II World war

World War II, or the Second World War (often abbreviated as WWII or WW2), was a global war that was under way by 1939 and ended in 1945.
It involved a vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies ( U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia) and the Axis (Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria) .
It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units.
In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources.
Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it resulted in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities.
These deaths make World War II by far the deadliest conflict in all of human history.

TimeLine

1939

1939 Sept. 1

Germany invades Poland and annexes Danzig; Britain and France give Hitler ultimatum, declare war (Sept. 3)

1939 Dec. 17

Disabled German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee blown up off Montevideo, Uruguay, on Hitler's orders

1939

Limited activity (“Sitzkrieg”) on Western Front.

1940

1940 May 10

Nazis invade Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg

1940 May 10

Chamberlain resigns as Britain's prime minister; Churchill takes over

1940 May 26–June 3

Germans cross French frontier (May 12) using air/tank/infantry “Blitzkrieg” tactics. Dunkerque evacuation about 335,000 out of 400,000 Allied soldiers rescued from Belgium by British civilian and naval craft

1940 June 10

Italy declares war on France and Britain; invades France

1940 June 14

Germans enter Paris; city undefended

1940 June 22

France and Germany sign armistice at Compičgne

1940 Nov. 14

Nazis bomb Coventry, England

1941

1941 April 17

Germans launch attacks in Balkans. Yugoslavia surrenders—General Mihajlovic continues guerrilla

warfare; Tito leads left-wing guerrillas

1941 April 27

Nazi tanks enter Athens; remnants of British Army quit Greece

1941 June 22

Hitler attacks Russia

1941 Aug. 14

Atlantic Charter—FDR and Churchill agree on war aims

1941 Dec. 7

Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Philippines, Guam force U.S. into war; U.S. Pacific fleet crippled

1941 Dec. 11

U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan. Germany and Italy declare war on U.S.; Congress declares war on those countries

1942

1942 Feb. 15

British surrender Singapore to Japanese

1942 Feb. 19

Roosevelt orders Japanese and Japanese Americans in western U.S. to be exiled to “relocation centers,” many for the remainder of the war

1942 April 9

U.S. forces on Bataan peninsula in Philippines surrender

1942 May 6

U.S. and Filipino troops on Corregidor island in Manila Bay surrender to Japanese

1942 June 10

Village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia razed by Nazis

1942 Nov. 8

U.S. and Britain land in French North Africa

1943

1943 Jan. 14–24

Casablanca Conference—Churchill and FDR agree on unconditional surrender goal

1943 Feb. 1–2

German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad—turning point of war in Russia

1943 May 12

Remnants of Nazis trapped on Cape Bon, ending war in Africa

1943 July 25

Mussolini deposed; Badoglio named premier

1943 Sept. 3

Allied troops land on Italian mainland after conquest of Sicily

1943 Sept. 8

Italy surrenders

1943 Sept. 10

Nazis seize Rome

1943 Nov. 22–26

Cairo Conference: FDR, Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek pledge defeat of Japan, free Korea

1943 Nov. 28–Dec. 1

Tehran Conference: FDR, Churchill, Stalin agree on invasion plans

1944

1944 Jan. 22

U.S. and British troops land at Anzio on west Italian coast and hold beachhead

1944 June 4

U.S. and British troops enter Rome

1944 June 6

D-Day—Allies launch Normandy invasion

1944 July 20

Hitler wounded in bomb plot

1944 Aug. 25

Paris liberated

1944 Oct. 13

Athens freed by Allies

1944 Oct. 20

Americans invade Philippines

1944 Dec. 16

Germans launch counteroffensive in Belgium—Battle of the Bulge

1945

1945 Feb. 11

Yalta Agreement signed by FDR, Churchill, Stalin—establishes basis for occupation of Germany, returns to Soviet Union lands taken by Germany and Japan; USSR agrees to friendship pact with China

1945 April 28

Mussolini killed at Lake Como

1945 May 1

Admiral Doenitz takes command in Germany; suicide of Hitler announced

1945 May 2

Berlin falls

1945 May 7

Germany signs unconditional surrender terms at Rheims

1945 May 8

Allies declare V-E Day

1945 July 17–Aug. 2

Potsdam Conference—Truman, Churchill, Atlee (after July 28), Stalin establish council of foreign ministers to prepare peace treaties; plan German postwar government and reparations

1945 Aug. 6

A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima by U.S.

1945 Aug. 8

USSR declares war on Japan

1945 Aug. 9

Nagasaki hit by A-bomb

1945 Aug. 14

Japan agrees to surrender

1945 Sept. 2

V-J Day—Japanese sign surrender terms aboard battleship Missouri