1939
MAY 22
Adolf Hitler of Germany signs a treaty with Italy’s Benito Mussolini
AUGUST 23
Joseph Stalin of Russia and Adolf Hitler sign a pact vowing not to invade each other’s countries
SEPTEMBER 1
Germany invades Poland
SEPTEMBER 3
Britain and France declare war on Germany
SEPTEMBER 10
The Parliament of Canada declares war on Germany
DECEMBER 18
First Canadian troops arrive in Europe
1940
APRIL 9
Germany invades Denmark and Norway
MAY 10
Germany invades Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg
MAY 15
Holland surrenders
JUNE 10
Italy declares war on Britain and France
JUNE 14
Germany invades Paris, and France surrenders to the Nazis
JUNE 28
Charles de Gaulle is recognized as the leader of the Free French Forces, French troops who had escaped to Britain after the Nazis occupied France
JULY 10
The Battle of Britain between the RAF and the Luftwaffe begins in the skies over England
SEPTEMBER 7
The German Blitz against Great Britain begins
SEPTEMBER 13
Italian forces invade Egypt
SEPTEMBER 17
Hitler postpones invasion of Britain after losing air battle
OCTOBER 7
German troops enter Romania
OCTOBER 28
Italy invades Greece
1941
APRIL 27
German troops occupy Athens
JUNE 1
The Nazi SS begin mass murder of Jews in eastern Poland
JUNE 22
Germans launch massive invasion of the Soviet Union
DECEMBER 7
The Japanese attack the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
DECEMBER 8
The U.S. Congress declares war on Japan
DECEMBER 11
Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S.
The U.S. Congress declares war on Germany and Italy
1942
JANUARY 26
U.S. troops arrive in Europe
FEBRUARY 15
The British surrender to Japanese forces in Singapore
APRIL 1
Internment of U.S. Japanese-American citizens begins
JUNE 4–7
The U.S. wins the decisive Battle of Midway, sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers
JULY 6
Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in Amsterdam
AUGUST
Germany attacks the Russian city of Stalingrad
NOVEMBER 8
The U.S. invasion of North Africa begins
1943
JANUARY 10
Soviets begin offensive against Germans in Stalingrad
JANUARY 23
U.S. troops take Tripoli (now Libya)
FEBRUARY 1
Germans surrender to Soviet forces in Stalingrad
MAY
Allied troops defeat the Germans in North Africa
JULY 5
Germans launch the largest tank battle in history at Kursk, Russia
JULY 9
Allied invasion of Sicily, an island off Italy, begins
JULY 25
Benito Mussolini is arrested, ending the Fascist regime in Italy
SEPTEMBER 8
Italy surrenders to the Allies; Hitler rushes troops to Italy
OCTOBER 13
Italy declares war on Germany
NOVEMBER 1
U.S. Marines land on the Japanese-occupied Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean
NOVEMBER 28
Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet in Yalta in Crimea to plan the final assault on and occupation of Germany
DECEMBER 1
Erwin Rommel becomes commander in chief of the German forces responsible for the defense of the Normandy coast
1944
JANUARY 17
Allies launch first attack against Germans in Italy
JANUARY 27
Soviet forces break the German 900-day siege of Leningrad, Russia, during which more than one million civilians died of starvation
FEBRUARY 20–25
German aircraft factories are bombed by U.S. and British air forces
MARCH 15
Germans launch offensive against India
APRIL 28
German E-boats attack Allied forces training for D-Day at Slapton Sands, England, killing nearly 700
JUNE 4
Allies liberate Rome, Italy, the first Axis capital to be freed after Canadians break the Hitler line south of the city
JUNE 6
D-Day
JULY 18
U.S. troops capture St.-Lô, France
JULY 21
U.S. Marines land on Japanese-occupied Guam in the Mariana Islands
JULY 29
Allies take Cherbourg, France
AUGUST 4
Anne Frank and her family are arrested
AUGUST 15
Allies launch the invasion of southern France
AUGUST 25
German troops in Paris surrender to the Allies
SEPTEMBER 3
The British liberate Brussels, the capital of Belgium
SEPTEMBER 17–22
Canadian Third Infantry Division liberates French ports of Boulogne and Calais
OCTOBER 20
U.S. invasion of the Philippines begins
OCTOBER 25
First Japanese kamikaze attack on a U.S. ship occurs
DECEMBER 16
The Battle of the Bulge begins
1945
JANUARY 17
Soviet troops capture Warsaw, Poland
JANUARY 25
The Battle of the Bulge ends
JANUARY 26
Soviet troops liberate the Auschwitz death camp in Poland
FEBRUARY 19
U.S. Marines begin the assault on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima
FEBRUARY 23
U.S. Marines raise the American flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima
MARCH 7
U.S. troops cross into Germany on the Rhine River bridge at Remagen
MARCH 26
The battle for Iwo Jima ends
APRIL 1
U.S. troops land on the Japanese island of Okinawa
APRIL 11
U.S. troops liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp
APRIL 12
President Roosevelt dies suddenly; Harry Truman is sworn in as U.S. president
APRIL 15
British troops liberate the Bergen-Belsen camp, where Anne Frank and her sister died of typhus one month earlier
APRIL 30
Hitler commits suicide as Soviet troops approach Berlin
MAY 7
General Eisenhower accepts Germany’s unconditional surrender
MAY 8
Germany surrenders to Russia
JUNE 5
Allies divide Germany into four zones
AUGUST 6
U.S. drops atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing as many as 140,000 people instantly
AUGUST 8
Soviet Union declares war on Japan
AUGUST 9
U.S. drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing more than 80,000 people instantly
AUGUST 14
Japan surrenders
SEPTEMBER 2
Japan signs surrender agreement
SEPTEMBER 25
The Nazi Party is declared illegal in Germany
OCTOBER 24
The United Nations is created
NOVEMBER 13
General de Gaulle is elected president of France
NOVEMBER 14
The Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders for war crimes begin
A more complete time-line, with videos, can be found at the Web site of the National World War II Museum at nationalww2museum.org. Canadian forces’ efforts are described at the Canadian War Museum Web site at warmuseum.ca.