Oct. 3, 1935
Italian invasion of Ethiopia
May 1, 1937
U. S. Neutrality Act
July 7, 1937
Sino-Japanese War
Oct. 1, 1938
German seizure of Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia)
Nov. 9, 1938
Kristallnacht pogrom in Germany
Sept. 1, 1939
German invasion of Poland
Sept. 17, 1939
Soviet Union occupation of east Poland
Apr. 9, 1940
German invasion of Norway and occupation of Denmark
May 10, 1940
German invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Luxemburg
June 14, 1940
German entry into Paris
July 10, 1940
Battle of Britain (to Spring 1941)
Nov. 5, 1940
Roosevelt victory over Wendell Willkie in Presidential election
June 22, 1941
German invasion of Soviet Union
Aug. 1, 1941
United States ban on gasoline export to Japan
Sept. 15, 1941
German siege of Leningrad (to Jan. 1943)
Sept. 30, 1941
German attack on Moscow (to December 1941)
Dec. 7, 1941
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Wake, Guam, Philippines, British Malaya, Hong Kong, and Thailand
Dec. 8, 1941
United States declaration of war on Japan
Dec. 11, 1941
United States declaration of war on Germany and Italy
Jan. 20, 1942
Nazi decision on “Final Solution” at Wannsee Conference
Feb. 15, 1942
Singapore surrender to Japan
Feb. 19, 1942
U.S. Executive Order 9066, relocating Japanese Americans on the West Coast to internment camps
May 6, 1942
Allied surrender of Corregidor Island (Philippines)
June 3–6, 1942
United States defeat of Japanese at Midway
Sept. 13 1942
Battle of Stalingrad (to February 2, 1943)
May 7, 1945
German unconditional surrender at Reims
Sept. 2, 1945
Japanese surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay