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1921
July 29:
adolf hitler becomes leader of National Socialist (Nazi) Party.
1922
Oct. 28:
benito mussolini becomes head of the Italian government.
1923
1926
Sept. 8:
Germany admitted to League of Nations.
1929
Oct. 29:
Wall Street stock market crashes.
1931
Sept. 19:
Japenese troops seize Chinese territory; Manchurian incident.
1932
Nov. 8:
Roosevelt elected president of the United States.
1933
Jan. 30:
adolf hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
April 1:
Nazi boycott of Jewish-owned shops.
May 10:
Nazis burn books in Germany.
June:
Nazis open Dachau concentration camp.
July 14:
Nazi Party declared only party in Germany.
Oct. 14:
Germany quits League of Nations.
1934
June 30:
The "Night of the Long Knives."
Aug. 19:
adolf hitler becomes Führer.
1935
Sept. 15:
German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws.
1936
March 7:
German troops occupy the Rhineland.
May 9:
mussolini's Italian forces take Ethiopia.
1938
March 12-13:
Germany announces Anschluss (union) with Austria.
Oct. 15:
German troops occupy Sudentenland; Czech government resigns.
Nov. 9-10:
Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass.
1939
March 15-16:
Nazis take Czechoslovakia.
May 22:
Nazis sign Pact of Steel with Italy.
Aug. 23:
German-U.S.S.R. non-agression pact signed.
Sept. 1:
Nazis invade Poland. World War II begins.
Sept. 3:
Britain, France, Australia, and New Zealand declare war on Germany.
Sept. 5:
United States proclaims neutrality.
Sept. 29:
Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.
Oct.:
Nazis begin euthanaia on sick and disabled in Germany.
1940
March 12:
Finland signs peace treaty with Soviets.
April 9:
Nazis invade Denmark and Norway.
May 10:
Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Netherlands; Winston Chruchill becomes British prime minister.
June 10:
Italy declares war on Britain and France. hotler declares "the war in the west is won."
July 10:
Battle of Britain begins.
July 23:
Soviets annex Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Sept. 7:
German blitz against England begins.
Sept. 27:
Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Dec. 29:
Roosevelt says the United States will become an "arsenal of democracy."
1941
Feb. 12:
German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, North Africa.
March 11:
President Roosevelt signs Lend-Lease Act.
April 6:
Nazis invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
June:
Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen begin mass murder.
June 22:
Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins.
July 12:
Mutual Assistance agreement between British and Soviets.
July 26:
Roosevelt freezes Japanese assests in United States and suspends relations.
Aug. 12:
Roosevlt and Churchill sign Atlantic Charter.
Aug. 20:
Nazi siege of Leningrad begins.
Sept. 1:
Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
Dec. 7:
Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor; hitler issues "Night and Fog" decree.
Dec. 8:
United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
Dec. 11:
Germany declares war on United States.
1942
Jan. 1
Declaration of the United Nations signed by Allied nations.
Jan. 20:
SS Leader Heydrich holds Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution for the Jewish Question."
April 1:
Japenese-Americans in United States sent to relocation centers.
April:
Doolittle leads first American bombing attack on Japan.
June:
Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz extermination camp.
June 4-5:
The United States wins decisive naval battle at Midway.
Aug. 12:
Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow.
Sept. 13:
Battle of Stalingrad begins.
Nov. 8:
Operation Torch begins U.S. invasion of North Africa.
1943
Jan. 14-24:
Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt during which decision is made that the war can end only with an unconditional German surrender.
Feb. 2:
Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of hitler's armies.
March 16-20:
Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.
April 19:
Waffen SS attacks Jewish resistance in Warsaw ghetto.
May 13:
German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.
May 16:
Jewish resistance in Warsaw ghetto ends.
July 25-26:
mussolini is arrested, and Fascist government fails; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.
Sept. 8:
Italian surrender announced.
Oct. 13:
Italy declares war on Germany.
Nov. 28:
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet at Tehran Conference.
Dec. 24:
Eisenhower named commander of Operation Overload, the cross-Channel invasion.
1944
Jan. 6:
Soviet troops advance into Poland.
Jan. 27:
Leningrad relieved after 900-day siege.
June 9:
Soviet offensive against Finnish front begins.
July 20:
German assassination attempt on hitler fails.
July 24:
Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.
Aug. 8:
U.S. troops complete capture of the Marianas Islands.
Aug. 15:
The Allied invasion of southern France, Operation Dragoon(Anvil), begins.
Oct. 25:
First Japanese kamikaze attacks on U.S. warships.
Dec. 16-27:
Battle of the Bulge in Ardennes.
1945
Jan. 26:
Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
Feb. 4-11:
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet at Yalta.
April 1:
U.S. troops encircle German troops in Ruhr; Allied offensive in northern Italy; Americans land in Okinawa.
April 12:
President Roosevelt dies. Truman becomes president.
April 28:
mussolini captured and hanged by Italian partisans.
April 30:
adolf hitler commits suicide.
May 7:
Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
May 8:
V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.
June 5:
Allies divide up Germany and take over government.
June 26:
United Nations charter signed in San Francisco.
July 1:
U.S., British, and French troops move into Berlin.
July 16:
First U.S. atomic bomb test; Potsdam Conference begins.
Aug. 6:
First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Aug. 9:
Second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
Aug. 14:
Japenese agree to unconditional surrender.
Aug. 15:
V-J (Victory over Japan) Day.
Sept. 2:
Japanese sign surrender agreement on USS Missouri, Tokyo Bay. World War II ends.
Oct. 24:
United Nations is officially born.
Nov. 20:
Nuremberg war crimes trials begin.
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