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Japan attacks China
Japan attacked Machuria in September 1931. This invasion was a deliberate violation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, however in effort to prevent further disruption and in the interest of isolationist policies the United State ignored this action. -
Hitler appointed Chancellor
Hitler formed a digidly disciplined party structure and mastered techniques of mass politics and propoganda and how to target the social and political nerves of the electorate. From there he became the Fuhrer. -
Hitler drafts 1/2 million men
One of Hitler's goals was to draft enough men to remilitarize the country to enforce his new laws. -
Italy Invades Ethiopia
Mussolini felt left out of the Imperialized world. Seeing that teh League of Nations was too weak to stop him, he used a border incident as an excuse to attack Ethiopia (to avenge the Italian defeat in 1896). France and Great Britain allowed Italy to occupy Ethiopia, as long as Ethiopia retained formal independance, to ofset Germany's growing power. -
German Troops sent to Rhineland
Hitler broke the treaty of Versailles by sending a small armed troop to the Rhineland. This was a diplomatic test of will. -
Neutrality Acts
In 1936, in the face of budding antogonism in Europe, the United States issues a series of acts that maintained American isolationism to prevent entangling alliances. -
Hitler Annexed Austria
Also known as Anschluss, the alliance between Germany and Austria was the occupation and annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, enforeced by German troops. -
Munich Pact Signed
Mussolini called for a last minute conference between Germany, Italy, France, and Great Britain. Hitler recieved almost everything he wanted, including Sudentenland. Without the Sudentenland, Czechoslovakia was not able to survive. The Munich pact failed when Hitler invaded and occupied Prague. -
10 Nov 1983, Kristallnacht
Thousands of Jewish businesses and synogogues were burned or destroyed, thousands were injured and 91 were killed. The Jewish community was foced to pay for this destruction because the German governement confiscated the insurance money -
Hitler Invaded Czechoslovakia
Hitler broke the Munich pact and invaded Prague in 1939. This occupation put an end to the Czech state and to the illusions that Hitler's only goal was to restore the Germans to the Reich. -
Hitler invaded Poland
The Soviet Union and Germany signed a pact that they would invade Poland together dividing the defeated country between teh two of them. This attack took place in 1939 and marked the beginning of WWII -
Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic's core was an allied naval blockade of Germany. It lasted from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. -
"Cash and Carry" policy
The Cash and Carry policy replaced teh Neutrality acts. The United States still maintained their isolationist attitudes, but allowed the sale of belligerents as long as the recipients arranged for the tansoport of their goods. This allowed teh United States to help Britain without helping Germany (because Germany didnt not have the funds to ship something across the Atlantic). -
Battle of Britain
Hitler gained control of thw air over Britain with the Luftwaffe. It was directed at the airfield and fighter planed in southern England. In return the British targeted German cities. The led the the two week continuous bombing of London -
Italy, Japan, and Germany unite to form Axis powers
This alliance made the war truly a WOLRD war because it now involved the Atlantic and teh Pacific, the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere, and the Northern and Southern Hemisphere -
Germany invades Soviet Union
Feeling confident, Hitler came up with "Operation Barbossa". It invovled taking Russia before the winter set in. Mussolini, jealous and angry that he was not a part of this attack, led to the Italian invasion in North Africa and Greece. This failure let to Hilter diverting attention for six weeks, allowing the Russians to prepare and Winter to set in. -
Atlantic Charter
The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement first issued in August 1941 that early in World War II defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. -
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor
Japan was allied with Italy and Germany but did not officailly join the war until December 1941, when negotiations between Japan and the United States broke down in Washington and Japanese planes bombed the naval base of Peal Harbor simultaneously. This marked the entrance of Japan and the United States into the war. -
War Production Board Created
The purpose of the board was to regulate the production and allocation of materials and fuel during World War II in the United States. The WPB converted and expanded peacetime industries to meet war needs, allocated scarce materials vital to war production, established priorities in the distribution of materials and services, and prohibited nonessential production. It rationed such things as gasoline, heating oil, metals, rubber, paper and plastics. -
Bataan Death March
the Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer, by the Imperial Japanese Army, of 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of prisoners. -
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first Allied victory in the Pacific. Coral Island provided the launching point for the battle of Midway -
Battle of Midaway
The Battle of Midway was the turning point in the war in teh Pacific. It marked the first real victory in the Pacific ocean and began the Allied victory over Japan. -
Battle of Guadalcanal
The Battle fo Guadalcanal was the first major offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan. Guadalcanal marked the transition by the Allies from defensive operations to the strategic offensive in that theatre and the beginning of offensive operations. -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The battle was a turning point in the war, after which the German forces attained no further strategic victories in the East. Winter had set in and between the Russian Winter and the war of attrition the Soviet Union waged, the Germany army lost the Sixth Army -
Tehran Conference
In November, 1943, Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt met together in Teheran, Iran, to discuss military strategy and post-war Europe. Since the Soviet Union had entered the war, Stalin demanded that the Allies open-up a second front in Europe. Churchill and Roosevelt argued that any attempt to land troops in Western Europe would result in heavy casualties. The D-Day landings in June, 1944 took the pressure off the Red Army and from that date they made steady progress into territory held by Germany -
D-day
D-day, also known as the Invasion of Normandy. Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in France, from there they quickly pushed the Germans back the Germany. -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The Battle of Leyte Gulf was considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II. It is also notable as the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was Germany's last push for victory with defeat looming. The pushed the allied forces back into their own territory by a few miles but were overwhelmed by demand and pressure from the east. -
Korematsu v. US
Korematsu v. United States, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II. It declared that in the interest of nationaly security internment camps were constitional -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin, respectively, for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. -
Mussolini captured and killed
In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape to Switzerland, only to be quickly captured and summarily executed near Lake Como by Italian partisans. His body was then taken to Milan where it was hung upside down at a petrol station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise. -
V-E Day
Official end of the war in Europe. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from July 16 to August 2, 1945. Participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The three nations were represented by Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and President Harry S. Truman. They gathered to decide how to administer punishment to the defeated Nazi Germany, which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier -
Little Boy dropped on Hiroshima
The was war dragging on in the Pacific with no real end in sight. Harry Truman replaced Franklin Roosevelt as president and found out about the Manhattan Project. He chose to drop two atomic bombs, on on Hiroshima and one on Nagasaki instead of having a hand to hand combat fight to save American lives.Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki -
"Fat Man" dropped on Nagasaki
Because of poor visibility due to cloud cover, the bomb missed its intended detonation point, and damage was somewhat less extensive than that in Hiroshima. An estimated 39,000 people were killed outright by the bombing at Nagasaki, and a further 25,000 were injured -
V-J Day
Offical end of the war in the Pacific -
Nuremburg Trials
The Nuremburg trails were a series of traisl heled by the allied forces in WWII for the prosecution of prominent memebers of teh political, military, and economic leadership in Nazi Germany.