| 1918 |
| 11/11/1918 | World War One Armistice signed |
1919 |
| 6/28/1918 | Treaty of Versailles signed |
1920 |
| 1/16/1920 | League of Nations meets for the first time |
1921 |
| 7/29/1921 | Adolf Hitler assumes control of National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party |
1922 |
| 10/24/1922 | Benito Mussolini calls for fascist "Blackshirts" to March on Rome |
| 10/29/1922 | Mussolini appointed Premier by King Victor Emmanuel III |
1923 |
| 11/8-9/1923 | Hitler's Munich Beer Hall Putsch fails |
1925 |
| 1/3/1925 | Mussolini dismisses Italian parliament, begins to assume dictatorial powers |
| 7/18/1925 | Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf, is published |
1929 |
| 10/29/1929 | Wall Street Stock Market crashes |
1931 |
| 9/18/1931 | Japanese Army invades Manchuria |
1932 |
| 11/8/1932 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President of the United States |
1933 |
| 1/30/1933 | Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg |
| 2/27/1933 | German Reichstag burns down; communists blamed, arrested. |
| 3/23/1933 | Enabling Act passed by Reichstag; Hitler assumes dictatorial power |
| 7/14/1933 | Nazi party declared official party of Germany; all other parties banned |
| 10/14/1933 | Germany quits League of Nations |
1934 |
| 6/30/1934 | Hitler orders murder of SA Chief Ernst Roehm in "Night of the Long Knives" |
| 8/2/1934 | German President Paul von Hindenburg dies |
| 8/19/1934 | Hitler combines the offices of president and chancellor; assumes the title of Fuhrer |
1935 |
| 3/16/1935 | Military conscription introduced in Germany in violation of Versailles treaty |
| 9/15/1935 | Nuremberg race laws promulgated |
| 10/3/1935 | Italian Army invades Ethiopia |
1936 |
| 3/7/1936 | German troops remilitarize the Rhineland in violation of Versailles treaty |
| 5/9/1936 | Italian campaign in Ethiopia ends |
| 7/17/1936 | Spanish Civil War breaks out; Hitler and Mussolini send aid to Franco |
| 10/1/1936 | Franco becomes dictator of Spain |
| 10/25/1936 | Rome-Berlin "Axis" alliance formed |
1937 |
| 1/19/1937 | Japan withdraws from Washington Conference Treaty limiting the size of its navy |
| 5/28/1937 | Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of England |
| 6/11/1937 | Josef Stalin begins purge of Red Army |
| 7/7/1937 | Full-scale war erupts between China and Japan |
1938 |
| 3/12/1938 | Germany invades Austria; Anschluss (union) proclaimed |
| 9/30/1938 | Germany invades Austria; Anschluss (union) proclaimed |
| 10/15/1938 | Germany invades Austria; Anschluss (union) proclaimed |
| 11/9-10/1938 | Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) |
1939 |
| 3/15-16/1939 | WGerman troops occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia in violation of Munich Agreement |
| 3/28/1939 | Spanish Civil War ends |
| 8/23/1939 | Nazi-Soviet nonagression pact signed |
| 9/1/1939 | German Army invades Poland |
| 9/3/1939 | Britain and France declare war on Germany |
| 9/17/1939 | Red Army invades Poland in accordance with Nazi-Soviet Pact |
| 9/27/1939 | Warsaw falls to the Nazis |
| 11/30/1939 | Red Army attacks Finland |
| 9/14/1939 | Soviet Union kicked out of League of Nations |
1940 |
| 3/12/1940 | Finland signs peace treaty with Soviet Union |
| 4/9/1940 | German Army invades Denmark and Norway |
| 5/10/1940 | German Army invades France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill appointed British Prime Minister |
| 5/15/1940 | Holland capitulates to Nazis |
| 5/26/1940 | "Miracle at Dunkirk" |
| 5/28/1940 | Belgium capitulates to Nazis |
| 6/10/1940 | Norway capitulates to Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France |
| 6/14/1940 | Nazis take Paris |
| 6/22/1940 | France capitulates to Nazis |
| 7/10/1940 | Battle of Britain begins |
| 7/23/1940 | Red Army takes Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia |
| 8/3/1940 | Italian Army invades British Somaliland |
| 8/13/1940 | Luftwaffe begins raids on British airfields and aircraft factories |
| 8/23-24/1940 | Off-course German bombers accidentally bomb London |
| 8/25-26/1940 | Royal Air Force mounts reprisal raid against Berlin |
| 9/7/1940 | German "blitz" on British cities begins in earnest |
| 9/13/1940 | Italian Army attacks Egypt |
| 9/16/1940 | Military conscription introduced in United States |
| 9/27/1940 | Tripartite alliance formed between Germany, Italy and Japan |
| 10/7/1940 | German troops occupy Romania |
| 10/28/1940 | Italian Army attacks Greece |
| 11/5/1940 | Roosevelt re-elected |
| 11/10-11/1940 | RAF raid cripples Italian fleet at Taranto |
| 11/20/1940 | Romania joins Axis |
| 12/9-10/1940 | British counter-attack begins against Italian Army in North Africa |
1941 |
| 1/22/1941 | British take Tobruk in North Africa from Nazis |
| 2/11/1941 | British Army attacks Italian Somaliland |
| 2/12/1941 | Erwin Rommel assumes command of German Afrika Korps |
| 3/7/1941 | British Army comes to the aid of Greece |
| 3/11/1941 | Lend-Lease Act signed by Roosevelt |
| 4/6/1941 | German Army hastily invades Yugoslavia and Greece |
| 4/17/1941 | Yugoslavia capitulates to Nazis |
| 4/27/1941 | Greece capitulates to Nazis |
| 5/10/1941 | Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland on "peace mission" |
| 5/15/1941 | British counter-attack in Egypt |
| 5/24/1941 | German battleship Bismarck sinks Hood, pride of the Royal Navy |
| 5/27/1941 | Royal Navy sinks Bismarck |
| 6/8/1941 | British Army invades Lebanon and Syria |
| 6/22/1941 | Hitler launches operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union |
| 6/28/1941 | Germans capture Soviet city of Minsk |
| 7/3/1941 | Stalin launches "scorched earth" policy |
| 7/31/1941 | Planning begins for "Final Solution," the systematic destruction of the Jews |
| 8/12/1941 | Atlantic Charter signed by Roosevelt and Churchil |
| 8/20/1941 | German siege of Soviet city of Leningrad begins |
| 9/1/1941 | Jews order to wear yellow Star of David |
| 9/19/1941 | Germans capture Soviet city of Kiev |
| 9/29/1941 | German SS mass murders Russian Jews at Kiev |
| 10/16/1941 | Germans capture Soviet city of Odessa |
| 10/17/1941 | Hideki Tojo becomes Prime Minister of Japan |
| 10/24/1941 | Germans capture Soviet city of Kharkov |
| 10/30/1941 | German Army occupies the Crimea |
| 11/20/1941 | Germans capture the Soviet city of Rostov |
| 11/27/1941 | Red Army retakes Rostov |
| 12/6/1941 | Red Army launches major counter-offensive |
| 12/7/1941 | Japanese attack naval base at Pearl Harbor |
| 12/8/1941 | Roosevelt gives "Day of Infamy" speech; United States and Britain declare war on Japan |
| 12/11/1941 | Germany declares war on the United States |
| 12/16/1941 | Rommel's Afrika Korps forced to retreat in North Africa |
| 12/19/1941 | Hitler assumes post of Commander in Chief of German Army |
1942 |
| 1/1/1942 | Mass gassing of Jews begins at Auschwitz |
| 1/1/1942 | Allies forge Declaration of the United Nations |
| 1/13/1942 | German U-boats begin sinking ships off American coast in "Operation Drumbeat |
| 1/20/1942 | Nazis coordinate "Final Solution" efforts at Wannsee Conference |
| 1/21/1942 | Rommel counter-attacks in North Africa |
| 4/1/1942 | American citizens of Japanese descent forced into "relocation centers" |
| 5/8/1942 | Germans launch summer offensive in the Crimea |
| 5/30/1942 | Royal Air Force launches first 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne, German |
| 6/4/1942 | Japanese Navy resoundingly defeated at Battle of Midway--war reaches its turning point in the Pacific; S.S. Leader Rheinhardt Heydrich dies of wounds sustained in partisan attack at Prague |
| 6/5/1942 | German siege of Sevastopol begins |
| 6/10/1942 | Nazis annihilate Czech town of Lidice in retaliation for Heydrich's assassination |
| 6/21/1942 | German Afrika Korps recaptures Tobruk |
| 7/3/1942 | Sevastopol falls to German Army |
| 7/5/1942 | Nazi conquest of Crimea achieved |
| 7/9/1942 | German Army begins push towards Stalingrad |
| 8/7/1942 | General Bernard Montgomery assumes command of British Eighth Army in North Africa |
| 9/13/1942 | German attack on Stalingrad begins |
| 11/3/1942 | Afrika Korps decisively defeated by British at El Alamein |
| 11/8/1942 | Allied invasion of North Africa begins in "Operation Torch" |
| 11/11/1942 | Axis forces occupy Vichy France |
| 11/19/1942 | Soviet forces encircle German Sixth Army at Stalingrad |
| 12/31/1942 | German and British ships engage in the Battle of the Barents Sea |
1943 |
| 1/2-3/1943 | German Army retreats from Caucasus |
| 1/10/1943 | Red Army begins siege of German-occupied Stalingrad |
| 1/14-23/1943 | Roosevelt and Churchill meet at Casablanca, issue unconditional surrender demand |
| 1/23/1943 | British forces take Tripoli |
| 1/27/1943 | U.S. Air Force opens daylight bombing campaign with attack on Wilhelmshaven, Germany |
| 2/2/1943 | German Sixth Army at Stalingrad surrenders to the Russians; war in Europe reaches its turning point |
| 2/8/1943 | Red Army takes Kursk |
| 2/14-25/1943 | Battle of Kasserine Pass fought in North Africa between German and U.S. forces |
| 2/16/1943 | Red Army retakes Kharkov |
| 3/2/1943 | Afrika Korps withdraws from Tunisia |
| 3/15/1943 | Germany Army recaptures Kharkov |
| 3/16-20/1943 | German submarines achieve their largest tonnage total of the war |
| 4/19/1943 | S.S. begins "liquidation" of the Warsaw ghetto |
| 5/7/1943 | Allies capture Tunisia |
| 5/13/1943 | remaining Axis troops in North Africa surrender to Allies |
| 5/16-17/1943 | RAF targets German industry in the Ruhr |
| 5/22/1943 | U-boat operations suspended in the North Atlantic due to steep losses |
| 6/11/1943 | Nazis order destruction of Polish ghettos |
| 7/5/1943 | Largest tank battle in history begins at Kursk |
| 7/9-10/1943 | Allied forces land on Sicily |
| 7/22/1943 | American forces take Palermo, Sicily |
| 7/25-26/1943 | Mussolini and the Fascists overthrown |
| 7/27-28/1943 | Allied bombing raid creates firestorm in Hamburg, Germany |
| 8/12-17/1943 | Axis forces withdraw from Sicily |
| 8/17/1943 | USAF suffers steep losses in bombing run on ball-bearing plants at Regensburg and Schweinfurt, Germany |
| 8/23/1943 | Red Army retakes Karkhov |
| 9/8/1943 | New Italian government announces Italy's surrender |
| 9/9/1943 | Allied forces land in Salerno and Taranto, Italy |
| 9/11/1943 | German Army occupies Italy |
| 9/12/1943 | Nazi commandos rescue Mussolini |
| 9/23/1943 | Fascist government re-established in Italy |
| 10/1/1943 | Allies take Naples |
| 11/6/1943 | Red Army recaptures Kiev |
| 11/28/1943 | "Big Three" of Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill meet at Tehran |
| 12/24-26/1943 | Soviets begin large offensive in Ukraine |
1944 |
| 1/6/1944 | Red Army advances into Poland |
| 1/22/1944 | Allied forces land at Anzio, Italy |
| 1/27/1944 | Red Army breaks 900-day siege of Leningrad |
| 1/31/1944 | American forces invade Kwajalein |
| 2/16/1944 | German 14th Army counter-attacks at Anzio |
| 2/18-22/1944 | American forces take Eniwetok |
| 4/8/1944 | Red Army begins offensive in the Crimea |
| 5/9/1944 | Soviet troops recapture Sevastopol |
| 5/12/1944 | German forces in the Crimea surrender |
| 6/5/1944 | Allied forces enter Rome |
| 6/6/1944 | D-Day: invasion of Europe begins with Allied landings at Normandy |
| 6/9/1944 | Red Army advances into Finland |
| 6/13/1944 | Germans begin launching V-1 rockets against London |
| 6/15/1944 | American marines invade Saipan |
| 6/19-20/1944 | "Marianas Turkey Shoot" results in destruction of over 200 Japanese aircraft |
| 6/22/1944 | Red Army begins massive summer offensive |
| 6/27/1944 | American forces liberate Cherbourg |
| 7/3/1944 | Soviet forces recapture Minsk |
| 7/9/1944 | Allied troops liberate Caen |
| 7/18/1944 | American troops liberate St Lo |
| 7/20/1944 | Hitler survives assassination attempt |
| 7/24/1944 | Soviet forces liberate concentration camp at Majdanek |
| 7/25-30/1944 | Allied forces break-out of Normandy encirclement in "Operation Cobra" |
| 7/28/1944 | Red Army recaptures Brest-Litovsk |
| 8/1/1944 | Polish Home Army begins revolt against Nazis in Warsaw |
| 8/15/1944 | Allies invade Southern France |
| 8/19-20/1944 | Soviet forces invade Romania |
| 8/23/1944 | Rumania capitulates to Soviets |
| 8/25/1944 | Paris liberated |
| 8/31/1944 | Red Army takes Bucharest |
| 9/3/1944 | Brussels liberated |
| 9/4/1944 | Antwerp liberated |
| 9/8/1944 | Soviets and Finns sign peace treaty |
| 9/13/1944 | American troops reach the Siegfried Line in western Germany |
| 9/26/1944 | Red Army occupies Estonia |
| 10/2/1944 | Nazis brutally crush revolt in Warsaw; Allies advance into Germany |
| 10/5/1944 | British invade Greece |
| 10/14/1944 | British liberate Athens; Rommel forced to commit suicide for alleged involvement in July assassination plot against Hitler |
| 10/20/1944 | Belgrade, Yugoslavia falls to Soviet forces |
| 10/23-26/1944 | U.S. naval forces destroy remnants of Japanese Navy at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval engagement in history |
| 11/7/1944 | Roosevelt elected to fourth term |
| 12/3/1944 | Civil war erupts in Greece; Japanese retreat in Burma |
| 12/15/1944 | American forces invade Phillipine island of Mindoro |
| 12/16/1944 | German Army launches "Battle of the Bulge" offensive on the Western Front |
| 12/17/1944 | Waffen SS executes 81 American prisoners of war in "Malmedy Massacre" |
1945 |
| 1/9/1945 | American forces invade Phillipine island of Luzon |
| 1/16/1945 | Battle of the Bulge ends in German defeat |
| 1/17/1945 | Red Army liberates Warsaw |
| 1/19/1945 | German lines on Eastern Front collapse; full retreat begins |
| 1/20/1945 | Hungary signs armistice with Allies |
| 1/26/1945 | Soviets liberate Auschwitz |
| 1/27/1945 | Red Army occupies Lithuania |
| 2/4-11/1945 | Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Yalta Conference |
| 2/13-14/1945 | Allied incendiary raid creates firestorm in Dresden |
| 2/19/1945 | American forces land on Iwo Jima |
| 3/3/1945 | American forces liberate Manila in the Phillipines; Finland declares war on Germany |
| 3/7/1945 | Allies capture Cologne; Ludendorff Rail Bridge on Rhine River captured intact at Ramagen |
| 3/9/1945 | Tokyo firebombed |
| 3/16/1945 | Japanese resistance on Iwo Jima ends |
| 3/21/1945 | Allies take Mandalay, Burma |
| 3/30/1945 | Red Army liberates Danzig |
| 4/1/1945 | American troops encircle German forces in the Ruhr |
| 4/12/1945 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies of stroke; Harry Truman becomes President; Allies liberate Belsen and Buchenwald concentration camps |
| 4/16/1945 | Red Army launches Berlin offensive; Allies take Nuremberg |
| 4/18/1945 | German forces in the Ruhr capitulate |
| 4/28/1945 | Mussolini hanged by Italian partisans; Venice falls to Allied forces |
| 4/29/1945 | Dachau concentration camp liberated |
| 4/30/1945 | Adolf Hitler and wife Eva Braun commit suicide in Chancellery bunker |
| 5/2/1945 | All German forces in Italy surrender |
| 5/7/1945 | Unconditional surrender of all German forces |
| 5/8/1945 | Victory in Europe (VE) Day |
| 5/23/1945 | SS Reichfuhrer Heinrich Himmler commits suicide |
| 6/5/1945 | Allies divide Germany into occupation zones |
| 6/26/1945 | United Nations World Charter signed in San Francisco |
| 7/16/1945 | First U.S. atomic bomb tested at Los Alamos, New Mexico; Potsdam Conference begins |
| 7/26/1945 | Clement Attlee becomes British Prime Minister |
| 8/6/1945 | First atomic bomb dropped Hiroshima |
| 8/8/1945 | Soviet Union declares war on Japan; Soviet forces invade Manchuria |
| 8/9/1945 | Second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki |
| 8/14/1945 | Unconditional surrender of Japanese forces |
| 8/15/1945 | Victory over Japan (VJ) Day |
| 9/2/1945 | Japanese delegation signs instrument of surrender aboard battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay |
| 11/20/1945 | Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal begins |
1946 |
| 1/7/1946 | United Nations meets for first time in London |
| 10/16/1946 | Hermann Goring commits suicide; 11 other war criminals hanged |