Mussolini declares war on Britain and France
1940 · Event
With France collapsing, Mussolini declares war to claim a seat at the victors' table — 'I need a few thousand dead to sit at the peace conference.' Roosevelt's verdict broadcasts around the world: 'the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.'
On these timelines: 1940: Britain's Darkest Hour, Italy (post-476 CE), World War II, Master, France
More from 1940: Britain's Darkest Hour
- Battle of Britain (1940)
- Churchill becomes Prime Minister (1940)
- Battle of Britain Day breaks the daylight assault (1940)
- France signs the armistice at Compiègne (1940)
- 'We shall fight on the beaches' (1940)
- The panzers cross the Meuse at Sedan (1940)
- Eagle Day opens the Luftwaffe's main assault (1940)
- The Coventry Blitz (1940)
Around 1940
- Berlin Airlift (1948)
- Battle of Stalingrad (1942)
- Apartheid (1948)
- Indian independence and Partition (1947)
- Manhattan Project (1942)
- Korean War (1950)
- Spanish Civil War (1936)
- Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany (1933)
- Chinese Civil War (resumed) (1945)
- World War II (1939)