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Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sign a treaty of cooperation on November 1; announcing the Rome-Berlin Axis,
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Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the Soviet Union and the international Communist movement.
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This is the initiating of World War II in the Pacific.
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Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement which forces the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudentenland, to Nazi Germany.
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Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a nonaggression agreement and a secret codicil dividing eastern Europe into spheres of influence.
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Germany invades Poland initiating World War II
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Honoring their guarantee of Poland's borders, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.
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Germany invades Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrendered the day of attack and Norway holds out until June 9.
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Italy enters the war by invading France on June 21
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Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite pact.
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The air war "Battle of Brtain" ends in defeat for Nazi Germany.
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The U.S. declares war on japan entering them into the war.
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The British Bomb Germany for the first time, and over the next three years Anglo-Americans bomb Germany to rubbles.
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British and US navies halt the Japanese naval advance in the central Pacific at Midway.
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US troops halt the Japanese island-hopping advance towards Australia at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands
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US and British troops land at several points on the beaches of Algeria and Morocco in French North Africa. The failure of the Vichy French troops to defend against the invasion enables the Allies to move swiftly to the western border of Tunisia, and triggers the German occupation of southern France on November 11.
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Soviet troops counterattack, breaking through the Hungarian and Romanian lines northwest and southwest of Stalingrad and trapping the German Sixth Army in the city. Forbidden by Hitler to retreat or try to break out of the Soviet ring, the survivors of the Sixth Army surrender on January 30 and February 2, 1943
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US and British troops land on Sicily. By mid-August, the Allies control Sicily.
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Within six weeks, Anglo-American bombers could hit targets in eastern Germany for the first time.
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British and US troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans
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Allied troops reach Paris. On August 25, Free French forces, supported by Allied troops, enter the French capital. By September, the Allies reach the German border; by December, virtually all of France, most of Belgium, and part of the southern Netherlands are liberated.
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The Germans launch a final offensive in the west, known as the Battle of the Bulge, in an attempt to re-conquer Belgium and split the Allied forces along the German border. By January 1, 1945, the Germans are in retreat.
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Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.
