September 1, 1939: Adolf Hitler's Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, England and France, honoring their alliance with Poland, declared war on Germany and began mobilization.

October: Russia, which had signed a nonagression pact with Germany in August, imposed "mutual defense pacts" - and Russian military occupation - on Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. Finland refused, prompting a military assault by Russia .

April 1940: Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway; then Belgium and the Netherlands on May 10.

June 22: France fell to Germany.

August, September: Hitler stepped up air attacks on Great Britain, in preparation for a planned invasion of the island.

September 7: Hitler began the nightly bombing of London, ultimately killing tens of thousands of civilians. By early October, Hitler gave up on ideas for invasion.

June 22, 1941: Hitler invaded Russia. By October German troops were exhausted. Despite heavy losses, Russian forces saved Moscow and bought time until winter set in, bogging down the ill-prepared German troops.

Dec. 7: Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into the war. Japan began a sweep through the Pacific that included Guam, Wake Island, the Gilbert Islands and the Philippines.

May, June 1942: American forces began to halt the Japanese advance. The Japanese were forced to retreat at the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway.

August 7: The U.S. First Marine Division landed at Guadalcanal. Eventually, Gen. Douglas MacArthur led the westward advance along New Guinea and the Philippines, while Adm. Chester Nimitz swept up the central Pacific islands.

October 1942: Allied forces began counterattack in North Africa, setting the stage for a push to Europe via Italy.

July 10, 1943: Allied forces landed in Sicily. Italy quickly surrendered.

June 6, 1944: D-Day, the long-planned cross-channel invasion of France. At Normandy beaches, the Allies landed a million men within two weeks. Hitler, ignoring advice from his generals, refused to strategically retreat as the Allies advanced.

June: The Marianas fell to the Americans, putting Japan within range of B-29 bombers.

October: MacArthur moved into the Philippines. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was one of the largest naval engagements in history.

Aug. 25: Allied forces liberated Paris.

Dec. 16: The Battle of the Bulge. Germans advanced along a 50-mile "bulge" in Belgium and Luxembourg. Cloud cover prevented Allied air attacks and supply drops. The German advance stalled at Bastogne in Belgium, where the Allies held out for six days until the skies cleared and air power was brought to bear on the Germans.

January 1945: The Russians had begun an offensive in the east.

Feb. 19: U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima. Nearly six weeks were required to secure the island.

April 1: Americans invaded Okinawa in the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific War. It left the Japanese Navy virtually decimated.

April 30: Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin.

May 2: Berlin falls to the Russians; five days later Germany signed an unconditional surrender. May 8 was proclaimed V-E Day.

July 16: The first detonation of an atomic bomb was successfully made in the New Mexico desert.

August 6: Hiroshima was leveled by an atomic bomb; three days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

Aug 14: Japan accepted the surrender terms, and hostilities ended.

Sept. 2: Representatives of the Japanese government formally surrendered to MacArthur aboard the battleship Missouri.

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