April 20, 1889 Adolf Hitler is born in Braunau, Austria.

September 1900 Hitler begins high school in Linz Austria. A poor student, Hitler wants to become an artist, and attend classical school, but his father, who hopes his son will become a government worker, sends him to a technical high school.

1907 After failing the entrance exam to the Academy of Fine Arts, in Vienna, Hitler takes a variety of jobs and often sleeps on park benches. Though a German-speaking Austrian, Hitler develops a hatred for non-Germans and a belief that a government can not succeed if it treats all racial groups equally.

1914 When World War I begins, Hitler serves in the German army, where he rises to the rank of corporal.

1919 Hitler helps form the National Socialist German Workers Party, known as the Nazis. The group's main principles include uniting all Germans into one nation, creating a strong central government and canceling the Versailles Treaty (which had taken German territory and saddled the country with enormous reparations).

July 29, 1921 Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi party. He is introduced as Führer (leader in German), marking the first time that the title is publicly used to address him.

Nov. 9, 1923 Hitler executes the Beer Hall Putsch - a plot to bring down the German democratic government in Berlin. After learning that Bavarian leaders would be the guests of honor at an event taking place at a Munich beer hall, Hitler leads more than 2,000 Storm Troopers on a march to seize them. The effort fails and Hitler is sentenced to five years of prison for treason.

1924 While in prison, Hitler begins writing "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle). The book encapsulates Hitler's beliefs and plans for Germany's future. After serving only nine months in prison, he is released and begins rebuilding his party.

Oct. 29, 1929 The Wall Street stock market collapses, sending Germany - dependent on foreign trade and American loans - into its own severe depression. Germans search for a solution as they are cast into poverty. The democratic government begins to unravel and Hitler sees the perfect opportunity for capturing the attention of the German people.

Sept. 14, 1930 On election day, the Nazis receive 6,371,000 votes, over eighteen percent of the total. They are entitled to 107 seats in the German government, and the Nazis become the second largest party in Germany.

1932 Using the slogan "Freedom and Bread," Hitler runs for president against Paul von Hindenburg. Hindenbrug does not win an absolute majority, so a reelection takes place on April 12th. Though Hitler and the Nazis are very popular, Hindenburg, 85, is elected to another seven-year term.

Jan. 30, 1933 Hindenburg appoints Hitler Chancellor of Germany. Less than a month later, the Nazis begin hatching their plan to burn the Reichstag and take over the government.

March 23, 1933 Hitler becomes dictator of Germany after his proposed act, "Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich," is passed 441 to 84. The law essentially votes democracy out of existence, and establishes his legal dictatorship.

Aug. 2, 1934 Hitler becomes Furher.

1935 The Nazi party passes the Nuremberg Laws, persecuting the German Jews.

February 1938 Hitler becomes commander of the German army. Many officers do not trust their German dictator but do lack the courage to oppose him.

Nov. 9, 1938 The Nazis execute their first mass persecution of the Jews, reportedly destroying 7,500 Jewish businesses, burning 267 synagogues, and murdering 91 Jews. The destruction comes to be known as Kristallnacht, "night of broken glass." Soon after, a dozen of Nazi party's most radical anti-Semites meet and decide to eliminate Jews from German economic life.

Sept. 1, 1939 World War II begins when Hitler invades Poland. By this time, concentration camps are being established throughout Germany, Poland, and Russia.

July 20, 1944 A few weeks after Allied forces invade Europe, several high military and civilian officials, including Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben and the mayor of Leipzig, try to assassinate Hitler with a bomb. Hitler is injured but not killed.

March 19, 1945 As the Red Army approaches Berlin, Hitler orders the destruction of what remains of German industry, communications and transport systems, in the belief that if he does not survive Germany should also perish.

April 30, 1945 Hitler commits suicide in his bunker. The day before he marries mistress Eva Braun and issues a last statement: "I charge the leaders of the nation and those under them to scrupulous observance of the laws of race and to merciless opposition to the universal poisoner of all peoples, international Jewry."

June 7, 1945 Nazi Germany surrenders.