World War II events

• The main combatants of World War II were the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allies (France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China).

• The Allied powers were led by Winston Churchill (United Kingdom); Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union); Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (United States) and Charles de Gaulle (France).

• The Axis powers were led by Adolf Hitler (Germany), Benito Mussolini (Italy), and Hideki Tojo (Japan).

• World War II began in Europe with the invasion of Germany in Poland on September 1, 1939.

• In response, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3rd September.

• On 8th April 8, 1940, Germany invades Norway.

• On 10th May 10, 1940, Winston Churchill replaces Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister. On the same day, Germany invades Belgium.

• Luxembourg was occupied on 10th May; the Netherlands surrenders on 14th May, and Belgium surrenders on 28th May. By June 1940, Germany takes control of much of Western Europe, including France.

• On 10th July 1940, Germany launched a massive air attack against the United Kingdom.

• Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact on 27th September 1940.

• The war between the U.S.S.R. and Germany began on June 22, 1941, with Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

• On December 7, 1941, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. Three days later, after Germany and Italy declared war on it, the United States became fully engaged in the Second World War.

• In June 1942, the U.S. Navy defeats the Japanese navy at the Battle of Midway.

• On 23rd October 1942, British troops defeat the Germans and Italians at El Alamein in Egypt.

• The tide of the war in Europe shifted with the Soviet victory at the Battle of Stalingrad in February 1943. It marked the beginning of the end of the Third Reich.

• On 8th September 1943, Italy surrenders to the Allies, but German forces occupy northern Italy.

• On 6th June 6, 1944, British, US, and Canadian troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, marking D-Day. It opens a “Second Front” against the Germans.

• Allied troops reach Paris in August 1944. On August 25, Free French forces, supported by Allied troops, enter the French capital.

• The Red Army advanced from the east and effectively claimed all the territory under its control for the Soviet sphere.

• On March 7, 1945, US troops cross the Rhine River at Remagen.

• 0n 13th April 1945, Soviet forces capture Vienna.

• Adolf Hitler committed suicide on 30th April 1945, and the war in Europe ended on 8th May 1945.

• On 6th August 1945, the U.S. army drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

• on 9th August 1945, the U.S. army drops the second atomic bomb on Japan. This time in Nagasaki.

• Hundreds of thousands were killed in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which forced Japan to surrender.

• On 2nd September 1945, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, ending World War II.

• An estimated total of 70–85 million people died during World War II. At that time it was about 3% of the world population.