1918-1938, leading up to the war

1918 November 11 - World War I ends with German defeat.

1919 June 28 - Signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

1921 July 29 - Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist (Nazi) Party.

1923 - German inflation causes a crisis in Germany
(Fun fact: Money had become so worthless one person, who left their suitcase unattended, found that a thief had stolen the suitcase but not the money.)

1925 July 18 - Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" published.

1930 September 14 - Germans elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany.

1933 January 30 - Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. His Nazi Party, or the Third Reich, takes power and Hitler is essentially the dictator of Germany.

1933 May 10 - The infamous burning of liberal, pacifist, communist, Jewish? books by Nazis

1933 July 14 - Nazi Party declared Germany's only political party.

1934 August 2 - German President Hindenburg dies.

1934 August 19 - Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.

1936 March 7 - German troops occupy the Rhineland.

1937 June 11 - Soviet leader Josef Stalin begins a purge of Red Army general

1937 July 7 - Japan invades China.

1938 March 12 - Hitler annexes the country of Austria into Germany. This is also called the Anschluss.

1938 August 12 - German military mobilizes.

1938 September 30 - British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich.

1939

March 15 - Germany takes Czechoslovakia.

August 25 - Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty.

August 31 - British fleet mobilizes; Civilian evacuations begin from London.

September 1 - Germany invades Poland. World War II begins.

September 3 - France and Great Britain declare war on Germany.

September 8 - German soldiers arrive at the outskirts of the Polish capital of Warsaw

September 17 - Soviets invade Poland.

September 27 - The Polish capital of Warsaw officially falls.

September 29 - Germany and Soviets divide up Poland.

November 26 - Shelling of Mainila: The Soviet Union conducted a false flag operation by shelling the Russian village of Mainila near the Finnish border and blaming the attack on Finland.

November 30 - The Winter War begins, the Soviet Union invades Finland.

1940

March 12 - The Moscow Peace Treaty ending the Winter War was signed. Soviets receive 16,000 square miles of Finnish territory.

April 9 to June 9 - Germany invades and takes control of Denmark and Norway.

May 10 to June 22 - Germany uses quick strikes called blitzkrieg, meaning lightning war, to take over much of western Europe including the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern France.

May 14 - British Home Guard / Dads army set up incase of a German invasion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvr6X054xLY

May 27 to June 4 - British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk

May 30 - Winston Churchill becomes leader of the British government.

June 10 - Italy enters the war as a member of the Axis powers.

June 23 - Hitler tours Paris.
(Fun fact: The French cut the cables for lift in the eiffel tower so if hitler wanted to get to top he'd have to climb the stairs. Its said that Hitler conquered France but not the eiffel tower)

July 10 - Germany launches an air attack on Great Britain. These attacks last until the end of October and are known as the Battle of Britain.

August 25 - First British air raid on Berlin.

September 27 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.

1941

February 14 - First units of German 'Afrika Korps' arrive in North Africa.

March 27 - A coup in Yugoslavia overthrows the pro-Axis government.

May 10 - Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess flies to Scotland.

June 22 - Germany begins Operation Barbarossa, attack Russia with a huge force of over four million troops.

June 25 - Finland declared war on the Soviet Union, the Continuation War began

August 20 - German siege of Leningrad begins.

October 2 - Operation Typhoon begins (German advance on Moscow).

October 24 - Germans take Kharkov.

October 30 - Germans reach Sevastopol.

December 5 - German attack on Moscow is abandoned.

December 6 - Soviet Army launches a major counter-offensive around Moscow.

December 7 - The Japanese attack the US Navy in Pearl Harbor. The next day the US enters World War II on the side of the Allies.

1942

January 26 - First American forces arrive in Great Britain.

June 4 - The US Navy defeats the Japanese navy at the Battle of Midway.

July 9 - Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR.

1943

January 10 - Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad.

February 2 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.

May 22 - Karl Dönitz suspends U-boat operations in the North Atlantic.

July 10 - The Allies invade and take the island of Sicily.

September 3 - Italy surrenders to the Allies, however Germany helps Mussolini to escape and set up a government in Northern Italy.

1944

January 6 - Soviet troops advance into Poland.

June 5 - Allies enter Rome.

June 6 - D-day and the Normandy invasion. Allied forces invade France and push back the Germans.

June 22 - Operation Bagration begins (the Soviet summer offensive).

August 25 - Paris is liberated from German control.

September 19 - The Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union came to an end with the signing of the Moscow Armistice

December 16 - The Germans launch a large attack in the Battle of the Bulge. They lose to the Allies sealing the fate of the German army.

1945

January 17 - Soviet troops capture Warsaw, Poland.

February 19 - US Marines invade the island of Iwo Jima. After a fierce battle they capture the island.

April 12 - US President Franklin Roosevelt dies. He is succeeded by President Harry Truman.

April - Hitlers last days are upon him as berlin falls into the hands of the USSR, watch the famous movie about Hitlers last days here: (Downfall) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTLAxPMVyVg&list=PLgXs8EKlGi7C8iNJdAWGbYZgPVnNZraPL

April 20 - Adolf Hitler celebrates his final (56th) birthday.

April 27 - The Soviet Army remains just 15 miles from the center of Berlin.

April 28 - Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans; Allies take Venice.

April 30 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide as he knows Germany has lost the war, the Soviets capture the Reichstag.

May 1 - German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels murders his wife and six children before taking his own life.

May 7 - Germany surrenders to the Allies.

May 8 - V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.

August 6 - The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

August 8 - The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria.

August 9 - The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

September 2 - Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.

WW2s official end

None of the Allies agreed over a single government of Germany, so no formal peace treaty was signed. This open status of war is the legal loophole the US, UK, France, and the USSR used to keep their militaries in Germany for so long. With two German governments formed, and NATO not recognizing one and the Warsaw Pact not recognizing another, a formal state of war was left until the reunification. After reunification in 1990 the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany was signed, ending World War II officially.