Adolf Hitler, following his troops into Austria, announces the Anschluss (union of Germany and Austria)

Left-wingers and Jews suffer immediate persecution in Nazi Austria, now part of Germany

Voters in both Germany and Austria give massive approval for Hitler's annexation of Austria

Neville Chamberlain makes the first of three flights to Germany, this time to negotiate with Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden

Neville Chamberlain and Édouard Daladier fly to Munich to discuss Hitler's designs on the Czech Sudetenland

Chamberlain and Daladier agree at Munich that Hitler may annexe the Czech Sudetenland, with its largely German population

The Sudetenland is transferred from Czechoslovakia to Germany, in accordance with the Munich agreement

Adolf Hitler makes unacceptable demands upon Poland, including the transfer of the free port of Danzig to Germany

Adolf Hitler demands a strip of territory through the Polish corridor to reunite Germany with East Prussia

Nazi gangs smash the premises of Jews throughout Germany and Austria in a night that becomes known as Kristallnacht, the night of cut glass

A Russian army invades Poland from the east, fulfilling the secret protocol of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact

The new German technique of blitzkrieg ('lightning war') is demonstrated with devastating effect against Poland

German physicists, led by Otto Hahn, announce their discovery of nuclear fission

Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan becomes music director of the Berlin State Opera

Hungary aligns itself with the Axis powers, signing Germany and Japan's Anti-Comintern Pact

Hitler's armies smash their way into Czechoslovakia and enter Prague, against all his previous promises

Ribbentrop flies to Moscow to sign a Nonaggression Pact with Molotov, depriving Britain and France of an ally

A secret protocol, attached to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, divides Poland and the Baltic states between Germany and Russia

The He-178, designed by Hans von Ohain, becomes the first jet engine to fly, with a test flight lasting five minutes

Adolf Hitler launches a massive attack on Poland, with tanks crossing the border and air raids on Warsaw

Britain and France, receiving no answer from Hitler to their ultimatum over his attack on Poland, declare war on Germany

French troops rush to defend France's border with Germany, along the heavily fortified Maginot Line

Warsaw falls, after a brave resistance, whereupon Germany and Russia carve up Poland

Adolf Hitler orders the 'mercy killing' of all those with specified categories of infirmity, beginning with newborn babies and young children

William Joyce, broadcasting in English from Germany, becomes notorious in Britain as Lord Haw-Haw