I just joined this site today! Needles to say, this is my very first TL! Hope you enjoy it. If not, feel free to criticise me to death...
1933: Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany.
1939: Germany invades Poland.
1940: Germany invades France and Western Europe.
1941: Germany wins the Battle of Britain and invades England in Operation Sea Lion. By conquering England, the Germans effectively block American involvement in the war in Europe. Also, the Empire of Japan suffers a catastrophic defeat in their attack on Pearl Harbour due to an alerted American government and navy, losing 5 aircraft carriers and having 1 heavily damaged, as well as a battleship and a fleet oiler. The United States only loses 2 battleships and a destroyer, both of which are salvageable.
1942: Hitler proposes Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of Russia - to his General Staff. The Generals are appalled at the concept, as the vastness of Russia has thwarted every invasion attempt since 1249, including Napoleon.
February 1942: Hitler is assassinated by members of the Black Orchestra, which includes Generals from the Army, Admiral Canaris of the Abwehr, and many other civil servants and political activists.
March 1942: The Nazi Party collapses without the hypnotic charisma of Hitler binding its disparate elements and interests together. A period of political chaos ensues, which provides many oppressed people a chance to either relocate within Europe and change their identities, or to escape the Continent altogether.
May-June 1942: The Japanese suffer further disastrous setbacks at the Coral Sea and Midway, losing multiple carriers and battleships and dozens of cruisers and destroyers.
June 1942: The power vacuum is filled by less radical German parties like the Social Democrats. Control of the war is assumed by the General Staff, who wisely leave Russia alone and instead invade the western half of the Middle East including Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. The planned extermination of the Jews is modified to a program of forced labor that quickly comes to resemble the institutionalized slavery of America's Antebellum South.
1943: The US goes on the offensive in the Pacific, quickly recapturing Wake Island and Guam against minimal resistance. The IJN suffers further damaging defeats in the Marshall and Caroline Islands, and abandon Okinawa and Iwo Jima in an attempt to deter the inevitable US invasion.
1943: Germany declares victory and ends the war in the West.
1944: The United States invades Japan's home islands, ending the war in the East.
1945 - 1951: International tensions repeatedly flare between China, Russia, Germany, and the United States, known collectively as "The Big Four". A massive arms race begins.
1951: The Korean War begins.
1953: The United States drops the first-ever atomic bomb on a large Chinese military base near Pyongyang in North Korea. China retreats, and the Nuclear Age begins.
1954: The Korean War ends with a cease fire. The 2 Koreas remain technically at war.
1954: Germany launches an artificial satellite into orbit on a rocket built by Werner Von Braun, starting the space race. (Odin 1) This same rocket is used to build the first ICBMs. First German atom bomb tested.
1955: The USA launches its own satellite. (Vanguard 1) First Russian atom bomb tested.
1956: Russia launches a satellite. (Sputnik 1)
1958: Germany puts a man in space. (Silver Bird) The USA follows months after. (Horizon SA-1)
1960: Germany (Valkyrie 5) and the USA (Horizon SA-8) both perform human flybys of the Moon.
1961: Germany occupies British Honduras.
1964: China becomes the 4th nation to test a nuclear weapon.
1965: Honduras missile crisis. Nuclear war averted through diplomacy.
1967: Germany lands a human on the Moon, beating the USA. (Valkyrie 10)
1968: NASA lands a crew on the Moon. (Horizon SA-11)