Timeline

Japanese invasion of China

Sep 18, 1937

http://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/The war was between China and Japan over the control of Korea. It was the war that began in 1937 as a Japanese invasion of China and ended with the World War II defeat of Japan in 1945.

German Blitzkrieg

Sep 1, 1939

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/In a blitzkrieg, troops in vehicles, such as tanks, made quick surprise strikes with support from airplanes. Blitzkrieg is German for “lightning war.”

Germany invades Poland

Sep 1, 1939

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/Germany invaded Poland only days after signing the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, under which the Soviet Union agreed not to defend Poland from the east if Germany attacked it from the west.

Fall of Paris

Mar 10, 1940

http://spartacus-educational.com/2WW.htmThe conquest of France by Germany in World War II in the spring of 1940. With France occupied, only British resistance in the Battle of Britain kept Germany from gaining control of Europe. The outcome was a Decisive Axis victory.

Operation Barbaossa

Jun 22, 1941

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/pages/ww2/The day that Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

Pearl Harbor

Dec 7, 1941

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/pages/ww2/A major United States naval base in Hawaii that was attacked without warning by the Japanese air force on December 7, 1941, with great loss of American lives and ships. It caused about 2400 dead, 200 planes destroyed, and 8 battleships destroyed or damaged. The attack also brought the US to the war.

Wannsee Conference

Jan 20, 1942

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/ The conference was a meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. They talked about the final solution to ending Jews. They would get buses and fill them with gas, make them dig their own graves, etc.

Battle of Stalingrad

Feb 2, 1942

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe. On February 2, 1943, General Paulus surrendered what remained of his army-some 91,000 men.

Japanese internment

Feb 19, 1942

http://spartacus-educational.com/2WW.htmIn 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt, citing concerns about wartime security, issued executive order 9066 which forced upwards of 110,000 Japanese-Americans to relocate to a number of "relocation centers," or concentration camps, on the West Coast. The American government feared that they might be loyal to Japan.

Battle of Midway

Jun 3, 1942

http://spartacus-educational.com/2WW.htmIt lasted through June 7th, it was an air battle fought in World War II, American carriers blunted the Japanese naval threat in the Pacific Ocean after Pearl Harbor.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Apr 19, 1943

http://www.euronet.nl/users/wilfried/ww2/ww2.htmThe uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II. 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. It lasted through May 16, 1943.

D-Day (Normandy Invasion)

Jun 6, 1944

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/Also known as Operation Overlord, Paratroopers invaded behind enemy lines, thousands stromed beaches or Normandy France. This is when they took back France, More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded. It lasted until August 1944.

Liberation of concentration camps

Jan 27, 1945

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005131The Soviets liberated Auschwitz, the largest killing center and concentration camp, in January 1945. The Germans attempted to hide the evidence of mass murder by demolishing the camp. Camp staff set fire to the large crematorium used to burn bodies of murdered prisoners, but in the hasty evacuation the gas chambers were left standing.

Battle of Iwo Jima

Feb 19, 1945

http://spartacus-educational.com/2WW.htmThe Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the U.S. Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

Battle of Okinawa

Apr 1, 1945

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/pages/ww2/Also known as Operation Iceberg, took place in April-June 1945. It was the largest landing in the Pacific theater of World War II. It also resulted in the largest casualties with over 100,000 Japanese casualties and 50,000 casualties for the Allies. It was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War.

VE Day

May 7, 1945

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/pages/ww2/Also considered Victory in Europe, which is the day that Germany surrenders.

Dropping of the atomic bombs

Aug 6, 1945

http://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/During World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people.

VJ Day (Victory over Japan Day)

Sep 2, 1945

http://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/On September 2, 1945, a formal surrender ceremony was held in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. At the time, President Truman declared September 2 to be VJ Day.

Nuremberg Trials

Nov 20, 1945

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II. The trials were to get rid of the people who were involved in the holocaust, and commmited crimes.

Battle of the Bulge

Dec 16, 1945

http://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/In December 1944, Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. The battle is significant in the course of World War II because it is seen as Hitler’s last major offensive in the war.