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Period: to
WWII/Walker
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Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi Party
The National Socialist German Workers' Party was a political party in Germany that was active from 1920 to 1945. -
Benito Mussolini appointed Prime Minister of Italy
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Joseph Stalin sole Dictator of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union also known as the USSR. -
Japan's army seizes Manchuria, China
Japan launched an attack on Manchuria. Within a few days, Japanese armed forces had occupied several strategic points in South Manchuria. -
Adolf Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler 1889 - 1945 -
Neutrality Acts passed by US Congress
Passed by the United States Congress, in response to the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia. They were spurred by the growth in isolationism and non-interventionism in the US following its costly involvement in World War I, and sought to ensure that the US would not become entangled again in foreign conflicts. -
Italian Army invades Ethiopia in Africa
The aim of invading Ethiopia was to boost Italian national prestige. -
Militarist take control of Japanese Government
The extreme nationalism fostered by the Meiji and Showa Imperial governments combined with traditional Japanese militarism to make life increasingly difficult, and often dangerous for moderates in the imperial government. -
Hitler sends troops into Rhineland
Adolf Hitler sends troops into Rhineland of Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty. -
Japan's army pilages Nanjing, China
Japanese troops committed murder, plunder, and rape on a vast scale against Chinese soldiers, prisoners, and civilians. -
Nazis begin rounding up Jews for labor camps
The Vel' d'Hiv Roundup was a raid and mass arrest of Jews in Paris by the French police directed by German Nazi authorities. -
Munich Pact is signed
The Munich Pact was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Hitler and Stalin
Representatives from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union met and signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, which guaranteed that the two countries would not attack each other. By signing this pact, Germany had protected itself from having to fight a two-front war in the soon-to-begin World War II; the Soviet Union was awarded land, including parts of Poland and the Baltic States. -
Nazis invade Poland
Nazis invade Poland; Britian and France declare war on Germany. -
Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium
Hours after the invasion, the German minister in Oslo demanded Norway's surrender. The Norwegian government refused, and the Germans responded with a parachute invasion and the establishment of a puppet regime led by Quisling. -
Germany invades France
German bombers hit air bases, destroying large numbers of Allied planes on the ground and crippling Allied air defenses. Germany forces France to surrender. -
Battle of Britian
Royal Air Force defeats German Air Force to prevent invasion of their island. -
first time Peacetime Draft in US
Introduced into Congress two days before the fall of France and signed into law three months later as Luftwaffe bombs set London afire. The Selective Training and Service Act began the process by which fifteen million Americans were inducted into the armed services during the Second World War. -
Hitler breaks Pact with Stalin's Russia
USSR joins England in fighting the Germans. -
Japanese invasion of Indochina
The Japanese occupied Vichy French Indochina in order to prevent the Republic of China from importing arms and fuel through French Indochina along the Sino-Vietnamese Railway, from the port of Haiphong through Hanoi to Kunming in Yunnan. -
Atlantic Charter is issued
The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement that, early in World War II, defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. It was drafted by the leaders of Britain and the United States, and later agreed to by all the Allies. The Charter stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; reduction of trade restrictions. -
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II. The Japanese sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded. -
Japanese Americans interned in isolation camps
Japanese American internment was the World War II internment in "War Relocation Camps" of over 110,000 people of Japanese heritage who lived on the Pacific coast of the United States. The U.S. government ordered the internment in 1942, shortly after Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was one of the most important naval battles of World War II. Only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy, under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance decisively defeated an attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy, inflicting irrepairable damage on the Japanese fleet. -
Bataan Death March
The forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. All told, approximately 2,500–10,000 Filipino and 100–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach their destination at Camp O'Donnell. --Philippines fall to the Japanese. -
Russians stop Nazi advance at Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad from Nazi invasion. -
Zoot Suit Riots - Los Angeles, CA
The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots in 1943 during World War II that broke out in Los Angeles, California, between Anglo American sailors and Marines stationed in the city and Latino youths -
defeat of German and Italian armies in North Africa
The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had colonial interests in Africa dating from the late 19th century. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from German-occupied Europe. The United States entered the war in 1941 and began direct military assistance in North Africa on 11 May 1942. -
Italy surrenders
Mussolini is dissmissed as Prime Minister. -
D-Day
During World War II, the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history. -
Paris retaken by Allied Forces
The Liberation of Paris started with an uprising by the French Resistance against the German garrison. On August 24, the French Forces of the Interior received reinforcements from the Free French Army of Liberation and from the U.S. Third Army under General Patton. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was 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. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard and became the costliest battle in terms of casualties for the United States, whose forces bore the brunt of the attack. It also severely depleted Germany's war-making resources. -
US forces return to recapture the Philippines
More than 100,000 American soldiers land on Leyte Island, in the Philippines, as preparation for the major invasion by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. The ensuing battles of Leyte Island proved among the bloodiest of the war in the Pacific and signaled the beginning of the end for the Japanese. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt dies
1882 - 1945. -
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day or VE Day, was 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. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
first atomic bombs dropped
The Enola Gay, a U.S B2 bomber, dropped a massive atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan. -
V-J Day
Japan surrenders to Allied Forces. -
War Crimes Trials
Held in Nuremburg, Germany; Minila, Philippines and Tokyo, Japan.
On this day in 1945, a series of trials of accused Nazi war criminals, conducted by a U.S., French, and Soviet military tribunal based in Nuremberg, Germany, begins. Twenty-four former Nazi officials were tried, and when it was all over, one year later, half would be sentenced to death by hanging.
