Back
العربية
Topic timeline · 1939 – 1945

World War II

13 events

World War II, or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945), was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many engaging in total war on an unprecedented scale. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the deaths of 60 to 75 million people, a majority of whom were civilians. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust.

Text from the Wikipedia article World War II, CC BY-SA 4.0

This topic is contested. Event names and summaries follow Wikipedia, and each event links to its source article.

Showing 30 years

Key people

Everything that happened

  1. 1933 – 1945The HolocaustGerman-occupied EuropeThe Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered around six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, approximately two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.
  2. 1939Invasion of PolandPolandThe invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union, which marked the beginning of World War II.
  3. 1940Battle of BritainUnited KingdomThe Battle of Britain (German: Luftschlacht um England, lit. 'air battle for England') was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. It was the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces.
  4. 1940Battle of FranceLuxembourgThe Battle of France (French: Bataille de France; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) and France during the Second World War. The plan for the invasion of the Low Countries and France was called Fall Gelb (Case Yellow or the Manstein plan).
  5. 1941Attack on Pearl HarborPearl HarborThe Empire of Japan launched a surprise military attack on the US Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. At the time, the US was a neutral country in World War II. The air raid on Pearl Harbor, which was launched from aircraft carriers, prompted the US to declare war on Japan the next day.
  6. 1941Operation BarbarossaEstoniaOperation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along a 2,900-kilometer (1,800 mi) front, with the main goal of capturing territory up to a line between Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan, known as the A–A line.
  7. 1942 – 1943Battle of StalingradVolgogradThe Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its Axis allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in southern Russia.
  8. 1942Second Battle of El AlameinEl AlameinThe Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 4 November 1942) was a battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian railway halt of El Alamein. The First Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Alam el Halfa had prevented the Axis from advancing further into Egypt.
  9. 1944Normandy landingsNormandyThe Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day (after the military term), it is the largest seaborne invasion in history.
  10. 1945Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiHiroshimaOn 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during the final days of World War II. The aerial bombings killed 150,000 to 246,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the first and only uses of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.
  11. 1945 – 1946Nuremberg trialsPalace of JusticeThe Nuremberg trials were international criminal trials held by France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States against leaders of defeated Nazi Germany for plotting and carrying out invasions of several countries across Europe and committing atrocities against their citizens in the Second World War.
  12. 1945Battle of BerlinBerlinThe Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II.
  13. 1945Surrender of JapanEmpire of JapanThe surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, ending the war. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was incapable of conducting major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent.