World War II - Timeline

1918

NOV 11 --- World War One Armistice signed at Compeigne, France

1919

JUN 28 --- Treaty of Versailles signed

1920

JAN 16 --- League of Nations meets for the first time

1921

JUL 29 --- Adolf Hitler assumes control of National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party

1922

OCT 24 --- Benito Mussolini calls for fascist "Blackshirts" to march on Rome

OCT 29 --- Mussolini appointed Premier by King Victor Emmanuel III

1923

NOV 8-9 --- Hitler's Munich Beer Hall Putsch fails

1925

JAN 3 --- Mussolini dismisses Italian parliament, begins to assume dictatorial powers

JUL 18 --- Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf, is published

1929

OCT 29 --- Wall Street Stock Market crashes

1931

SEP 18 --- Japanese Army invades Manchuria

1932

NOV 8 --- Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected United States President

1933

JAN 30 --- Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg

FEB 27 --- German Reichstag burns down; communists blamed, arrested.

MAR 23 --- Enabling Act passed by Reichstag; Hitler assumes dictatorial power

JUL 14 --- Nazi Party declared official party of Germany; all other parties banned

OCT 14 --- Germany quits League of Nations

1934

JUN 30 --- Hitler orders murder of SA Chief Ernst Roehm in "Night of the Long Knives"

AUG 2 --- German President Paul von Hindenburg dies

AUG 19 --- Hitler combines the offices of president and chancellor; assumes the title of Fuhrer

1935

MAR 16 --- Military conscription introduced in Germany in violation of Versailles treaty

SEP 15 --- Nuremburg race laws promulgated

OCT 3 --- Italian Army invades Ethiopia

1936

MAR 7 --- German troops remilitarize the Rhineland in violation of Versailles treaty

MAY 9 --- Italian campaign in Ethiopia ends

JUL 17 --- Spanish Civil War breaks out; Hitler and Mussolini send aid to Franco

OCT 1 --- Franco becomes dictator of Spain

OCT 25 --- Rome-Berlin "Axis" alliance formed

1937

JAN 19 --- Japan withdraws from Washington Conference Treaty limiting the size of its navy

MAY 28 --- Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of England

JUN 11 --- Josef Stalin begins purge of Red Army

JUL 7 --- Full-scale war erupts between China and Japan

1938

MAR 12 --- Germany invades Austria; Anschluss (union) proclaimed

SEP 30 --- Munich conference held to solve Sudeten question

OCT 15 --- German troops occupy Czech Sudetenland

NOV 9-10 --- Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass)

1939

MAR 15-16 --- German troops occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia in violation of Munich Agreement

MAR 28 --- Spanish Civil War ends

AUG 23 --- Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact signed

SEP 1 --- German Army invades Poland

SEP 3 --- Britain and France declare war on Germany

SEP 17 --- Red Army invades Poland in accordance with Nazi-Soviet pact

SEP 27 --- Warsaw falls to the Nazis

NOV 30 --- Red Army attacks Finland

DEC 14 --- Soviet Union kicked out of League of Nations

1940

MAR 12 --- Finland signs peace treaty with Soviet Union

APR 9 --- German Army invades Denmark and Norway

MAY 10 --- German Army invades France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill appointed British Prime Minister

MAY 15 --- Holland capitulates to Nazis

MAY 26 --- "Miracle at Dunkirk"

MAY 28 --- Belgium capitulates to Nazis

JUN 10 --- Norway capitulates to Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France

JUN 14 --- Nazis take Paris

JUN 22 --- Frances capitulates to Nazis

JUL 10 --- Battle of Britain begins

JUL 23 --- Red Army takes Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia

AUG 3 --- Italian Army invades British Somaliland

AUG 13 --- Luftwaffe begins raids on British airfields and aircraft factories

AUG 23-24 --- Off-course German bombers accidentally bomb London

AUG 25-26 --- Royal Air Force mounts reprisal raid against Berlin

SEP 7 --- German "blitz" on British cities begins in earnest

SEP 13 --- Italian Army attacks Egypt

SEP 16 --- Military conscription introduced in United States

SEP 27 --- Tripartite alliance formed between Germany, Italy, and Japan

OCT 7 --- German troops occupy Romania

OCT 28 --- Italian Army attacks Greece

NOV 5 --- Roosevelt re-elected

NOV 10-11 --- RAF raid cripples Italian fleet at Taranto

NOV 20 --- Romania joins Axis

NOV 9-10 --- British counter-attack begins against Italian Army in North Africa

1941

JAN 22 --- British take Tobruk in North Africa from Nazis

FEB 11 --- British Army attacks Italian Somaliland

FEB 12 --- Erwin Rommel assumes command of German Afrika Corps

MAR 7 --- British Army comes to the aid of Greece

MAR 11 --- Lend-Lease Act signed by Roosevelt

APR 6 --- German Army hastily invades Yugoslavia and Greece

APR 17 --- Yugoslavia capitulates to Nazis

APR 27 --- Greece capitulates to Nazis

MAY 10 --- Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland on "peace mission"

MAY 15 --- British counter-attack in Egypt

MAY 24 --- German battleship Bismarck sinks Hood, pride of the Royal Navy

MAY 27 --- Royal Navy sinks Bismarck

JUN 8 --- British Army invades Lebanon and Syria

JUN 22 --- Hitler launches operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union

JUN 28 --- Germans capture Soviet city of Minsk

JUL 3 --- Stalin launches "scorched earth" policy

JUL 31 --- Planning begins for "Final Solution," the systematic destruction of the Jews

AUG 12 --- Atlantic Charter signed by Roosevelt and Churchill

AUG 20 --- German siege of Soviet city of Leningrad begins

SEP 1 --- Jews ordered to wear yellow Star of David

SEP 19 --- Germans capture Soviet city of Kiev

SEP 29 --- German SS mass murders Russian Jews at Kiev

OCT 16 --- Germans capture Soviet city of Odessa

OCT 17 --- Hideki Tojo becomes Prime Minister of Japan

OCT 24 --- Germans capture Soviet city of Kharkov

OCT 30 --- German Army occupies the Crimea

NOV 20 --- Germans capture the Soviet city of Rostov

NOV 27 --- Red Army retakes Rostov

DEC 6 --- Red Army launches major counter-offensive

DEC 7 --- Japanese attack naval base at Pearl Harbor

DEC 8 --- Roosevelt gives "Day of Infamy" speech; United States and Britain declare war on Japan

DEC 11 --- Germany declares war on the United States

DEC 16 --- Rommel's Afrika Corps forced to retreat in North Africa

DEC 19 --- Hitler assumes post of Commander in Chief of the German Army

1942

JAN --- Mass gassing of Jews begins at Auschwitz

JAN 1 --- Allies forge Declaration of the United Nations

JAN 13 --- German U-boats begin sinking ships off American coast in "Operation Drumbeat"

JAN 20 --- Nazis coordinate "Final Solution" efforts at Wannsee Conference

JAN 21 --- Rommel counter-attacks in North Africa

APR --- American citizens of Japanese descent forced into "relocation centers"

MAY 8 --- Germans launch summer offensive in the Crimea

MAY 30 --- Royal Air Forces launches first 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne, Germany

JUN 4 --- Japanese Navy resoundingly defeated at Battle of Midway -- war reaches its turning point in the Pacific; S.S. Leader Rheinhardt Heydrich dies of wounds sustained in partisan attack at Prague

JUN 5 --- German siege of Sevastopol begins

JUN 10 --- Nazis annihilate Czech town of Lidice in retaliation for Heydrich's assassination

JUN 21 --- German Afrika Korps recaptures Tobruk

JUL 3 --- Sevastopol falls to German Army

JUL 5 --- Nazi conquest of Crimea achieved

JUL 9 --- German Army begins push towards Stalingrad

AUG 7 --- General Bernard Montgomery assumes command of British Eighth Army in North Africa

SEP 13 --- German attack on Stalingrad begins

OCT 23 - NOV 3 --- Afrika Korps decisively defeated by British at El Alamein

NOV 8 --- Allied invasion of North Africa begins in "Operation Torch"

NOV 11 --- Axis forces occupy Vichy France

NOV 19 --- Soviet forces encircle German Sixth Army at Stalingrad

DEC 31 --- German and British ships engage in the Battle of the Barents Sea

1943

JAN 2-3 --- German Army retreats from Caucasus

JAN 10 --- Red Army begins siege of German-occupied Stalingrad

JAN 14-23 --- Roosevelt and Churchill meet at Casablanca, issue unconditional surrender demand

JAN 23 --- British forces take Tripoli

JAN 27 --- U.S. Air Force opens daylight bombing campaign with attack on Wilhelmshaven, Germany

FEB 2 --- German Sixth Army at Stalingrad surrenders to the Russians; war in Europe reaches its turning point

FEB 8 --- Red Army takes Kursk

FEB 14-25 --- Battle of Kasserine Pass fought in North Africa between German and U.S. forces

FEB 16 --- Red Army retakes Kharkov

MAR 2 --- Afrika Korps withdraws from Tunisia

MAR 15 --- German Army recaptures Kharkov

MAR 16-20 --- German submarines achieve their largest tonnage total of the war

APR 19 --- S.S. begins "liquidation" of the Warsaw ghetto

MAY 7 --- Allies capture Tunisia

MAY 13 --- Remaining Axis troops in North Africa surrender to Allies

MAY 16-17 --- RAF targets German industry in the Ruhr

MAY 22 --- U-boat operations suspended in the North Atlantic due to steep losses

JUN 11 --- Nazis order destruction of Polish ghettos

JUL 5 --- Largest tank battle in history begins at Kursk

JUL 9-10 --- Allied forces land on Sicily

JUL 22 --- Allied forces take Palermo, Sicily

JUL 25-26 --- Mussolini and the Fascists overthrown

JUL 27-28 --- Allied bombing raid create firestorm in Hamburg, Germany

AUG 12-17 --- Axis forces withdraw from Sicily

AUG 17 --- USAF suffers steep losses in bombing run on ball-bearing plants at Regensburg and Schweinfurt, Germany

AUG 23 --- Red Army retakes Kharkov

SEP 8 --- New Italian government announces Italy's surrender

SEP 9 --- Allied forces land in Salerno and Taranto, Italy

SEP 11 --- German Army occupies Italy

SEP 12 --- Nazi commandos rescue Mussolini

SEP 23 --- Fascist government re-established in Italy

OCT 1 --- Allies take Naples

NOV 6 --- Red Army recaptures Kiev

NOV 28 --- "Big Three" of Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill meet at Tehran

DEC 24-26 --- Soviets begin large offensive in Ukraine

1944

JAN 6 --- Red Army advances into Poland

JAN 22 --- Allied forces land at Anzio, Italy

JAN 27 --- Red Army breaks 900-day siege of Leningrad

JAN 31 --- American forces invade Kwajalein

FEB 16 --- German 14th Army counter-attacks at Anzio

FEB 18-22 --- American forces take Eniwetok

APR 8 --- Red Army begins offensive in the Crimea

MAY 9 --- Soviet troops recapture Sevastopol

MAY 12 --- German forces in the Crimea surrender

JUN 5 --- Allied forces enter Rome

JUN 6 --- D-Day: invasion of Europe begins with Allied landings at Normandy

JUN 9 --- Red Army advances into Finland

JUN 13 --- Germans begin launching V-1 rockets against London

JUN 15 --- American marines invade Saipan

JUN 19-20 --- "Marianas Turkey Shoot" results in destruction of over 200 Japanese aircraft

JUN 22 --- Red Army begins massive summer offensive

JUN 27 --- American forces liberate Cherbourg

JUL 3 --- Soviet forces recapture Minsk

JUL 9 --- American troops liberate Caen

JUL 18 --- American troops liberate St Lo

JUL 20 --- Hitler survives assassination attempt

JUL 24 --- Soviet forces liberate concentration camp at Majdanek

JUL 25-30 --- Allied forces breakout of Normandy encirclement in "Operation Cobra"

JUL 28 --- Red Army recaptures Brest-Litovsk

AUG 1 --- Polish Home Army begins revolt against Nazis in Warsaw

AUG 15 --- Allies invade Southern France

AUG 19-20 --- Soviet forces invade Romania

AUG 23 --- Romania capitulates to Soviets

AUG 25 --- Paris liberated

AUG 31 --- Red Army takes Bucharest

SEP 3 --- Brussels liberated

SEP 4 --- Antwerp liberated

SEP 8 --- Soviets and Finns sign peace treaty

SEP 13 --- American troops reach the Siegfried Line in western Germany

SEP 26 --- Red Army occupies Estonia

OCT 2 --- Nazis brutally crush revolt in Warsaw; Allies advance into Germany

OCT 5 --- British invade Greece

OCT 14 --- British liberate Athens; Rommel forced to commit suicide for alleged involvement in July assassination plot against Hitler

OCT 20 --- Belgrade, Yugoslavia falls to Soviet forces

OCT 23-26 --- U.S. naval forces destroy remnants of Japanese Navy at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement in history

NOV 7 --- Roosevelt elected to fourth term

DEC 3 --- Civil war erupts in Greece; Japanese retreat in Burma

DEC 15 --- American forces invade Philippine island of Mindoro

DEC 16 --- German Army launches "Battle of the Bulge" offensive on the Western Front

DEC 17 --- Waffen SS executes 81 American prisoners of war in "Malmedy Massacre"

1945

JAN 9 --- American forces invade Philippine island of Luzon

JAN 16 --- Battle of the Bulge ends in German defeat

JAN 17 --- Red Army liberates Warsaw

JAN 19 --- German lines on Eastern Front collapse; full retreat begins

JAN 20 --- Hungary signs armistice with Allies

JAN 26 --- Soviets liberate Auschwitz

JAN 27 --- Red Army occupies Lithuania

FEB 4-11 --- Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Yalta Conference

FEB 13-14 --- Allied incendiary raid creates firestorm in Dresden

FEB 19 --- American forces land on Iwo Jima

MAR 3 --- American forces liberate Manila in the Philippines; Finland declares war on Germany

MAR 7 --- Allies capture Cologne; Ludendorff Rail Bridge on Rhine River captured intact at Ramagen

MAR 9 --- Tokyo firebombed

MAR 16 --- Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima ends

MAR 21 --- Allies take Mandalay, Burma

MAR 30 --- Red Army liberates Danzig

APR 1 --- American troops encircle German forces in the Ruhr

APR 12 --- Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies of stroke; Harry Truman becomes president; Allies liberate Belsen and Buchenwald concentration camps

APR 16 --- Red Army launches Berlin offensive; Allies take Nuremburg

APR 18 --- German forces in the Ruhr capitulate

APR 28 --- Mussolini hanged by Italian partisans; Venice falls to Allied forces

APR 29 --- Dachau concentration camp liberated

APR 30 --- Adolf Hitler and wife Eva Braun commit suicide in Chancellery bunker

MAY 2 --- All German forces in Italy surrender

MAY 7 --- Unconditional surrender of all German forces

MAY 8 --- Victory in Europe (VE) Day

MAY 23 --- SS Reichfuhrer Heinrich Himmler commits suicide

JUN 5 --- Allies divide Germany into occupation zones

JUN 26 --- United Nations World Charter signed in San Francisco

JUL 16 --- First U.S. atomic bomb tested at Los Alamos, New Mexico; Potsdam Conference begins

JUL 26 --- Clement Attlee becomes British Prime Minister

AUG 6 --- First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

AUG 8 --- Soviet Union declares war on Japan; Soviet forces invade Manchuria

AUG 9 --- Second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

AUG 14 --- Unconditional surrender of Japanese forces

AUG 15 --- Victory over Japan (VJ) Day

SEP 2 --- Japanese delegation signs instrument of surrender aboard battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay

NOV 20 --- Nuremburg War Crimes Tribunal begins

1946

JAN 7 --- United Nations meets for first time in London

OCT 16 --- Hermann Goering commits suicide; 11 other war criminals hanged