March 1938 Hitler (Germany) invades and annexes Austria
Sept. 1938 Germany demands the "Sudetenland," which consisted
of the borderlands of Bohemia (Czechoslovakia), which had a largely ethnic
German population of 3 million people. Also, most of the defensible towns
and fortresses of Bohemia (western Czechoslovakia were in the Sudetenland.
Hitler assured Britain and France that if they let him have the Sudetenland
he would leave the remainder of Czechoslovakia alone. Munich Agreement.
Neville
Chamberlain (prime minister of Britain proclaims "peace in our time"),
along with Edouard Deladier of France. The Czechs felt that they were "sold
down the river."
November 9-10, 1938 Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). Nazis attack Jewish homes, businesses; burn hundreds of synogogues, as retaliation for murder of German diplomat by a Jew in Paris.
March 1939 Hitler lied: He now invaded and incorporated Bohemia and Moravia (Czech republic). Slovakia became independent under German "protection." Americans later concluded that the lesson of Muncih was that the appeasement of aggressors only encourages and rewards further aggression.
Summer 1939 Germany makes demands on Poland for the city of Danzig. Britian and France were allies of Poland. Would they stand and fight for Poland, or sell it down the river as they had abandoned the Czechs?
Aug. 20-21 German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. The German foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, meets with the Soviet foreign minister (Vyacheslav Molotov) at Moscow. They agree to carve up Poland.
Sept. 1, 1939 Assured of Russian neutrality, Germany invades Poland. Blitzkrieg. Beginning of World war II. Russia occupies land in the east. Britain and France stand by the alliance, but do little to intervene.
Sept. 27 Warsaw surrenders. The Nazis begin rounding up Jews in Poland and Germany.
April 1940 Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
June 4, 1940 200,000 British troops and 140,000 French troops are evacuated by sea from the beaches of Dunkirk, Belgium.
June 22 France asks for an armistice, pleads for peace. The Nazis ran over France in a month *.
June 1940-1941 Battle of Britain. Germany tries to bomb Britain into submission. Britain saved by her scientists, who had developed radar.
Sept. 27, 1940 Pact between Germany, Italy (Benito Mussolini) and Japan (Axis)
Oct. 1940 German troops enter Romania to "protect’ its oil fields. Romania does not dare to refuse
Nov. 1940 Hungary joins the Axis.
March 1941 Bulgaria joins Germany as an ally.
April 1941 Germany invades Yugoslavia (Serbia) and Greece.
June 22, 1941 Germany invades Russia.
Oct. 1941 US agrees to provide aid to Russia. US extends to Russia a credit of $1 billion. Later, US extends lend-lease to Russia.
Developments in the Pacific
Sept. 1940 The Japanese begin occupation of French colonies in Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia).
Oct. 1941 Prince Kanoye resigns as the Japanese premier, and is replaced by the more militaristic general Hideki Tojo.
Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Dec. 11, 1941 Germany and Italy, as allies of Japan, declare war on
the US
Jan-May 1942 Japanese conquer the Philippines, proceed into Dutch east Asia (Indonesia).
Feb. 1942 Japanese attack Malaya and Singapore. British resist from Australia.
Feb. 1942-1944 112,000 Japanese Americans interned in detention camps
in West, as a potential threat to national security. In 1988 (under Ronald
Reagan) the US issued an apology, paid $20,000 per survivor as compensation.
During the internment Japanese Americans were forced to sell their farms,
homes, property "dirt cheap."
June 1944 Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill). Tuition, fees, living allowances for veterans to pursue education (college, technical and vocational school). By 1946 more than 1 million veterans were enrolled. The bill also rpovided for mortgage guarantees.
June 6, 1944 D-Day. Operation Overlord. Dwight Eisenhower and Allies begin invasion of Normandy, in France. Direct frontal assault on Hitler. George Patton led the American invasion of Italy.
April 1945 FDR dies. Harry Truman, of Missouri, becomes president.
May 1, 1945 German radio announced that Hitler is dead (suicide).
May 7, 1945 Germany surrenders
June 1945 United Nations Charter completed in conference at San Francisco (50 nations attend).
August 1945 US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. US said that an attack on the Japanese home islands, against kamikazi opponents, would cost 1 million American lives. US also wanted to send a message to Russia.
Sept. 1945 Japan surrenders
1946
First Levittown built. Beginning of mass suburbanization
Dean Acheson, under secretary of state, warns of communist aggression in Greece. US provides assistance to Greece.
April 1948 Communists overthrow government in Czechoslovakia. Growing American fear of soviet aggression, international communism
April 1948-May 1949 Soviets blockade Berlin. US responds with airlift.
Israel created
Truman orders end of segregation in armed forces
Sept. 1949 NATO established
Mao Zedung leads Chinese Communists to victory.
Chiang Kai-shek flees to island of Taiwan
Soviets detonate atomic bomb: Americans horrified
1950
February, Klaus Fuchs arrested by British for passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during World War II.. Fuchs was a German born scientist involved with the Manhattan Project (atomic bomb). Fuchs confessed, named Harry Gold as his American accomplice. Gold then implicated David Greenglass, a machinist who worked at the Los Alamos Laboratory. Greenglass named his sister and brother-in-law, Ethel Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg. They were the children of Jewish immigrants.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit espionage, passing atomic secrets to Soviets. Convicted in March 1951 of conspiring to commit espionage, electrocuted 1953.
Korean War begins. Douglas Mac Arthur leads American army to border of China. More than 1 million Chinese troops intervene.
1952 Eisenhower elected: re-elected 1956
1954 Brown v. Board of Education case
1955 Salk polio vaccine developed
1957 (Oct). Soviets launch Sputnik (little traveler)
1960 John Kennedy elected
1961 Bay of Pigs fiasco. US attempts covert operation with anti-Castro Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro.
Oct. 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
Spring 1963 Martin Luther King in Birmingham
June 11, 1963 John Kennedy announces that he will ask Congress for civil rights bill to
accommodation (Sumner bill revisited). This bill will take the Brown
decision and write it as federal statute (law).