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U.S. declares Neutrality
As World War I erupts in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson formally proclaims the neutrality of the United States, a position that a vast majority of Americans favored, on August 4, 1914. -
Fascism
an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
ex: nazi party formed on feb 24, 1920 -
Nazism
Nazis were members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party of Germany, which in 1933, under Adolf Hitler, seized political control of the country, suppressing all opposition and establishing a dictatorship over all cultural, economic, and political acitivities of the people, and promulgated belief in the supremacy of Hitler as Führer, aggressive anti-Semitism, the natural supremacy of the German people, and the establishment of Germany by superior force as a dominant world power. The p -
Audie Murphy
Audie Leon Murphy was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II, receiving every military combat award for valor available from the U.S. Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. -
Dictator
a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained power by force.
example: Adolf Hitler - Nazi Germany - 1933 to 1945 -
FDR
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known by his initials FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States. Elected his first term on March 3, 1933 -
Propaganda
information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. MAY 10, 1933
JOSEPH GOEBBELS SPEAKS AT BOOK BURNING IN BERLIN
Forty thousand people gather to hear German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels speak in Berlin's Opera Square. Goebbels condemns works written by Jews, liberals, leftists, pacifists, foreigners, and others as "un-German." Nazi students begin burning books. Libraries across Germany are purged of "cen -
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until his ousting in 1943. First Meeting of Hitler and Mussolini in Venice -
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party. He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. Hitler becomes Germany's dictator. After being named chancellor of Germany in 1933, a presidential election is held in 1934 that Hitler easily wins, partially because he vows to fight communism. He is now firmly in power as dictator of Germany with the title of Fuhrer. -
Period: to
Rape of Nanking
A six-week period after Japan’s capture of Nanjing—former capital of the Republic of China—in 1937, during which hundreds of thousands of civilians were murdered and 20,000–80,000 women were raped by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army -
Victory Gardens
Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I and World War II. -
Lend Lease Act
Proposed in late 1940 and passed in March 1941, the Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. -
Women’s Roles in WWII
At first the government politely discouraged those women who wanted to perform some kind of military service. It soon became clear that the war was going to demand much more than the government had expected. Women could do the technical jobs normally performed by men, freeing those men for combat.Beginning in December 1941. -
Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. -
War Bonds and Rationing
With the onset of World War II, numerous challenges confronted the American people. The government found it necessary to ration food, gas, and even clothing during that time. Americans were asked to conserve on everything. With not a single person unaffected by the war, rationing meant sacrifices for all. Began in the spring of 1942 -
Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II to consolidate existing government information services and deliver propaganda both at home and abroad. OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. -
Vernon Baker
Vernon Joseph Baker was a United States Army officer who received the Medal of Honor, the highest military award given by the United States Government for his valorous actions during World War II.After completing officer candidate school, he was commissioned on January 11th, 1943. -
Fire Bombing of Dresden
On the evening of February 13, 1945, a series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the "Florence of the Elbe" to rubble and flames, and killing as many as 135,000 people. It was the single most destructive bombing of the war—including Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and all the more horrendous because little, if anything, was accomplished strategically, since the Germans were already on the verge of surrender. -
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States. As the final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. Elected for first term April 12,1945 -
Japanese-American Interment Camps
Internment means putting a person in prison or other kind of detention, generally in wartime. During World War II, the American government put Japanese-Americans in internment camps, fearing they might be loyal to Japan. In 1944, two and a half years after signing Executive Order 9066, fourth-term President Franklin D. Roosevelt rescinded the order. The last internment camp was closed by the end of 1945. -
Winston Churchill
Churchill gives his famous "iron curtain" speech. Speaking to a group of students in Missouri, Churchill says that an "iron curtain" has fallen over Europe. He refers to Stalin's plan to spread communism across Europe and the term "iron curtain" becomes part of political vocabulary.
