The Second World War began when Germany invaded Poland, leading Britain and France to declare war, and it ended with the surrender of Japan, signed aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The conflict was fought between the Allies, chiefly Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States and China, and the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan. It covered Europe, Asia, Africa and the oceans, and it included the Holocaust, the systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others by Nazi Germany. The war closed after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. It killed tens of millions of people, most of them civilians, and its aftermath brought the founding of the United Nations, the division of Europe in the Cold War and the decline of the European colonial empires.
Before and after
- 9 August 1939Birth of Romano Prodi
- 23 August 1939Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
- 31 August 1939Gleiwitz incident
- from 1 September 1939 to 6 October 19391939 Invasion of Poland
- from 1 September 1939 to 2 September 1945World War II
- from 1 September 1939 to 3 September 1939Battle of Mława
- from 1 September 1939 to 7 September 1939Battle of Westerplatte
- from September 1939 to May 1945Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)
- from 3 September 1939 to 10 April 1940Phoney War
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 8 March 1917 to 16 March 1917February Revolution
- from 1 August 1927 to 1 May 1950Chinese Civil War
- from 7 July 1937 to 9 September 1945Second Sino-Japanese War
- from 22 June 1941 to 7 May 1945Eastern Front
- 7 December 1941Attack on Pearl Harbor
- 1944Golden Globes
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.