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Mussolini takes power in Italy
Il Duce or Benito Mussolini became 40th Prime minister of Italy. He also created and held the supreme military rank of First Marshal of the Empire along side with the king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III, who gave him supreme control over the military. -
U.S.stock market crashes
Also known as the Great Crash was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States. The crash signaled the beginning of the 12-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries and did not end in the United States until 1947. -
Japan seizes Manchuria
Manchuria was invaded by the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state, called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II. -
FDR is elected president
Roosevelt won by a landslide, and this "critical election" marked the collapse of the Fourth Party System or Progressive Era. The voters soon were realigned into the Fifth Party System, dominated by Roosevelt's New Deal Coalition. -
Hitler is named Chancellor of Germany
Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany after being leader of the National Socialist German party. -
Hitler defies the Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles said that Germany had to shut down all war related industries. When Hitler rose to power in 1933 he opened all the war industries and began production behind everybodies backs. -
Italy invades Ethiopia
This was a colonial war fought between the arm forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the arm forces of the Ethiopian Empire. As a result of the war Italian military occupied Ethiopia and it annexed the newly created colony of Italian East Africa. -
France militarizes the Rhineland
The French knew the Germans were going to move into the Rhineland. The big decision was wether or not to start a war with the Germans. The French waited a year then finally decided to move into the Rhineland. -
Civil war erupts in Spain
The military uprising in Morocco, and different events in Madrid dividing Spain in two only in a few days. -
Japan invades China
Military conflict between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. China gained economic help from Germany, Soviet Union, and the United States to help fend off Japan. This conflict lasted till 1941. -
Anschluss
Germany announces Union with Austria, Nazis began to crackdown on Austrian Jews, arresting them and publicly humiliating them. Some were forced to get on hands and knees and scrub pavement while the Austrian Nazis and residents watched them. -
Munich Conference
This was an agreement allowing the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland was mostly inhabited by ethnic Germans along the Czech borders. The confrence was held in Munich, Germany with all the major powers of Europe without the topic country present; Czechoslovakia. -
Kristallnacht
The Night of Broken Glass, a massive attack on the Jews that the German Reich organized. A 17 year old boy named Herschel Grynszpan living in Paris had shot and killed a German Embassy. So the Germans took the opportunity to “Rise in the bloody vengeance against the Jews.” -
Nazi-Soviet Pact
Non-aggression pact. Paved the way for the beginning of WWII with Hitler assuring his troops would not have to fight a war on two fronts. This Pact stunned the world. -
Germany invades Poland
This invasion marked the start of WWii when Poland was invaded by Germany, the Soviet Union,and a Slovak contingent. This was one week after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. This invasion ended with the Soviet Union and Germany annexing and dividing Poland. -
Phony war
German, French and British troops waited at the Maginot Line and the Siegfried Line waiting for each other to make the first move and begin the battle. This lated from September 3, 1939- May 10, 1940. This phony war resulted in the Battle of France. -
U.S. Neutrality Act
This had an effect on trading in arms and war materials with all parties in a war. this will allow trade on a cash and carry basis. -
Churchill is elected Prime Minister in England
British Conservative politician and statesman known for his leadership during World War II, Winston Churchill, and widely seen as one of the greatest wartime learders was elected Prime Minister. -
Miracle at Dunkirk
Operation Dynamo is what the British called this event. This was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beached and harbour of Dunkirk, France. This was because the German army had cut off the British, French, and Belgian troops during this battle. -
France surrenders
When the Armistice is signed France is occupied by Germany and the French army is stripped of power, and the German invasion has been successful. -
Japan seizes French Indo-China
The Empire of Japan was trying to prevent China from importing arms and fuel through French Indochina, also known as the Vietnam Expedition, this event was also during the Second Sino-Japanese War. -
Battle of Britain
This was the biggest bombing raid and was the first major battle fought by air forces. The German tactics were to bomb important political places, airports, and factories. In the end Britian won against the Luftwaffe. -
Atlantic Charter
Churchill and Roosevelt aboard a war ship off the coast of Newfoundland. This proclamation by the United States and Great Britain declared that they were fighting the Axis powers to guarantee “Life, Liberty, Independence, and the Religious Freedom and to preserve the Rights of man and Justice.” This document set forth several principles like the “renunciation of all aggression, right to self-government, access to raw materials, freedom from want and fear, and freedom of the seas...ect -
Lend-Lease Act
The United States supplied the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, China, and other allied nations with all the materials needed for war. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Sunday December 7, 1941 Japanese messages are intercepted.The Japanese attack force under the command of Admiral Nagumo, consisting of six carriers with 423 planes. At 6 a.m., the first attack of 183 Japanese planes takes off from the carriers located 230 miles north of Oahu and heads for Pearl Harbor. At 7:53 a.m., the first Japanese assault with 51 dive bombers, 40 torpedo bombers, 50 high level bombers and 43 fighters. The Americans are taken by surprise.