Timeline with Photos and Text
Jump To: 1939 - 1940 - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1944 - 1945
1918
Nov 11 - World War One ends with German defeat.
1919
April 28 - League of Nations founded.
June 28 - Signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
1921
July 29 - Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist 'Nazi' Party.
1923
Nov 8/9 - The Beer Hall Putsch.
1925
July 18 - Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" published.
1926
Sept 8 - Germany admitted to League of Nations.
1929
Oct 29 - Stock Market on Wall Street crashes.
1930
Sept 14 - Germans elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany.
1932
Nov 8 - Roosevelt elected President of the United States.
1933
Jan 30 - Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
Feb 27 - The Reichstag burns.
March 12 - First concentration camp opened at Oranienburg outside Berlin.
March 23 - Enabling Act gives Hitler dictatorial power.
See also - The Rise of Hitler - from Unknown to Dictator of Germany
April 1 - Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops.
May 10 - Nazis burn books in Germany.
In June - Nazis open Dachau concentration camp.
July 14 - Nazi party declared only party in Germany.
Oct 14 - Germany quits the League of Nations.
1934
June 30 - The "Night of the Long Knives."
July 25 - Nazis murder Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss.
Aug 2 - German President Hindenburg dies.
Aug 19 - Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
1935
March 16 - Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.
Sept 15 - German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws.
1936
Feb 10 - The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
March 7 - German troops occupy the Rhineland.
May 9 - Mussolini's Italian forces take Ethiopia.
July 18 - Civil war erupts in Spain.
Aug 1 - Olympic games begin in Berlin.
Oct 1 - Franco declared head of Spanish State.
1937
June 11 - Soviet leader Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals.
Nov 5 - Hitler reveals war plans during Hossbach Conference.
1938
March 12/13 - Germany announces 'Anschluss' (union) with Austria.
Aug 12 - German military mobilizes.
Sept 30 - British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich.
Oct 15 - German troops occupy the Sudetenland; Czech government resigns.
Nov 9/10 - Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.
See also - Holocaust Timeline
1939 Return to Top of Page
Jan 30, 1939 - Hitler threatens Jews during Reichstag speech.
March 15/16 - Nazis take Czechoslovakia.
March 28, 1939 - Spanish Civil war ends.
May 22, 1939 - Nazis sign 'Pact of Steel' with Italy.
Aug 23, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets sign Pact.
Aug 25, 1939 - Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty.
Aug 31, 1939 - British fleet mobilizes; Civilian evacuations begin from London.
Sept 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland.
Sept 3, 1939 - Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.
Sept 4, 1939 - British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.Sept 5, 1939 - United States proclaims neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland.
Sept 10, 1939 - Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins.
Sept 17, 1939 - Soviets invade Poland.Sept 27, 1939 - Warsaw surrenders to Nazis; Reinhard Heydrich becomes the leader of new Reich Main Security Office (RSHA).
Biography of SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich.
Sept 29, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.
In Oct - Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
Nov 8, 1939 - Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
Nov 30, 1939 - Soviets attack Finland.
Dec 14, 1939 - Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations.
1940 Return to Top of Page
Jan 8, 1940 - Rationing begins in Britain.
March 12, 1940 - Finland signs a peace treaty with Soviets.March 16, 1940 - Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland.
April 9, 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark and Norway.May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.
May 15, 1940 - Holland surrenders to the Nazis.
May 26, 1940 - Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins.
May 28, 1940 - Belgium surrenders to the Nazis.June 3, 1940 - Germans bomb Paris; Dunkirk evacuation ends.
June 10, 1940 - Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France.
June 14, 1940 - Germans enter Paris.
June 16, 1940 - Marshal Pétain becomes French Prime Minister.
June 18, 1940 - Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich; Soviets begin occupation of the Baltic States.
June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice with the Nazis.
June 23, 1940 - Hitler tours Paris.
June 28, 1940 - Britain recognizes Gen. Charles de Gaulle as the Free French leader.
July 1, 1940 - German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.
July 5, 1940 - French Vichy government breaks off relations with Britain.
July 10, 1940 - Battle of Britain begins.
July 23, 1940 - Soviets take Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Aug 3-19 - Italians occupy British Somaliland in East Africa.
Aug 13, 1940 - German bombing offensive against airfields and factories in England.
Aug 15, 1940 - Air battles and daylight raids over Britain.
Aug 17, 1940 - Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.
Aug 23/24 - First German air raids on Central London.
Aug 25/26 - First British air raid on Berlin.
Sept 3, 1940 - Hitler plans Operation Sealion (the invasion of Britain).
Sept 7, 1940 - German Blitz against England begins.
Sept 13, 1940 - Italians invade Egypt.
Sept 15, 1940 - Massive German air raids on London, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.
Sept 16, 1940 - United States military conscription bill passed.
Sept 27, 1940 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
Oct 7, 1940 - German troops enter Romania.
Oct 12, 1940 - Germans postpone Operation Sealion until Spring of 1941.
Oct 28, 1940 - Italy invades Greece.
Nov 5, 1940 - Roosevelt re-elected as U.S. president.
Nov 10/11 - A torpedo bomber raid cripples the Italian fleet at Taranto, Italy.
Nov 14/15 - Germans bomb Coventry, England.
Nov 20, 1940 - Hungary joins the Axis Powers.
Nov 22, 1940 - Greeks defeat the Italian 9th Army.
Nov 23, 1940 - Romania joins the Axis Powers.
Dec 9/10 - British begin a western desert offensive in North Africa against the Italians.
Dec 29/30 - Massive German air raid on London.
1941 Return to Top of Page
Jan 22, 1941 - Tobruk in North Africa falls to the British and Australians.
Feb 11, 1941 - British forces advance into Italian Somaliland in East Africa.
Feb 12, 1941 - German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, North Africa.
Feb 14, 1941 - First units of German 'Afrika Korps' arrive in North Africa.
March 7, 1941 - British forces arrive in Greece.
March 11, 1941 - President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act.
March 27, 1941 - A coup in Yugoslavia overthrows the pro-Axis government.
April 3, 1941 - Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq.
April 6, 1941 - Nazis invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
April 14, 1941 - Rommel attacks Tobruk.
April 17, 1941 - Yugoslavia surrenders to the Nazis.
April 27, 1941 - Greece surrenders to the Nazis.
May 1, 1941 - German attack on Tobruk is repulsed.
May 10, 1941 - Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess flies to Scotland.
May 10/11 - Heavy German bombing of London; British bomb Hamburg.
May 15, 1941 - Operation Brevity begins (the British counter-attack in Egypt).
May 24, 1941 - Sinking of the British ship Hood by the Bismarck.
May 27, 1941 - Sinking of the Bismarck by the British Navy.
June 4, 1941 - Pro-Allied government installed in Iraq.
June 8, 1941 - Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
June 14, 1941 - United States freezes German and Italian assets in America.
June 22, 1941 - Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins.
In June - Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen begin mass murder.
June 28, 1941 - Germans capture Minsk.
July 3, 1941 - Stalin calls for a scorched earth policy.
July 10, 1941 - Germans cross the River Dnieper in the Ukraine.
July 12, 1941 - Mutual Assistance agreement between British and Soviets.
July 14, 1941 - British occupy Syria.
July 26, 1941 - Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets in United States and suspends relations.
July 31, 1941 - Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for the Final Solution.
Aug 1, 1941 - United States announces an oil embargo against aggressor states.
Aug 14, 1941 - Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter.
Aug 20, 1941 - Nazi siege of Leningrad begins.
Sept 1, 1941 - Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
Sept 3, 1941 - First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Sept 19, 1941 - Nazis take Kiev.
Sept 29, 1941 - Nazis murder 33,771 Jews at Kiev.
Oct 2, 1941 - Operation Typhoon begins (German advance on Moscow).
Oct 16, 1941 - Germans take Odessa.
Oct 24, 1941 - Germans take Kharkov.
Oct 30, 1941 - Germans reach Sevastopol.
Nov 13, 1941 - British aircraft carrier Ark Royal is sunk off Gibraltar by a U-boat.
Nov 20, 1941 - Germans take Rostov.
Nov 27, 1941 - Soviet troops retake Rostov.
Dec 5, 1941 - German attack on Moscow is abandoned.
Dec 6, 1941 - Soviet Army launches a major counter-offensive around Moscow.
Dec 7, 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor; Hitler issues the Night and Fog decree.
Dec 8, 1941 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
Dec 11, 1941 - Germany declares war on the United States.
Dec 16, 1941 - Rommel begins a retreat to El Agheila in North Africa.
Dec 19, 1941 - Hitler takes complete command of the German Army.
1942 Return to Top of Page
Jan 1, 1942 - Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations.
Jan 13, 1942 - Germans begin a U-boat offensive along east coast of USA.
Jan 20, 1942 - SS Leader Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
Jan 21, 1942 - Rommel's counter-offensive from El Agheila begins.
Jan 26, 1942 - First American forces arrive in Great Britain.
In April - Japanese-Americans sent to relocation centers.
April 23, 1942 - German air raids begin against cathedral cities in Britain.
May 8, 1942 - German summer offensive begins in the Crimea.
May 26, 1942 - Rommel begins an offensive against the Gazala Line.
May 27, 1942 - SS Leader Heydrich attacked in Prague.
May 30, 1942 - First thousand bomber British air raid (against Cologne).
In June - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.
June 4, 1942 - Heydrich dies of wounds.
June 5, 1942 - Germans besiege Sevastopol.
June 10, 1942 - Nazis liquidate Lidice in reprisal for Heydrich's assassination.
June 21, 1942 - Rommel captures Tobruk.
June 25, 1942 - Eisenhower arrives in London.
June 30, 1942 - Rommel reaches El Alamein near Cairo, Egypt.
July 1-30 - First Battle of El Alamein.
July 3, 1942 - Germans take Sevastopol.
July 5, 1942 - Soviet resistance in the Crimea ends.
July 9, 1942 - Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR.
July 22, 1942 - First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps; Treblinka extermination camp opened.
Aug 7, 1942 - British General Bernard Montgomery takes command of Eighth Army in North Africa.
Aug 12, 1942 - Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow.
Aug 17, 1942 - First all-American air attack in Europe.
Aug 23, 1942 - Massive German air raid on Stalingrad.
Sept 2, 1942 - Rommel driven back by Montgomery in the Battle of Alam Halfa.
Sept 13, 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins.
Oct 5, 1942 - A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
Oct 18, 1942 - Hitler orders the execution of all captured British commandos.
Nov 1, 1942 - Operation Supercharge (Allies break Axis lines at El Alamein).
Nov 8, 1942 - Operation Torch begins (U.S. invasion of North Africa).
Nov 11, 1942 - Germans and Italians invade unoccupied Vichy France.
Nov 19, 1942 - Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad begins.
Dec 2, 1942 - Professor Enrico Fermi sets up an atomic reactor in Chicago.
Dec 13, 1942 - Rommel withdraws from El Agheila.
Dec 16, 1942 - Soviets defeat Italian troops on the River Don in the USSR.
Dec 17, 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons of mass executions of Jews by Nazis; U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
Dec 31, 1942 - Battle of the Barents Sea between German and British ships.
1943 Return to Top of Page
Jan 2/3 - Germans begin a withdrawal from the Caucasus.
Jan 10, 1943 - Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad.
Jan 14-24 - Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference, Roosevelt announces the war can end only with an unconditional German surrender.
Jan 23, 1943 - Montgomery's Eighth Army takes Tripoli.
Jan 27, 1943 - First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven).
Feb 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
Feb 8, 1943 - Soviet troops take Kursk.
Feb 14-25 - Battle of Kasserine Pass between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and German Panzers in North Africa.
Feb 16, 1943 - Soviets re-take Kharkov.
Feb 18, 1943 - Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich.
March 2, 1943 - Germans begin a withdrawal from Tunisia, Africa.
March 15, 1943 - Germans re-capture Kharkov.
March 16-20 - Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.
March 20-28 - Montgomery's Eighth Army breaks through the Mareth Line in Tunisia.
April 6/7 - Axis forces in Tunisia begin a withdrawal toward Enfidaville as American and British forces link.
April 19, 1943 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.
May 7, 1943 - Allies take Tunisia.
May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.
May 16, 1943 - Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ends.
May 16/17 - British air raid on the Ruhr.
May 22, 1943 - Dönitz suspends U-boat operations in the North Atlantic.
June 10, 1943 - 'Pointblank' directive to improve Allied bombing strategy issued.
June 11, 1943 - Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland.
July 5, 1943 - Germans begin their last offensive against Kursk.
July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.
July 19, 1943 - Allies bomb Rome.
July 22, 1943 - Americans capture Palermo, Sicily.
July 24, 1943 - British bombing raid on Hamburg.
July 25/26 - Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.
July 27/28 - Allied air raid causes a firestorm in Hamburg.
Aug 12-17 - Germans evacuate Sicily.
Aug 17, 1943 - American daylight air raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt in Germany; Allies reach Messina, Sicily.
Aug 23, 1943 - Soviet troops recapture Kharkov.
Sept 8, 1943 - Italian surrender is announced.
Sept 9, 1943 - Allied landings at Salerno and Taranto.
Sept 11, 1943 - Germans occupy Rome.
Sept 12, 1943 - Germans rescue Mussolini.
Sept 23, 1943 - Mussolini re-establishes a Fascist government.
Oct 1, 1943 - Allies enter Naples, Italy.
Oct 4, 1943 - SS Reichsführer Himmler gives speech at Posen.
Oct 13, 1943 - Italy declares war on Germany; Second American air raid on Schweinfurt.
Nov 6, 1943 - Russians recapture Kiev in the Ukraine.
Nov 18, 1943 - Large British air raid on Berlin.
Nov 28, 1943 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran.
Dec 24-26 - Soviets launch offensives on the Ukrainian front.
1944 Return to Top of Page
Jan 6, 1944 - Soviet troops advance into Poland.
Jan 17, 1944 - First attack toward Cassino, Italy.
Jan 22, 1944 - Allies land at Anzio.
Jan 27, 1944 - Leningrad relieved after a 900-day siege.
Feb 15-18 - Allies bomb the monastery at Monte Cassino.
Feb 16, 1944 - Germans counter-attack against the Anzio beachhead.
March 4, 1944 - Soviet troops begin an offensive on the Belorussian front; First major daylight bombing raid on Berlin by the Allies.
March 15, 1944 - Second Allied attempt to capture Monte Cassino begins.
March 18, 1944 - British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany.
April 8, 1944 - Soviet troops begin an offensive to liberate Crimea.
May 9, 1944 - Soviet troops recapture Sevastopol.
May 11, 1944 - Allies attack the Gustav Line south of Rome.
May 12, 1944 - Germans surrender in the Crimea.
May 15, 1944 - Germans withdraw to the Adolf Hitler Line.
May 25, 1944 - Germans retreat from Anzio.
June 5, 1944 - Allies enter Rome.
June 6, 1944 - D-Day landings.
June 9, 1944 - Soviet offensive against the Finnish front begins.
June 10, 1944 - Nazis liquidate the town of Oradour-sur-Glane in France.
June 13, 1944 - First German V-1 rocket attack on Britain.
June 22, 1944 - Operation Bagration begins (the Soviet summer offensive).
June 27, 1944 - U.S. troops liberate Cherbourg.
July 3, 1944 - 'Battle of the Hedgerows' in Normandy; Soviets capture Minsk.
July 9, 1944 - British and Canadian troops capture Caen.
July 18, 1944 - U.S. troops reach St. Lô.
July 20, 1944 - German assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
July 24, 1944 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.
July 25-30 - Operation Cobra (U.S. troops break out west of St. Lô).
July 28, 1944 - Soviet troops take Brest-Litovsk. U.S. troops take Coutances.
Aug 1, 1944 - Polish Home Army uprising against Nazis in Warsaw begins; U.S. troops reach Avranches.
Aug 4, 1944 - Anne Frank and family arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam, Holland.
Aug 7, 1944 - Germans begin a major counter-attack toward Avranches.
Aug 15, 1944 - Operation Dragoon begins (the Allied invasion of Southern France).
Aug 19, 1944 - Resistance uprising in Paris.
Aug 19/20 - Soviet offensive in the Balkans begins with an attack on Romania.
Aug 20, 1944 - Allies encircle Germans in the Falaise Pocket.
Aug 25, 1944 - Liberation of Paris.
Aug 29, 1944 - Slovak uprising begins.
Aug 31, 1944 - Soviet troops take Bucharest.
Sept 1-4 - Verdun, Dieppe, Artois, Rouen, Abbeville, Antwerp and Brussels liberated by Allies.
Sept 4, 1944 - Finland and the Soviet Union agree to a cease-fire.
Sept 13, 1944 - U.S. troops reach the Siegfried Line.
Sept 17, 1944 - Operation Market Garden begins (Allied airborne assault on Holland).
Sept 26, 1944 - Soviet troops occupy Estonia.
Oct 2, 1944 - Warsaw Uprising ends as the Polish Home Army surrenders to the Germans.
Oct 10-29 - Soviet troops capture Riga.
Oct 14, 1944 - Allies liberate Athens; Rommel commits suicide.
Oct 21, 1944 - Massive German surrender at Aachen.
Oct 30, 1944 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Nov 20, 1944 - French troops drive through the 'Beffort Gap' to reach the Rhine.
Nov 24, 1944 - French capture Strasbourg.
Dec 4, 1944 - Civil War in Greece; Athens placed under martial law.
Dec 16-27 - Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.
Dec 17, 1944 - Waffen SS murder 81 U.S. POWs at Malmedy.
Dec 26, 1944 - Patton relieves Bastogne.
Dec 27, 1944 - Soviet troops besiege Budapest.
1945 Return to Top of Page
Jan 1-17 - Germans withdraw from the Ardennes.
Jan 16, 1945 - U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies link up after a month long separation during the Battle of the Bulge.
Jan 17, 1945 - Soviet troops capture Warsaw.
Jan 26, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
Feb 4-11 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Yalta.
Feb 13/14 - Dresden is destroyed by a firestorm after Allied bombing raids.
March 6, 1945 - Last German offensive of the war begins to defend oil fields in Hungary.
March 7, 1945 - Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen.
March 30, 1945 - Soviet troops capture Danzig.
In April - Allies discover stolen Nazi art and wealth hidden in salt mines.
April 1, 1945 - U.S. troops encircle Germans in the Ruhr; Allied offensive in North Italy.
April 12, 1945 - Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps;
President Roosevelt dies. Truman becomes President.April 16, 1945 - Soviet troops begin their final attack on Berlin; Americans enter Nuremberg.
April 18, 1945 - German forces in the Ruhr surrender.
April 21, 1945 - Soviets reach Berlin.
April 28, 1945 - Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans; Allies take Venice.
April 29, 1945 - U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
April 30, 1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
May 2, 1945 - German troops in Italy surrender.
May 7, 1945 - Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
May 8, 1945 - V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.
May 9, 1945 - Hermann Göring is captured by members of the U.S. 7th Army.
May 23, 1945 - SS Reichsführer Himmler commits suicide; German High Command and Provisional Government imprisoned.
June 5, 1945 - Allies divide up Germany and Berlin and take over the government.
June 26, 1945 - United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
July 1, 1945 - U.S., British, and French troops move into Berlin.
July 16, 1945 - First U.S. atomic bomb test; Potsdam Conference begins.
July 26, 1945 - Atlee succeeds Churchill as British Prime Minister.
Aug 6, 1945 - First atomic bomb dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan.
Aug 8, 1945 - Soviets declares war on Japan and invade Manchuria.
Aug 9, 1945 - Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan.
Aug 14, 1945 - Japanese agree to unconditional surrender.
Sept 2, 1945 - Japanese sign the surrender agreement; V-J (Victory over Japan) Day.
Oct 24, 1945 - United Nations is officially born.
Nov 20, 1945 - Nuremberg war crimes trials begin.
1946
Oct 16 - Hermann Göring commits suicide two hours before his scheduled execution.
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