World War II
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World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated WWII or WW2), was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.
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[edit] Timeline
[edit] 1919-1938
- June 28, 1919 - The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I. Germany was forced to accept sole responsibility for causing the war, drastically reduce its military, give up land, and pay for damages caused to other countries.
- October 27-29, 1922 - Benito Mussolini turns Italy upside down. He stages a successful coup, supported by the military and business class. It is called the "March on Rome" and in just two days, Mussolini becomes the world's first fascist leader.
- November 1923 - While in jail for an aborted coup (Beer Hall Putsch), Adolf Hitler begins to write "Mein Kampf" or "My Struggle". The book is a political blueprint. It spells out, among other things, Hitler's views on anti-Semitism, Germany's need for more living space and the importance of propaganda.
- 1929 - Germany enters the Great Depression, which led to high rates of unemployment, poverty, civil unrest. The lure of a steady job and adequate food led many people to support dictatorships like those established by Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Joseph Stalin.
- January 1933 - Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party comes to power.
- October 1935 - The Kingdom of Italy invades Ethiopia.
- July 17, 1936 - The Spanish Civil War begins.
[edit] 1939
- August 24, 1939 - German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and his Soviet counterpart Vyacheslav Molotov sign a non-aggression pact.
- September 1, 1939 - Germany invades Poland.
- September 3, 1939 - France and Britain declare war on Germany.
- September 10, 1939 - Canada declares war on Germany.
[edit] 1940
- April 1940 - Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
- May 10, 1940 - Germany invades France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
- September 7, 1940 - The London Blitzkrieg begins. Nightly raids by the German Luftwaffe lay waste to the city.
[edit] 1941
- March 11, 1941 - The U.S. Congress passes the Lend-Lease Act.
- June 22, 1941 - Adolf Hitler launches Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.
- December 7, 1941 - Japanese forces bomb the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
- December 8, 1941 - The United States joins World War II.
[edit] 1943
- February 2, 1943 - The German army is defeated at Stalingrad.
- September 8, 1943 - Italy signs an armistice with the Allies. The first fascist government of the 20th century becomes the first to surrender.
- November 28, 1943 - The Teheran Conference (Code name Eureka), it is the first time the three major Allied leaders (Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill) meet.
[edit] 1944
- June 6, 1944 - Operation Overlord (Battle of Normandy) begins.
- June 23, 1943 - The Nazis grant permission to the International Red Cross to visit a concentration camp. They tour Theresienstadt, near Prague.
- July 20, 1944 - German officers, led by Count Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise), place a briefcase with a bomb inside Hitler's command post. It explodes, but Hitler survives.
[edit] 1945
- January 27, 1945 - The Liberation of Auschwitz. Soviet troops find 7,000 prisoners, most of whom are ill and dying.
- March 9, 1945 - The U.S. bombs Tokyo.
- April 30, 1945 - Hitler shoots himself in the head.
- May 7, 1945 - Berlin, Germany falls silent. The carnage comes to an end. The remaining German high command orders their soldiers to stop fighting.
- May 8, 1945 - Nazi Germany surrenders.
- August 6, 1945 - The U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
- August 9, 1945 - The U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.
- August 15, 1945 - Japan surrenders.
- November 20, 1945 - The Nuremburg trials open. Leaders of the Nazi regime are to be tried for war crimes.
[edit] The End
[edit] VE Day
Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day or VE Day) was May 7 and May 8, 1945, the dates when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. On April 30, Hitler committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin, and so the surrender of Germany was authorized by his replacement, President of Germany Karl Dönitz.
[edit] VJ Day
Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day, also known as Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is a name chosen for the day on which the Surrender of Japan occurred, effectively ending World War II. The term has been applied to both the day on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made in the afternoon of August 15, 1945 (August 14 North American date), as well as the date the formal surrender ceremony was performed in Tokyo on September 2, 1945.
