WWII Timeline of events

1933

• January 30 - Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.

1934

• August 19 - Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.

1935

• March 16 - Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.
• September 15 - German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws.

1936

• February 10 - The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
• March 7 - German troops occupy the Rhineland.
• May 9 - Mussolini's Italian forces take Ethiopia.
• July 18 - Civil war erupts in Spain.
• August 1 - Olympic games begin in Berlin.
• October 1 - Franco declared head of Spanish State.

1937

• June 11 - Soviet leader Josef Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals.
• November 5 - Hitler reveals war plans during Hossbach Conference.

1938

• March 12/13 - Germany announces 'Anschluss' (union) with Austria.
• August 12 - German military mobilizes.
• September 30 - British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich.
• October 15 - German troops occupy the Sudetenland; Czech government resigns.
• November 9/10 - Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.

1939 

• March 15/16 - Nazis take Czechoslovakia.
• March 28, 1939 - Spanish Civil war ends.
• May 22, 1939 - Nazis sign 'Pact of Steel' with Italy.
• August 23, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets sign Pact.
• August 25, 1939 - Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty. 
• August 31, 1939 - British fleet mobilizes; Civilian evacuations begin from London. 
• September 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland. 
• September 3, 1939 - Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany. 
• September 4, 1939 - British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.
• September 5, 1939 - United States proclaims its neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland. 
• September 10, 1939 - Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins. 
• September 17, 1939 - Soviets invade Poland.
• September 27, 1939 - Warsaw surrenders to Nazis
• September 29, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.
• November 8, 1939 - Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
• November 30, 1939 - Soviets attack Finland. 
• December 14, 1939 - Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations.

1940

• January 8, 1940 - Rationing begins in Britain. 
• March 12, 1940 - Finland signs a peace treaty with Soviets.
• March 16, 1940 - Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland. 
• April 9, 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark and Norway.
• May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.
• May 15, 1940 - Holland surrenders to the Nazis.
• May 26, 1940 - Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins. 
• May 28, 1940 - Belgium surrenders to the Nazis.
• June 3, 1940 - Germans bomb Paris; Dunkirk evacuation ends.
• June 10, 1940 - Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France.
• June 14, 1940 - Germans enter Paris.
• June 16, 1940 - Marshal Pétain becomes French Prime Minister.
• June 18, 1940 - Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich; Soviets begin occupation of the Baltic States.
• June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice with Nazi Germany.
• June 23, 1940 - Hitler tours Paris.
• June 28, 1940 - Britain recognizes General Charles de Gaulle as the Free French leader.
• July 1, 1940 - German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.
• July 5, 1940 - French Vichy government breaks off relations with Britain.
• July 10, 1940 - Battle of Britain begins.
• July 23, 1940 - Soviets take Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
• August 3-19 - Italians occupy British Somaliland in East Africa.
• August 13, 1940 - German bombing offensive against airfields and factories in England.
• August 15, 1940 - Air battles and daylight raids over Britain.
• August 17, 1940 - Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.
• August 23/24 - First German air raids on Central London.
• August 25/26 - First British air raid on Berlin.
• September 3, 1940 - Hitler plans Operation Sea Lion (the invasion of Britain).
• September 7, 1940 - German Blitz against Britain begins.
• September 13, 1940 - Italians invade Egypt.
• September 15, 1940 - Massive German air raids on London, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.
• September 16, 1940 - United States military conscription bill passed.
• September 27, 1940 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
• October 7, 1940 - German troops enter Romania.
• October 12, 1940 - Germans postpone Operation Sea Lion until Spring of 1941.
• October 28, 1940 - Italy invades Greece.
• November 5, 1940 - Roosevelt re-elected as U.S. president.
• November 10/11 - Torpedo bomber raid cripples the Italian fleet at Taranto, Italy.
• November 14/15 - Germans bomb Coventry, England.
• November 20, 1940 - Hungary joins the Axis Powers.
• November 22, 1940 - Greeks defeat the Italian 9th Army.
• November 23, 1940 - Romania joins the Axis Powers.
• December 9/10 - British begin a western desert offensive in North Africa against the Italians.
• December 29/30 - Massive German air raid on London.

1941

• January 22, 1941 - Tobruk in North Africa falls to the British and Australians.
• February 11, 1941 - British forces advance into Italian Somaliland in East Africa.
• February 12, 1941 - German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, North Africa.
• February 14, 1941 - First units of German 'Afrika Korps' arrive in North Africa.
• March 7, 1941 - British forces arrive in Greece.
• March 11, 1941 - President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act.
• March 27, 1941 - A coup in Yugoslavia overthrows the pro-Axis government.
• April 3, 1941 - Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq.
• April 6, 1941 - Nazis invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
• April 14, 1941 - Rommel attacks Tobruk.
• April 17, 1941 - Yugoslavia surrenders to the Nazis.
• April 27, 1941 - Greece surrenders to the Nazis.
• May 1, 1941 - German attack on Tobruk is repulsed.
• May 10/11 - Heavy German bombing of London; British bomb Hamburg.
• May 15, 1941 - Operation Brevity begins (the British counter-attack in Egypt).
• May 24, 1941 - Sinking of the British ship Hood by the Bismarck.
• May 27, 1941 - Sinking of the Bismarck by the British Navy.
• June 4, 1941 - Pro-Allied government installed in Iraq.
• June 8, 1941 - Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
• June 14, 1941 - United States freezes German and Italian assets in America.
• June 22, 1941 - Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins.
• In June - Nazi SS-Einsatzgruppen begin mass murder.
• June 28, 1941 - Germans capture Minsk.
• July 3, 1941 - Stalin calls for a scorched earth policy.
• July 10, 1941 - Germans cross the River Dnieper in the Ukraine.
• July 12, 1941 - Mutual Assistance agreement between British and Soviets.
• July 14, 1941 - British occupy Syria.
• July 26, 1941 - Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets in United States and suspends relations.
• July 31, 1941 - Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for the Final Solution.
• August 1, 1941 - United States announces an oil embargo against aggressor states.
• August 14, 1941 - Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter.
• August 20, 1941 - Nazi siege of Leningrad begins.
• September 1, 1941 - Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
• September 3, 1941 - First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
• September 19, 1941 - Nazis take Kiev.
• September 29, 1941 - Nazis murder 33,771 Jews at Kiev.
• October 2, 1941 - Operation Typhoon begins (German advance on Moscow).
• October 16, 1941 - Germans take Odessa.
• October 24, 1941 - Germans take Kharkov.
• October 30, 1941 - Germans reach Sevastopol.
• November 13, 1941 - British aircraft carrier Ark Royal is sunk off Gibraltar by a U-boat.
• November 20, 1941 - Germans take Rostov.
• November 27, 1941 - Soviet troops retake Rostov.
• December 5, 1941 - German attack on Moscow is abandoned.
• December 6, 1941 - Soviet Army launches a major counter-offensive around Moscow.
• December 7, 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor; Hitler issues the Night and Fog decree.
• December 8, 1941 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
• December 11, 1941 - Hitler declares war on the United States.
• December 16, 1941 - Rommel begins a retreat to El Agheila in North Africa.
• December 19, 1941 - Hitler takes complete control of the German Army.

1942

• January 1, 1942 - Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations.
• January 13, 1942 - Germans begin a U-boat offensive along east coast of USA.
• January 21, 1942 - Rommel's counter-offensive from El Agheila begins.
• January 26, 1942 - First American forces arrive in Great Britain.
• April 23, 1942 - German air raids begin against cathedral cities in Britain.
• May 8, 1942 - German summer offensive begins in the Crimea.
• May 26, 1942 - Rommel begins an offensive against the Gazala Line.
• May 30, 1942 - First thousand-bomber British air raid (against Cologne).
• In June - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.
• June 5, 1942 - Germans besiege Sevastopol.
• June 21, 1942 - Rommel captures Tobruk.
• June 30, 1942 - Rommel reaches El Alamein near Cairo, Egypt.
• July 1-30 - First Battle of El Alamein.
• July 3, 1942 - Germans take Sevastopol.
• July 5, 1942 - Soviet resistance in the Crimea ends.
• July 9, 1942 - Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR.
• July 22, 1942 - First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps; Treblinka extermination camp opened.
• August 7, 1942 - British General Bernard Montgomery takes command of Eighth Army in North Africa.
• August 12, 1942 - Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow.
• August 17, 1942 - First all-American air attack in Europe.
• August 23, 1942 - Massive German air raid on Stalingrad.
• September 2, 1942 - Rommel driven back by Montgomery in the Battle of Alam Halfa.
• September 13, 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins.
• October 18, 1942 - Hitler orders the execution of all captured British commandos.
• November 1, 1942 - Operation Supercharge (Allies break Axis lines at El Alamein).
• November 8, 1942 - Operation Torch begins (U.S. invasion of North Africa).
• November 11, 1942 - Germans and Italians invade unoccupied Vichy France.
• November 19, 1942 - Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad begins.
• December 2, 1942 - Professor Enrico Fermi sets up an atomic reactor in Chicago.
• December 13, 1942 - Rommel withdraws from El Agheila.
• December 16, 1942 - Soviets defeat Italian troops on the River Don in the USSR.
• December 31, 1942 - Battle of the Barents Sea between German and British ships.

1943 

• January 2/3 - Germans begin a withdrawal from the Caucasus.
• January 10, 1943 - Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad.
• January 14-24 - Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference, Roosevelt announces the war can end only with "unconditional German surrender."
• January 23, 1943 - Montgomery's Eighth Army takes Tripoli.
• January 27, 1943 - First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven).
• February 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
• February 8, 1943 - Soviet troops take Kursk.
• February 14-25 - Battle of Kasserine Pass between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and German Panzers in North Africa.
• February 16, 1943 - Soviets re-take Kharkov.
• February 18, 1943 - Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich.
• March 2, 1943 - Germans begin a withdrawal from Tunisia, Africa.
• March 15, 1943 - Germans re-capture Kharkov.
• March 16-20 - Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.
• March 20-28 - Montgomery's Eighth Army breaks through the Mareth Line in Tunisia.
• April 6/7 - Axis forces in Tunisia begin a withdrawal toward Enfidaville as American and British forces link.
• April 19, 1943 - Waffen-SS attacks Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.
• May 7, 1943 - Allies take Tunisia.
• May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.
• May 16, 1943 - Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto ends.
• May 16/17 - British air raid on the Ruhr.
• May 22, 1943 - Dönitz suspends U-boat operations in the North Atlantic.
• June 10, 1943 - 'Pointblank' directive to improve Allied bombing strategy issued.
• June 11, 1943 - Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland.
• July 5, 1943 - Germans begin their last offensive against Kursk.
• July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.
• July 19, 1943 - Allies bomb Rome.
• July 22, 1943 - Americans capture Palermo, Sicily.
• July 24, 1943 - British bombing raid on Hamburg.
• July 25/26 - Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.
• July 27/28 - Allied air raid causes a firestorm in Hamburg.
• August 12-17 - Germans evacuate Sicily.
• August 17, 1943 - American daylight air raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt in Germany; Allies reach Messina, Sicily.
• August 23, 1943 - Soviet troops recapture Kharkov.
• September 8, 1943 - Italian surrender to Allies is announced.
• September 9, 1943 - Allied landings at Salerno and Taranto.
• September 11, 1943 - Germans occupy Rome.
• September 12, 1943 - Germans rescue Mussolini.
• September 23, 1943 - Mussolini re-establishes a Fascist government.
• October 1, 1943 - Allies enter Naples, Italy.
• October 13, 1943 - Italy declares war on Germany; Second American air raid on Schweinfurt.
• November 6, 1943 - Russians recapture Kiev in the Ukraine.
• November 18, 1943 - Large British air raid on Berlin.
• November 28, 1943 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran.
• December 24-26 - Soviets launch offensives on the Ukrainian front.

1944

• January 6, 1944 - Soviet troops advance into Poland.
• January 17, 1944 - First attack toward Cassino, Italy.
• January 22, 1944 - Allies land at Anzio in Italy.
• January 27, 1944 - Leningrad relieved after a 900-day siege.
• February 15-18 - Allies bomb the monastery at Monte Cassino.
• February 16, 1944 - Germans counter-attack against the Anzio beachhead.
• March 4, 1944 - Soviet troops begin an offensive on the Belorussian front; First major daylight bombing raid on Berlin by the Allies.
• March 15, 1944 - Second Allied attempt to capture Monte Cassino begins.
• March 18, 1944 - British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany.
• April 8, 1944 - Soviet troops begin an offensive to liberate Crimea.
• May 9, 1944 - Soviet troops recapture Sevastopol.
• May 11, 1944 - Allies attack the Gustav Line south of Rome.
• May 12, 1944 - Germans surrender in the Crimea.
• May 15, 1944 - Germans withdraw to the Adolf Hitler Line.
• May 25, 1944 - Germans retreat from Anzio.
• June 5, 1944 - Allies enter Rome.
• June 6, 1944 - D-Day landings on the northern coast of France.
• June 9, 1944 - Soviet offensive against the Finnish front begins.
• June 10, 1944 - Nazis liquidate the town of Oradour-sur-Glane in France.
• June 13, 1944 - First German V-1 rocket attack on Britain.
• June 22, 1944 - Operation Bagration begins (the Soviet summer offensive).
• June 27, 1944 - U.S. troops liberate Cherbourg, France.
• July 3, 1944 - 'Battle of the Hedgerows' in Normandy; Soviets capture Minsk.
• July 9, 1944 - British and Canadian troops capture Caen, France.
• July 18, 1944 - U.S. troops reach St. Lô, France.
• July 20, 1944 - Assassination attempt by German Army officers against Hitler fails.
• July 24, 1944 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.
• July 25-30 - Operation Cobra (U.S. troops break out west of St. Lô).
• July 28, 1944 - Soviet troops take Brest-Litovsk. U.S. troops take Coutances.
• August 1, 1944 - Polish Home Army uprising against Nazis in Warsaw begins; U.S. troops reach Avranches.
• August 4, 1944 - Anne Frank and family arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam, Holland.
• August 7, 1944 - Germans begin a major counter-attack toward Avranches.
• August 15, 1944 - Operation Dragoon begins (the Allied invasion of Southern France).
• August 19, 1944 - Resistance uprising in Paris.
• August 19/20 - Soviet offensive in the Balkans begins with an attack on Romania.
• August 20, 1944 - Allies encircle Germans in the Falaise Pocket.
• August 25, 1944 - Liberation of Paris.
• August 29, 1944 - Slovak uprising begins.
• August 31, 1944 - Soviet troops take Bucharest.
• September 1-4 - Verdun, Dieppe, Artois, Rouen, Abbeville, Antwerp and Brussels liberated by Allies.
• September 4, 1944 - Finland and the Soviet Union agree to a cease-fire.
• September 13, 1944 - U.S. troops reach the Siegfried Line in western Germany.
• September 17, 1944 - Operation Market Garden begins (Allied airborne assault on Holland).
• September 26, 1944 - Soviet troops occupy Estonia.
• October 2, 1944 - Warsaw Uprising ends as the Polish Home Army surrenders to the Germans.
• October 10-29 - Soviet troops capture Riga.
• October 14, 1944 - Allies liberate Athens; Rommel commits suicide.
• October 21, 1944 - Massive German surrender at Aachen, Germany.
• October 30, 1944 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
• November 20, 1944 - French troops drive through the 'Beffort Gap' to reach the Rhine.
• November 24, 1944 - French capture Strasbourg.
• December 4, 1944 - Civil War in Greece; Athens placed under martial law.
• December 16-27 - Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.
• December 17, 1944 - Waffen-SS murder 81 U.S. POWs at Malmedy.
• December 26, 1944 - Patton relieves Bastogne.
• December 27, 1944 - Soviet troops besiege Budapest.

1945

• January 1-17 - Germans withdraw from the Ardennes.
• January 16, 1945 - U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies link up after a month long separation during the Battle of the Bulge.
• January 17, 1945 - Soviet troops capture Warsaw, Poland.
• January 26, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
• February 4-11 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Yalta.
• February 13/14 - Dresden is destroyed by a firestorm after Allied bombing raids.
• March 6, 1945 - Last German offensive of the war begins to defend oil fields in Hungary.
• March 7, 1945 - Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen.
• March 30, 1945 - Soviet troops capture Danzig.
• In April - Allies discover stolen Nazi art and wealth hidden in German salt mines.
• April 1, 1945 - U.S. troops encircle Germans in the Ruhr; Allied offensive in northern Italy.
• April 12, 1945 - Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps; President Roosevelt dies. Harry Truman becomes President.
• April 16, 1945 - Soviet troops begin their final attack on Berlin; Americans enter Nuremberg.
• April 18, 1945 - German forces in the Ruhr surrender.
• April 21, 1945 - Soviets reach Berlin.
• April 28, 1945 - Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans; Allies take Venice.
• April 29, 1945 - U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
• April 30, 1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
• May 2, 1945 - German troops in Italy surrender.
• May 7, 1945 - Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
• May 8, 1945 - V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.
• May 9, 1945 - Hermann Göring is captured by members of the U.S. 7th Army.
• May 23, 1945 - SS-Reichsführer Himmler commits suicide; German High Command and Provisional Government imprisoned.
• June 5, 1945 - Allies divide up Germany and Berlin and take over the government.
• June 26, 1945 - United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
• July 1, 1945 - American, British, and French troops move into Berlin.
• July 16, 1945 - First U.S. atomic bomb test; Potsdam Conference begins.
• July 26, 1945 - Atlee succeeds Churchill as British Prime Minister.
• August 6, 1945 - First atomic bomb dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan.
• August 8, 1945 - Soviets declares war on Japan and invade Manchuria.
• August 9, 1945 - Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan.
• August 14, 1945 - Japanese agree to unconditional surrender.
• September 2, 1945 - Japanese sign the surrender agreement;  V-J (Victory over Japan) Day.
• October 24, 1945 - United Nations is born.
• November 20, 1945 - Nuremberg war crimes trials begin.

Source: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm

I plan to use this timeline to study more about WWII.