World War II Timeline 1933 January - Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany 4 March - Franklin Delano Roosevelt becomes President of the United States of America 1936 7 March - German troops occupy the Rhineland, the demilitarized area between France and Germany 24 October - Rome-Berlin Axis formed, which stated that Europe was divided into spheres of influence by Hitler and Benito Mussolini 1939 3 September - Great Britain and France declare war on Germany 10 September - Canada declares war on Germany September - British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain appoints Winston Churchill to his former post of Lord of the Admiralty December - British Commonwealth Plan Established 1940 10 May - Chamberlain resigns as PM of Britain; Churchill succeeds him June - Nazi and Fascist groups declared illegal in Canada July - Germany begins raiding Great Britain; Battle of Britain lasts until November 25 September - Japan joins the war on the Axis side November - Trans-Atlantic Ferry Service begins to fly planes, men, and supplies to Great Britain from Canada 1941 22 June - Germany declares war on the U.S.S.R. August - First Canadian Women's Army Corps established October - Two Canadian infantry divisions are sent to Hong Kong November - Lt. General A.G.L. McNaughton named commander of First Canadian Army December - Canada declares war on Japan - Hong Kong surrenders to the Japanese; Canadian soldiers are taken prisoner - Japanese-Canadians in British Columbia are given identity cards 7 December - Japan bombs Pearl Harbour, U.S.A. 8 December - United States declares war on Japan; Germany and Italy, bound by treaty, are forced to declare war on U.S.A. 1942 February - Japanese-Canadians in British Columbia are evacuated into the interior 3-6 June - Battle of Midway July - Battle of Stalingrad August - Allied Raid on Dieppe, France - United States begins Project Manhattan, which would develop the first atomic bomb known to man 1943 19 April - Polish Jews begin a month-long resistance to deportation to Hitler's death camps July - Canadian troops participate in the invasion of Sicily 24 July - The Fascist Grand Council meets in Rome and passes a resolution dismissing Mussoline from office 25 July - Mussolini is placed under arrest and is taken to the Abruzzi Mountains to be placed under confinement August - German Commando Troops rescue Mussolini and take him to Munich September - Canadian troops participate in the invasion of Italy December - Battle of Ortona 1944 March - H.D.G. Crera becomes commander of First Canadian Army 6 June - Allied Invasion of Normandy/D-Day August - Battle of Falaise October/ November - Scheldt Campaign in Holland 23-26 October - Battle of Leyte Gulf 1945 12 April - Roosevelt dies of a stroke; Vice-President Harry Truman sworn in as President of the United States of America 25 April - United Nations charter drawn up in San Francisco, U.S.A. 28 April - Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot; their bodies are hung in a Milan square April - Hitler marries his mistress, Eva Braun - Hitler commits suicide in his Reichschancellery (underground bunker) 7 May - Germany surrenders to the Allies, ending WWII in Europe July - Germany is divided into four zones under military occupation by France, Great Britain, U.S.A, and the Soviet Union 6 August - U.S.A. drops first Atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan 9 August - U.S.A. drops second Atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan 2 September - Japan surrenders to the Allies, ending WWII