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Benito Mussolini becomes dictator of Italy
He rose to power at the begining of WWI as a leading proponent of Facism. He facilitated important war production for the Germans and the creation of large, ruthless Fascist counterinsurgency forces. -
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
President Paul von Hindenburg names Hitler, leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. -
The Holocaust
A genocide in which Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany and its partners killed about six million Jews. -
Hitler Remilitarizes Rhineland
Germany claimed the treaty was hostile to them and Hitler used this as an excuse to send German troops into the Rhineland. -
Germany annexes Austria
German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. -
Munich Pact
Settlement reached by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy that permitted German annexation of the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia. -
Germany invades Poland
Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. To Hitler, the conquest of Poland would bring “living space” for the German people. -
Germany conquers France
Germany brought war to western Europe on May 10, 1940, with the primary goal of conquering France. German bombers hit air bases in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands, destroying large numbers of Allied planes on the ground and crippling Allied air defenses. -
Battle of Britain
The name given to the Second World War defense of the UK by the Royal Air Force against an onslaught by the German Air Force which began at the end of June 1940. -
Germany, Italy, and Japan form the Axis Powers
The Axis Powers grew out of the diplomatic efforts of Germany, Italy and Japan to secure their own specific expansionist interests in the mid-1930s. -
Lend-Lease Act
Congress authorized the sale, lease, transfer, or exchange of arms and supplies to 'any country whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the United States. -
Germany invades the Soviet Union
Hitler believed that German forces could use Blitzkrieg tactics with the same level of success, as they had against Poland, France and the low countries. The invasion was delayed and in April 1941, the German army invaded Yugoslavia and Greece in order to secure Germany's southern side. -
The United States enters the war
The US did not enter the war until after the Japanese bombed the American fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. -
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
A surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. This attack led to the United States' entry into World War II. -
Battle of Midway
A decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. -
Battle of Guadalcanal
The first major offensive and a decisive victory for the Allies in the Pacific theater. -
Operation Torch
The British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of the Second World War which started on 8 November 1942. -
Battle of Stalingrad
A major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe. -
Tehran Conference
A meeting between U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in Tehran, Iran, between November 28 and December 1, 1943. -
D-Day
The day of the Normandy landings, initiating the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi Germany. -
Battle of the Bulge
a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. -
Yalta Conference
a meeting of British prime minister Winston Churchill, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt early in February 1945 as World War II was winding down. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
A major battle in which the U.S. Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. -
Battle of Okinawa
A series of battles fought in the Ryukyu Islands, centered on the island of Okinawa, and included the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War during World War II, the 1 April 1945 invasion of the island of Okinawa itself. -
V-E Day
The public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
The atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
U.S. President Harry Truman informed the world that an atomic weapon had been detonated on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
V-J Day
A formal surrender ceremony was held in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. -
Nuremberg Trials
A series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II, which were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany who planned, carried out, or otherwise participated in The Holocaust and other war crimes. These trials were held in Nuremberg, Germany. -
Taft-Hartley Act
A United States federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. -
Warsaw Pact
The name commonly given to the treaty between Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union, which was signed in Poland in 1955 and was officially called 'The Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance'.
