Please note that this only depicts a small number of things that occurred during the second world war. We will endeavour to add things to this when they are relevant to the story
28-06-1919 | Signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
01-01-1920 | League of Nations founded.
29-07-1921 | Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist 'Nazi' Party.
08-11-1923 | The Beer Hall Putsch. 1925 Jul-18 Hitler's book Mein Kampf published.
08-09-1926 | Germany admitted to League of Nations.
29-10-1929 | Stock Market on Wall Street crashes.
14-09-1930 | Germans elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany.
08-11-1932 | Roosevelt elected President of the United States.
30-01-1933 | Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
27-02-1933 | The Reichstag burns.
12-03-1933 | First concentration camp opened at Oranienburg outside Berlin.
23-03-1933 | Enabling Act gives Hitler dictatorial power.
01-03-1933 | Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops.
10-05-1933 | Nazis burn books in Germany.
06-1933 | Nazis open Dachau concentration camp.
14-06-1933 | Nazi party declared only party in Germany.
14-10-1933 | Germany quits the League of Nations.
30-06-1934 | The Night of the Long Knives
25-07-1934 | Nazis murder Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss.
02-08-1934 | German President Hindenburg dies.
19-08-1934 | Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.
16-03-1935 | Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.
15-09-1935 | German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws.
10-02-1936 | The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
07-03-1936 | German troops occupy the Rhineland.
09-05-1936 | Mussolini's Italian forces take Ethiopia.
01-07-1936 | Civil war erupts in Spain.
-08-1936 | Olympic games begin in Berlin.
01-10-1936 | Franco declared head of Spanish State.
11-06-1937 | Soviet leader Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals.
05-11-1937 | Hitler reveals war plans, during Hossbach Conference.
12-03-1938 | Germany announces 'Anschluss' (union) with Austria.
12-08-1938 | German military mobilizes.
30-09-1938 | British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich.
15-10-1938 | German troops occupy the Sudetenland; Czech government resigns.
09-11-1938 | Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.
30-01-1939 | Hitler threatens Jews during Reichstag speech.
15-03-1939 | Nazis take Czechoslovakia.
28-03-1939 | Spanish Civil war ends.
02-05-1939 | Nazis sign 'Pact of Steel' with Italy.
23-08-1939 | Nazis and Soviets sign Pact.
25-08-1939 | Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty.
31-08-1939 | British fleet mobilizes; Civilian evacuations begin from London.
01-09-1939 | Nazis invade Poland.
03-09-1939 | Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.
04-09-1939 | British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.
05-07-1939 | United States proclaims neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland.
10-09-1939 | Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins.
17-09-1939 | Soviets invade Poland.
27-09-1939 | Warsaw surrenders to Nazis; Reinhard Heydrich becomes the leader of new Reich Main Security Office (RSHA).
29-09-1939 | Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.
-10-1939 | Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
08-10-1939 | Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
30-11-1939 | Soviets attack Finland.
14-12-1939 | Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations.
08-01-1940 | Rationing begins in Britain.
12-03-1940 | Finland signs a peace treaty with Soviets.
16-03-1940 | Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland.
09-04-1940 | Nazis invade Denmark and Norway.
10-05-1940 | Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.
15-05-1940 | Holland surrenders to the Nazis.
26-05-1940 | Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins.
28-05-1940 | Belgium surrenders to the Nazis.
03-06-1940 | Germans bomb Paris; Dunkirk evacuation ends.
10-06-1940 | Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain andFrance.
14-06-1940 | Germans enter Paris.
16-06-1940 | Marshal Pétain becomes French Prime Minister.
18-06-1940 | Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich; Soviets begin occupation of theBaltic States.
22-06-1940 | France signs an armistice with the Nazis.
23-06-1940 | Hitler tours Paris.
28-06-1940 | Britain recognizes Gen. Charles de Gaulle as the Free French leader.
01-07-1940 | German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.
05-07-1940 | French Vichy government breaks off relations with Britain.
10-07-1940 | Battle of Britain begins.
23-07-1940 | Soviets take Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
03-08-1940 | Italians occupy British Somaliland in East Africa.
13-08-1940 | German bombing offensive against airfields and factories in England.
15-08-1940 | Air battles and daylight raids over Britain.
17-08-1940 | Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.
23-08-1940 | First German bombing of Central London.
25-08-1940 | First British air raid on Berlin.
03-09-1940 | Hitler plans Operation Sealion (the invasion of Britain).
07-09-1940 | German Blitz against England begins.
13-09-1940 | Italians invade Egypt.
15-09-1940 | Massive German air raids on London, Southhamption, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.
16-09-1940 | United States military conscription bill passed.
27-09-1940 | Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
07-10-1940 | German troops enter Romania.
12-10-1940 | Germans postpone Operation Sealion until Spring of 1941.
28-10-1940 | Italy invades Greece.
05-11-1940 | Roosevelt re-elected as U.S. president.
10-11-1940 | A torpedo bomber raid cripples the Italian fleet at Taranto, Italy
14-11-1940 | Germans bomb Coventry England
20-11-1940 | Hungary joins the Axis Powers.
22-11-1940 | Greeks defeat the Italian 9th Army.
23-11-1940 | Romania joins the Axis Powers.
09-12-1940 | British begin a western desert offensive in North Africa against theItalians.
29-12-1940 | Massive German air raid on London.
22-01-1941 | Tobruk in North Africa falls to the British and Australians.
11-02-1941 | British forces advance into Italian Somaliland in East Africa.
12-02-1941 | German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli
14-02-1941 | First units of German 'Afrika Korps' arrive in North Africa.
07-03-1941 | British forces arrive in Greece.
11-03-1941 | President Roosevelt signs the Lend Lease Act.
27-03-1941 | A coup in Yugoslavia overthrows the pro-Axis government.
03-04-1941 | Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq.
06-04-1941 | Nazis invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
14-04-1941 | Rommel attacks Tobruk.
17-04-1941 | Yugoslavia surrenders to the Nazis.
27-04-1941 | Greece surrenders to the Nazis.
01-05-1941 | German attack on Tobruk is repulsed.
10-05-1941 | Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess flies to Scotland.
10-05-1941 | Heavy German bombing of London; British bomb Hamburg.
15-05-1941 | Operation Brevity begins (the British counterattack in Egypt).
24-05-1941 | Sinking of the British ship Hood by the Bismarck.
27-05-1941 | Sinking of the Bismarck by the British Navy.
04-06-1941 | Pro-Allied government installed in Iraq.
08-06-1941 | Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
14-06-1941 | United States freezes German and Italian assets in America.
22-06-1941 | Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins.
-06-1941 | Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen begin mass murder.
28-06-1941 | Germans capture Minsk.
03-07-1941 | Stalin calls for a scorched earth policy.
10-07-1941 | Germans cross the River Dnieper in the Ukraine.
12-07-1941 | Mutual Assistance agreement between British and Soviets.
14-07-1941 | British occupy Syria.
26-07-1941 | Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets in United States and suspendsrelations.
31-07-1941 | Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for the Final Solution.
01-08-1941 | United States announces an oil embargo against aggressor states.
14-08-1941 | Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter.
20-08-1941 | Nazi siege of Leningrad begins.
01-09-1941 | Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
03-09-1941 | First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
09-09-1941 | The heaviest RAF raid on Berlin to date, with 197 bombers, with 15 bombers lost.
19-09-1941 | Nazis take Kiev.
29-09-1941 | Nazis murder 33,771 Jews at Kiev.
02-10-1941 | Operation Typhoon begins (German advance on Moscow).
16-10-1941 | Germans take Odessa.
24-10-1941 | Germans take Kharkov.
30-10-1941 | Germans reach Sevastopol.
13-11-1941 | British aircraft carrier Ark Royal is sunk off Gibraltar by a U-boat.
20-11-1941 | Germans take Rostov.
27-11-1941 | Soviet troops retake Rostov.
05-12-1941 | German attack on Moscow is abandoned.
06-12-1941 | Soviet Army launches a major counter offensive around Moscow.
07-12-1941 | Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor; Hitler issues the Night and Fog decree.
08-12-1941 | United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
11-12-1941 | Germany declares war on the United States.
16-12-1941 | Rommel begins a retreat to El Agheila in North Africa.
19-12-1941 | Hitler takes complete command of the German Army.
01-01-1942 | Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations.
13-01-1942 | Germans begin a U-boat offensive along east coast of USA.
20-01-1942 | SS Leader Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the Final Solution of the Jewish Question
21-01-1942 | Rommel's counter -offensive from El Agheila begins
26-01-1942 | First American forces arrive in Great Britain.
23-04-1942 | German air raids begin against cathedral cities in Britain.
08-05-1942 | German summer offensive begins in the Crimea.
26-05-1942 | Rommel begins an offensive against the Gazala Line.
27-05-1942 | SS Leader Heydrich attacked in Prague.
30-05-1942 | First thousand bomber British air raid (against Cologne).
-06-1942 | Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.
04-06-1942 | Heydrich dies of wounds.
05-06-1942 | Germans besiege Sevastopol.
10-06-1942 | Nazis liquidate Lidice in reprisal for Heydrich's assassination.
21-06-1942 | Rommel captures Tobruk.
25-06-1942 | Eisenhower arrives in London.
30-06-1942 | Rommel reaches El Alamein near Cairo
-07-1942 | First Battle of El Alamein.
03-07-1942 | Germans take Sevastopol.
05-07-1942 | Soviet resistance in the Crimea ends.
09-07-1942 | Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR.
22-07-1942 | First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps; Treblinka extermination camp opened.
07-08-1942 | British General Bernard Montgomery takes command of Eighth Army in North Africa.
12-08-1942 | Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow.
17-08-1942 | First all American air attack in Europe.
23-08-1942 | Massive German air raid on Stalingrad.
02-09-1942 | Rommel driven back by Montgomery in the Battle of Alam Halfa.
13-09-1942 | Battle of Stalingrad begins.
19-09-1942 | Bombing of Munich
05-10-1942 | A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
18-10-1942 | Hitler orders the execution of all captured British commandos.
30-10-1942 | Bombing of Munich
01-11-1942 | Operation Supercharge (Allies break Axis lines at El Alamein).
08-11-1942 | Operation Torch begins(U.S. invasion of North Africa).
11-11-1942 | Germans and Italians invade unoccupied Vichy France.
19-11-1942 | Soviet counter offensive at Stalingrad begins.
02-12-1942 | Professor Enrico Fermi sets up an atomic reactor in Chicago.
13-12-1942 | Rommel withdraws from El Agheila.
16-12-1942 | Soviets defeat Italian troops on the River Don in the USSR.
17-12-1942 | 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.
31-12-1942 | Battle of the Barents Sea between German and British ships.
02-01-1943 | Germans begin a withdrawal from the Caucasus.
10-01-1943 | Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad.
14-01-1943 | Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference Roosevelt announces the war can end only with an unconditional German surrender.
23-01-1943 | Montgomery's Eighth Army takes Tripoli.
27-01-1943 | First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven).
02-02-1943 | Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler'sarmies.
08-02-1943 | Soviet troops take Kursk.
14-02-1943 | Battle of Kasserine Pass between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and German Panzers in North Africa.
16-02-1943 | Soviets re-take Kharkov.
18-02-1943 | Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich.
02-03-1943 | Germans begin a withdrawal from Tunisia
15-03-1943 | Germans re-capture Kharkov.
16-03-1943 | Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.
20-03-1943 | Montgomery's Eighth Army breaks through the Mareth Line in Tunisia.
06-04-1943 | Axis forces in Tunisia begin a withdrawal toward Enfidaville as American and British forces link.
19-04-1943 | Waffen SS attacks Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.
07-05-1943 | Allies take Tunisia.
13-05-1943 | German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.
16-05-1943 | Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ends.
17-05-1943 | British air raid on the Ruhr.
22-05-1943 | Dönitz suspends U-boat operations in the North Atlantic.
11-06-1943 | Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland.
05-07-1943 | Germans begin their last offensive against Kursk.
10-07-1943 | Allies land in Sicily.
19-07-1943 | Allies bomb Rome.
22-07-1943 | Americans capture Palermo
24-07-1943 | British bombing raid on Hamburg.
25-07-1943 | Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.
27-07-1943 | Allied air raid causes a firestorm in Hamburg.
12-08-1943 | 19432 Germans evacuate Sicily.
17-08-1943 | American daylight air raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt in Germany; Allies reach Messina
23-08-1943 | Soviet troops recapture Kharkov.
08-09-1943 | Italian surrender is announced.
09-09-1943 | Allied landings at Salerno and Taranto.
11-09-1943 | Germans occupy Rome.
12-09-1943 | Germans rescue Mussolini.
23-09-1943 | Mussolini re-establishes a Fascist government.
01-10-1943 | Allies enter Naples
04-10-1943 | SS Reichsführer Himmler gives speech at Posen.
13-10-1943 | Italy declares war on Germany; Second American air raid on Schweinfurt.
06-11-1943 | Russians recapture Kiev in the Ukraine.
18-11-1943 | Large British air raid on Berlin.
28-11-1943 | Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Teheran.
06-01-1944 | Soviet troops advance into Poland.
17-01-1944 | First attack toward Cassino, Italy
22-01-1944 | Allies land at Anzio.
27-01-1944 | Leningrad relieved after a 900 day siege.
16-02-1944 | Germans counter attack against the Anzio beachhead.
04-03-1944 | Soviet troops begin an offensive on the BelArussian front; First major daylight bombing raid on Berlin by the Allies.
15-03-1944 | Second Allied attempt to capture Monte Cassino begins.
18-03-1944 | British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg
08-04-1944 | Soviet troops begin an offensive to liberate Crimea.
09-05-1944 | Soviet troops recapture Sevastopol.
11-05-1944 | Allies attack the Gustav Line south of Rome.
12-05-1944 | Germans surrender in the Crimea.
15-05-1944 | Germans withdraw to the Adolf Hitler Line.
25-05-1944 | Germans retreat from Anzio.
05-06-1944 | Allies enter Rome.
06-06-1944 | D-Day Landings
09-06-1944 | Soviet offensive against the Finnish front begins.
10-06-1944 | Nazis liquidate the town of Oradour-Sur-Glane in France.
13-06-1944 | First German V-1 rocket attack on Britain.
22-06-1944 | Operation Bagration begins (the Soviet summer offensive).
27-06-1944 | U.S. troops liberate Cherbourg.
03-07-1944 | 'Battle of the Hedgerows' in Normandy; Soviets capture Minsk.
09-07-1944 | British and Canadian troops capture Caen.
18-07-1944 | U.S. troops reach St. Lô.
20-07-1944 | German assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
24-07-1944 | Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.
28-07-1944 | Soviet troops take Brest Litovsk. U.S. troops take Coutances.
01-08-1944 | Polish Home Army uprising against Nazis in Warsaw begins; U.S. troopsreach Avranches.
04-08-1944 | Anne Frank and family arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam
07-08-1944 | Germans begin a major counter attack toward Avranches.
15-08-1944 | Operation Dragoon begins (the Allied invasion of Southern France).
19-08-1944 | Resistance uprising in Paris.
19-08-1944 | Soviet offensive in the Balkans begins with an attack on Romania.
20-08-1944 | Allies encircle Germans in the Falaise Pocket.
25-08-1944 | Liberation of Paris.
29-08-1944 | Slovak uprising begins.
31-08-1944 | Soviet troops take Bucharest.
01-09-1944 | Verdun, Dieppe, Artois, Rousen, Abbeville,Antwerp and Brussels liberated byAllies.
04-09-1944 | Finland and the Soviet Union agree to a cease-fire
13-09-1944 | U.S. troops reach the Siegfried Line.
17-09-1944 | Operation Market Garden begins (Allied airborne assault on Holland).
26-09-1944 | Soviet troops occupy Estonia.
02-10-1944 | Warsaw Uprising ends as the Polish Home Army surrenders to the Germans.
14-10-1944 | Allies liberate Athens; Rommel commits suicide.
21-10-1944 | Massive German surrender at Aachen.
30-10-1944 | Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
20-11-1944 | French troops drive through the 'Beffort Gap' to reach the Rhine.
24-11-1944 | French capture Strasbourg.
04-12-1944 | Civil War in Greece; Athens placed under martial law.
17-12-1944 | Waffen SS murder 81 U.S. POWs at Malmedy.
26-12-1944 | Patton relieves Bastogne.
27-12-1944 | Soviet troops besiege Budapest.
16-01-1945 | U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies link up after a month-long separation duringthe Battle of the Bulge.
17-01-1945 | Soviet troops capture Warsaw.
26-01-1945 | Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
04-02-1945 | Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Yalta
13-02-1945 | Dresden is destroyed by a firestorm after Allied bombing raids.
06-03-1945 | Last German offensive of the war begins to defend oil fields in Hungary.
07-04-1945 | Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen.
30-03-1945 | Soviet troops capture Danzig.
-04-1945 | Allies discover stolen Nazi art and wealth hidden in salt mines.
01-04-1945 | U.S. troops encircle Germans in the Ruhr; Allied offensive in North Italy.
12-04-1945 | Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps;
12-04-1945 | President Roosevelt dies. Truman becomes President.
16-04-1945 | Soviet troops begin their final attack on Berlin; Americans enter Nuremberg.
18-04-1945 | German forces in the Ruhr surrender.
21-04-1945 | Soviets reach Berlin.
28-04-1945 | Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans; Allies take Venice.
29-04-1945 | U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
30-04-1945 | Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
02-05-1945 | German troops in Italy surrender.
07-05-1945 | Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
08-05-1945 | VE (Victory in Europe) Day.
09-05-1945 | Hermann Göring is captured by members of the U.S. 7th Army.
23-05-1945 | SS Reichsführer Himmler commits suicide; German High Command and Provisional Government imprisoned.
05-06-1945 | Allies divide up Germany and Berlin and take over the government.
26-06-1945 | United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
01-07-1945 | U.S., British andand French troops move into Berlin.
16-07-1945 | First U.S. atomic bomb test; Potsdam Conference begins.
26-07-1945 | Atlee succeeds Churchill as British Prime Minister.
06-07-1945 | First atomic bomb dropped Hiroshima
08-08-1945 | Soviets declares war on Japan and invade Manchuria.
09-08-1945 | Second atomic bomb dropped Nagasaki
14-08-1945 | Japanese agree to unconditional surrender.
02-09-1945 | Japanese sign the surrender agreement; VJ (Victory over Japan) Day.
24-10-1945 | United Nations is officially born.