Three dates hold up most of the history. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the war began. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States entered it. The war then ended in Europe on May 8, 1945 (VE Day) and in the Pacific when Japan formally signed its surrender on September 2, 1945.
Instead of a single year-by-year list, this guide follows the war theater by theater, because that is how the battles connect and how quiz questions tend to group them. When you’re done, test yourself with our history trivia.
Who was on each side
The main Axis powers were Germany, Italy and Japan. The “Big Three” Allied leaders were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945, and Harry S. Truman, the US president at the war’s end, took over.
Western Europe
- September 3, 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany.
- April–May 1940: Germany invades Denmark and Norway, then on May 10 the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Winston Churchill becomes British prime minister the same day.
- May 26 – June 4, 1940: More than 330,000 Allied troops are evacuated from Dunkirk.
- June 22, 1940: France signs an armistice with Germany.
- July–October 1940: The Battle of Britain, fought in the air. Germany fails to gain control of the skies over Britain.
- June 6, 1944: D-Day. Allied forces land in Normandy, France, in Operation Overlord, under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, later the 34th president. The five beaches were Utah and Omaha (US forces), Gold and Sword (British) and Juno (Canadian).
- August 25, 1944: Paris is liberated.
- December 16, 1944: Germany launches its last major offensive in the west, the Battle of the Bulge.
- April 30, 1945: Adolf Hitler dies in Berlin.
- May 8, 1945: VE Day, after Germany’s unconditional surrender.
Behind the front lines, the Enigma code was broken at Bletchley Park, England.
The Eastern Front
- September 17, 1939: The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east, under its secret pact with Germany.
- June 22, 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa).
- August 1942 – February 1943: The Battle of Stalingrad, ending in a German surrender.
The Mediterranean and North Africa
- October–November 1942: The Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt turns the North African campaign toward the Allies.
- July 10, 1943: Allied forces land in Sicily. Italy surrenders in September, though fighting there continues against German forces.
- February 1945: Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Yalta.
The Pacific
- December 7, 1941: Japan attacks the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
- December 8, 1941: The United States declares war on Japan. On December 11, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.
- June 4–7, 1942: The Battle of Midway, a decisive US naval victory over Japan.
- February 1945: US Marines land on Iwo Jima.
- August 6 and 9, 1945: The United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- August 15, 1945: Japan announces its surrender.
- September 2, 1945: Japan formally signs the surrender aboard USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Dates people mix up
- VE Day vs. VJ Day. VE Day is May 8, 1945. VJ Day is celebrated on August 15 in Britain and many other countries, and on September 2 in the United States, the day of the formal signing.
- When the war started for the US. The war began in 1939, but the United States entered only in December 1941.
- D-Day. “D-Day” is a military term for the start of any operation; in trivia it almost always means June 6, 1944.