TIMELINE OF EVENTS
| 1933 | United States extends diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union |
| Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany | |
| 1935–1937 | Neutrality Acts passed |
| 1938 | Germany annexes the Sudetenland |
| 1939 | Germany occupies Czechoslovakia |
| Germany and Soviet Union invade Poland; World War II begins | |
| 1940 | Battle of Britain begins |
| Japan, Germany, and Italy sign Tripartite Pact | |
| 1941 | Lend-Lease Act passed |
| Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) created | |
| Roosevelt and Churchill sign Atlantic Charter | |
| December 7, 1941 | Japan attacks U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor |
| December 11, 1941 | Germany and Italy declare war on the United States |
| 1942 | Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) established |
| War Production Board and National War Labor Board formed | |
| Roosevelt approves Manhattan Project | |
| Roosevelt issues order that leads to internment of Japanese Americans | |
| 1943 | Zoot suit riots |
| Race riots in Detroit and more than 240 cities | |
| June 6, 1944 | D Day invasion begins |
| 1945 | Final U.S. offensive against Japan, with victories at Iwo Jima and Okinawa |
| February 1945 | Yalta Conference |
| May 1945 | Germany surrenders |
| July 1945 | First successful atomic bomb test |
| August 1945 | U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki |
| September 1945 | Japan formally surrenders |