Winston Churchill struggles to resume a political career; Gandhi begins the fight that will bring his people their freedom; Major Dwight D. Eisenhower serves as Gen. Douglas MacArthur's chief of staff; Ho Chi Minh in Paris; Mussolini grabs power.

Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes president; Hitler becomes chancellor in Germany; Mussolini secures absolute power; Gandhi leads the "Salt March."

Italians invade Ethiopia; Germans occupy the Rhineland and annexes Austria; civil wars take hold in Spain and China; Mao Zedong leads the Chinese Communist Party to safety.

The Spanish civil war reaches a bloody climax; Neville Chamberlain invents "shuttle diplomacy" at Munich, joining Hitler and Mussolini; peace is the last thing on Hitler's mind.

Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, their military leaders and their opponents to dominate both public and daily life; Eisenhower is still in the game; 26-year-old John F. Kennedy's PT 109 sinks in the Solomon Islands.

Roosevelt dies; Churchill is thrown out of office; Mussolini is shot; Hitler commits suicide; Harry S. Truman becomes president; Stalin sets the scene for 40 years of Cold War; Gandhi is assassinated.