CHRONOLOGY

1935–1937

  • Neutrality acts passed.

    • 1936

  • Nazi Germany occupies Rhineland.

  • Italian armies conquer Ethiopia.

  • Spanish civil war begins.

    • 1937

  • Japanese troops capture Nanjing.

    • 1938

  • Hitler annexes Austria.

    • 1939

  • German troops occupy Czechoslovakia.

  • Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact formed.

  • Germany’s attack on Poland begins World War II.

    • 1940

  • Germany invades Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

  • British and French troops evacuate from Dunkirk.

  • Battle of Britain fought.

  • Tripartite Pact formed.

    • 1941

  • Lend-Lease Act passes.

  • Germany invades Soviet Union.

  • Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.

    • 1942

  • Japanese Americans moved to internment camps.

  • Japan captures the Philippines.

  • Congress of Racial Equality founded.

  • Battles of Coral Sea and Midway fought.

  • Manhattan Project begins.

  • U.S. forces invade North Africa.

    • 1943

  • Allied leaders demand unconditional surrender of Axis powers.

  • U.S. and British forces invade Sicily.

    • 1944

  • D Day executed.

    • 1945

  • Yalta Conference held.

  • Roosevelt dies; Vice President Harry Truman becomes president.

  • Germany surrenders.

  • United States joins United Nations.

  • United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

  • Japan surrenders, ending World War II.