Key Events

• Germany invades Poland in a blitzkrieg in 1939.

• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. enters the war in 1941.

• Americans victory at Battle of Midway in June 1942, marks turning point in Pacific War.

• On D-Day, June 1944, the allied invasion begins and Paris is liberated in August from Nazi control.

• U.S. troops land on Leyte, beginning the liberation of the Philippines.

• U.S. B-29's bomb Tokyo, more than 80,000 people die.

• U.S. forces invade and take over Okinawa. The Allies wanted Okinawa as the base for the upcoming invasion of Japan.

• The U.S. army liberates the Philippines in March of 1945.

• Later Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler kills himself and Germany surrenders.

• Truman becomes President of the U.S. on Roosevelt's death.

• Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing at least 100,000 people. Japan surrenders.

Atomic Bomb (1945) D-Day (1944)Pearl Harbor (1941)