Timeline of the occupation of the Baltic states

1940

• 29 January 1940, Soviet Union "forgets" Terijoki government.
• 13 March 1940 Winter War ends with Moscow Peace Treaty.
• 9 April 1940, Germany invades Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrenders almost immediately.
• 10 June 1940, Germany occupies Norway.
• 14 June 1940, Germany captures Paris.
• 14 June 1940 Soviet Union begins military air and naval blockade of Estonia.
• 14 June 1940, Soviet air force shoots down Finnish civilian passenger aircraft "Kaleva" flying en route from Tallinn to Helsinki.
• 14 June 1940
  Soviet Union gives ultimatum to Lithuania to form a new government and allow free access for Red Army. The president of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona
  , proposes armed resistance. Failing to secure support from government or armed forces, he decides to leave the country, so that he could not be used to legalise the occupation.
• 15 June 1940 Soviet Union occupies Lithuania. President Smetona flees through Germany first to Switzerland then to USA, 1941, where he dies on 9 January 1944, in Cleveland. Prime minister Antanas Merkys yields to Soviet demands, attempts to catch Smetona. Vladimir Dekanozov lands in Kaunas to supervise annexation of Lithuania.
• 15 June 1940, at 03:00 Soviet troops storm and capture Latvian border posts Masļenki and Smaiļi.
• 16 June 1940 Similar ultimatums were given to Estonia and Latvia.
• 16 June 1940, Prime minister of Lithuania Antanas Merkys removes Antanas Smetona from the post of president and, contrary to Lithuanian constitution, assumes presidency himself.
• 17 June 1940 Estonia and Latvia submit to Soviet demands and are occupied. Prime minister of Lithuania Antanas Merkys assigns Justas Paleckis as new prime minister, resigns and is arrested.
• 18 June 1940, Sweden and Germany sign treaty allowing transit of German soldiers from Norway using Swedish territory.
• 19 June 1940, A demonstration is staged in Vilnius in support of Soviet Army.
• 20 June 1940, New Latvian government of Moscow-approved ministers is formed.
• 21 June 1940, New Estonian government containing only left-wing activists is formed. Soviet Union arrange a number of Red Army backed support demonstrations in several cities.
• 22 June 1940, France surrenders to Nazi Germany.
• 8 July 1940, Sweden and Germany sign treaty allowing transit of German war material between Norway and ports in Southern Sweden.
• 11 July 1940, Baltic Military District is created by Soviet Union at Riga, on the territories of theoretically still independent states
• 14–15 July 1940, Mock elections in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where non-communist candidates were disqualified, harassed and beaten. Results of Latvian "elections" published in advance in London by accident.
• 17 July 1940, The acting president of Lithuania, Antanas Merkys, is imprisoned and deported to Saratov, Soviet Union. He dies 5 March 1955.
• 21–23 July 1940 New Soviet-backed Estonian assembly transforms Estonia according to Soviet style, disregarding existing constitutional framework for government restructuring.
• 21 July 1940 New Latvian Saeima accepts wide nationalisation and Sovietisation decrees.
• 22 July 1940, The president of Latvia,
  Krasnovodsk
  on 20 September 1942.
• 23 July 1940, Heads of Baltic diplomatic missions in
  Washington, D. C.
  protest against Soviet occupation and annexation of their countries.
• 23 July 1940 Sumner Welles' (US Under-Secretary of State) Declaration. United States applies the precedent of earlier Stimson Doctrine to Baltic states, pursuing a policy of non-recognition of annexation of the Baltic States de jure. Most other Western countries maintain similar position until restoration of Baltic states' sovereignty in 1991.
• 30 July 1940, The president of Estonia, Konstantin Päts, is imprisoned by NKVD and deported to Russia where he dies in the mental hospital of Kalinin on 18 January 1956.
• 3 August 1940 Soviet Union annexes Lithuania.
• 5 August 1940 Soviet Union annexes Latvia.
• 6 August 1940 Soviet Union annexes Estonia.
• 6 September 1940, Soviet Union acquires troop and material transfer rights from Finland between Hanko and Soviet border.
• 22 September 1940, Germany acquires troop and material transfer rights from Finland between northern Norway and ports of Gulf of Bothnia.
• 12 November 1940, Germany refuses Soviet Union demands for right to handle Finland as they will in negotiations in Berlin.
• 16 December 1940, The Russian SFSR penal code is applied to retroactively in Estonia, applying to acts committed before 21 June 1940.

1941

• 10 January 1941, Soviet Union and Germany make an agreement for late resettlement of Baltic Germans from Latvia and Estonia.
• 14 June 1941 First mass deportations from Estonia (10 000), Latvia (15 000) and Lithuania (18 000) to sparsely populated areas of Siberia.
• 15 June 1941, The Governor of
  Herbert Lehman
  , declares 15 June to be Baltic States Day.
• 22 June 1941 Germany enacts
  Great Patriotic War
  .
• 24–25 June 1941 Soviet authorities massacre political prisoners in Rainiai, Lithuania.
• 25 June 1941 Continuation War breaks out between Finland and Soviet Union.
• 2 July 1941, General mobilisation is announced in the Soviet Union.
• 4 July 1941 Mass deportations from Estonian islands.
• 7 July 1941, German forces reach Southern Estonia.
• 9 July 1941 Soviet authorities leave Tartu after executing 199 political prisoners, among them women and at least one child.
• 10 July 1941, German forces reach Tartu.
• 17 July 1941 State Commissariat Ostland formed in Riga, Hinrich Lohse appointed State Commissar.
• 21 July 1941, Stalin seeks Churchill's de jure recognition of the Soviet Union's new western border, Churchill does not respond.
• 14 August 1941 Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter.
• 31 August 1941, Mainland Baltics now fully occupied by German forces.
• 20 September 1941, Heinrich Himmler visits Estonia.
• 25 November 1941, US deputy Secretary of State, Sumner Welles, re-affirms the US policy in regard to non-recognition of Baltic annexation.
• 19 December 1941, Alfred Rosenberg, the German State Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, enacts civil labour obligation for all residents of the occupied territories aged 18–45.
• December 1941, Within six months of German occupation, 10 000 people, including 1 000 Estonian Jews, are either imprisoned or executed.