Timeline
1931
- Japan occupies Manchuria beginning the Sino-Japanese War
Back To Top
1933
- Hitler named German Chancellor
- Japan leaves the League of Nations
Back To Top
1935
- Germany reestablishes the military draft
- Italy invades Ethiopia
- Spanish Civil War begins
Back To Top
1936
- Rhineland reoccupied and remilitarized by Germany in violation of the Versailles Treaty
Back To Top
1937
- Resumption of the Sino-Japanese War
- Italy leaves the League of Nations
Back To Top
1938
- Mar 13
- Anschluss joins Austria to Germany
- Sept 29-30
- Munich Conference dividing Czechoslovakia
- Oct 1
- Germany annexes the Sudetenland
Back To Top
1939
- Aug 23
- Germany and Russia sign nonaggression pact
- Apr 7
- Italy invades Albania
- May 18
- Britain reinstates the military draft
- Aug 23
- Nazi-Soviet Pact signed
- Aug 25
- Britain and Poland sign treaty
- Sept 1
- Germany invades Poland
- Sept 3
- Britain and France declare war on Germany
- Sept 17
- Russia occupies eastern Poland
- Sept 28
- Poland surrenders; Russian-German partition of Poland
- Nov 4
- US passes "cash and carry" legislation allowing European democracies to buy weapons
- Nov 30
- Russia attacks Finland
- Dec 14
- Russia ousted from League of Nations
- Dec 17
- German battleship Admiral Graf Spee scuttled off Montevideo
Back To Top
1940
- Apr 9
- Germany invades Denmark and Norway
- Apr 15
- British and French troops land in Norway
- May 10
- Phony War ends with Germany attacking the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg; Churchill replaces Chamberlain as Prime Minister
- May 12
- Germany invades France
- May 14
- Rotterdam bombed; Germans break through French lines at Sedan
- May 15
- Dutch Army surrenders
- May 26-Jun 4
- 325,000 British and French troops evacuated from Dunkirk beaches
- May 28
- Belgian Army surrenders
- June 9
- Norway surrenders
- June 10
- Italy declares war and invades France
- June 16
- Marshal Petain becomes president of France
- June 17
- Petain announces armistice with Germany
- June 18
- de Gaulle in London calls for French resistance
- July 1
- "Vichy government" established in France
- July 3
- Britain attacks French Navy at Oran
- July 10
- Battle of Britain starts
- July 16
- Hitler orders preparation for invasion of Britain (Operation Sea Lion)
- Aug 27
- US votes first peacetime draft
- Sept 3
- US gives Britain 50 old destroyers in exchange for bases in Caribbean
- Sept 7
- Opening of London "Blitz"
- Sept 13
- Italy invades Egypt
- Sept 15
- Climax of Battle of Britain
- Sept 17
- Hitler cancels Operation Sea Lion
- Sept 27
- Tripartite Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan
- Oct 28
- Italy attacks Greece
- Nov 11
- British carrier planes attack Italian Fleet at Taranto
- Dec 9
- British attack in Libya
Back To Top
1941
- Mar 11
- US votes Lend-Lease
- Mar 24
- Rommel's counteroffensive in Libya
- Apr 6
- Germans invade Greece and Yugoslavia
- May 10
- Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland
- May 20
- Germans invade Crete
- May 24-27
- British battleship Hood and German battleship Bismark sunk
- June 23
- Germany attacks Russia
- July 24
- Japan occupies France Indochina; US halts trade with Japan
- Nov 18
- British offensive in Libya
- Dec 5
- Battle of Moscow
- Dec 7
- Japan attacks US Fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii; Japan declares war on US and Britain
- Dec 8
- US and Britain declare war on Japan
- Dec 9
- HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse sunk by Japanese planes
- Dec 10-11
- Germany and Italy declare war on US
- Dec 22
- Japanese begin attack on the Philippines; Churchill in Washington
- Dec 25
- Hong Kong surrenders
Back To Top
1942
- Jan 10
- Japanese invade the Netherlands East Indies
- Jan 20
- Wannsee Conference on the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question"
- Jan 21
- Rommel's counteroffensive in North Africa
- Feb 15
- British surrender Singapore
- Apr 9
- US forces on Bataan surrender
- Apr 8
- Tokyo bombed by US planes (Doolittle raid)
- May 4-9
- Battle of Coral Sea; first all-carrier naval battle
- May 12
- First mass gassing of Jews at Auschwitz
- May 30
- RAF first 1000-plane raid on Cologne
- June 4
- Battle of Midway
- Aug 7
- US Marines land on Guadalcanal
- Aug 19
- Dieppe raid
- Aug 31
- Battle of Alam Halfa
- Oct 23-Nov 4
- El Alamein offensive
- Nov 7-8
- US and Britain land armies in North Africa
- Nov 11
- German armies enter unoccupied France
- Nov 27
- French scuttle fleet at Tulon
- Nov 19
- Stalingrad counteroffensive
- Dec 24
- Admiral Darlan assassinated in North Africa
Back To Top
1943
- Jan 14-24
- Casablanca Conference: Unconditional Surrender
- Jan 31
- German forces surrender at Stalingrad; turning point of war in Russia
- Jun 13
- Axis resistance in Tunisia ends. Conclusion of North African campaign
- Jun 22
- German U-boats withdrawn from North Atlantic ending battle of the Atlantic
- July 5-17
- Huge tank battle at Kursk in Russia
- July 9-10
- Allied invasion of Sicily
- July 25
- Mussolini dismissed
- Sept 3
- Allies invade southern Italy
- Sept 8
- Italy surrenders
- Sept 9
- Allied landing at Salerno
- Sept 12
- Mussolini rescued in daring commando raid
- Nov 20
- US Marines land on Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands
Back To Top
1944
- Jan 16
- Eisenhower appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe
- Jan 22
- Allied troops land at Anzio south of France
- Jan 27
- Russians lift 900-day siege of Leningrad
- Jan 31
- US forces invades the Marshall Islands
- June 4
- Rome falls to Allies
- June 6
- D-Day. Allied invasion of Normandy
- June 13
- First V-1 flying bombs land in England
- June 15
- US troops land on Saipan in Mariana Islands
- June 19
- Battle of the Philippine Sea (Great Marianas Turkey Shoot)
- July 20
- Hitler wounded in bomb plot
- July 27
- Allies break out on Normandy at St. Lo
- Aug 1
- Polish Home Army revolts in Warsaw
- Aug 15
- Allies land in Southern France
- Aug 25
- Paris liberated
- Sept 8
- First V-2 rockets land in London
- Sept 17-26
- Failure of Allied airborne invasion of Holland
- Oct 20
- US troops land at Layte in the Philippnes
- Oct 23-26
- Battle of Leyte Gulf
- Dec 16
- German offensive at Bastogne (Battle of the Bulge)
Back To Top
1945
- Jan 9
- US forces land on Luzon in the Philippines
- Jan 11
- Russians capture Warsaw
- Feb 4-12
- Yalta Conference
- Feb 19
- US Marines land on Iwo Jima
- Mar 7
- Allies cross the Rhine at the Remagen Bridge
- Mar 19
- Firebombing of Tokyo
- Apr 1
- US invasion of Okinawa
- Apr 12
- Death of Pres. Roosevelt; Truman becomes US president
- Apr 25
- Russian and US forces meet on the Elbe River
- Apr 28
- Mussolini executed
- Apr 30
- Hitler commits suicide in Berlin
- May 2
- Russian troops take Berlin
- May 8
- V-E day
- July 17
- Potsdam conference
- Aug 6
- First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
- Aug 8
- Russia declares war on Japan
- Aug 9
- Second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
- Aug 14
- Japanese unconditional surrender announced
- Sept 2
- Japanese sign surrender on USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay ending World War II
Back To Top
