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=**World War 2**=

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 = World War 2 Timeline =
 * **1918** ||
 * 11/11/1918 || World War One Armistice signed ||
 * **1919** ||
 * 6/28/1918 || Treaty of Versailles signed ||
 * 7/29/1921 || Adolf Hitler assumes control of National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party ||
 * 10/24/1922 || Benito Mussolini calls for fascist "Blackshirts" to March on Rome ||
 * 10/29/1922 || Mussolini appointed Premier by King Victor Emmanuel III ||
 * **1925** ||
 * 1/3/1925 || Mussolini dismisses Italian parliament, begins to assume dictatorial powers ||
 * 7/18/1925 || Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf, is published ||
 * **1929** ||
 * 10/29/1929 || Wall Street Stock Market crashes ||
 * **1931** ||
 * 9/18/1931 || Japanese Army invades Manchuria ||
 * **1932** ||
 * 11/8/1932 || Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President of the United States ||
 * **1933** ||
 * 1/30/1933 || Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg ||
 * 2/27/1933 || German Reichstag burns down; communists blamed, arrested. ||
 * 3/23/1933 || Enabling Act passed by Reichstag; Hitler assumes dictatorial power ||
 * 7/14/1933 || Nazi party declared official party of Germany; all other parties banned ||
 * 10/14/1933 || Germany quits League of Nations ||
 * **1934** ||
 * 6/30/1934 || Hitler orders murder of SA Chief Ernst Roehm in "Night of the Long Knives" ||
 * 8/2/1934 || German President Paul von Hindenburg dies ||
 * 8/19/1934 || Hitler combines the offices of president and chancellor; assumes the title of F�hrer ||
 * **1935** ||
 * 3/16/1935 || Military conscription introduced in Germany in violation of Versailles treaty ||
 * 9/15/1935 || Nuremberg race laws promulgated ||
 * 10/3/1935 || Italian Army invades Ethiopia ||
 * **1936** ||
 * 3/7/1936 || German troops remilitarize the Rhineland in violation of Versailles treaty ||
 * 5/9/1936 || Italian campaign in Ethiopia ends ||
 * 7/17/1936 || Spanish Civil War breaks out; Hitler and Mussolini send aid to Franco ||
 * 10/1/1936 || Franco becomes dictator of Spain ||
 * **1937** ||
 * 1/19/1937 || Japan withdraws from Washington Conference Treaty limiting the size of its navy ||
 * 5/28/1937 || Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of England ||
 * 6/11/1937 || Josef Stalin begins purge of Red Army ||
 * 7/7/1937 || Full-scale war erupts between China and Japan ||
 * **1938** ||
 * 3/12/1938 || Germany invades Austria; Anschluss (union) proclaimed ||
 * 9/30/1938 || Germany invades Austria; Anschluss (union) proclaimed ||
 * 10/15/1938 || Germany invades Austria; Anschluss (union) proclaimed ||
 * 11/9-10/1938 || Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) ||
 * **1939** ||
 * 8/23/1939 || Nazi-Soviet nonagression pact signed ||
 * 9/1/1939 || German Army invades Poland ||
 * 9/3/1939 || Britain and France declare war on Germany ||
 * 9/17/1939 || Red Army invades Poland in accordance with Nazi-Soviet Pact ||
 * 9/27/1939 || Warsaw falls to the Nazis ||
 * 11/30/1939 || Red Army attacks Finland ||
 * 9/14/1939 || Soviet Union kicked out of League of Nations ||
 * **1940** ||
 * 3/12/1940 || Finland signs peace treaty with Soviet Union ||
 * 4/9/1940 || German Army invades Denmark and Norway ||
 * 5/10/1940 || German Army invades France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill appointed British Prime Minister ||
 * 5/15/1940 || Holland capitulates to Nazis ||
 * 5/26/1940 || "Miracle at Dunkirk" ||
 * 5/28/1940 || Belgium capitulates to Nazis ||
 * 6/10/1940 || Norway capitulates to Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France ||
 * 6/14/1940 || Nazis take Paris ||
 * 6/22/1940 || France capitulates to Nazis ||
 * 7/10/1940 || Battle of Britain begins ||
 * 7/23/1940 || Red Army takes Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia ||
 * 8/3/1940 || Italian Army invades British Somaliland ||
 * 8/13/1940 || Luftwaffe begins raids on British airfields and aircraft factories ||
 * 8/23-24/1940 || Off-course German bombers accidentally bomb London ||
 * 8/25-26/1940 || Royal Air Force mounts reprisal raid against Berlin ||
 * 9/7/1940 || German "blitz" on British cities begins in earnest ||
 * 9/13/1940 || Italian Army attacks Egypt ||
 * 9/16/1940 || Military conscription introduced in United States ||
 * 9/27/1940 || Tripartite alliance formed between Germany, Italy and Japan ||
 * 10/7/1940 || German troops occupy Romania ||
 * 10/28/1940 || Italian Army attacks Greece ||
 * 11/5/1940 || Roosevelt re-elected ||
 * 11/10-11/1940 || RAF raid cripples Italian fleet at Taranto ||
 * 11/20/1940 || Romania joins Axis ||
 * 12/9-10/1940 || British counter-attack begins against Italian Army in North Africa ||
 * **1941** ||
 * 1/22/1941 || British take Tobruk in North Africa from Nazis ||
 * 2/11/1941 || British Army attacks Italian Somaliland ||
 * 2/12/1941 || Erwin Rommel assumes command of German Afrika Korps ||
 * 3/7/1941 || British Army comes to the aid of Greece ||
 * 3/11/1941 || Lend-Lease Act signed by Roosevelt ||
 * 4/6/1941 || German Army hastily invades Yugoslavia and Greece ||
 * 4/17/1941 || Yugoslavia capitulates to Nazis ||
 * 4/27/1941 || Greece capitulates to Nazis ||
 * 5/10/1941 || Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland on "peace mission" ||
 * 5/15/1941 || British counter-attack in Egypt ||
 * 5/24/1941 || German battleship Bismarck sinks Hood, pride of the Royal Navy ||
 * 5/27/1941 || Royal Navy sinks Bismarck ||
 * 6/8/1941 || British Army invades Lebanon and Syria ||
 * 6/22/1941 || Hitler launches operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union ||
 * 6/28/1941 || Germans capture Soviet city of Minsk ||
 * 7/3/1941 || Stalin launches "scorched earth" policy ||
 * 7/31/1941 || Planning begins for "Final Solution," the systematic destruction of the Jews ||
 * 8/12/1941 || Atlantic Charter signed by Roosevelt and Churchil ||
 * 8/20/1941 || German siege of Soviet city of Leningrad begins ||
 * 9/1/1941 || Jews order to wear yellow Star of David ||
 * 9/19/1941 || Germans capture Soviet city of Kiev ||
 * 9/29/1941 || German SS mass murders Russian Jews at Kiev ||
 * 10/16/1941 || Germans capture Soviet city of Odessa ||
 * 10/17/1941 || Hideki Tojo becomes Prime Minister of Japan ||
 * 10/24/1941 || Germans capture Soviet city of Kharkov ||
 * 10/30/1941 || German Army occupies the Crimea ||
 * 11/20/1941 || Germans capture the Soviet city of Rostov ||
 * 11/27/1941 || Red Army retakes Rostov ||
 * 12/6/1941 || Red Army launches major counter-offensive ||
 * 12/7/1941 || Japanese attack naval base at Pearl Harbor ||
 * 12/8/1941 || Roosevelt gives "Day of Infamy" speech; United States and Britain declare war on Japan ||
 * 12/11/1941 || Germany declares war on the United States ||
 * 12/16/1941 || Rommel's Afrika Korps forced to retreat in North Africa ||
 * 12/19/1941 || Hitler assumes post of Commander in Chief of German Army ||
 * **1942** ||
 * 1/1/1942 || Mass gassing of Jews begins at Auschwitz ||
 * 1/1/1942 || Allies forge Declaration of the United Nations ||
 * 1/13/1942 || German U-boats begin sinking ships off American coast in "Operation Drumbeat ||
 * 1/20/1942 || Nazis coordinate "Final Solution" efforts at Wannsee Conference ||
 * 1/21/1942 || Rommel counter-attacks in North Africa ||
 * 4/1/1942 || American citizens of Japanese descent forced into "relocation centers" ||
 * 6/4/1942 || Japanese Navy resoundingly defeated at Battle of Midway--war reaches its turning point in the Pacific; S.S. Leader Rheinhardt Heydrich dies of wounds sustained in partisan attack at Prague ||
 * 6/5/1942 || German siege of Sevastopol begins ||
 * 6/10/1942 || Nazis annihilate Czech town of Lidice in retaliation for Heydrich's assassination ||
 * 6/21/1942 || German Afrika Korps recaptures Tobruk ||
 * 7/3/1942 || Sevastopol falls to German Army ||
 * 7/5/1942 || Nazi conquest of Crimea achieved ||
 * 7/9/1942 || German Army begins push towards Stalingrad ||
 * 9/13/1942 || German attack on Stalingrad begins ||
 * 11/3/1942 || Afrika Korps decisively defeated by British at El Alamein ||
 * 11/8/1942 || Allied invasion of North Africa begins in "Operation Torch" ||
 * **1943** ||
 * 1/2-3/1943 || German Army retreats from Caucasus ||
 * 1/10/1943 || Red Army begins siege of German-occupied Stalingrad ||
 * 1/14-23/1943 || Roosevelt and Churchill meet at Casablanca, issue unconditional surrender demand ||
 * 1/23/1943 || British forces take Tripoli ||
 * 1/27/1943 || U.S. Air Force opens daylight bombing campaign with attack on Wilhelmshaven, Germany ||
 * 2/2/1943 || German Sixth Army at Stalingrad surrenders to the Russians; war in Europe reaches its turning point ||
 * 2/8/1943 || Red Army takes Kursk ||
 * 2/14-25/1943 || Battle of Kasserine Pass fought in North Africa between German and U.S. forces ||
 * 2/16/1943 || Red Army retakes Kharkov ||
 * 3/2/1943 || Afrika Korps withdraws from Tunisia ||
 * 3/15/1943 || Germany Army recaptures Kharkov ||
 * 3/16-20/1943 || German submarines achieve their largest tonnage total of the war ||
 * 4/19/1943 || S.S. begins "liquidation" of the Warsaw ghetto ||
 * 7/27-28/1943 || Allied bombing raid creates firestorm in Hamburg, Germany ||
 * 8/12-17/1943 || Axis forces withdraw from Sicily ||
 * 8/17/1943 || USAF suffers steep losses in bombing run on ball-bearing plants at Regensburg and Schweinfurt, Germany ||
 * 8/23/1943 || Red Army retakes Karkhov ||
 * 9/8/1943 || New Italian government announces Italy's surrender ||
 * 9/9/1943 || Allied forces land in Salerno and Taranto, Italy ||
 * 9/11/1943 || German Army occupies Italy ||
 * 9/12/1943 || Nazi commandos rescue Mussolini ||
 * 9/23/1943 || Fascist government re-established in Italy ||
 * 10/1/1943 || Allies take Naples ||
 * 11/6/1943 || Red Army recaptures Kiev ||
 * 11/28/1943 || "Big Three" of Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill meet at Tehran ||
 * 12/24-26/1943 || Soviets begin large offensive in Ukraine ||
 * **1944** ||
 * 1/6/1944 || Red Army advances into Poland ||
 * 1/22/1944 || Allied forces land at Anzio, Italy ||
 * 1/27/1944 || Red Army breaks 900-day siege of Leningrad ||
 * 1/31/1944 || American forces invade Kwajalein ||
 * 2/16/1944 || German 14th Army counter-attacks at Anzio ||
 * 2/18-22/1944 || American forces take Eniwetok ||
 * 4/8/1944 || Red Army begins offensive in the Crimea ||
 * 5/9/1944 || Soviet troops recapture Sevastopol ||
 * 5/12/1944 || German forces in the Crimea surrender ||
 * 6/5/1944 || Allied forces enter Rome ||
 * 6/6/1944 || D-Day: invasion of Europe begins with Allied landings at Normandy ||
 * 6/9/1944 || Red Army advances into Finland ||
 * 6/13/1944 || Germans begin launching V-1 rockets against London ||
 * 6/15/1944 || American marines invade Saipan ||
 * 6/19-20/1944 || "Marianas Turkey Shoot" results in destruction of over 200 Japanese aircraft ||
 * 6/22/1944 || Red Army begins massive summer offensive ||
 * 6/27/1944 || American forces liberate Cherbourg ||
 * 7/3/1944 || Soviet forces recapture Minsk ||
 * 7/9/1944 || Allied troops liberate Caen ||
 * 7/18/1944 || American troops liberate St L� ||
 * 7/20/1944 || Hitler survives assassination attempt ||
 * 7/24/1944 || Soviet forces liberate concentration camp at Majdanek ||
 * 7/25-30/1944 || Allied forces break-out of Normandy encirclement in "Operation Cobra" ||
 * 7/28/1944 || Red Army recaptures Brest-Litovsk ||
 * 8/1/1944 || Polish Home Army begins revolt against Nazis in Warsaw ||
 * 8/15/1944 || Allies invade Southern France ||
 * 8/19-20/1944 || Soviet forces invade Romania ||
 * 8/23/1944 || Rumania capitulates to Soviets ||
 * 8/25/1944 || Paris liberated ||
 * 8/31/1944 || Red Army takes Bucharest ||
 * 9/3/1944 || Brussels liberated ||
 * 9/4/1944 || Antwerp liberated ||
 * 9/8/1944 || Soviets and Finns sign peace treaty ||
 * 9/13/1944 || American troops reach the Siegfried Line in western Germany ||
 * 9/26/1944 || Red Army occupies Estonia ||
 * 10/2/1944 || Nazis brutally crush revolt in Warsaw; Allies advance into Germany ||
 * 10/5/1944 || British invade Greece ||
 * 10/14/1944 || British liberate Athens; Rommel forced to commit suicide for alleged involvement in July assassination plot against Hitler ||
 * 10/20/1944 || Belgrade, Yugoslavia falls to Soviet forces ||
 * 10/23-26/1944 || U.S. naval forces destroy remnants of Japanese Navy at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement in history ||
 * 11/7/1944 || Roosevelt elected to fourth term ||
 * 12/3/1944 || Civil war erupts in Greece; Japanese retreat in Burma ||
 * 12/15/1944 || American forces invade Phillipine island of Mindoro ||
 * 12/16/1944 || German Army launches "Battle of the Bulge" offensive on the Western Front ||
 * 12/17/1944 || Waffen SS executes 81 American prisoners of war in "Malmedy Massacre" ||
 * **1945** ||
 * 1/9/1945 || American forces invade Phillipine island of Luzon ||
 * 1/16/1945 || Battle of the Bulge ends in German defeat ||
 * 1/17/1945 || Red Army liberates Warsaw ||
 * 1/19/1945 || German lines on Eastern Front collapse; full retreat begins ||
 * 1/20/1945 || Hungary signs armistice with Allies ||
 * 1/26/1945 || Soviets liberate Auschwitz ||
 * 1/27/1945 || Red Army occupies Lithuania ||
 * 2/4-11/1945 || Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Yalta Conference ||
 * 2/13-14/1945 || Allied incendiary raid creates firestorm in Dresden ||
 * 2/19/1945 || American forces land on Iwo Jima ||
 * 3/3/1945 || American forces liberate Manila in the Phillipines; Finland declares war on Germany ||
 * 3/7/1945 || Allies capture Cologne; Ludendorff Rail Bridge on Rhine River captured intact at Ramagen ||
 * 3/9/1945 || Tokyo firebombed ||
 * 3/16/1945 || Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima ends ||
 * 3/21/1945 || Allies take Mandalay, Burma ||
 * 3/30/1945 || Red Army liberates Danzig ||
 * 4/1/1945 || American troops encircle German forces in the Ruhr ||
 * 4/12/1945 || Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies of stroke; Harry Truman becomes President; Allies liberate Belsen and Buchenwald concentration camps ||
 * 4/16/1945 || Red Army launches Berlin offensive; Allies take Nuremberg ||
 * 4/18/1945 || German forces in the Ruhr capitulate ||
 * 4/28/1945 || Mussolini hanged by Italian partisans; Venice falls to Allied forces ||
 * 4/29/1945 || Dachau concentration camp liberated ||
 * 4/30/1945 || Adolf Hitler and wife Eva Braun commit suicide in Chancellery bunker ||
 * 5/2/1945 || All German forces in Italy surrender ||
 * 5/7/1945 || Unconditional surrender of all German forces ||
 * 5/8/1945 || Victory in Europe (VE) Day ||
 * 5/23/1945 || SS Reichf�hrer Heinrich Himmler commits suicide ||
 * 6/5/1945 || Allies divide Germany into occupation zones ||
 * 6/26/1945 || United Nations World Charter signed in San Francisco ||
 * 7/16/1945 || First U.S. atomic bomb tested at Los Alamos, New Mexico; Potsdam Conference begins ||
 * 7/26/1945 || Clement Attlee becomes British Prime Minister ||
 * 8/6/1945 || First atomic bomb dropped Hiroshima ||
 * 8/8/1945 || Soviet Union declares war on Japan; Soviet forces invade Manchuria ||
 * 8/9/1945 || Second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki ||
 * 8/14/1945 || Unconditional surrender of Japanese forces ||
 * 8/15/1945 || Victory over Japan (VJ) Day ||
 * 9/2/1945 || Japanese delegation signs instrument of surrender aboard battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay ||
 * 11/20/1945 || Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal begins ||
 * **1946** ||
 * 1/7/1946 || United Nations meets for first time in London ||
 * 10/16/1946 || Hermann G�ring commits suicide; 11 other war criminals hanged ||
 * 1/7/1946 || United Nations meets for first time in London ||
 * 10/16/1946 || Hermann G�ring commits suicide; 11 other war criminals hanged ||

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