World War II: Key Events Timeline

• 1939–1940: The War Begins
  • Sep 1939: Germany invades Poland
  • 1940: Fall of France
  • 1940: Battle of Britain
• 1941: The War Goes Global
  • Jun 1941: Germany invades the USSR (Operation Barbarossa)
  • Dec 7, 1941: Attack on Pearl Harbor
  • The United States enters the war
• 1942–1943: Turning Points
  • Jun 1942: Battle of Midway
  • Feb 1943: German defeat at Stalingrad
  • Jul 1943: Allied invasion of Sicily
• 1944: Allied Advance
  • Jun 6, 1944: D-Day landings in Normandy
  • Aug 1944: Liberation of Paris
• 1945: The End
  • Apr 1945: Fall of Berlin
  • May 8: VE Day, Germany surrenders
  • Aug 6 & 9: Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • Sep 2: Japan formally surrenders