There were three notorious dictators who came to power during World War II: Adolf Hitler in Germany, Benito Mussolini in Italy, and Emperor Hirohito in Japan. Hitler wanted to increase Germany's borders and breed a superior Aryan race, Mussolini wanted to restore Rome's glory, and Hirohito wanted to expand Japan's influence in Asia.

Over 330,000 Allies were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk, France, in May and June of 1940, after being trapped by advancing German forces. This was a pivotal event in World War II. The evacuation was a watershed moment in the war, providing the Allies the chance they needed to reorganize and ultimately prevail.

 During World War II, Nazi Germany created the greatest Jewish ghetto in history in the Polish capital of Warsaw. Overcrowding, hunger, sickness, and repeated deportations to Nazi death camps plagued the ghetto's estimated 400,000 Jewish inmates between 1940 and 1943.

On December 7, 1941, the United States naval base located in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was subjected to an unexpected military assault by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The assault resulted in the involvement of the United States in the Second World War, a conflict that had been ongoing in Europe and Asia since 1939.

Stalingrad, Operation Market Garden, D-Day, the Battle of Bulge, the Battle of Midway, the Italian campaign, the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and the Doolittle Raid were all significant events in World War II.