Picasso paints Guernica

Art

Pablo Picasso completes Guernica in response to the bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War; it becomes an enduring anti-war icon.

Related events

April 26, 1937★★★★★

German and Italian aircraft supporting the Nationalists bomb the Basque town of Guernica, an event depicted in Picasso's famous painting.

WarDisaster· Spain, Germany, Italy

July 17, 1936 – April 1, 1939★★★★★

Nationalists led by Francisco Franco fight the Republicans; Franco's victory leads to a dictatorship lasting until 1975.

War· Spain

September 30, 1938★★★★★

Britain, France, Italy and Germany agree to Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland, the high point of the appeasement of Hitler.

TreatyPolitics· Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Czechia

November 9, 1938 – November 10, 1938★★★★★

An organised pogrom against Jews across Germany and Austria destroys thousands of shops and synagogues, with about 30,000 people arrested.

PoliticsReligion· Germany, Austria

December 1938★★★★★

Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discover the fission of uranium nuclei; Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch explain the process shortly after.

Science· Germany

August 23, 1939★★★★★

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact with a secret protocol dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.

Treaty· Germany, Russia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland