Study
Tool: Chronological Events of the 1939-1945 Era
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This war is more than a catastrophic war; its terms and people become symbols¾become part of thinking of multiple generations. Click here for some examples.
( ) with specific name – Name is for reference for you can find the information in the index if needed.
Allies =
Date |
Presidential Election/Event |
US Official -Unofficial Actions |
Allies |
Axis |
US War Actions |
Issue/Organization
Development |
Political Party
Development |
1920s-1930s |
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1940-05 |
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Committee to Defend |
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1940-06 |
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Fr: Falls to Ger; |
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War Department:
Surplus, old munitions, arms, planes to Br |
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1940-08 to 10 |
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Selective Service Act |
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“Overage”
destroyers to Br for 99-yr. leases (Destroyer-Bases Agreement) |
America First Committee - isolationism |
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FDR: Embargo on
steel, scrap iron to all but Br |
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1940-11 |
Wendell Willkie
vs. F. D. Roosevelt |
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1940-12 |
Fireside chat on US
as “the great arsenal of
democracy” |
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Ger: US protest over US aid to Br (Dec. 21) |
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1941-01 |
Four Freedoms[1]
speech to Congress |
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Threatened black march on |
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1941-03 |
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Lend-Lease Bill |
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1941-04 |
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Rationing starts (later
Office of Price Administration) |
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1941-06 |
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Ger invades Ru. |
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Lend-Lease to Ru |
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Science group est.[3] |
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FDR: move to block
march[4] |
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1941-08 |
Atlantic Charter
announced[5] |
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1941-09, 10 |
“’Active defense’”
to Iceland |
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Reuben James sunk, Iceland convoy duty |
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1941-11 |
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Congress modifies
Neutrality Acts |
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1941-12 |
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Japan: Takes multiple
areas[6]
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War Production
Board (WPB) |
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1941-12-07 |
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Japan: Pearl Harbor |
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1941-12-11 |
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US declares war on
Japan |
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Ger, Italy: Declare war on US |
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Rosie
the Riveter- Tuskegee Airmen |
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1942 |
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Detroit race riots; CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) forms |
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1942-02 |
Exec. Order 9066 – Relocation[7] |
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1942-04 |
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Draft starts |
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1942-11 |
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Allies N. Africa
campaign – victory against Vichy |
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1943-02 |
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Ru: Victory at
Stalingrad |
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US: Guadalcanal secured – 6
months (New Guinea); |
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“leapfrog” campaign starts |
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1943-06 |
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Mobs against Mexican Americans (CA) |
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1943-07-08 |
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Sicily victory;
enter into N. Italy; Mussolini flees |
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1944-03 |
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GI Bill – avoids the disaster of WWI |
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1944-06 |
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Allies: Normandy- D.D. Eisenhower |
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1944-07 |
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Port Chicago, CA – 250 black sailors killed |
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1944-12 |
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US/Br: Battle of
Bulge – stop German counter 77K US casualties |
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1945-02 |
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US: Philippines
victory – 7 months |
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Holocaust-“Final Solution” |
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Yalta[8]
Accords – UN, free elections |
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1945-03 |
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US: Iwo Jima –
victory – 2 months |
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1945-04 |
FDR dead; Harry S Truman President |
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Ger: Suicide of Hitler |
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Cold War begins Slow shift in racism |
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1945-04-06 |
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UN Conference – draft charter |
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American worker pay^ Presidential power ^ |
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1945-05 |
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Allies: Berlin
falls (May 2), Ger surrenders (May 7), V-E (May 8) |
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1945-06 |
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German/Berlin
occupation zones est.; Ru., US, Fr, Br |
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1945-07 |
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Potsdam Conference
– agree to trials[9] |
Japan:
Rejects unconditional surrender |
US: Successful
atomic bomb test (Jul. 17) |
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1945-08 |
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US: Hiroshima, atomic bomb |
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US: occupies Japan |
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Date
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Rise of Axis Powers |
1931-09 |
Japan: Manchurian invasion |
1933-01 |
Germany: Hitler, Chancellor |
1935-05 |
Italy: Invades Ethiopia |
1936 |
Germany: Reoccupies the Rhineland |
Germany, Italy: Mutual defense pact |
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Spanish Civil War |
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1937-12 |
Japan: Bombs US Panay in Yangtze River in China |
Japan: As part of attacks on China (with high Chinese dead counts), fall of the city of Nanking (Nanjing), Rape of Nanking – torture, rape, mass murder |
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1938 |
Germany takes Sudetenland; Munich – Chamberlain |
1938-11 |
Kristallnacht |
Date |
US |
Allies |
Axis |
1939-03 |
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Ger: Makes demands on Poles (Mar. 23) |
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Br, Fr:
Promise aid to Poles (Mar. 31) |
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1939-04 |
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Italy: Invades Albania (Apr. 7) |
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US/FDR: to Hitler
and Mussolini asking assurances (Apr. 15) |
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1939-05 |
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Ger/Italy: Military alliance (May 22) |
1939-08 |
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Ger/Ru: Non-aggression pact (Aug. 23) |
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US/FDR: to Poles,
Hitler, Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel for negotiation (Aug. 24) |
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Poles: Accept conciliation.
No response so mobilize (Aug. 31) |
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1939-09 |
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Ger: Invades Poland (Sept. 1) |
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Br/Fr: declare war on Ger (Sept. 1) |
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US: Declares neutrality (Sept. 3) |
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Ru: Invades Poland
(Sept. 17) |
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Ger/Ru: Partition Poland (Sept. 18) |
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1939-11 |
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Ru: Invades Finland. Complete (Mar. 1940) |
1940-04 |
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Ger: Invades Denmark, Norway |
1940-05 |
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Ger: Invades The Netherlands, Belgium (May
10). Fall by June. |
Chamberlain, Neville
Churchill, Winston
DeGaulle, Charles
Hitler, Adolph
Mussolini, Benito
Quisling, Vidkum – Not in your textbook, the puppet leader of Norway set up by Germany
Stalin, Joseph
Wallenberg,
Raoul – Also cover Auschwitz, Dachau, Holocaust
Aryan
Auschwitz
Axis
Bataan Death
March
Blitzkreig
Dachau
Dunkirk
Gestapo
Holocaust –
from Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary: (usually cap.)
“the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps
during World War II” [from words meaning burnt whole]
Kamikaze
Luftwaffe
Maginot line, “impregnable”
Nazi - from Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary: “a member of the National Socialist Workers’ party in Germany….”
Nuremberg Trials
Siegfried line
Vichy – the French puppet government set up by Germany
Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2016 |
WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu |
Last Updated: |
2016 |
WCJC Home: |
[1] Of speech, of religion, from want, from fear
[2] During 1941, A. Phillip Randolph – Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
[3] Office of Scientific Research and Development - later radar, sonar, atomic bomb (or Manhattan Project)
[4] Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) in return for no march
[5] Not binding, but signed by 15 countries by Sept. 24
[6] Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dutch East Indies, and others; Corregidor surrenders May; Bataan Death March follows
[7] Sell all property in 48 hours; only what they could carry. Internment camps for Japanese and American-born children1988 – Congress – survivors $20K reparations
[8] FDR, Churchill, Stalin agree to the United Nations.Stalin promises aid in war against Japan, but our use of the atomic bomb ends that need. Stalin agrees to free and open elections in eastern Europe, areas the Russians hold, but does not.
[9] Nuremberg