Today in WW II: 9 Jul 1940 Battle of Calabria [Battle of Punta Stilo, the toe of Italy] fought between the Italian Royal Navy and the British/Australian Royal Navies, 30 miles [48km] east of Punta Stilo. More ?

9 Jul 1943 US-British invasion of Sicily begins [night of 9-10 Jul].
9 Jul 1944 British and Canadian forces capture Caen from the Germans, a critical post-D-Day objective in Normandy, France.
9 Jul 1944 US forces reach the northern end of Saipan, finding thousands of Japanese civilian men, women, and children who commit suicide by leaping off the cliffs rather than be captured.
Visit the Olive-Drab.com World War II Timeline for day-by-day events 1939-1945! See also WW2 Books.

World War II Timeline: Prelude

New York Times coverage of the rise of Hitler to power in Germany, 31 January 1933.

This page presents World War II Timeline events for the period 1938 and earlier.

Links are provided in the timeline with additional information from Olive-Drab.com pages or relevant books on the event or subject. For additional compilations of the events of World War II, go to one of the recommended time line web sites listed at the bottom of the main WWII Timeline page. If you have other events to suggest, or spot any errors, please contact Olive-Drab.com.

Prelude | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945

30 January 1933	Adolf Hitler comes to power in Germany as President Hindenburg appoints him Chancellor. Nazis organize huge torchlight parade in Berlin to celebrate.
3 February 1933	Adolf Hitler's first meeting with Germany's military leaders; he sets forth his policy of conquest of Lebensraum in the East and its ruthless Germanization.
27 March 1933	Japan gives notice of withdrawal from the League of Nations.
21 October 1933	Germany gives notice of withdrawal from the League of Nations.
3 October 1935	Italian armed forces from Eritrea invaded Ethiopia [Abyssinia], resulting in a state of war between the two countries.
2 May 1936	Italian forces enter Addis Abba, the capital of Abyssinia.
17 July 1936	General Francisco Franco stages a military revolt in Spain precipitating the Spanish Civil War. Nazi Germany supports Franco.
7 July 1937	Full scale war begins between Japan and China, the Second Sino-Japanese War.
25 September 1937	Devastating bombing of Nanking, China kills over six hundred civilians.
13 December 1937	Nanking, China surrenders beginning the Rape of Nanking.
18 February 1938	Bombing of China's wartime capital Chongqing begins; Japanese aircraft conducted 268 air raids against Chongqing, focused on the city's civilian population [18 Feb 1938 - 23 Aug 1943].
29 July 1938	Japanese invasion of territory claimed by the USSR [Battle of Lake Khasan, 29 July-31 August].
30 September 1938	Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Édouard Daladier sign the Munich Agreement, abandoning Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland to German occupation.
9 November 1938	Kristallnacht [Night of Broken Glass], a night of attacks by Nazis on the synagogues, shops & homes of Jews in Germany and Austria (9-10 Nov) including beatings, deaths, & deportations.

Prelude | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945