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Japan invaded Manchuria
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan began on September 19, 1931, immediately after the Mukden Incident. The Japanese occupation of Manchuria lasted until the end of World War II and would lead to the founding of the puppet state of Manchukuo. -
Fascist Italy invades, conquers, and annexes Ethiopia.
Italy invades Ethiopia. ... Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader of Italy, had adopted Adolf Hitler's plans to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German. Mussolini followed this policy when he invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) the African country situated on the horn of Africa. -
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Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sign a treaty of cooperation
Due to this disagreement, the pact was signed without Japan and became an agreement between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, signed on 22 May 1939 by foreign ministers Galeazzo Ciano of Italy and Joachim von Ribbentrop of Germany. The pact consisted of two parts. -
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan
Anti-Comintern Pact, agreement concluded first between Germany and Japan (Nov. 25, 1936) and then between Italy, Germany, and Japan (Nov. 6, 1937), ostensibly directed against the Communist International (Comintern) but, by implication, specifically against the Soviet Union. -
Japan invades China, initiating World War II in the Pacific.
In 1937, Japan invaded China, starting what would become known as the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the war would merge into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. -
Germany incorporates Austria in the Anschluss.
In early 1938, Austrian Nazis conspired for the second time in four years to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, learning of the conspiracy, met with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the hopes of reasserting his country’s independence -
Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France...
Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement which forces the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudetenland, including the key Czechoslovak military defense positions, to Nazi Germany.The settlement gave Germany the Sudetenland starting 10 October, and de facto control over the rest of Czechoslovakia as long as Hitler promised to go no further. -
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Under German Pressure
Under German pressure, the Slovaks declare their independence and form a Slovak Republic. The Germans occupy the rump Czech lands in violation of the Munich agreement, forming a Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. -
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Fascist Italy invades and annexes Albania.
The Italian invasion of Albania (April 7–12, 1939) was a brief military campaign by the Kingdom ... The Italian Fascist regime legitimized its claim to Albania through studies proclaiming ... As Nazi Germany annexed Austria and moved against Czechoslovakia, Italy saw itself becoming the lesser member of the Pact of Steel. -
Nonaggression Agreement
German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, also called Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, German-Soviet Treaty of Nonaggression, Hitler-Stalin Pact, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, (August 23, 1939), nonaggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union that was concluded only a few days before the beginning of World War II and which divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. -
Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe.
Germany invaded Poland. To justify the action, Nazi propagandists falsely claimed that Poland had been planning, with its allies Great Britain and France, to encircle and dismember Germany and that Poles were persecuting ethnic Germans. The SS, in collusion with the German military, staged a phony Polish attack on a German radio station. Hitler then used this action to launch a “retaliatory” campaign against Poland. -
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The Soviet Union invades Finland
The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union (USSR) and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. ... When Finland refused, the USSR invaded. -
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Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung was the code name for the German assault on neutral Denmark and Norway during World War II. This attack triggered the Norwegian Campaign, which would be won by the Germans. The name of the operation means "Exercise on the Weser", this being a German river. -
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Germany attacks western Europe
Germany attacks western Europe—France and the neutral Low Countries. Luxembourg is occupied on May 10; the Netherlands surrenders on May 14; and Belgium surrenders on May 28. On June 22, France signs an armistice agreement by which the Germans occupy the northern half of the country and the entire Atlantic coastline. In southern France, a collaborationist regime with its capital in Vichy is established. -
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The Soviet Union occupies the Baltic States
The occupation of the Baltic states involved the military occupation of the three Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania—by the Soviet Union under the auspices of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in June 1940. ... On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union and within weeks occupied the Baltic territories. -
Second Vienna Award
Germany and Italy arbitrate a decision on the division of the disputed province of Transylvania between Romania and Hungary. The loss of northern Transylvania forces Romanian King Carol to abdicate in favor of his son, Michael, and brings to power a dictatorship under General Ion Antonescu. -
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Nazi Germany and its Axis partners (except Bulgaria) invade the Soviet Union.
Finland, seeking redress for the territorial losses in the armistice concluding the Winter War, joins the Axis just before the invasion. The Germans quickly overrun the Baltic States and, joined by the Finns, lay siege to Leningrad (St. Petersburg) by September. In the center, the Germans capture Smolensk in early August and drive on Moscow by October. In the south, German and Romanian troops capture Kiev (Kyiv) in September and capture Rostov on the Don River in November. -
United States declares war on Japan
The United States declares war on Japan, entering World War II. Japanese troops land in the Philippines, French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), and British Singapore. By April 1942, the Philippines, Indochina, and Singapore are under Japanese occupation. -
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Nazi Germany and its Axis partners declare war on the United States
The bombing of Pearl Harbor surprised even Germany. Although Hitler had made an oral agreement with his Axis partner Japan that Germany would join a war against the United States, he was uncertain as to how the war would be engaged. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor answered that question. On December 8, Japanese Ambassador Oshima went to German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop to nail the Germans down on a formal declaration of war against America -
Operation Torch
Operation Torch (8–16 November 1942) was an Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. The French colonies in the area were dominated by the Vichy French, formally aligned with Germany but of mixed loyalties. Reports indicated that they might support the Allies. The American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commanding the operation, planned a three-pronged attack on Casablanca (Western), Oran (Center) and Algiers (Eastern), then a rapid move on Tunis. -
Soviet troops liberate Kiev.
65 years ago, November 6, 1943, the Soviet troops during the Kiev offensive liberated capital of Ukraine from fascist invaders. In late September 1943 the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, commanded by General of the Army M.F. -
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Slovak National Council
Under the leadership of the Slovak National Council, consisting of both Communists and non-Communists, underground Slovak resistance units rise against the Germans and the indigenous fascist Slovak regime. In late October, the Germans capture Banská Bystrica, the headquarters of the uprising, and put an end to organized resistance. -
The Soviets launch a new offensive.
The Soviets launch a new offensive, liberating Warsaw and Krakow in January, capturing Budapest after a two-month siege on February 13, driving the Germans and their Hungarian collaborators out of Hungary in early April, forcing the surrender of Slovakia with the capture of Bratislava on April 4, and capturing Vienna on April 13. -
The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invades Manchuria.
On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union officially declared war on Japan, flooding 1.6 million troops into Manchuria, an area of 600,000 square miles in the North-East of China. ... But it also came in violation of the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact signed in 1941 -
The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. The New York Times article reported that the dropping of the bomb occurred at noon, Japanese time -
Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. ... Coming several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan's capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close.1
