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Germany opens Dachau concentration camp
Established by the Nazis in 1933, Dachau was the first concentration camp for political prisoners. It was located on the grounds of an abondoned munitions factory west of Munich. Holding over 4000 prisoners in just its first year -
Mussolini's Italian forces take Ethiopia
A border incident between Ethiopia and Italian land earlier in December gave Mussolini an excuse to attack and invade Ethiopia. -
German troops occupy Rhineland
Hitler sends his army to the bordering land, Rhineland, that separates Germany from Belgium and France. He sent his troops saying the treaty was hostile using it as an excuse to occupy the area -
Hitler takes Czechoslovakia
On September 1938 Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister signed the Munich Pact. The Munich Pact said Hitler can have Czechoslovakia but he cannot demand anymore land. So he took the deal, but later he still fought and won the rest of the land he wanted. -
Germany/Nazis invasion of Poland
In 1939 German forces attacked Poland on land and from the air, Hitler wanted to regain the lost territory and eventually just rule all of Poland. World War II had begun. -
Britain declares war on Germany
World War II began on September 3rd, 1939, when the Prime Minister of Britain, declared war on Germany. It involved many of the world's countries. -
Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, 1941, Hitler launched his armies east in a huge invasion of the Soviet Union. Three great army groups with over 3 million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and 3,000 tanks drove across the frontier into Soviet territory to take it over. The invasion covered over 2,000 miles -
U.S. enters WWII
The day after the assault on Pearl Harbor, President FDR asked Congress to declare war on Japan and Congress accepted his declaration to war with Japan. 3 days later Japanese allies (Germany and Italy) declared war on the U.S. About 2 years into the war America had finally joined World War II. -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes flew over and bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor by Honolulu, Hawaii. It lasted only 2 hours, but it was really damaging. The Japanese destroyed about 20 American naval vessels, 8 enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. 2,000 Americans soldiers died in the attack, and 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President FDR asked Congress to declare war on Japan and Congress approved his declaration -
Fall of Singapore
The Fall of Singapore was fought out in the Southeast Asian part of WWII when the Japanese invaded the Britishs stronghold in Singapore -
Mass murder of Jewish people in Auschwitz begins
Auschwitz was constructed to hold Polish political prisoners. The first extermination of the prisoners was in September 1941, and Auschwitz went on to become a huge site where Jews were killed. From 1942 until 1944, trains delivered Jews to the camp's from all over the world, killed by being gassed. About 1.3 million people were sent to the camp, and at least 1.1 million died. About 90% of the ones killed were Jewish -
Surrender at Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad started in the summer of 1942, German forces attacked the city as hard as they could multiple times. But despite their multiple attempts, the German Armies, could not break past the adamantine defense by the Soviet Army, even thought they were pushing the Soviets almost to the Volga River in mid-October and encircling Stalingrad. They later ran out of food, ammunitions, etc and were forced to surrender after 5 months and 1 week -
Paris is Liberated
The Liberation of Paris (The Battle for Paris) was a military move that happened August 19, 1944 all the way till the Germans surrendered the Capital of the French on August 25, 1944. -
Nagasaki Bombing
In 1945 Nagasaki suffered from an allied nuclear bomb attack
