Timeline of events preceding World War II
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Contents |
1923 [edit]
July [edit]
July 24
- The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in the First World War.
October [edit]
October 29
- Turkey becomes a Republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
November [edit]
November 8
- The Beer Hall Putsch takes place, in which Adolf Hitler unsuccessfully leads the Nazis to overthrow the current German government. It is crushed by police the next day.
1924 [edit]
January [edit]
January 21
- Vladimir Lenin dies, and Joseph Stalin begins purging rivals to clear his way for leadership.
June [edit]
June 10
- Italian Fascists kidnap and kill socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome.
1925 [edit]
February [edit]
February 1
- The Soviet Union recognizes the United Kingdom.
April [edit]
April 1
- Adolf Hitler is sentenced to 5 years in jail for his participation in the Beer Hall Putsch (he serves only 9 months).
April 6
- Fascists win elections in Italy with a 2/3 majority.
August [edit]
August 18
1926 [edit]
January [edit]
January 3
- Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator of Greece.
January 31
February [edit]
February 25
- Francisco Franco becomes General of Spain.
April [edit]
April 4
- Greek dictator Theodoros Pangalos is elected president.
April 24
- The Treaty of Berlin is signed by Germany and the Soviet Union, which declares neutrality if either country is attacked within the next five years.
December [edit]
December 25
- Emperor Taishō dies, his son Hirohito becomes the Emperor of Japan.
1927 [edit]
January [edit]
January 19
- The United Kingdom sends troops to the Republic of China.
February [edit]
February 12
- The first British troops arrive in Shanghai.
February 19
- A general strike in Shanghai protesting British presence.
March [edit]
March 10
- Albania mobilizes in case of an attack of Yugoslavia.
April [edit]
April 12
- The Chinese Civil War begins between nationalists and communists.
May [edit]
May 20
- Saudi Arabia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
May 24
- The United Kingdom severs diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
June [edit]
June 4
- Yugoslavia severs diplomatic relations with Albania.
June 7
- Peter Voikov, Soviet ambassador to Warsaw, is assassinated.
November [edit]
November 12
- Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
1928 [edit]
May [edit]
May 3
- The Jinan Incident begins, between the Republic of China and Japan.
June [edit]
June 4
- The Huanggutun Incident occurs, in which Japanese agents assassinate the Republic of China's President Zhang Zuolin.
July [edit]
July 25
- The United States recalls its troops from China.
August [edit]
August 2
- Italy and Ethiopia sign the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty.
August 27
- The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed in Paris by the major powers of the world. The treaty outlaws aggressive warfare.
1929 [edit]
February [edit]
February 9
- The Litvinov Protocol is signed in Moscow by the Soviet Union, Poland, Estonia, Romania and Latvia.
February 11
- Italy and Vatican City sign the Lateran Treaty.
March [edit]
March 28
- Japan withdraws troops from the Republic of China ending the Jinan Incident.
April [edit]
April 3
- Persia signs the Litvinov Protocol.
June [edit]
June 7
- The Lateran Treaty is ratified, making the Vatican a sovereign state.
July [edit]
July 24
- The Kellogg-Briand Pact goes into effect.
October [edit]
October 29
- The Great Depression begins.
1930 [edit]
April [edit]
April 22
- The United Kingdom, United States, Italy and Japan sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and shipbuilding.
June [edit]
June 30
1931 [edit]
September [edit]
September 18
- Japanese troops detonate a bomb on the rail line near Mukden, China.[1]
September 19
- Japan invades the Republic of China region, Manchuria. This is the beginning of minor fighting in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
1932 [edit]
January [edit]
January 7
- The Stimson Doctrine is proclaimed by United States Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson in response to Japan invading Manchuria.
January 28
- The January 28 Incident between the Republic of China and Japan occurs with fighting around Shanghai.
February [edit]
February 2
- The League of Nations recommends negotiations between the Republic of China and Japan.
February 4
- Japan occupies Harbin, China.
February 11
- Pope Pius XI meets Benito Mussolini in Vatican City.
February 25
- Adolf Hitler obtains German citizenship.
February 27
- Japan takes control of Manchuria from the Republic of China.
March [edit]
March 6
- China agrees to the League of Nations demand to stop fighting in and near Shanghai, but Japanese forces continue to attack Chinese positions.[2]
March 18
- Peace negotiations begin between China and Japan.
April [edit]
April 10
- Paul Von Hindenburg is reelected President of Germany, defeating Adolf Hitler in a run-off.
May [edit]
May 15
- Japanese troops leave Shanghai.
May 30
- German chancellor Heinrich Brüning resigns. President Hindenburg asks Franz von Papen to form a new government.
August [edit]
August 30
- Hermann Göring is elected as chairman of the German Senate.
November [edit]
November 21
- Paul Von Hindenburg begins talking to Adolf Hitler about forming a new government.
December [edit]
December 3
- Hindenburg names Kurt von Schleicher as the German Chancellor.
1933 [edit]
January [edit]
January 30
- Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul Von Hindenburg.
February [edit]
February 1
- Hitler gives his "Proclamation to the German People" in Berlin.
February 25
- Japanese troops captured Chaoyang, Baipiao, and Kailu in Rehe, China.[3]
February 27
- Germany's parliament building the Reichstag is set on fire (see Reichstag Fire).
February 28
- The Reichstag Fire Decree is passed, nullifying several German civil liberties.
March [edit]
March 4
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as President of the United States.
- Troops of the 139th Division of Chinese 32nd Corps repulse a Japanese attack on the Lengkou Pass of the Great Wall. Elsewhere, the provincial capital of Rehe Province, Chengde, is captured by Japanese troops without opposition.[4]
March 20
- Germany's first concentration camp, Dachau, is completed.
March 23
- The Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
March 24
- Foreign Jews call for a boycott of imported German goods.
March 27
- Japan leaves the League of Nations.
April [edit]
April 1
- The recently elected Nazis start a one-day boycott of Jewish businesses.
April 26
- The Gestapo is established in Germany.
May [edit]
May 2
- Hitler outlaws trade unions.
May 10
- Nazis start massive public book burnings.
June [edit]
June 21
- All non-Nazi parties are banned in Germany.
July [edit]
July 14
- The Nazi party becomes an official party of Germany.
October [edit]
October 17
- Albert Einstein arrives in the United States of America as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
October 19
- Germany leaves the League of Nations.
1934 [edit]
January [edit]
January 26
- Germany and Poland sign the 10 year German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact.
March [edit]
March 1
March 20
- All German police forces come under the command of Heinrich Himmler.
June [edit]
June 30
- The Night of Long Knives occurs, in which Germany executes many ranking leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA).
July [edit]
July 20
- The SS became an independent organization of the Nazi Party, reporting directly to Adolf Hitler.[5]
July 25
- Austrian Nazis assassinate Engelbert Dollfuss during a failed coup attempt.
August [edit]
August 2
- Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany, becoming Head of State as well as Chancellor.
August 8
- The Wehrmacht swears a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler.
September [edit]
- The Soviet Union joins the League of Nations.
December [edit]
December 5
- The Abyssinia Crisis occurs, in which Italian and Ethiopian troops exchange fire.
December 29
- Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty and the London Naval Treaty.
1935 [edit]
January [edit]
January 7
- The League of Nations approves the results of the Saar plebiscite, which allows Saar to be incorporated into German borders.[6]
June [edit]
June 18
- The Anglo-German Naval Agreement is signed by Germany and the United Kingdom to limit the size of their navies.
October [edit]
October 2
- Italy invades Ethiopia, beginning the Second Italo–Abyssinian War.
1936 [edit]
March [edit]
March 7
- In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
May [edit]
May 5
- Italian forces occupy Addis Ababa in East Africa.
May 7
- Italy annexes Ethiopia.
May 9
- Chiang Kaishek proclaimed that Japan was waging war in China without a declaration of war.[7]
July [edit]
July 18
- The Spanish Civil War begins when nationalist forces led by Francisco Franco rise against the current republican government.
October [edit]
October 20
- Japanese-backed Mongolian troops attacked northern China in the Battle of Suiyuan.[8]
October 25
- Rome-Berlin Axis is formed.
November [edit]
November 15
- The German Condor Legion goes into action for the first time, supporting further Nationalist operations to capture Madrid.[9]
November 26
- The Anti-Comintern Pact is signed by Japan and Italy.
December [edit]
December 1
- Hitler makes it mandatory for all males between the ages 10-18 to join the Hitler Youth.
December 12
- The Chinese Civil War temporarily ends, so the two sides can prepare for a full-scale war with Japan.
1937 [edit]
February [edit]
February 2
- Osami Nagano is named the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Navy Combined Fleet.[10]
July [edit]
July 7
- The Marco Polo Bridge Incident occurs, which most historians regard as the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
August [edit]
August 13
- The Battle of Shanghai begins between Japan and China.
September [edit]
September 1
- The Battle of Taiyuan begins between China and Japan.
November [edit]
November 9
- Japan wins the Battle of Taiyuan.
November 26
- The Battle of Shanghai ends in Japanese victory.
December [edit]
December 8
- Japan established the puppet nation of Mengjiang in the Inner Mongolia region of Republic of China.[11]
December 11
- Italy leaves the League of Nations.
1938 [edit]
March [edit]
March 6
March 13
July [edit]
July 29
- The Soviet-Japanese Border Wars begin with the Battle of Lake Khasan.
August [edit]
- Soviet Union wins the Battle of Khasan against Japan.
September [edit]
September 30
- The Munich Agreement is signed.
November [edit]
November 7
- Exiled German Jew Herschel Grynszpan assassinates German consular aide Ernst Vom Rath in Paris.[13]
November 9
- Kristallnacht began in Germany; Jewish shops and synagogues are smashed, looted, burned, and destroyed throughout the country.[14]
December [edit]
December 6
- The German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop visits Paris, where he is allegedly informed by the French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet that France now recognizes all of Eastern Europe as Germany’s exclusive sphere of influence. Bonnet's alleged statement (Bonnet always denied making the remark) to Ribbentrop was to be a major factor in German policy in 1939.
1939 [edit]
January [edit]
January 23
- The British government is in the grip of the “Dutch War Scare”. Admiral Wilhelm Canaris of the Abwehr leaks misinformation to the effect that Germany planned to invade the Netherlands in February with the aim of using Dutch air-fields to launch a strategic bombing offensive against Britain. The “Dutch War Scare” leads to a major change in British policies towards Europe.
January 24
- Germany established the National Central Office for Jewish Emigration with branch offices in Vienna and Prague.[15]
January 25
- Uranium atom is split for the first time at Columbia University in the United States.[16]
January 26
January 27
- Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of crushing the Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources. This is the first and only time the Kriegsmarine is given the first priority in the history of the Third Reich.
February [edit]
February 6
- In response to the "Dutch War Scare", the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain states in the House of Commons that any German attack on France would be automatically considered an attack on Britain.
March [edit]
March 14
- The pro-German Slovak Republic is created with Jozef Tiso as its first prime minister.
March 15
- The German Army invades Czechoslovakia. They take control of it.
- Germany establishes the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The protectorate includes those portions of Czechoslovakia not incorporated into Germany, Poland, Hungary, or the new Slovak Republic.
March 17
- Neville Chamberlain gives a speech in Birmingham stating Britain will oppose any German effort to dominate the world.
March 18
- The beginning of the “Romanian War Scare” when Virgil Tilea, the Romanian Minister in London spreads false rumours that Romania is on the verge of a German attack.
March 20
- German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop delivers an oral ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding that it return the Klaipėda Region.
- At an emergency meeting in London to deal with the Romanian crisis, the French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet suggests to Lord Halifax that the ideal state for saving Romania from a German attack is Poland.
March 21
- Adolf Hitler demands return of the Free City of Danzig to Germany.
March 23
March 31
- The United Kingdom and France offer the "guarantee" of Polish independence.
April [edit]
April 1
- The Spanish Civil War ends with nationalist troops winning. Spain becomes a fascist state with Francisco Franco as the head of the new government.
April 3
- Adolf Hitler orders the German military to start planning for Fall Weiss, the codename for the attack on Poland to be launched on August 25, 1939.
April 7
April 11
- Hungary leaves the League of Nations.[citation needed]
April 12
- Albania surrenders to Italy.
April 13
April 14
- Hungary leaves the League of Nations.[citation needed]
April 18
- The Soviet Union proposes a triple alliance with the United Kingdom and France. The British and French agree to take up the offer.
April 28
- In a speech before the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler renounces the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact
May [edit]
May 3
- Vyacheslav Molotov succeeds Maxim Litvinov as Soviet Foreign Commissar.
May 6
- Carl Friedrich Goerdeler tells the British government that the German and Soviet governments are secretly beginning a rapprochement with the aim of dividing Eastern Europe between them. Goerdeler also informs the British of German economic problems which he states were threatening the survival of the Nazi regime, and advises that if a firm stand is made for Poland, then Hitler will be deterred from war.
May 11
- Battle of Khalkhin Gol begins with Japan and Manchukuo against the Soviet Union and Mongolia.
May 17
May 22
- The Pact of Steel, known formally as the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy, is signed. It is an agreement between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, by the foreign ministers of each country and witnessed by Count Galeazzo Ciano for Italy and Joachim von Ribbentrop for Germany.
June [edit]
June 14,
- The Tientsin Incident occurs, in which the Japanese blockade the British concession in the North China Treaty Port of Tientsin.
July [edit]
July 10
- Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain reaffirms support for Poland and makes it clear that Britain did not view Free City of Danzig as being an internal German-Polish affair and would intervene on behalf of Poland if hostilities broke out between the two countries.
August [edit]
August 23
- The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is signed between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, with secret provisions for the division of Eastern Europe - joint occupation of Poland and Soviet occupation of the Baltic States, Finland and Bessarabia. This protocol gives Hitler the green light for his invasion of Poland, which begins on September 1.
August 25
- In response to a message from Benito Mussolini that Italy will not honour the Pact of Steel if Germany attacks Poland, Hitler delays the launch of Fall Weiss by five days to provide more time to secure British and French neutrality.
See also [edit]
- Causes of World War II
- Timeline of World War II
- Events preceding World War II in Europe
- Events preceding World War II in Asia
References [edit]
- ^ "1931 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1932 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1933 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1933 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1934 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1935 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1936 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1936 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1936 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1937 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1937 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1938 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1938 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1938 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1939 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
- ^ "1939 Timeline". WW2DB. Retrieved 2011-02-09.
External links [edit]
- French Yellow Book
- Nazi-Soviet relations 1939-1941 Nazi-Soviet relations 1939-1941 (complete)
- British War Bluebook
