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Nazi Germany Invaded Poland
German tanks and planes began a full-scale invasion of Poland. Poland was the first to fall to Germany's overwhelming use of air power and fast-moving tanks-a type of warfare called blitzkrieg (lightning war). -
Sitzkrieg
The 'Phoney War' is the name given to the period of time in the Second World War from September 1939 to April 1940 when after the Blitzkrieg attack on Poland, nothing seemed to happen. -
Destroyers-for-Bases Deal
In the Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, fifty Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson class US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the United States Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions. -
Congress Instituted the Draft
The Selective Service Act was instituted to draft men into the military. They ensured that all groups in the population would be called into service by a democratic method run by local boards. The government required all men between 21 and 30 (and later between 18 and 45) to register for possible induction into the military. -
France Fell to Germany
The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries during World War II. The French government signed an armistice with Nazi Germany just six weeks after the Nazis launched their invasion of Western Europe. -
Battle of Britain
Britain was under constant assault by German bombing raids. Britain’s decisive victory saved the country from a ground invasion and possible occupation by German forces while proving that air power alone could be used to win a major battle. -
America First Committee Launched
The America First Committee was organized to oppose America's potential intervention in World War II. They engaged speakers such as Charles Lindbergh to travel the country warning against reengaging in Europe's troubles. -
Lend-Lease
The Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. -
Four Freedoms
Roosevelt delivered a speech that proposed lending money to Britain for the purchase of U.S. war materials. He justified such a policy by arguing that the United States must help others nations defend "four freedoms:" freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. -
USS Kearny Attacked
The US suffered its first casualties in the Second World War. Eleven sailors were killed when a German U-boat torpedoed the US Navy destroyer USS Kearny. -
Reuben James Sank
The USS Reuben James was the first United States Navy ship sunk by hostile action during World War II. -
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
A surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. -
Battle of Bataan
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese aircraft began conducting an aerial assault on American forces in the Philippines. The U.S. eventually surrendered the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese. -
Bataan Death March
The approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. -
Battle of Coral Sea
The Battle of the Coral Sea was a major naval battle between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces from the United States and Australia, taking place in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. It was an important turning point in the war in the Pacific because, for the first time, the Allies had stopped the Japanese advance. -
Battle of Midway
The United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll, marking a turning point in the war in the Pacific theatre. The Battle of Midway effectively ended Japan's ability to prosecute an offensive war in the Pacific during World War II. -
Battle of El Alamein
The Allied victory at El Alamein lead to the retreat of the Afrika Korps and the German surrender in North Africa. It helped prevent the Axis from advancing further into Egypt. -
Casablanca Conference
It was the first war conference between the Allied Powers. The purpose of the conference was relatively vague. It took steps toward planning the allied strategy and the end of the war. -
Tehran Conference
A strategy meeting of Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill to discuss strategies for winning World War II and potential terms for a peace settlement. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a brutal military campaign between Russian forces and those of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers. The battle is infamous as one of the largest, longest and bloodiest engagements in modern warfare. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. -
D-Day
Allied forces launched a combined naval, air and land assault on Nazi-occupied France. The Allied landings on the Normandy beaches marked the start of a long and costly campaign to liberate north-west Europe from German occupation. -
MacArthur Returned to the Philippines
After advancing island by island across the Pacific Ocean, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur wades ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte, fulfilling his promise to return to the area he was forced to flee in 1942. -
FDR Elected to a 4th Term
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented fourth term in office. FDR remains the only president to have served more than two terms. -
Island Hopping Campaign Begins
Island hopping was a military strategy employed by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan and the Axis powers during World War II. It is where forces only concentrate their resources and setting up of military forces/supplies on strategically important islands. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Germans launch the last major offensive of the war in an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. -
Yalta Conference
The main purpose of Yalta was the re-establishment of the nations conquered and destroyed by Germany. During the conference, the three leaders agreed to demand Germany's unconditional surrender and began plans for a post-war world. -
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day was celebrated on Tuesday, 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
Potsdam conference
The conference failed to settle most of the important issues at hand and thus helped set the stage for the Cold War that would begin shortly after World War II came to an end. -
Little Boy Dropped on Hiroshima
The United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The bomb was known as "Little Boy", a uranium gun-type bomb that exploded with about thirteen kilotons of force. -
VJ Day
Victory over Japan Day is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war to an end. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
A major battle in which the United States Marine Corps landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Iwo Jima was strategically important: it provided an air base for Japanese fighter planes to intercept long-range B-29 Superfortress bombers, and it provided a haven for Japanese naval units in dire need of any support available. -
FDR Died / Harry Truman Became President
President Roosevelt suffered a stroke and died. His death marked a critical turning point in U.S. relations with the Soviet Union, as his successor, Harry S. Truman, decided to take a tougher stance with the Russians. -
Fat Man Dropped on Nagasaki
"Fat Man" was the codename for the nuclear bomb that was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki by the United States. It was the second of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in warfare, the first being Little Boy, and its detonation marked the third nuclear explosion in history. -
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa was significant in that it served as an example of how deadly the invasion of mainland Japan would be. The Battle of Okinawa was the largest amphibious invasion of the Pacific campaign and the last major campaign of the Pacific War. -
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals held by the Allied forces under international law and the laws of war after World War II. It was held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice. -
Japanese War Crime Trials
The International Military Tribunals for the Far East begins hearing the case against 28 Japanese military and government officials accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during World War II. -
Manhattan Project Began
The Manhattan Project was the code name for the American-led effort to develop a functional atomic weapon during World War II. The Manhattan Project was started in response to fears that German scientists had been working on a weapon using nuclear technology since the 1930s and that Adolf Hitler was prepared to use it.
