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1935 | 16 March - Hitler introduces military conscription, violating Treaty of Versailles |
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1936 | 7 March - German troops occupy the Rhineland |
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1936 | 9 May - Mussolini's forces take Ethiopia |
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1937 | 5 November - Hossbach Conference, Hitler reveals war plans |
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1938 | 12/13 March - German-Austrian Anschluss |
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1938 | 12 August - Germany mobilises military |
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1938 | 30 September - British PM, Chamberlain, appeases Hitler at Munich |
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1938 | 15 October - German troops occupy the Sudetenland |
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1938 | 15 October - Czech government resigns |
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1939 | 15/16 March - German troops take Czechoslovakia |
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1939 | 7 April - Italy invades Albania |
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1939 | 12 May - Turkey and Great Britain conclude a security pact |
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1939 | 22 May - Nazis sign 'Pact of Steel' with Italy. |
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1939 | 23 August - Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact |
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1939 | 25 August - Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty. |
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1939 | 31 August - British army and navy mobilises |
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1939 | 1 September - Nazis invade Poland |
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1939 | 1 September - Norway proclaims neutrality |
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1939 | 2 September - Brazil, Chile, Sweden, Estonia and Ireland declare neutrality |
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1939 | 3 September - Britain, France, and Australia declare war on Germany |
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1939 | 3 September - Denmark, Spain and Netherlands declare neutrality |
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1939 | 4 September - British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy |
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1939 | 4 September - S Africa goes to war to support England |
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1939 | 4 September - New Zealand declares war on Germany |
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1939 | 5 September - United States proclaims neutrality, sends war supplies to Canada; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland |
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1939 | 9 September - Hitler's Directive No. 3 |
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1939 | 10 September - Battle of the Atlantic begins |
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1939 | 10 September - Canada declares war on Germany |
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1939 | 14 September - U-39, first German sub sunk off NW Ireland |
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1939 | 17 September - Soviets invade Poland |
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1939 | 17 September - German submarine U-29 torpedoes and sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous in Bristol Channel |
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1939 | 25 September - Hitler's Directive No. 4 |
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1939 | 27 September - Warsaw surrenders to Nazis |
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1939 | September - Treaty of Frontier Regulation and Friendship: Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland |
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1939 | 30 September - Hitler's Directive No. 5 |
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1939 | 5 October - Latvia signs a pact with the Soviet Union, granting Soviet bases at Libau and Windau |
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1939 | 9 October - Hitler's Directive No. 6 |
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1939 | October - Sweden, Denmark, and Norway issue a joint declaration that a Russian attack on Finland would be considered an attack on the whole north |
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1939 | 18 October - Hitler's Directive No. 7 |
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1939 | 19 October - Turkey signs a Treaty of Mutual Assistance with Britain and France |
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1939 | 20 November - Hitler's Directive No. 8 "for the Conduct of the War" |
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1939 | 29 November - Hitler's Directive No. 9 |
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1939 | 30 November - Soviet Union forces attack Finland |
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1939 | 10 December - The first Canadian troop convoy leaves Halifax destined for Britain |
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1939 | 14 December - Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations for aggression |
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1939 | December - Sweden declares itself a non-belligerent, and allows volunteers and arms to aid the Finns |
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1939 | 26 December - The first squadron of Royal Australian Air Force on active service lands in England |
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1941 | 3 September - Anglo-American Lend-Lease agreement |
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1940 | 12 February - Troops from New Zealand and Australia arrive at Suez, Egypt |
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1940 | 18 February - Hitler's Directive No. 10 |
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1940 | 1 March - Hitler's Directive for "Case Weser exercise" |
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1940 | 12 March - Finland signs a peace treaty (Treaty of Moscow) with Soviets |
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1940 | 16 March - Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland |
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1940 | 9 April - Germany launches Operation Weserubung, invading Denmark and Norway |
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1940 | 10 May - Operation Sichelschnitt: Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands |
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1940 | 13 May - Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch government escape to London, England |
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1940 | 15 May - Holland surrenders to the Nazis |
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1940 | 24 May - Hitler's Directive No. 13 |
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1940 | 26 May - Evacuation of Allied troops begins from Dunkirk, France, across the English Channel |
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1940 | 28 May - Belgium surrenders unconditionally to Germany |
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1940 | 3 June - Germans bomb Paris; end of Dunkirk evacuation |
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1940 | 7 June - The Norwegian government flees to England |
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1940 | 8 June - Hitler's Directive No. 14 |
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1940 | 9 June - Norway: King Haakon VI flees to London |
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1940 | 10 June - Norway surrenders to the Nazis |
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1940 | 10 June - Italy declares war on England and France |
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1940 | 12 June - Thailand and Japan sign a non-aggression pact |
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1940 | 13 June - Spain's status changes from neutral to non-belligerent |
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1940 | 14 June - Germans enter Paris |
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1940 | June - Soviet Union annexes Bessarabia and northern Bukovina in Romania |
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1940 | 18 June - Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich |
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1940 | June - Canadian National Resources Mobilisation Act |
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1940 | 22 June - France formally surrenders to Germany |
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1940 | 23 June - Hitler tours Paris |
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1940 | 24 June - France signs an armistice with Italy |
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1940 | 28 June - Britain recognises Gen. Charles de Gaulle as the Free French leader |
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1940 | 10 July - Battle of Britain begins |
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1940 | 16 July - Hitler's Directive No. 16 |
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1940 | 19 July - In the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler makes a peace offer to Britain |
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1940 | 23 July - Soviets take Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. |
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1940 | 26 July - Japanese PM Prince Konoye unveils his plan to take advantage of the European powers' weakness in Asia |
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1940 | 1 August - Hitler's Directive No. 17 |
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1940 | 3-19 August - Italians occupy British Somaliland in East Africa |
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1940 | 13 August - German bombing offensive against airfields and factories in England (Eagle Day) |
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1940 | 15 August - Air battles and daylight raids at Driffield, Yorkshire |
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1940 | 17 August - Hitler declares a total blockade of the British Isles |
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1940 | 23/24 August - German air raids on Central London |
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1940 | 25/26 August - Retaliatory British air raid on Berlin |
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1940 | 7 September - Beginning of German Blitz on London |
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1940 | 13 September - Italians cross the Libyan frontier into Egypt, to gain control of the Suez Canal |
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1940 | 15 September - Massive German air raids on Britain |
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1940 | 23 September - 119 British bombers attack Berlin |
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1940 | 27 September - Germany, Italy and Japan sign Tripartite (Axis) Pact |
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1940 | October - Thai and French forces in Indochina begin and escalate a border war against each other |
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1940 | 7 October - German troops enter Romania |
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1940 | 23 October - Adolf Hitler and Spain's Francisco Franco meet in Hendaye |
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1940 | 28 October - Italy invades Greece |
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1940 | 10/11 November - Air/sea battle at Taranto, Italy |
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1940 | 12 November - Hitler's Directive No. 18 |
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1940 | November - The Swiss government bans the Communist Party and the pro-Nazi National Movement of Switzerland |
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1940 | 14/15 November - Germans make heavy air raid on Coventry, England |
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1940 | 20 November - Hungary joins the Axis Powers |
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1940 | 23 November - Romania joins the Axis Powers |
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1940 | 9 December - British forces begin an offensive in North Africa against the Italian |
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1940 | 10 December - Hitler's Directive No. 19 |
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1940 | 13 December - Hitler's Directive No. 20
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1940 | 16 December - 134 British bombers attack Mannheim, Germany |
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1940 | 18 December - Hitler's Directive No. 21 |
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1940 | 29/30 December - Massive German air raid on London |
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1941 | 22 January - Tobruk in North Africa falls to the British and Australians |
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1941 | 11 February- British forces advance into Italian Somaliland |
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1941 | 12 February - Rommel arrives in Tripoli |
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1941 | 14 February - German 'Afrika Korps' arrive in North Africa |
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1941 | 7 March - British forces land in Greece |
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1941 | 11 March - Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act |
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1941 | 24 March - Rommel pushes British out of El Agheila |
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1941 | 27 March - Coup in Yugoslavia, pro-Axis government overthrown |
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1941 | 3 April - Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq |
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1941 | 6 April - Germans invade Greece and Yugoslavia |
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1941 | 14 April - Rommel attacks Tobruk |
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1941 | 17 April - Yugoslavia surrenders to the Germans |
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1941 | 27 April - Greece falls to the Nazis |
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1941 | 1 May - German attack on Tobruk is repulsed |
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1941 | 10/11 May - Heavy German bombing of London; British bombing Hamburg |
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1941 | 15 May - British counter-attack in Egypt begins (Operation Brevity) |
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1941 | 24 May - The Bismarck sinks the British ship Hood |
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1941 | 27 May - Sinking of the Bismarck by the British Navy |
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1941 | 4 June - Pro-Allied government installed in Iraq |
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1941 | 8 June - Allies invade Syria and Lebanon |
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1941 | 14 June - United States freezes German and Italian assets in America |
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1941 | 22 June - Barbarossa Campaign begins, Nazis attack the Soviet Union |
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1941 | 28 June - Minsk captured by Germans |
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1941 | 3 July - Stalin's 'scorched earth' policy |
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1941 | 10 July - Germans cross into the Ukraine |
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1941 | 12 July - British and Soviets Mutual Assistance agreement |
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1941 | 14 July - British occupy Syria |
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1941 | 26 July - Roosevelt suspends relations with Japan and freezes Japanese assets in US |
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1941 | 1 August - US announces oil embargo against aggressors |
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1941 | 14 August - The Atlantic Charter signed between England and the United States |
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1941 | 20 August - Beginning of Nazi siege of Leningrad |
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1941 | 19 September - Germans take Kiev |
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1941 | 2 October - German advance on Moscow begins (Operation Typhoon) |
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1941 | 16-30 October - Germans take Odessa, Kharkov, reach Sevastopol |
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1941 | 20 November - Rostov falls to Germans |
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1941 | 27 November - Soviet army launches counter-attack and retakes Rostov from the German Army |
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1941 | 5 December - German offensive against Moscow fails as Germans pull back |
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1941 | 6 December - Soviet Army launches a major counter-offensive around Moscow |
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1941 | 7 December - Pearl Harbor Bombed by Japan |
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1941 | 7 December - Hitler issues the Night and Fog decree |
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1941 | 11 December - Germany declares war on the US |
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1941 | 16 December - Rommel retreats to El Agheila in North Africa |
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1941 | 18 December 8, 1941 - US and Britain declare war on Japan |
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1941 | 19 December - Hitler takes over command of the German Army |
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1942 | 1 January - Allies forge Declaration of the United Nations |
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1942 | 13 January - German U-boats begin sinking ships off American coast in (Operation Drumbeat) |
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1942 | 21 January - Rommel counter-attacks in North Africa |
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1942 | 26 January - First American forces arrive in Great Britain |
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1942 | 15 February - Singapore falls to the Japanese on "Black Sunday" |
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1942 | 18 April - Doolittle Raid on Japan |
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1942 | 23 April - German air raids begin against cathedral cities in England |
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1942 | 5 May - US forces in the Philippines surrender to Japan, Battle of Coral Sea |
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1942 | 8 May - Germans launch summer offensive in the Crimea |
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1942 | 15 May - British forces abandon Burma to the Japanese |
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1942 | 26 May - Rommel begins an offensive against the Gazala Line |
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1942 | 30 May - Royal Air Force launches first bomber raid on Cologne, Germany |
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1942 | 4 June - Battle of Midway ends with a Japanese defeat |
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1942 | 5 June - German siege of Sevastopol begins |
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1942 | 21 June - German Afrika Korps recaptures Tobruk |
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1942 | 28 June - Germans begin their summer offensive towards Stalingrad |
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1942 | 30 June - Rommel reaches El Alamein near Cairo, Egypt |
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1942 | 1-30 July - Battle of El Alamein |
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1942 | 3 July - Sevastopol falls to German Army |
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1942 | 5 July - Nazi conquest of Crimea achieved |
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1942 | 9 July - German Army begins push towards Stalingrad |
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1942 | 7 August - Montgomery takes command of Eighth Army in North Africa, US troops land on Guadalcanal |
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1942 | 9 August - Battle of Savo Island |
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1942 | 12 August - Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow |
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1942 | 17 August - First all-American air attack in Europe |
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1942 | 23 August - Massive German air raid on Stalingrad |
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1942 | 2 September - Battle of Alam Halfa |
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1942 | 13 September - German attack on Stalingrad begins |
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1942 | 26 October - Battle of Santa Cruz Islands |
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1942 | 1 November - Allies break Axis lines at El Alamein (Operation Supercharge) |
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1942 | 8 November - US invasion of North Africa begins (Operation Torch) |
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1942 | 11 November - Axis forces occupy Vichy France |
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1942 | 13 November - Naval Battle of Guadalcanal |
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1942 | 19 November - Soviet forces encircle German Sixth Army at Stalingrad |
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1942 | 12 December - In North Africa, British forces under Montgomery push Germans (under Rommel) out of El Agheila |
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1942 | 16 December - Soviets defeat Italian troops on the River Don |
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1942 | 31 December - German and British ships engage in the Battle of the Barents Sea |
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1943 | 2/3 January - German Army retreats from Caucasus |
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1943 | 10 January - Red Army begins siege of German-occupied Stalingrad |
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1943 | 14-24 January - Casablanca Conference: Churchill and Roosevelt meet, Stalin declines |
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1943 | 23 January - British forces take Tripoli |
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1943 | 27 January - US daylight bombing campaign on Wilhelmshaven, Germany |
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1943 | 2 February - Germans surrender armies at Stalingrad |
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1943 | 7 February - Japanese complete their withdrawal from Guadalcanal |
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1943 | 8 February - Red Army takes Kursk |
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1943 | 14-25 February - Battle of Kasserine Pass in North Africa |
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1943 | 16 February - Red Army retakes Kharkov |
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1943 | 18 February - Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich |
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1943 | 2 March - Afrika Korps withdraws from Tunisia |
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1943 | 15 March - German Army recaptures Kharkov |
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1943 | 16-20 March - Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats |
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1943 | 20-28 March - Montgomery's Eighth Army breaks through the Mareth Line in Tunisia |
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1943 | 6/7 April - Axis forces in Tunisia begin to withdraw toward Enfidaville |
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1943 | 7 May - Allies capture Tunisia |
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1943 | 13 May - German and Italian troops withdraw from North Africa |
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1943 | 16/17 May - British air raid on the Ruhr (Dams Raid) |
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1943 | 22 May - U-boat operations suspended in the North Atlantic due to steep losses |
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1943 | 5 July - Final German assault at Kursk resulting in huge German loss |
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1943 | 10 July - Allied troops land in Sicily |
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1943 | 19 July - Allies bomb Rome |
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1943 | 22 July - American forces take Palermo, Sicily |
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1943 | 24 July - British bombing raid on Hamburg |
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1943 | 25/26 July - Mussolini and the Fascists overthrown |
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1943 | 27/28 July - Allied bombing raid creates firestorm in Hamburg, Germany |
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1943 | 9 September - Allied forces land in Salerno and Taranto, Italy |
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1943 | 11 September - Germans occupy Rome |
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1943 | 12 September - Nazi commandos rescue Mussolini |
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1943 | 17 August - Patton completes invasion of Sicily with taking of Messina |
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1943 | 17 August - US air raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt in Germany; Allies reach Messina, Sicily |
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1943 | 23 August - Soviet troops recapture Kharkov |
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1943 | 23 September - Mussolini re-establishes a Fascist government |
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1943 | 3 September - Truce between Allies and Italians |
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1943 | 1 October - Allies take Naples |
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1943 | 13 October - Italy declares war on Germany |
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1943 | More US air raids on Schweinfurt |
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1943 | 6 November - Red Army recaptures Kiev |
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1943 | 18 November - Large British air raid on Berlin |
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1943 | 28 November - "Big Three" of Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill meet at Tehran |
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1943 | 24-26 December - Soviets begin large offensive in Ukraine |
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1944 | 6 January - Red Army advances into Poland |
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1944 | 17 January - Battle for the Gustav Line in Italy begins |
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1944 | 22 January - Operation Shingle starts with Allied landing on Anzio |
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1944 | 27 January - Red Army breaks 900-day siege of Leningrad |
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1944 | 16 February - German 14th Army counter-attacks at Anzio |
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1944 | 4 March - Soviet offensive on the Belorussian front; First major daylight bombing raid on Berlin by the Allies |
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1944 | 18 March - British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany |
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1944 | 8 April - Red Army begins offensive in the Crimea |
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1944 | 9 May - Soviet troops recapture Sevastopol |
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1944 | 11 May - Allies begin decisive assault against German lines in Italy |
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1944 | 12 May - German forces in the Crimea surrender |
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1944 | 15 May - Germans withdraw to the Adolf Hitler Line |
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1944 | 25 May - Germans retreat from Anzio |
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1944 | 5 June - Allies take Rome |
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1944 | 6 June - D-Day, Allies invade Europe at Normandy |
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1944 | 9 June - Red Army advances into Finland |
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1944 | 10 June - Nazis liquidate the town of Oradour-sur-Glane in France |
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1944 | 13 June - Germans begin launching V-1 rockets against London |
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1944 | 22 June - Red Army begins massive summer offensive (Operation Bagration) |
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1944 | 27 June - American forces liberate Cherbourg |
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1944 | 3 July - 'Battle of the Hedgerows' in Normandy; Soviet forces recapture Minsk |
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1944 | 9 July - Allied troops liberate Caen |
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1944 | 18 July - Allies reach St. Lô in France |
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1944 | 20 July - Hitler survives assassination attempt |
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1944 | 24 July - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek |
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1944 | 25-30 July - Operation Cobra (US troops break out west of St. Lô) |
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1944 | 28 July - Red Army recaptures Brest-Litovsk, US troops take Coutances |
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1944 | 1 August - Polish Home Army begins revolt against Nazis in Warsaw; US troops reach Avranches |
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1944 | 7 August - Germans begin a major counter-attack toward Avranches |
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1944 | 12 August - Final Japanese garrison at Guam is defeated by US forces |
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1944 | 15 August - Allies land in southern France begins (Operation Dragoon) |
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1944 | 19 August - Soviet forces invade Romania |
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1944 | 19 August - Resistance uprising in Paris |
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1944 | 19/20 August - Soviet offensive in the Balkans begins with an attack on Romania |
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1944 | 20 August - Allies encircle Germans in the Falaise Pocket |
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1944 | 23 August - Rumania capitulates to Soviets |
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1944 | 25 August - Paris liberated |
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1944 | 29 August - Slovak uprising begins |
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1944 | 31 August - Red Army takes Bucharest |
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1944 | 1-4 September - Verdun, Dieppe, Artois, Rouen, Abbeville, Antwerp and Brussels liberated by Allies |
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1944 | 8 September - Soviets and Finns sign peace treaty |
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1944 | 13 September - American troops reach the Siegfried Line in western Germany |
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1944 | 17 September - Allied airborne assault on Holland begins (Operation Market Garden) |
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1944 | 26 September - Soviet troops occupy Estonia |
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1944 | October - The liberation of the Philippine Islands by the Allies begins |
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1944 | 2 October - Nazis brutally crush revolt in Warsaw; Allies advance into Germany |
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1944 | 10-29 October - Soviet troops capture Riga |
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1944 | 14 October - British liberate Athens; Rommel commits suicide |
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1944 | 21 October - Massive German surrender at Aachen |
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1944 | 20 November- French troops reach the Rhine |
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1944 | 24 November - French troops capture Strasbourg |
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1944 | 3 December - Civil war erupts in Greece |
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1944 | December - Japanese retreat in Burma |
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1944 | 15 December - American forces invade Phillipine island of Mindoro |
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1944 | 16-27 December - Battle of the Bulge begins |
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1944 | 17 December - SS murder 81 US POWs at Malmedy |
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1944 | 26 December - Patton relieves Bastogne |
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1944 | 27 December - Soviet troops besiege Budapest |
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1945 | January - Germans withdraw from the Ardennes |
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1945 | 16 January - Battle of the Bulge ends in German defeat |
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1945 | 17 January - Warsaw falls to the Soviets |
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1945 | 31 January - Soviet armies reach the Oder River |
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1945 | 4-11 February - Yalta Conference (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin) plans final defeat of Germany |
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1945 | 8 February - Allies reach the Rhine River |
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1945 | 13/14 February - Allied incendiary raid creates firestorm in Dresden |
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1945 | 3 March - American forces liberate Manila in the Philippines |
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1945 | 3 March - Finland declares war on Germany |
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1945 | 6 March- Last German offensive of the war begins to defend oil fields in Hungary |
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1945 | 7 March - Allies establish bridgehead at Remagen |
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1945 | 22 March - General Patton crosses the Rhine at Nierstein |
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1945 | 23 March - General Montgomery's forces begin their assault on the Rhine |
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1945 | 28 March - Soviet troops reach the Austrian border |
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1945 | 30 March - Red Army liberates Danzig |
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1945 | 1 April - US troops encircle Germans in the Ruhr; Allied offensive in North Italy |
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1945 | 9 April - US Army reaches Elbe River |
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1945 | 14 April - Soviets enter Vienna, Austria |
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1945 | 16 April - Red Army launches Berlin offensive; Allies take Nuremberg |
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1945 | 18 April - Last German troops on the Ruhr River give up after being encircled by Allied troops |
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1945 | 21 April - Soviets reach Berlin |
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1945 | 28 April - Venice falls to Allied forces |
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1945 | 28 April - Mussolini hanged by Italian partisans |
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1945 | 30 April - Adolf Hitler commits suicide |
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1945 | 2 May - All German forces in Italy surrender |
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1945 | 7 May - German armies give unconditional surrender |
|
1945 | 8 May - V-E (Victory in Europe) celebrated |
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1945 | 2 June - The last big island battle in the Pacific ends with an Allied victory on Okinawa |
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1945 | 5 June - Allies divide Germany into occupation zones |
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1945 | 26 June - United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco |
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1945 | 16 July - The Potsdam Conference convenes with Truman, Stalin, and Churchill to establish the basis of German reconstruction |
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1945 | 6 August - Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan |
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1945 | 8 August - Soviet Union declares war on Japan; Soviet forces invade Manchuria |
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1945 | 9 August - Second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki |
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1945 | 14 August - Japanese agree to unconditional surrender |
|
1945 | 2 September - Japan formally surrenders; V-J (Victory over Japan) Day in US |
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1945 | 20 November - Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal begins |
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1951 | Truman signs peace treaty with Japan, officially ending WWII |
