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Nazi Germany Invades Poland
Germany invaded, breaking their agreement, so Britain and France declared war, starting World War II -
Sitzkrieg
Sitzkrieg or The 'Phoney War' was the period of time in WWII from September 1939 to May 1940 when after the Blitzkrieg attack on Poland in September 1939, nothing seemed to happen. -
France Falls to Germany
France and Germany were in 6 weeks of standstill until on June 22, 1940, the French government signed an armistice with Nazi Germany just six weeks after the Nazis launched their invasion of Western Europe. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force. -
Destroyers for Bases Deal
Agreement between the United States and Great Britain that stated that Great Britain would exchange land rights for American naval destroyers -
America First Committee Founded
An anti-war group that became the largest isolationist driven organization in the United States at the time -
Congress Instituted Draft
The draft for the US Army begins for men ages 21-36 -
Four Freedoms
Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1941 famous State of the Union address where he proposed the four basic freedoms that everyone in the world should be promised -
Lend Lease
law that made the US the "arsenal for democracy" by providing supposedly temorary military material assistance to GB -
USS Kearny Attacked
US destroyer sunk by German U-boats off the coast of iceland in Oct 1941 -
Reuben James Sank
The first United States Naval Vessel to be destroyed by the Axis Powers -
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
The Japanese naval air force made a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base in this place in Hawaii. Several battleships of the U.S. Pacific fleet were damaged or sunk. This attack resulted in an Amercian declaration of war the following day. -
Manhattan Project Began
Research and development team that produced the first nuclear weapons -
Bataan Death March
Transfer of Filipino and American prisoners by Japanese forces across the Phillipines -
Battle of Coral Sea
Major naval battle in the Pacific Ocean between the Japan and a combination of the American and Australian navies -
Battle of Midway
Major naval battle known as the turning point of the war in the Pacific Ocean -
Island Hopping Campaign Begins
Military strategy made of the raids of individual Pacific islands one by one moving towards Japan rather than invading the Japanese mainland -
Battle of Stalingrad
Major battle that took place in a major city of the Soviet Union's and was the turning point for the war in Europe -
Battle of El Alamein
Major ground battle that took place just west of Cairo, Egypt and marked the turning point for the war in Northern Africa -
Tehran Conference
Meeting between the "Big Three;" Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin held at the Soviet Union's embassy in Tehran, Iran -
Casablanca Conference
Meeting between some of the leaders of the Allied Powers including President Franklin D Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and representatives of the Free French cause -
D-Day
The Allied Powers' execution of Operation Overlord which ordered the invasion of Normandy, France, soon to be known as the largest seaborne invasion in history -
MacArthur Returned to the Phillipines
After being given an executive order to avoid capture by leaving the island and its doomed residents, General MacArthur returns -
FDR Reelected for 4th Term
In the election of 1944, FDR was reelected for a 4th term. The only president to do so. -
Battle of the Bulge
German offensive fought through the lower countries and into parts of France and was the last German offensive on the Western front -
Yalta Conference
Another meeting between the Big Three (Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill) in which they discussed post-war reorganization -
Battle of Iwo Jima
A United States Marine Corps invasion on the island of Iwo Jima with the objective of taking control of the entire island, including the few Japanese military establishments present -
Battle of Okinawa
Series of Allied attacks on the island of Okinawa, which included the largest assault for the Pacific side of the war and was to prove a bloody battle -
Harry Truman Becomes President
After FDR died, Truman became POTUS and implemented the Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of Western Europe, and established the Truman Doctrine and NATO. -
VE Day
The conflict in Europe is brought to an end after the surrender of Nazi Germany but the war continues with the Japanese -
Potsdam Conference
Meeting between leaders of the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States where they decided on what the consequences should be for Germany's actions -
Little Boy dropped in Hiroshima
Little Boy was the first nuclear weapon dropped by US on Hiroshima Japan -
Fat Man Dropped on Nagasaki
The second of two nuclear weapons dropped on Japan by US -
VJ Day
The final Axis Power, Japan, surrenders to the Allies bringing an end to the entirety of the Second World War -
Nuremberg Trials
The trial for many European Axis Power leaders, especially Nazis, that were accused for their involvment in the Holocaust or for other war crimes -
Japanese War Crime Trials
Like the Nuremburg Trials but for the Asian Axis Power. Military anad political officials were tried for their war crimes throughout the Asian continent