goal setting. -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States' entry into World War II. -
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Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II which occurred between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. -
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Casablanca Conference
The Casablanca Conference was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, French Morocco from January 14 to 24, 1943, to plan the Allied European strategy for the next phase of World War II. -
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Tehran Conference
The Tehran Conference was a strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943, after the Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran. It was held in the Soviet Union's embassy in Tehran, Iran. -
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Battle of Normandy
The Western Allies of World War II launched the largest amphibious invasion in history when they assaulted Normandy. The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks and naval bombardments. In the early morning, amphibious landings commenced on five beaches code named Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah, with troops from the United States landing on Omaha and Utah, Great Britain landing on Gold and Sword and Canada landing on Juno. -
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Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. -
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Battle of Iwojima
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. -
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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimea conference and code named the Argonaut Conference, held from February 4 to 11, 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United -
Germany Surrenders
On May 7, 1945, Germany officially surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to the European conflict in World War II. General Alfred Jodl, representing the German High Command, signed the unconditional surrender of both east and west forces in Reims, France, which would take effect the following day -
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Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa, code named Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Marine and Army forces against the Imperial Japanese Army -
US drops bomb on Hiroshima
President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
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Bombing of Nagasaki
Nagasaki suffered the same fate as Hiroshima in August 1945. The bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th was the last major act of World War Two and within days the Japanese had surrendered. Two senior American military figures – General Groves and Admiral Parnell – were convinced that two atomic bombs dropped within days of the other would have such an overwhelming impact on the Japanese government that it would surrender. -
Official Japanese Surrender
The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was incapable of conducting major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent. That morning, on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, the Japanese envoys Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu signed their names on the Instrument of Surrender.
