WWII

  • Treaty of Versailles

    Treaty of Versailles

    The Treaty of Versailles was a 1919 peace treaty signed by Germany and the Allied Powers that officially ended World War I.
  • Japan Invades Manchuria

    Japan Invades Manchuria

    The Japanese, who owned the railway, blamed Chinese nationalists for the incident and used the opportunity to retaliate and invade Manchuria.
  • Holocaust

    Holocaust

    The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and murder of six million European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945.
  • German Remilitarization of Rhineland

    German Remilitarization of Rhineland

    the Germans would not be able to keep military forces in a 50 km stretch of the Rhineland.
  • Italy Invades Ethiopia

    Italy Invades Ethiopia

    Italy invaded Ethiopia on October 3, 1935, beginning the Second Italo-Ethiopian War to establish an empire and avenge a previous defeat. Despite superior technology and brutal tactics like poison gas, the conflict was prolonged by Ethiopian resistance.
  • Anschluss

    Anschluss

    The Anschluss was the March 1938 annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany, a territorial expansion driven by Adolf Hitler's desire to unite all German-speaking peoples into a "Greater Germany"
  • The Evian Conference

    The Evian Conference

    the Evian Conference in July 1938 was to address the growing crisis of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in Germany and Austria
  • Munich Conference

    Munich Conference

    The Munich Conference concluded that the Sudetenland territory would be ceded to Germany.
  • The Wagner-Rogers Bill

    The Wagner-Rogers Bill

    a 1939 U.S. legislative proposal that would have allowed 20,000 German refugee children to enter the country over two years, outside existing immigration quotas
  • MS St. Louis

    MS St. Louis

    The MS St. Louis was a German ocean liner that, in 1939, carried over 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution
  • Nazi-Soviet Pact

    Nazi-Soviet Pact

    a 1939 non-aggression treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that secretly agreed to divide Eastern Europe, including Poland, into their respective spheres of influence
  • Invasion of Poland

    Invasion of Poland

    to initiate World War II, driven by Hitler's expansionist policies aiming to conquer territory in the east and secure Germany's "living space"
  • Cash and Carry

    Cash and Carry

    allowed warring nations to purchase American goods, including arms, provided they paid cash upfront and transported the goods on their own ships
  • Destroyers for Bases Agreement

    Destroyers for Bases Agreement

    an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom on 2 September 1940
  • Blitzkrieg

    Blitzkrieg

    to initiate World War II, driven by Hitler's expansionist policies aiming to conquer territory in the east and secure Germany's "living space"
  • Battle of Britain

    Battle of Britain

    the Royal Air Force (RAF) successfully defended the United Kingdom against Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe.
  • Lend and Lease

    Lend and Lease

    The Lend-Lease Act of 1941 was a United States program that allowed the President to provide military and economic aid, such as weapons, food, and supplies, to Allied nations vital to American defense during World War II
  • Atlantic Charter

    Atlantic Charter

    a joint declaration made on August 14, 1941, by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill outlining their shared vision for the post-World War II world
  • Pearl Harbor

    Pearl Harbor

    Japan launched a surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing over 2,400 Americans and severely damaging the Pacific Fleet
  • Battle of Coral Sea

    Battle of Coral Sea

    the first naval battle in history fought entirely by aircraft carriers, resulting in a strategic Allied victory by halting the Japanese invasion of Port Moresby, despite both sides suffering heavy losses, including the U.S. carrier USS Lexington
  • Battle of Midway

    Battle of Midway

    destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers and crippling their offensive capabilities, while the U.S. lost only one carrier, the Yorktown
  • War Refugee Board

    War Refugee Board

    a U.S. government agency, established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1944, to rescue Jews and other victims of persecution in Nazi-occupied Europe.
  • Operation Overlord

    Operation Overlord

    the Allied forces landed troops on Normandy beaches for the largest amphibious assault in history, beginning the march eastward to defeat Germany
  • Battle of the Bulge

    Battle of the Bulge

    a surprise attack launched through the Ardennes Forest in December 1944 to split the Allied armies and force them to negotiate
  • Liberation of Buchenwald

    Liberation of Buchenwald

    The liberation of Buchenwald was the event in April 1945 when the United States Army liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp, freeing the remaining prisoners.
  • Battle of the Atlantic

    Battle of the Atlantic

    German U-boats tried to sink Allied merchant ships to starve Britain, but the Allies countered with convoys, radar, and code-breaking to secure their supply lines and project power across the ocean
  • Battle of Okinawa

    Battle of Okinawa

    the final major battle of the Pacific theater, a bloody and costly strategic victory for the Allies that influenced the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan to avoid a potentially devastating invasion
  • Hiroshima Little Boy

    Hiroshima Little Boy

    the codename for the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, during World War II.
  • Nagasaki Fat Man

    Nagasaki Fat Man

    A Fat Man device was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki on 9 August 1945.
  • V-J Day

    V-J Day

    marks the end of World War II