World War 2:
Chronology
PRELUDE TO WAR
1931
Sept. 18-Japanese begin conquest of Manchuria.
1932
March 1-Manchuria becomes Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo.
1933
Jan. 30-Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany.
March 27-Japan leaves League of Nations.
Oct. 14-Germany leaves League of Nations.
1934
Jan. 26-Germany and Poland sign 10-year nonaggression
pact.
June 30-Hitler carries out blood purge of Nazi Party.
July 25-Unsuccessful pro-Nazi revolt takes place in Austria; Chancellor
Engelbert Dollfuss is assassinated.
1935
March 16-Hitler reintroduces compulsory military service.
May 2-France and the USSR sign five-year mutual assistance treaty.
June 18-Anglo-German naval agreement is signed.
Oct. 3-Benito Mussolini invades Ethiopia.
1936
Jan. 15-Japan withdraws from London Naval Conference.
March 7-Hitler remilitarizes Rhineland.
May 5-Italians capture Addis Ababa, ending major operations in Ethiopia.
July 17-18-Spanish Civil War begins.
Oct. 25-Germany and Italy form Rome-Berlin Axis.
Nov. 25-Germany and Japan sign Anti-Comintern Pact.
1937
July 7-Marco Polo Bridge incident near Peiping sets
off Sino-Japanese War.
Dec. 12-Japanese planes sink United States gunboat Panay in Yangtze
River.
Dec. 13-Japanese sack Nanking.
1938
March 13-Hitler annexes Austria.
Sept. 29-30-Munich Conference approves German acquisition of the Sudetenland.
1939
March 15-Hitler occupies rest of Czechoslovakia.
March 28-Insurgent forces complete conquest of Spain.
April 7-Mussolini invades Albania.
Aug. 23-Germany and the USSR sign nonaggression pact.
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