1931 18 September: Japan begins occupation of Manchuria
1933 25 March: Japan leaves League of Nations
1934 21 October: In China, Mao Zedong begins “Long March” to Shensi Province
1936 25 November: Japan signs Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany
1937 7 July: “Marco Polo bridge incident” sparks Japanese invasion of China
13 December: Japanese seizure of Nanjing precipitates massacre of Chinese
1939 May–August: Soviet and Japanese forces clash at Nomonhan on the Manchuria-Mongolia border: Japan decisively worsted
23 August: Nazi-Soviet Pact signed
1 September: Germany invades Poland
3 September: France, Britain, India, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany
1940 January: U.S. abrogates 1911 Treaty of Commerce with Japan
22 June: France signs armistice with Germany; Japan insists on closure of Haiphong–Yunnan rail link through French Indochina, supplying Chiang Kai-shek. Eight hundred French troops killed resisting Japanese forces advancing into Indochina.
26 June: U.S.A. imposes embargo on iron and steel scrap shipments to Japan
16 September: U.S. Selective Service Act becomes law, imposing the draft
27 September: Japan signs Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy
5 November: Roosevelt wins third presidential term
1941 10 January: Siam invades French Indochina
31 January: Siam and French Indochina accept Japanese “mediation” Japan occupies northern Indochina
22 June: Hitler invades the Soviet Union
26 July: U.S. imposes oil embargo on Japan and freezes Japanese assets
27 July: Japanese occupy Saigon and enter Cambodia
18 October: General Tojo replaces Prince Konoe as Japanese prime minister
7 December: Japanese aircraft bomb U.S. Pacific bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Wake Island; Midway; Philippines
8 December: Japanese invade Malaya and Siam, Bangkok government surrenders
8 December: The United States declares war on Japan. Japan enters into a state of war with the United States and Britain.
9 December: Nationalist China declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy
10 December: Japanese sink British warships Prince of Wales and Repulse off Malaya, begin landing on Luzon, Philippines
14 December: Japanese advance into Burma
16 December: Japanese land in Borneo
20 December: Japanese attack Dutch East Indies
22 December: Japanese land at Lingayen, Philippines
24 December: Japanese seize Wake Island
25 December: Hong Kong falls
1942 25 January: Siam declares war on Britain and the United States
2 February: Maj.-Gen. Joseph Stilwell appointed C-in-C to Chiang Kai-shek and C-in-C U.S. forces in the China theatre
3 February: Japan invades Dutch East Indies; Japanese bombers attack Port Moresby, New Guinea
8 February: President Quezon, on besieged Corregidor, asks Roosevelt for immediate Philippines independence, so that the islands can declare themselves neutral and call upon both Japanese and Americans to leave. FDR refuses.
15 February: British garrison of Singapore surrenders to the Japanese; Japanese bomb Darwin, in northern Australia
23 February: Japanese submarine bombards oil refinery at Santa Barbara, California
27 February: Japanese victorious in Battle of the Java Sea
8 March: New Japanese landings on New Guinea
11 March: MacArthur escapes from the Philippines
17 March: MacArthur appointed Allied commander in the south-west Pacific
6 April: Japanese forces land on the Admiralty Islands and on Bougainville in the Solomons, and bomb two towns in eastern India
9 April: U.S. troops on the Bataan Peninsula surrender
18 April: Sixteen B-25 Mitchell bombers, launched from the carrier Hornet and led by Gen. James Doolittle, bomb Tokyo; captured U.S. aircrew beheaded by the Japanese
1 May: Japanese take Mandalay
6 May: U.S. forces on Corregidor, Philippines, surrender to the Japanese
7 May: Battle of the Coral Sea costs Japanese and Americans a carrier sunk and another badly damaged on each side, but forces the Japanese for the first time to abandon an amphibious assault against Port Moresby, New Guinea
15 May: In China, Japanese execute one hundred Chinese families in reprisal for the Doolittle Raid
23 May: Stilwell reaches India, after 150-mile march out of Burma with Chinese units; British forces complete withdrawal from Burma
4 June: Japanese attack Midway Island, north-east of Hawaii
6 June: Japanese occupy Kiska in the Aleutians; decisive U.S. naval victory at Midway, with four Japanese carriers sunk and 275 planes destroyed, for American loss of one carrier and 132 planes
7 August: Americans land on Guadalcanal
9 August: Japanese navy sinks four U.S. cruisers off Savo Island, in the Solomons
11 August: Australians driven out of Deniki on the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea
12 August: Japanese land at Buna, New Guinea
27 August: U.S. carrier Saratoga badly damaged by submarine attack, leaving Wasp only operational U.S. carrier in the Pacific
1 September: Battle of Stalingrad begins
2 September: In North Africa, Rommel withdraws after the decisive failure of his assault on the British defending Egypt at Alam Halfa
8 September: New Guinea: Australian forces driven back in the Owen Stanley Mountains
18 September: New Guinea: Japanese forces obliged to make some withdrawals, Australians poised to start advance on the Kokoda Trail
11-12 October: Solomons: Japanese navy worsted in Battle of Cap Esperance
17 October: Burma: Indian forces begin an advance in the Arakan
23 October: U.S. forces land in North Africa; Battle of El Alamein begins
26 October: Japanese navy victorious in Battle of Santa Cruz, which costs U.S. Hornet fatally damaged and Enterprise crippled, but Japanese suffer heavy aircraft losses
1943 2 February: Germans capitulate at Stalingrad
13 February: First British “Chindit” operation launched into Burma
2 March: Battle of the Bismarck Sea
20 June: U.S. campaign in New Georgia begins
5 July: Battle of Kursk begins
1 August: Japanese declare Burma independent
3 September: Allies land in Italy
7 October: Mountbatten becomes Allied supreme commander in South-East Asia
14 October: Japanese declare Philippines independent
20 November: U.S. Marines land on Tarawa Atoll
2 December: First chain reaction achieved at Chicago University by the Manhattan Project team
1944 31 January: U.S. forces land in the Marshalls
2 March: Second Chindit operation mounted into Burma
15 March: Japanese Imphal-Kohima offensive begins
22 April: U.S. forces land at Hollandia, New Guinea
April–December: Japanese “Ichigo” offensive in China
17 May: Stilwell’s Chinese and U.S. force takes Myitkyina airfield
31 May: Japanese begin withdrawal from Kohima
4 June: Allied forces enter Rome
6 June: D-Day landings in Normandy
15 June: U.S. forces land on Saipan
19 June: Battle of the Philippine Sea begins
18 July: Tojo resigns as Japan’s prime minister; Japanese begin retreat from Imphal
20 July: German officers attempt unsuccessfully to assassinate Hitler
15 September: Marines land on Peleliu
20 October: U.S. Army lands on Leyte
24-25 October: Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf
30 October: Lt.-Gen. Albert Wedemeyer replaces Stilwell as senior U.S. military representative in China
6 November: Roosevelt wins fourth presidential term
December: Slim’s Fourteenth Army crosses Chindwin into Burma
1945 9 January: U.S. Army lands on Luzon
11 January: British forces begin to cross the Irrawaddy
19 February: Marines land on Iwo Jima
2 March: British advance to Meiktila
9 March: Japanese seize control of Indochina
20 March: British capture Mandalay
1 April: U.S. Army and Marines land on Okinawa
5 April: Koiso resigns as Japan’s prime minister, succeeded by Suzuki
12 April: Death of Roosevelt; Truman becomes president
30 April: Hitler commits suicide
3 May: Slim’s Fourteenth Army enters Rangoon
8 May: VE-Day in Europe: Germany surrenders unconditionally
16 July: World’s first atomic device tested at Alamogordo
17 July: Allied summit meeting in Potsdam
26 July: Churchill resigns as British prime minister following election defeat
6 August: First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
8 August: USSR declares war on Japan, invades Manchuria
9 August: Second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
15 August: VJ-Day: Japan announces its surrender
26 August: Soviet forces declare Hutou fortress secure, completing their campaign in Manchuria
2 September: Japan’s surrender signed in Tokyo Bay