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The Japanese invade Manchuria. China appealed to the league, which condemned the Japanese action. Japan withdrew from the league and kept Manchuria.
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Jan 30, 1933- May 8, 1945
The Nazi extermination of millions of European Jews began. Nazis called it the "final solution to the Jewish problem." -
Benito Mussolini attacked Ethiopia in October 1935-May 1936, in part to avenge a humiliating Italian defeat there in 1896.
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Hitler sent a small armed force into the demilitarized Rhineland. This was a breach of both the Versailles Treaty and the Locarno Agreements, and it removed an important element of French security.
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Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sign a treaty of cooperation on October 25; on November 1, 1936, the Rome-Berlin Axis is announced.
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Nazi Germany (Axis Powers) and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the Soviet Union and the international Communist movement.
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The Japanese invaded China, initiating World War II in the Pacific.
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Germany incorporated Austria in the Anschluss (March 11-13). Czechoslovakia was now surrounded by Germany on three sides.
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Mussolini proposed a conference (Sept. 29-30) of Germany, Italy, France, and Britain. They were deciding the fate of Czechoslovakia.
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Hitler broke his promise and occupied Prague, putting an end to Czech independence and to illusions that his only goal was to restore Germans to the Reich.
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Neville Chamberlain, British prime minister, announced a Franco-British guarantee of Polish independence. However, Hitler didn't take it seriously, knowing that both countries were unprepared for war.
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The Russians feared that the Western powers meant for them to bear the burden of the war against Germany. As a result, they made the Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact with Germany. Many people were shocked that they made an alliance together.
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Germans invaded Poland. Two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany. World War II had begun in Europe.
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The Russians invaded Poland from the East, dividing the country with the Germans.
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November 30, 1939-March 12, 1940
The Soviet Union invaded Finland, initiating the so-called Winter War. The Finns sued for an armistice and have to cede the northern shores of Lake Lagoda and the small Finnish coastline on the Arctic Sea to the Soviet Union. -
Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrendered on the day of the attack; Norway held on until June 9. (Apr 9-June 9)
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May 10, 1940-June 22, 1940
The Germans attacked western Europe -- France and the neutral Low Countries. Luxembourg is occupied on May 10; the Netherlands surrenders on May 14; and Belgium surrenders on May 28. On June 22, France signs an armistice agreement by which the Germans occupy the northern half of the country and the entire Atlantic coastline. In southern France, a collaborationist regime with its capital in Vichy is established. -
Italy entered the war. Italy invaded southern France on June 21.
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July 10, 1940-October 31, 1940
The air war known as the Battle of Britain ended in defeat for Nazi Germany. -
June 22, 1941-November 1941
Nazi Germany and its Axis partners (except Bulgaria) invaded the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa). Finland, seeking redress for the territorial losses in the armistice concluding the Winter War, joins the Axis just before the invasion. The Germans quickly overrun the Baltic States. -
The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day, the U.S. declared war on Japan, entering WWII.
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December 11-13
Nazi Germany and its Axis partners (Italy) declared war on the United States. -
May 30, 1942-May 1945
The British bomb Köln (Cologne), brought the war home to Germany for the first time. Over the next three years Anglo-American bombing reduces urban Germany to rubble. -
The tides turn. British and U.S. navies stopped the Japanese naval advance in the central Pacific at Midway.
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Axis forces (Germany) in Tunisia surrendered to the Allies, ending the North African campaign.
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British and U.S. troops successfully landed on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans (D-Day). By beginnning of September, France had been liberated.
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U.S. troops crossed the Rhine River at Remagen. German resistance crumbled.
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Hitler committed suicide in an underground hideaway in Berlin.
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The war in Europe ended.
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Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945 (V-J Day is also celebrated on this day), Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.
