1. World War IIBy Joseph Enge

2. A Fragile Peace 1922- Benito Mussolin becomes head of Italy's government

3. November 1923- The "Beer Hall Putsch"

4. 1924- While serving 9 months, out of a 5-year sentence, Hitler dictates Mein Kampf

5. September 1931- Japan invades Manchuria

6. January 30, 1933- Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany "SA and SS, Heil! The great time has now begun. Germany is now awakened. We have won power in Germany. Now we must win over the German people. I know, my comrades, it must have been difficult at times, when you were desiring change which didn't come, so time and time again the appeal has to be made to continue the struggle - you mustn't act yourself, you must obey, you must give in, you must submit to this overwhelming need to obey."

7. February 27, 1933- Reichstag Fire

8. 1933- Japan withdraws from the League of Nations 1935- Japan strengthens its fleet in contradiction to the Washington Treaty March 16, 1935- Hitler announces conscription and plans a 36 division, 500,000 men army

9. October 1935- Italy invades Ethiopia

10. March 7, 1936- Hitler sends his troops into the Rhineland July 1936 to March 1939- Spanish Civil War Fall 1936- The Rome-Berlin Axis is formed December 1937- Japanese sink the U.S.S. Panay, 2 Americans are killed

11. March 1938- Germany annexes Austria "This land and this people does not come to the Reich with hat in hand. I myself lead you home."

12. September 1938- Munich Agreement, German demands for the Sudetenland are met = Appeasement

13. March 1939- Hitler seizes the rest of Czechoslovakia April 1939- Italy seizes Albania

14. August 1939- Nazi- Soviet Pact or Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact Hitler and Stalin agree to split Eastern Europe

15. The War Begins September 1, 1939- Germany invades Poland. The new concept of Blitzkrieg warfare is introduced. Poland falls in 3 weeks.

16. September 17, 1939- Russia invades Eastern Poland. 15,000 of the captured Polish officers are slaughtered by Stalin's NKVD (KGB) in 1940, Katyn Forest Massacre.

17. September & October, 1939- Soviet troops occupy Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Finland resists Stalin's demands. • November 1939- The Soviet Union attacks Finland. Finland holds out at first, but outnumbered 5 to 1 they surrender in March. Finland keeps its independence, but gives up territory to Stalin.

18. April 1940- Hitler conquers Denmark and Norway. 1/3 of the German surface fleet is sunk or heavily damaged in invading Norway. May 10, 1940- Winston Churchill replaces Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister

19. May 10, 1940 - The Sitzkrieg or Phony War ends. Germany invades Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

20. June 4, 1940- The British evacuate the last of 340,000 troops from Dunkirk • June 10, 1940 - The French government evacuates Paris. Italy declares war on France

21. June 14, 1940- German troops enter Paris

22. June 17, 1940- Stalin overthrows the governments in the Baltic States and installs communist puppet governments June 22, 1940- France surrenders in the same rail car and the same town as Germany had surrendered in 1918

23. June 29, 1940- Stalin invades Eastern Rumania • July 1, 1940 - French Vichy government is set up

24. July-September, 1940 Battle of Britain

25. America Reacts • May 1940- The U.S. Congress votes for $17 billion for defense • June 1940- Congress passes the Alien Registration Act • September 1940- America's first peace time draft • The 50 destroyer deal between the U.S. and Britain

26. March 1940- Lend- Lease Act

27. July 1941- American troops join British troops in occupying Iceland, U.S. ships escort freighters as far as Iceland • August 1941- Atlantic Charter, Roosevelt and Churchill pledge a statement of postwar aims • September 1941- a U.S. destroyer engages a German submarine in combat

28. Japan on the Move • August 1940- Japan seizes French bases in northern Indochina • September 1940- Japan signs Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy Roosevelt declares an embargo against Japan, increases aid to China, and fortifies the Philippines & Guam • July 1941- Japan occupies all of French Indochina The U.S. freezes all Japanese funds in U.S. banks • November 1941- U.S.- Japanese Peace Talks The U.S. demands Japan pulls out of China Japan demands U.S. ends embargo and ends aid to China

29. Pearl Harbor • December 7, 1941- Japan launches a sneak attack against Pearl Harbor. They also attack Midway, Wake, Guam, the Philippines, Malaya, and Singapore. 150 U.S. planes and 2400 U.S. soldiers and civilians are killed in the Pearl Harbor attack. The bulk of the U.S. battleships are sunk or heavily damaged. Luckily, the U.S. carrier fleet was out at sea at the time, Japan's main target

31. War in Europe • October 28, 1940- Greece rejects Italy's demands for the use of Greek bases, Italy invades Greece • December 1940- The Greeks break through the Italian defenses and overrun ¼ of Albania . The Greeks take 28,000 Italian prisoners. Hitler has to come to Mussolini's aid and send troops to Greece. Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia agree to let German troops pass through their countries. A revolution in Yugoslavia forces Hitler to invade Yugoslavia in order to get to Greece • April 1941- German troops pour into Yugoslavia and Greece. Both fall quickly, but Hitler's planned invasion of Russia is delayed a critical six weeks

32. June 22, 1941- Hitler invades Russia with 3 million troops and reaches the suburbs of Moscow. "Brothers and sisters: the German invasion continues. The German Army has taken Lithuania, a large part of Latvia, part of Byelorussia and part of the Ukraine. A great danger hangs over the nation."

33. December 1941- Russian winter offensive takes the pressure off of Moscow and inflicts heavy German casualties. German lack of preparedness for a long winter campaign leads to over 1 million men being lost by late March 1942 • June 1942 - German summer offensive opens up in southern Russia

34. August 22, 1942- The Germans start assault on Stalingrad the turning point of the war, see also Midway and El Alamein

35. November 19, 1942- Soviet counter-attack in pincer drives begins. The German Sixth Army under General von Paulus at Stalingrad is surrounded • January 1943- The German Sixth Army at Stalingrad surrenders in 3 months, the Germans lost 500,000 troops in winter fighting

36. July 1943- Battle of Kursk, last major German offensive in the Eastern Front, is stopped. The largest tank battle in history.

37. October to November 1942- Battle of El Alamein Rommel is defeated in Egypt by Montgomery's British Eighth Army • November 8, 1942- Operation Torch, the U.S. forces land in North Africa and put the squeeze on Rommel • May 1943- The last German position in Africa, Tunisia falls

38. July 1943- The American and British forces invade Sicily, Mussolini falls from power

39. Italy Surrenders • October 1943- Salerno Invasion, American and British forces invade southern Italy

40. January 1944- Anzio, American forces try to outflank the Cassino Line and take Rome • June 4, 1944- Rome falls

41. June 6, 1944- Operation Overlord, The Normandy Invasion. The biggest naval invasion in history American and British forces land in France

42. August 1944- Paris is taken by the Allies

43. December 1944 to January 1945- The Battle of the Bulge. Hitler's last gamble and offensive of the war

44. March 7, 1945- American forces cross the Rhine River at Remagen

45. April 12, 1945- President Roosevelt dies, Harry Truman is sworn in as the new president

47. April 25 1945- American and Russian forces meet at Torgau

48. April 30, 1945- Adolf Hitler and his new bride Eva commit suicide

49. May 2, 1945- Russians take Berlin

50. May 7, 1945- V.E. Day Germany surrenders to the Allies