world war 2

Adolf Hitler

Mar 10, 1933

Adolf Hitler is apppointed Chancellor of Germany. Through a combination of legal means and violence, his government makes the Nazi Party the only legal political party in Germany and establishes a dictatorship. Germany begins legal discrimination against Jews.

1935 german jews & exports

Mar 10, 1935

German Jews are stripped of citizenship and civil rights.
Most Americans remain strongly isolationist, opposed to U.S. intervention in foreign wars. The Neutrality Act of 1935 allows the President to impose an embargo (cut off exports) on all parties in a war.

hitler declars war with Czechoslovakia

Mar 10, 1938

Hitler threatens war with Czechoslovakia to annex the German-speaking district of the Sudetenland. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, desperate to avoid war with Germany, agrees to permit the annexation.

germany & denmark

Apr 10, 1940

Germany invades Denmark and Norway.

germany invades

May 10, 1940

Germany invades France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands on May 10.

france & british troops

May 26, 1940

Facing defeat in France, British troops begin evacuating the Continent from Dunkirk on May 26. They are forced to leave behind most of their heavy weapons and equipment, leaving the British Isles vulnerable to invasion.

germany begins to bomb

Jun 3, 1940

Germany begins bombing Paris on June 3.

italy & britian & france

Jun 10, 1940

Italy declares war on Britain and France.

Britain

Jul 10, 1940

The "Vichy" government of occupied France cuts off relations with Britain. Britain is now defeated on the Continent and is without European allies, but Churchill refuses to give up and urges the British people to steel themselves for a long war.

1941 St. Petersburg)

Mar 10, 1941

German forces quickly advance through the western USSR and begin their siege of Leningrad (formerly, and now again, St. Petersburg). The siege will last two and a half years and result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians. "St. Petersburg must be erased from the face of the earth," Hitler says.

Britain counter-attacks in Egypt.

Jun 10, 1941

Britain counter-attacks in Egypt. The British and Germans continue air raids and attacks on each other’s naval vessels.

Final Solution

Jul 10, 1941

Britain and the Soviet Union sign a mutual assistance treaty. Hitler’s government officially begins plans for the "Final Solution," the elimination of Jews from German-occupied Europe.

pearl harbor

Dec 7, 1941

Japan bombs Pearl Harbor on December 7. The following day, the United States and Britain declare war on Japan. Germany responds on December 11 with a declaration of war on the U.S.

americans and Filipino

Apr 11, 1942

US forces on Bataan, in the Philippines, surrender to the Japanese. 75,000 American and Filipino troops are captured by the Japanese and transferred to prison camps in the 60-mile "Bataan Death March," during which thousands died of disease, starvation, untreated wounds, and execution.

d dayy

Jun 6, 1944

On June 6, "D-Day," Allied forces land on the coast of France in Normandy.

fire bomb

Mar 11, 1945

B-29 fire-bomb attack on Tokyo leaves much of the city in ashes and inaugurates a series of incendiary (firebombing) strikes against other Japanese cities.