-
Great Depression begins
Although the United States had experienced several depressions before the stock market crash on October 27, 1929, none had been as severe or as long lasting before "Black Thursday" struck Wall Street. -
. Japan conquers Manchuria in northern China
In 1931, the Japanese Kwangtung Army attacked Chinese troops in Manchuria in an event commonly known as the Manchurian Incident. Essentially, this was an attempt by the Japanese Empire to gain control over the whole province, in order to eventually encompass all of East Asia. -
Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
In the hope of creating a stable government, the elderly President Hindenburg agreed to the plan. So on 30 January 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. -
Roosevelt first elected president
In his first hundred days in office, which began March 4, 1933, Roosevelt spearheaded major legislation and issued a profusion of executive orders that instituted the New Deal. -
Nuremberg Laws
A conference of ministers was held on August 20, 1935, to discuss the economic effects of Party actions against Jews. Adolf Wagner, the Party representative at the conference, argued that such actions would cease, once the Government decided on a firm policy against the Jews. -
Hitler & Mussolini form the Rome-Berlin Axis
Hitler followed up his intervention in the Spanish civil war with a warm invitation to the Italian foreign minister to come to Berlin, where on 21 October 1936, Germany and Italy signed a formal alliance which came to be known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. -
Japan joins the Axis Powers
On November 25, 1936, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan signed the so-called Anti-Comintern Pact directed at the Soviet Union. -
Japan invades China
On July 16, 1937, a few days after the beginning of Japan's undeclared war on China, Secretary Hull issued a statement of fundamental principles of international policy. -
Germany invades Austria
As the sole member of the Austrian government, he invited German troops into Austria in March 1938. On March 15th 1938, Hitler entered Vienna in triumph. -
Kristallnacht
On November 9–10, 1938, the Nazis staged vicious pogroms—state sanctioned, anti-Jewish riots—against the Jewish community of Germany. -
Germany invades Poland - blitzkrieg (start of WWII)
Employing blitzkrieg (literally, "lightning war") tactics, Germany invades Poland. -
Lend-Lease Act
The Lend-Lease Act of March 11, 1941, was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. -
Germany invades the Soviet Union
Under the codename Operation "Barbarossa," Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, in the largest German military operation of World War II. -
The Nazis implement the “Final Solution”
The origin of the "Final Solution," the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jewish people, remains uncertain. -
Japanese-American incarceration
On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day, the United States and Britain declared on Japan. Two months later, on February 19, 1942, the lives of thousands of Japanese Americans were dramatically changed when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. -
Bataan Death March
The Battle of Bataan ended with the surrender of 72000 American and Filipino soldiers to the Japanese. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. -
Guadalcanal
he landing at Guadalcanal was unopposed - but it took the Americans six months to defeat the Japanese in what was to turn into a classic battle of attrition. -
British forces stop the German advance at El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein took place over 20 days from 23 October – 11 November 1942 near the Egyptian coastal city of El Alamein, and the Allies' victory marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. -
German forces surrender at Stalingrad
Of more than 280,000 men under Paulus' command, half were already dead or dying, about 35,000 had been evacuated from the front, and the remaining 91,000 were hauled off to Soviet POW camps. -
Rosie the Riveter
Rockwell’s “Rosie,” shown at right, appeared on the cover of the May 29th,1943 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. -
Tuskegee Airmen
The 43 fighters were there to help B-17 bombers run a gauntlet of over 1,600 miles into the heart of Hitler’s Germany and back. -
D-Day
Over 160,000 Allied troops and 30,000 vehicles are landed along a 50-mile stretch of fortified French coastline and begin fighting on the beaches of Normandy. -
Battle of the Bulge
Hitler sends a quarter of a million troops across an 85-mile stretch of the Allied front, from southern Belgium into Luxembourg. -
Yalta Conference
The last meeting of the Big Three -- Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin -- takes place in the Soviet city of Yalta. -
Iwo Jima
This was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. -
Okinawa
The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945.1 April – 22 June, 1945 -
Roosevelt dies, Truman becomes president
Truman followed Roosevelt's war plans, and 25 days later, the Germans surrendered. -
Formation of the United Nations
Nations met in San Francisco to discuss a new peacekeeping organization to replace the weak and ineffective League of Nations.
All 50 nations ratified the charter, creating a new international peacekeeping body known as the United Nations. President Roosevelt had urged Americans not to turn their backs on the world again. Unlike the League of Nations, the United States is a member of the United Nations. -
Potsdam Conference
Allies held the Potsdam, Conference to plan the war’s end. Decision was made to put Nazi was criminals on trial. -
Manhattan Project
The American B-29 bomber known as the Enola Gay released the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare. -
Nuremberg Trials
Date: November 20, 1945 – October 1, 1946
24 defendants, including some of Hitler’s top officials. Hermann Goring-creator & head Gestapo (Secret police) They would be 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 European economies. The U.S. gave more than $13 billion to help the nations of Europe get back on their feet. -
Germany & Soviet Union have a nonaggression pact
On August 23, 1939, representatives from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union met and signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, which guaranteed that the two countries would not attack each other.