1918
Nov 11, 1918 - World War One ends with German defeat.
1919
April 28, 1919 - League of Nations founded.
June 28, 1919 - Signing of the Treaty of
Versailles.
1921
July 29, 1921 - Adolf Hitler becomes
leader of National Socialist 'Nazi' Party.
1923
Nov 8/9, 1923 - The Beer Hall Putsch.
1925
July 18, 1925 - Hitler's
book "Mein Kampf" published.
1926
Sept 8, 1926 - Germany admitted to League of Nations.
1929
Oct 29, 1929
- Stock Market on Wall Street crashes.
1930
Sept 14, 1930
- Germans elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany.
1932
Nov 8, 1932
- Roosevelt elected President of the United States.
1933
Jan 30, 1933
- Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
Feb 27, 1933 -
The Reichstag burns.
March 12, 1933 -
First concentration camp opened at Oranienburg outside of Berlin.
March 23, 1933
- Enabling Act gives Hitler dictatorial power.
April 1, 1933 -
Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops.
May 10, 1933 -
Nazis burn books in Germany.
In June, 1933 -
Nazis open Dachau concentration camp.
July 14, 1933
- Nazi party declared only party in Germany.
Oct 14, 1933
- Germany quits the League of Nations.
1934
June 30, 1934 -
The "Night of the Long Knives."
July 25, 1934
- Nazis murder Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss.
Aug 2, 1934
- German President Hindenburg dies.
Aug 19, 1934 -
Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
1935
March 16, 1935
- Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military
conscription.
Sept 15, 1935 -
German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws.
1936
Feb 10, 1936
- The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
March 7, 1936
- German troops occupy the Rhineland.
July 18, 1936
- Civil war erupts in Spain.
Aug 1, 1936
- Olympic games begin in Berlin.
Oct 1, 1936
- Franco declared head of Spanish State.
1937
June 11, 1937
- Soviet leader Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals.
Nov 5, 1937 -
Hitler reveals war plans during Hossbach Conference.
1938
March 12/13, 1938 -
Germany announces 'Anschluss' (union) with Austria.
Aug 12, 1938
- German military mobilizes.
Sept 30, 1938
- British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich.
Oct 15, 1938
- German troops occupy the Sudetenland; Czech government resigns.
Nov 9/10, 1938 -
Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.
1939
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 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Aug 25, 1939
- Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty.
Sept 1, 1939
- German Army invades Poland.
Sept 3, 1939
- Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany
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 27, 1939
- Warsaw surrenders to Nazis
Sept 29, 1939
- Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.
In Oct, 1939
- Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
Nov 8, 1939
- Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
1940
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 28, 1940
- Belgium surrenders to the Nazis.
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 Germany.
June 24, 1940 -
France signs armistice with Italy.
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.
Sept 3, 1940
- Hitler plans Operation Sealion (the invasion of Britain).
Sept 7, 1940
- German Blitz against England begins.
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 20, 1940
- Hungary joins the Axis Powers.
Nov 23, 1940
- Romania joins the Axis Powers.
Dec 29/30, 1940 - Massive German air raid on London.
1941
Feb 14, 1941
- First units of German 'Afrika Korps' arrive in North Africa.
March 2, 1941 -
German troops enter Bulgaria.
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 13, 1941-
Soviet - Japanese Non Aggression Pact signed.
April 17, 1941
- Yugoslavia surrenders to the Nazis.
April 27, 1941
- Greece surrenders to the Nazis.
May 10, 1941
- Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess flies to Scotland.
May 20, 1941-
German paratroop invasion of Crete.
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.
June, 26 1941-
Finland declares war on the Soviet Union.
In June, 1941 -
SS Einsatzgruppen begin mass murder.
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 31, 1941 -
Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for the Final Solution.
Aug 20, 1941
- German 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
- German 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 30, 1941
- Germans reach Sevastopol.
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 11, 1941
- Hitler and Mussolini declare 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
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.
April 5, 1942
- Hitler signs Directive Number 41. The Crimean oil fields are now the
primary military target in the Soviet Union, not Moscow and Leningrad.
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 28, 1942
- Mexico declares war on Axis Powers.
May 30, 1942
- First thousand bomber British air raid (against Cologne).
In June, 1942
- 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 30, 1942
- Rommel reaches El Alamein near Cairo, Egypt.
July 1-30, 1942
- First Battle of El Alamein.
July 3, 1942
- Germans take Sevastopol.
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.
Sept 13, 1942
- Battle of Stalingrad begins.
Oct 5, 1942
- A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
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.
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.
1943
Jan 14-24, 1943
- Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference,
Roosevelt announces the war can end only with an unconditional German
surrender.
Jan 27, 1943
- First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven).
Feb 2, 1943
- Germans surrender at Stalingrad, the first major defeat of Hitler's armies.
Feb 18, 1943
- Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich.
March 2, 1943
- Germans begin a withdrawal from Tunisia, Africa.
April 6/7, 1943
- Axis forces in Tunisia begin a withdrawal toward Enfidaville as American and
British forces meet.
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 22, 1943
- Dönitz suspends U-boat operations in the North Atlantic.
June 11, 1943 -
Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland.
July 5, 1943
- Germans begin their last offensive against Kursk (Citadel).
July 9/10, 1943
- Allies land in Sicily.
July 25/26, 1943
- Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro
Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.
Aug 17, 1943
- American daylight air raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt in Germany; Allies
reach Messina, Sicily.
Sept 8, 1943
- Italian surrender is announced.
Sept 11, 1943
- Germans occupy Rome.
Sept 12, 1943 -
Germans (under Skorzeny) rescue Mussolini.
Sept 23, 1943
- Mussolini re-establishes a Fascist government.
Oct 4, 1943 -
SS Reichsführer Himmler gives speech at Posen.
Oct 13, 1943
- Italy declares war on Germany
Dec 24-26, 1943 -
Soviets launch offensives on the Ukrainian front.
1944
Jan 6, 1944
- Soviet troops advance into Poland.
Jan 27, 1944
- Leningrad relieved after a 900-day siege.
March 4, 1944
- Soviet troops begin an offensive on the Belorussian front; First major
daylight bombing raid on Berlin by the Allies.
May 9, 1944
- Soviet troops recapture Sevastopol.
May 12, 1944
- Germans surrender in the Crimea.
June 5, 1944
- Allies enter Rome.
June 6, 1944 -
D-Day landings in Normandy.
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).
July 20, 1944
- German assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
July 24, 1944
- Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.
Aug 1, 1944
- Polish Home Army uprising against Nazis in Warsaw begins.
Aug 4, 1944
- Anne Frank and family arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam, Holland.
Aug 15, 1944
- Operation "Anvil" begins (the Allied invasion of Southern France).
Aug 19, 1944
- Resistance uprising in Paris.
Aug 19/20, 1944
- 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; Romania declares war on Germany.
Aug 29, 1944
- Slovak uprising begins.
Aug 31, 1944
- Soviet troops take Bucharest.
Sept 4, 1944
- Finland and the Soviet Union agree to a cease-fire.
Sept 5, 1944 -
Soviet Union declares war on Bulgaria.
Sept 9, 1944
- Soviet Union invades Bulgaria.
Sept 12, 1944
- Romania signs armistice with the Soviet Union.
Sept 13, 1944 -
U.S. troops reach the Siegfried Line.
Sept 19, 1944
- Finland signs armistice with the Soviet Union.
Sept 26, 1944 -
Soviet troops occupy Estonia.
Sept 29, 1944
- Soviet Union enters Yugoslavia.
Oct 2, 1944
- Warsaw Uprising ends as the Polish Home Army surrenders to the Germans.
Oct 14, 1944
- Rommel commits suicide.
Oct 21, 1944 -
Massive German surrender at Aachen.
Oct 30, 1944
- Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Dec 16-27 -
Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.
Dec 17, 1944
- Waffen SS murder 81 U.S. POWs at Malmedy.
1945
Jan 17, 1945
- Soviet troops capture Warsaw.
Jan 26, 1945
- Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
March 6, 1945
- Last German offensive of the war begins to defend oil fields in Hungary.
March 29, 1945
- Soviet forces cross the Austrian border.
April 12, 1945
- Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps.
April 13, 1945 -
Vienna captured by Soviet forces.
April 16, 1945
- Soviet troops begin their final attack on Berlin.
April 18, 1945
- German forces in the Ruhr surrender.
April 20, 1945
- Nuremberg captured by U.S. Army.
April 21, 1945
- Soviets reach Berlin.
April 28, 1945 -
Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans.
April 29, 1945
- Germany's Army in Italy signs surrender (effective May 2, 1945).
April 30, 1945 -
Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
May 2, 1945
- German troops in Italy surrender.
May 4, 1945
- German forces in Holland, Denmark, and northwest Germany 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.
Nov 20, 1945 -
Nuremberg war crimes trials begin.
1946
Oct 16, 1946 - Hermann Göring commits suicide two hours before his scheduled execution.