The full timeline

Era by era, year by year.

Key dates on one page →Series: read in order →Places: the war where you live →

1. 1895–1918

   10 events
   4 battles

   Empires and revolutions

   From the murder of Queen Min and the Russo-Japanese War to the revolutions in Russia and Germany and the collapse of empires at the end of the Great War.

   18951918

   • 18951 key event›

     • The assassination of Queen Min
     • The whole of 1895 →
   • 1905→
   • 1910→
   • 19171 key event›

     • The October Revolution
     • The whole of 1917 →
   • 19181 key event›

     • The Armistice of 11 November 1918
     • The whole of 1918 →
2. 1919–1929

   90 events
   2 battles

   The Versailles order

   Peace treaties, new borders and new states, the birth of fascism and Nazism, then a few years of stability cut short by the Wall Street Crash.

   19191929

   • 19193 key events›

     • The Polish–Soviet War begins
     • The Treaty of Versailles
     • Hitler at a German Workers' Party meeting
     • The whole of 1919 →
   • 1920→
   • 1921→
   • 19221 key event›

     • Mussolini becomes prime minister
     • The whole of 1922 →
   • 19231 key event›

     • The Beer Hall Putsch
     • The whole of 1923 →
   • 1924→
   • 19251 key event›

     • The Locarno Treaties
     • The whole of 1925 →
   • 1926→
   • 1927→
   • 1928→
   • 19291 key event›

     • The Wall Street Crash
     • The whole of 1929 →
3. 1930–1938

   119 events
   9 battles

   Depression and expansion

   The Great Depression, Hitler in power, Japan in China, Italy in Ethiopia and the war in Spain, through to the Anschluss, Munich and Kristallnacht.

   19301938

   • 19301 key event›

     • The Reichstag election of 1930
     • The whole of 1930 →
   • 19311 key event›

     • The Mukden incident
     • The whole of 1931 →
   • 1932→
   • 19332 key events›

     • Hitler becomes chancellor
     • The Enabling Act
     • The whole of 1933 →
   • 19341 key event›

     • The Night of the Long Knives
     • The whole of 1934 →
   • 19352 key events›

     • The Nuremberg Laws
     • Italy attacks Ethiopia
     • The whole of 1935 →
   • 19363 key events›

     • The remilitarisation of the Rhineland
     • The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
     • The Great Purge
     • The whole of 1936 →
   • 19372 key events›

     • The Marco Polo Bridge incident
     • The Nanjing massacre
     • The whole of 1937 →
   • 19383 key events›

     • The Anschluss
     • The Munich Agreement
     • Kristallnacht
     • The whole of 1938 →
4. 1939–1945

   1733 events
   168 battles

   The Second World War

   From the last months of peace and the annexations and pacts of 1939, through the invasion of Poland, to the surrender of Germany and Japan.

   19391945

   • 193913 key events›

     • Germany occupies Bohemia and Moravia
     • The British guarantee to Poland
     • Fall Weiss
     • The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
     • The Anglo-Polish alliance
     • The Gleiwitz incident
     • Germany invades Poland
     • Britain and France declare war on Germany
     • The Soviet invasion of Poland
     • Establishment of the Service for Poland's Victory
     • The annexation of Polish lands and the General Government
     • The Soviet Union invades Finland
     • The Battle of the River Plate
     • The whole of 1939 →
   • 194038 key events›

     • The Mechelen incident
     • The Red Army breaks the Mannerheim Line
     • Manstein presents his plan to Hitler
     • The Moscow Peace Treaty
     • The Katyn massacre
     • Germany invades Norway
     • The Norway Debate
     • Germany attacks in the West
     • Churchill becomes Prime Minister
     • The breakthrough at Sedan
     • The bombing of Rotterdam
     • Operation Dynamo
     • Italy declares war on France and Britain
     • The Germans enter Paris
     • The Soviet occupation of Lithuania
     • Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France
     • General de Gaulle’s appeal
     • The Armistice of Compiègne
     • The French government moves to Vichy
     • The attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir
     • The Battle of Britain begins
     • Directive No. 16: Operation Sea Lion
     • The USSR annexes the Baltic states
     • Adlertag
     • The first RAF raid on Berlin
     • The Second Vienna Award
     • The Blitz begins
     • Battle of Britain Day
     • The Tripartite Pact
     • The creation of the Warsaw Ghetto
     • The meeting at Montoire
     • Italy attacks Greece
     • The attack on Taranto
     • Molotov in Berlin
     • The Coventry Blitz
     • Operation Compass begins
     • Directive No. 21: Operation Barbarossa
     • The Second Great Fire of London
     • The whole of 1940 →
   • 194128 key events›

     • The capture of Tobruk
     • The Battle of Beda Fomm
     • Rommel in Tripoli
     • Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act
     • The Yugoslav coup d’état
     • The Battle of Cape Matapan
     • Germany attacks Yugoslavia
     • Germany attacks Greece
     • The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact
     • The Germans enter Athens
     • Rudolf Hess’s flight to Scotland
     • The last night of the Blitz
     • The airborne invasion of Crete
     • The sinking of the Bismarck
     • Germany invades the Soviet Union
     • The massacre of the Lwów professors
     • Göring’s order to Heydrich
     • The Atlantic Charter
     • The invasion of Iran
     • The siege of Leningrad begins
     • Babi Yar
     • Operation Typhoon
     • Hideki Tōjō becomes Prime Minister
     • Operation Crusader begins
     • The Kidō Butai sails for Hawaii
     • The counter-offensive at Moscow
     • The attack on Pearl Harbor
     • Germany and Italy declare war on the United States
     • The whole of 1941 →
   • 194231 key events›

     • The Declaration by United Nations
     • The Wannsee Conference
     • The Union of Armed Struggle becomes the Home Army
     • The fall of Singapore
     • The St Nazaire raid
     • The fall of Bataan
     • The Doolittle Raid
     • The carrier clash in the Coral Sea
     • The assassination of Heydrich
     • The thousand-bomber raid on Cologne
     • The sinking of Nagumo's carriers
     • The destruction of Lidice
     • The fall of Tobruk
     • Case Blue begins
     • The fall of Sevastopol
     • The Vel d'Hiv round-up
     • The Great Deportation in the Warsaw Ghetto
     • The landing on Guadalcanal
     • The Ohio reaches Malta
     • The Dieppe Raid
     • The bombing of Stalingrad
     • The fighting for Stalingrad begins
     • The sinking of the Laconia
     • The first successful A4 rocket launch
     • The Second Battle of El Alamein begins
     • Rommel's retreat from El Alamein
     • The landings in North Africa
     • Operation Uranus begins
     • The first controlled chain reaction
     • The Allied declaration on the extermination of the Jews
     • The assassination of Admiral Darlan
     • The whole of 1942 →
   • 194344 key events›

     • The Casablanca Conference
     • The first armed resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto
     • The siege of Leningrad broken
     • Paulus surrenders
     • The end of the Battle of Stalingrad
     • The end of the fighting on Guadalcanal
     • Goebbels’s “total war” speech
     • The execution of Hans and Sophie Scholl
     • The Battle of the Bismarck Sea
     • The liquidation of the Kraków Ghetto
     • The battle for convoys HX 229 and SC 122
     • The Germans announce the Katyn massacre
     • The death of Admiral Yamamoto
     • The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins
     • The Axis surrender in Africa
     • The end of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
     • Black May
     • The death of General Sikorski
     • The Battle of Kursk begins
     • The landing in Sicily
     • Bloody Sunday in Volhynia
     • Operation Gomorrah
     • The fall of Mussolini
     • Operation Tidal Wave
     • The Białystok Ghetto Uprising
     • Operation Hydra
     • The Italian surrender announced
     • The landing at Salerno
     • The massacre of the Acqui Division on Kefalonia
     • The liberation of Smolensk
     • The rescue of the Danish Jews
     • Italy declares war on Germany
     • Black Thursday over Schweinfurt
     • The Sobibór uprising
     • The Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers
     • Operation Harvest Festival
     • The liberation of Kiev
     • The air Battle of Berlin begins
     • The landing on Tarawa
     • The Tehran Conference
     • The air raid on Bari
     • The Kalavryta massacre
     • Eisenhower to command the invasion
     • The sinking of the Scharnhorst
     • The whole of 1943 →
   • 194458 key events›

     • The Red Army crosses the pre-war Polish border
     • The Battle of Monte Cassino begins
     • The landing at Anzio
     • The end of the siege of Leningrad
     • The destruction of the Abbey of Monte Cassino
     • Operation Hailstone – the raid on Truk
     • Big Week
     • The landing on Los Negros
     • Operation U-Go begins
     • The Germans occupy Hungary
     • The Ardeatine Caves massacre
     • The raid on Nuremberg
     • The Crimean offensive begins
     • Operation Ichi-Go begins
     • The landings at Hollandia and Aitape
     • The Slapton Sands disaster
     • The liberation of Sevastopol
     • The fourth battle of Monte Cassino
     • The capture of Monte Cassino
     • The Allies in Rome
     • D-Day: the Normandy landings
     • The first V-1 flying bombs
     • The landing on Saipan
     • The Battle of the Philippine Sea
     • Operation Bagration begins
     • The liberation of Minsk
     • The 20 July plot
     • The landing on Guam
     • Operation Cobra
     • The liberation of Majdanek
     • The Warsaw Uprising begins
     • The Wola massacre
     • The Falaise pocket
     • Operation Dragoon
     • The Jassy–Kishinev offensive begins
     • The coup in Romania
     • The liberation of Paris
     • The Slovak National Uprising
     • The first V-2 rockets
     • The landing on Peleliu
     • Operation Market Garden begins
     • The surrender of the Warsaw Uprising
     • The Sonderkommando revolt at Auschwitz
     • The Moscow Conference of 1944
     • The Arrow Cross coup in Hungary
     • The landing on Leyte
     • The liberation of Belgrade
     • The capture of Aachen
     • The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins
     • Roosevelt's fourth term
     • The sinking of the Tirpitz
     • The liberation of Strasbourg
     • B-29s over Tokyo
     • The end of the gas chambers at Birkenau
     • The Dekemvriana begins
     • The Ardennes offensive begins
     • The relief of Bastogne
     • The siege of Budapest begins
     • The whole of 1944 →
   • 194533 key events›

     • Americans in Lingayen Gulf
     • The Vistula–Oder offensive begins
     • The entry into Warsaw
     • Dissolution of the Home Army
     • The liberation of Auschwitz
     • The Battle of Manila begins
     • The Yalta Conference
     • The bombing of Dresden
     • The landing on Iwo Jima
     • The bridge at Remagen
     • The Tokyo raid of 9–10 March
     • The capture of Danzig
     • The landing on Okinawa
     • The death of Roosevelt
     • The Berlin offensive begins
     • The meeting on the Elbe
     • Hitler's suicide
     • The surrender of Berlin
     • The surrender at Reims
     • Victory in Europe Day
     • The surrender at Karlshorst
     • The Berlin Declaration
     • The end of the Battle of Okinawa
     • The signing of the UN Charter
     • The Trinity test
     • The Potsdam Conference begins
     • The Potsdam Declaration
     • The end of the Potsdam Conference
     • The atomic bombing of Hiroshima
     • The USSR declares war on Japan
     • The atomic bombing of Nagasaki
     • Hirohito's broadcast
     • The Japanese surrender on the “Missouri”
     • The whole of 1945 →