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World War II Timeline

  • Period: to

    World War II

  • Great Depression

    Great Depression
    On September 23, 1929 the stock prices reahced it's high point right before it crashed.
  • Sharp Decline

    Sharp Decline
    The stock prices dropped sharply after a period of dcline.
  • Black Tuesday

    Black Tuesday
    The stock market completley crashes and is now known as Black Tuesday. People paniced to sell all of their stocks to be safe from bankruptsy. Stock prices fell more than 75%. Millions of ordinary Americans lost their entire life savings in a matter of hours. In the following 5 months, thousands of banks were forced to close from literally running out of money.
  • Japan Conquers Manchuria in Northern China

    Japan Conquers Manchuria in Northern China.
  • Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany

    In Germany, Adolf Hitler led the fascist National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party. The Nazis attracted supporters by preaching German racial superiority. After elections in 1932 Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. He then overthrew the constitution and took control of the government. He called himself der Fuhrer, or “the Leader.”
  • Roosevelt first elected President

    Roosevelt first elected President
    • March 4, 1933- inagurated as president
    • Hundred days- 3 goals
    • Temporary shutdown of all banks
    • Only the banks that were in good shape could reopen.
    • Communicated directly to the public through fireside chats.
    • New bills- 3 major goals
    • Bring relief to the needy.
    • Recovery for agriculture and industry
    • Reforms to the economy.
    • Launched the Second New Deal in 1935
    • Focused on social reform
  • Nuremberg Laws

    Nuremberg Laws
    They excluded German Jews from Reich citizen ship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of “German or German-related blood.”
  • Hitler & Mussolini form the Rome-Berlin Axis

  • Japan invades China

  • Germany invades Austria

    Germany invaded Austria in 1938. Many residents of Austria and Germany welcomed unification. After taking over Austria, Hitler set his sights on the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia where many people of German descent lived.
  • Kristallnacht

    Kristallnacht
    It is often referred to as the “night of broken glass.” There was a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms. People woke up with shard of shattered glass that lined German streets.
  • Britain’s appeasement of Germany

    When British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler their agreement was. Germany would gain control of the Sudetenland and Hitler promised to stop seeking more territory. The Munich Agreement was part of the British and French policy of appeasement, meeting Germany’s demands in order to avoid war. He warned correctly, that Hitler would not stop with the Sudetenland.
  • Germany and Soviet Union have a nonaggression pact

    In August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed not to attack each other. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. World War II had begun.
  • Germany invades Poland - blitzkrieg ( start of WWII)

    Germany invades Poland - blitzkrieg ( start of WWII)
    In august 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed not to attack each other. Germany then invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. German forces drove deep into Poland using a new method of warfare called blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,” which stressed speed and surprise in the use of tanks, troops, and planes. In less than a month Poland fell. In April 1940, Hitler conquered Denmark and overran Norway.
  • Germany invades the Soviet Union

    Germany then invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.
  • Japan joins the Axis Powers

  • Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and France

    Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and France
  • Germany air force (Luftwaffe) bombs London and other civilian targets in the Battle of Britain

    In June 1940, Germany invaded France. In less than two weeks, France surrendered. Hitler expected Britain to seek peace after France fell. The British had no intention of quitting, however. Hitler soon made plans to invade Britain. To do so, he needed to destroy Britain’s Royal Air Force. In the summer and fall of 1940, the German air force, or Luftwaffe, fought the RAF and bombed London and other civilian targets during the Battle of Britain. The RAF was able to hold off the Luftwaffe.
  • Lend-Lease Act

    Lend-Lease Act
    In 1941, Congress approved the Lend-Lease Act, which Roosevelt had supported. The act allowed the United States to lend or lease resources and equipment to the Allies. The United States sent Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and other Allies about $50 billion worth of goods.
  • Pearl Harbor

    Pearl Harbor
    On December 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes bombed the huge American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. About 2,400 Americans both service men and civilians died. Many U.S. warplanes and ships were destroyed or damaged, leaving the U.S. fleet devastated. President Roosevelt then asked Congress to declare war on Japan. He called December 7, 1941”a date that will live in infamy.” On December 11, Japan’s allies Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
  • Tuskegee Airmen

    Tuskegee Airmen
    1942- Minorities also aided the war effort by serving in the armed forces. About one million African Americans served in the armed forced. Because of racial prejudice, they served in segregated units. One such unit was the Tuskegee Airmen, African-American pilots and crew members who served with honor in North Africa and Europe. More than 300,000 Mexican Americans also fought in the war.
  • British Forces stop the German advance at El Alamein

    British stopped the German advance at El Alamein in 1942.
  • Manhattan Project

    Manhattan Project
    This was a top-secret program to build an atomic bomb. Led by American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the project team worked for three years to construct the weapon. Soon after scientists and military officials successfully tested the bomb, President Truman told Japan that if it did not surrender, it faced destruction. The Japanese refused to give it. On August 6, 1945, the B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
  • Japanese-American Incarceration

    Japanese-American Incarceration
    In response to the anti-Japanese hysteria that grew after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in February 1942. The order allowed for the removal of Japanese and Japanese Americans from the Pacific coast. This action came to be known as the Japanese- American internment. More than 110,000 men, women, and children were rounded up. They were forced to sell their homes and possessions, leave their jobs, and move to prison-like camps.
  • Bataan Death March

    Bataan Death March
    In April 1942, more than 70,000 Filipino and American troops surrendered to the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. From there, the Japanese marched the soldiers over 65 miles to a prison camp. On the way about 10,000 prisoners died from shootings, beatings, or starvation. This became known as the Bataan Death March.
  • Battle of Midway

    The Battle of Midway was in June 1942 and was a turning point in the war. The Allies began to turn the tide against the Japanese. The push began in April, with a daring air raid on Japanese cities, including Tokyo. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle led 16 bombers in the attack. Doo little’s raid caused little damage, but it shocked Japan’s leaders and boosted the Allies’ morale.
  • Guadalcanal

    Guadalcanal
    Most of the Allied progress in the Pacific was made by American troops. They gained their first major land victory against the Japanese on the island of Guadalcanal. U.S. Marines marched ashore in August 1942. Six months of bitter fighting followed. In February 1943, the Americans finally won the battle.
  • German Forces Surrender at Stalingrad

    German Forces Surrender at Stalingrad
    In September 1942, German forces attacked the Russian city of Stalingrad, an important industrial center. The Soviet army fiercely defended the city. As winter approached, the German commander begged Hitler to let him retreat, but Hitler refused. Fighting continued through the winter. Soviet troops drove tanks across the frozen landscape and launched a massive counterattack that trapped the Germans and cut off their food and supplies. Many thousands of Nazi soldiers froze or starved to death.
  • Rosie the Riveter

    Rosie the Riveter
    In 1940, about 14 million women worked- 24 percent of the nation’s labor force. By 1945, that number grew to more than 19 million- roughly 30 percent of the work force, Women worked in munitions factories, shipyards, and offices. Much of the nation welcomed the growing numbers of women into the workplace. The country promoted “Rosie the Riveter”- and image of a strong woman hard at work at an arms factory- as its symbol for its new group of wage earners.
  • D-Day

    On June 6, shortly after midnight, Allied paratroopers and glider borne forces landed behind German lines in Normandy, a region of northern France. Then in the early morning, more than 5,000 ships and landing craft carried more than 150,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers across the Channel to Normandy. More than 10,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded as they attempted to move inland. By day’s end, however, the Allies had secured the beaches.
  • Battle of the Bulge

    In December 1944, Hitler launched a final assault, the Battle of the Bulge. German troops pushed back Allied forces in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg before U.S. forces regrouped and defeated them. The battle’s human toll was costly, with about 120,000 German casualties and about 80,000 Americans casualties.
  • Iwo Jima

    Iwo Jima
    By the end of 1944, with Japan’s defenses weakened, the Allies began bombing Japan. To succeed, however, they had to establish bases closer to the mainland. They chose the Japanese-held islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In February 1945, U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima. In late February, American soldiers planted the U.S. flag at the top of Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi, signaling their victory, though fighting continued for several days afterward. In April, they invaded Okinawa.
  • Okinawa

    Okinawa
    To succeed, however, they had to establish bases closer to the mainland. They chose the Japanese-held islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In February 1945, U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima. In late February, American soldiers planted the U.S. flag at the top of Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi, signaling their victory, though fighting continued for several days afterward. In April, they invaded Okinawa.
  • The Nazis implement the "Final Solution"

    The Nazis implement the "Final Solution"
    In 1945, the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jewish people as part of the “Final Solution” the Nazi policy to murder the Jewish of Europe. The “Final Solution” was concentration camps. They did this to detain real and imagined political and ideological opponents.
  • Yalta Conference

    Yalta Conference
    In February 1945, Allied leaders met in the Soviet resort of Yalta. Attending the Yalta Conference were the “Big Three” as they were called— Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. During the conference, these leaders made plans for the end of the war and the future of Europe. Stalin promised to declare war on Japan after Germany surrendered. The three leaders also agreed to establish a postwar international peace-keeping organization.
  • Formation of the United Nations

    50 nations met in San Francisco to discuss a new peacekeeping organization to replace the weak and ineffective League of Nations.
  • Formation of the United Nations

    All 50 nations ratified the charter, creating a new international peacekeeping body known as the United Nations.
  • Postdam Conference

    Allies held the Potsdam Conference to plan the war’s end. Decision was made to put Nazi war criminals on trial.
  • Postdam Conference

    Allies held the Potsdam Conference to plan the war’s end. Decision was made to put Nazi war criminals on trial.
  • Japanese Surrender on the U,S,S, Missouri- ending World War II

    On August 14, 1945, Japan surrendered. September 2, 1945, Japanese and Allied leaders met aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. There, Japanese officials signed an official letter of surrender. The war was over.
  • Nuremburg Trials

    24 defendants, including some of Hitler’s top officials. Hermann Goering- creator and head of Gestapo (secret police). Charged with crimes against humanity. 19 found guilty, 12 sentenced to death. People are responsible for their actions, even in wartime.
  • Nuremburg Trials

    24 defendants, including some of Hitler’s top officials. Hermann Goering- creator and head of Gestapo (secret police). Charged with crimes against humanity. 19 found guilty, 12 sentenced to death. People are responsible for their actions, even in wartime.
  • Marshall Plan

    Congress approved secretary of State George Marshall’s plan to help boost European economies. The U.S. gave more than $13 billion to help the nations of Europe get back on their feet.