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Germany invades Poland
German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
In response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany. -
Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, is called to replace Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister following the latter’s resignation after losing a confidence vote in the House of Commons. -
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Evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)
The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and French troops from Dunkirk's beaches on the north coast of France was about to begin.
France had fallen before the German advance, and with less than a week to prepare, the operation was the responsibility of Vice-Admiral Ramsay.
The aim was the evacuation of up to 40,000 troops under attack. -
Italy enters war on side of Axis powers
Italy entered World War 2 under the leadership of Mussolini on 11 June 1940. During the course of the war Italy sided with the axis power at the side of Germany. The sle purpose for entering the World War 2 was not to aid Germany in becoming the next superpower of the world. -
France signs armistice with Germany
On June 22, 1940, France signed an armistice with Germany. Hitler insisted that it be done in the same railway car in which Germany had surrendered to France in 1918, at the end of World War I. -
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Battle of Britain
German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. A significant turning point of World War II, the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population. -
Tripartite Pact signed
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. -
Operation Sea Lion
Operation Sealion was the name given by Hitler for the planned invasion of Great Britain in 1940. Operation Sealion was never carried out during the war because the Germans lost the Battle of Britain and it is now thought that Hitler was more interested in the upcoming attack on Russia as opposed to invading Britain. -
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Siege of Tobruk
The Siege of Tobruk lasted for 241 days in 1941 after Axis forces advanced through Cyrenaica from El Agheila in Operation Sonnenblume against the British Western Desert Force in Libya, during the Western Desert Campaign (1940–1943) of the Second World War. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the name given to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Russia on June 22nd 1941. Barbarossa the largest military attack of World War Two and was to have appalling consequences for the Russian people. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
On that day, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. The bombing killed more than 2,300 Americans. -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
On December 8, 1941, the United States Congress declared war upon the Empire of Japan in response to its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the prior day. The government of the United Kingdom also declared war on the Empire of Japan, following the Japanese attacks on Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong. -
Japan take Singapore
The Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II took place from 1942 to 1945, following the fall of the British colony on 15 February 1942. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied it after defeating the combined Australian, British, Indian, and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore. -
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Battle of Midway
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. -
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First Battle of El Alamein
The First Battle of El Alamein was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, fought on the northern coast of Egypt between Axis forces (Germany and Italy) of the Panzer Army Africa (Panzerarmee Afrika). -
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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 favor of the Allies. -
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Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein took place near the Egyptian railway halt of El Alamein. With the Allies victorious, it marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It followed the First Battle of El Alamein, which had stalled the Axis advance into Egypt, after which, in August 1942, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery had taken command of the British Eighth Army from General Claude Auchinleck. This victory turned the tide. -
D-Day Landings
During World War II, the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, also 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. -
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Battle of the Bulge
Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. Caught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. Lieutenant General George S. Patton’s successful maneuvering of the Third Army to Bastogne proved vital to the Allied defense. -
Mussolini captured and executed
Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy until his downfall in 1943, has been killed by partisans along with his mistress, Clara Petacci, and some close associates. Their bodies were taken to Milan from the Lecco district near Lake Como where they were arrested and then killed the next day. -
Hitler commits suicide
Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, hid away in a air-raid shelter, took a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his “1,000-year” Reich collapses above him. -
German forces surrender
The leader of the German High Command, General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northwestern France. -
V.E. day
Both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War. -
Soviet Union declares was on Japan
The Soviet Union officially declares war on Japan, putting more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
A second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan’s unconditional surrender. -
Japanese surrender - End of WW2
Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II. -
United Nations is born
The United Nations Charter, which was adopted and signed on June 26, 1945, is now effective and ready to be enforced.
