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Prohibition in the United States
Nationwide prohibition began in January 1920 after the ratification of the 18th Amendment in 1919. Prohibition was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The 18th Amendment was repealed in December, 1933, with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. -
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the first World War. It was the first international organization whose principle mission was to maintain world peace. -
19th Amendment was ratified
The 19th Amendment prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. -
Sacco-Vanzetti trial
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted of murdering a guard and a paymaster during the April 15, 1920 armed robbery of the Slater and Morrill shoe company. They were executed in the electric chair 7 years later at Charlestown State Prison. -
Soviet Union was established
A conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the Russian SFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, and the Byelorussian SSR approved the treaty on the Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation for the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. -
Joseph Stalin rises to power
When Lenin died on January 21, 1924, Stalin was given the honour of organizing his funeral. Upon Lenin's death, Stalin was officially hailed as his successor as the leader of the ruling communist party and of the Soviet Union itself. -
Kellog-Briand Pact
The Kellogg-Briand Pact was an agreement to outlaw was signed on August 27, 1928. Sometimes called the Pact of Paris for the city in which it was signed, the pact was one of many international efforts to prevent another world war, but it had very little effect in stopping the rising militarism of the 1930s or preventing World War II. -
Herbert Hoover
Republican Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover defeated the Democratic nominee, Governor Al Smith of New York, in the 36th quadrennial presidential election. Hoover was the last Republican to win a presidential election until 1952. -
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre is the name given to the 1929 murder in Chicago of 7 men of the North Side gang during the prohibition era. The "massacre" was the culmination of a gang war between arch rivals Al Capone and Bugs Moran. -
The Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday (October 29), began on October 24, 1929 ("Black Thursday") and was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States. The Crash signaled the beginning of the 12-year Great Depression the affected all western industrialized countries. -
Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany
On this day, President Paul Von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, as chancellor of Germany. Hitler's emergence as chancellor marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. -
Neutrality Act
Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of "arms, ammunition, and implements of war" from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license. -
Nuremberg Laws
Two distinct laws passed in Nazi Germany in September 1935 are know collectively as the Nuremberg Laws: the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour. These laws embodied many of the racial theories underpinning Nazi ideology. They would provide the legal framework for the systematic persecution of Jews in Germany. -
Italy invades Ethiopia
The aim of invading Ethiopia was to boost Italian national prestige, which was wounded by Ethiopia's defeat of Italian forces at the Battle of Adowa in the nineteenth century, which saved Ethiopia from Italian colonization. -
Roosevelt gives Quarantine speech
The Quarantine Speech was given by Franklin D. Roosevelt on October 5, 1937 in Chicago calling for an international "quarantine" against the "epidemic of world lawlessness" by aggressive nations as an alternative to the political climate of American neutrality and nonintervention that was prevalent at the time. -
Germany Takes Austria
German troops marched into Austria. Hitler announced his Anschluss, and a plebiscite was held on April 10. Whether or not it was rigged, the Fuhrer garnered a whopping 99.7% approval for the union of Germany and Austria. -
Munich Pact Signed
British and French prime ministers, Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier, sign the Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The agreement averted the outbreak of war but gave Czechoslovakia away to German conquest. -
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht was a pogrom, or persecution, against Jews throughout Nazi Germany on November 9-10, 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary forces and German civilians. The German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues were smashed. -
Nonagression Pact is Signed
On August 23, 1939, enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonagression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. -
Soviets invade Finland
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland lasting 3 and a half months. The war began with the Soviet invasion of Finland and ended with the Moscow peace treaty. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the League. -
The Fall of France
The Battle of France was the German Invasion of France and the low countries during World War II. In 6 weeks, German forces defeated Allied forces by mobile operations and conquered France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, bringing land operations on the Western front to an end until June 6, 1944. -
Tripartite Pact Signed
On this day, the Axis Powers are formed as Germany, Italy, and Japan become allies with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. The Pact provided for mutual assistance should any of the signatories suffer attack by any nation not already involved in the war. -
Lend-Lease Act
The Lend-Lease Act was the principle means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. It authorized the president to transfer arms and other defense materials to any country whose defense is vital to the defense of the United States. -
Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii territory. The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II. -
The Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favour of the Allies. It was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million. -
The Italian Campaign
The Italian Campaign was a series of Allied beach landings and land battles from Sicily and Southern Italy up the mainland toward Nazi Germany. -
D-Day
The beginning of the Battle of Normandy is known as D-Day when some 156,000 American, British, and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France's Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offense campaign on the western front during World War II. The surprise attack caught the allied forces completely off guard. American forces took the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war. -
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day was the public holiday celebrated to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II, the Unites States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. The two bombings killed at least 129,000 people, most of whom were civilians.
