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italian invasion of ethiopia
Italy attacked Ethiopia from Eritrea and Italian Somaliland without a declaration of war. On October 7, the League of Nations unanimously declared Italy an aggressor but took no effective action. -
spanish civil war
military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides. -
rape of nanjing in china
In the 1930s, Japan attempted to take control of China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, as part of a larger plan to unify Asia. By December 1937, Japanese forces had reached Nanjing, which was then the capital of China. According to historical records, the Japanese forces committed a number of atrocities along the way, murdering civilians along with soldiers, setting fire to homes, and beating Chinese civilians. -
german annexation of the sudetenland
The successful annexation of Austria fueled Adolf Hitler's ambition, and he looked on to the German-populated regions of Czechoslovakia, collectively named Sudetenland. As early as 1933, Nazi Party members such as Konrad Henlein had already infiltrated the political scene in Czechoslovakia, stirring trouble. -
german invasion of poland
One of Adolf Hitler's first major foreign policy initiatives after coming to power was to sign a nonaggression pact with Poland in January 1934. This move was not popular with many Germans who supported Hitler but resented the fact that Poland had received the former German provinces of West Prussia, Poznan, and Upper Silesia under the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. -
france and great britain declare war on germany
German troops at the outskirts
of Warsaw watch the city burn
September 1939
On September 1, 1939 German troops swarmed across the Polish border and unleashed the first Blitzkrieg the world had seen. Hitler had been planning his attack since March - ever since German troops occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia. -
pearl harbor
The surprise was complete. The attacking planes came in two waves; the first hit its target at 7:53 AM, the second at 8:55. By 9:55 it was all over. By 1:00 PM the carriers that launched the planes from 274 miles off the coast of Oahu were heading back to Japan. Poster commemorating
the attack, 1942
Behind them they left chaos, 2,403 dead, 188 destroyed planes and a crippled Pacific Fleet that included 8 damaged or destroyed battleships. In one stroke the Japanese action silenced the debate -
el alamein
The Battle of El Alamein, fought in the deserts of North Africa, is seen as one of the decisive victories of World War Two. The Battle of El Alamein was primarily fought between two of the outstanding commanders of World War Two, Montgomery, who succeeded the dismissed Auchinleck, and Rommel. The Allied victory at El Alamein lead to the retreat of the Afrika Korps and the German surrender in North Africa in May 1943. -
guadalcanal
In the six months between August 1942 and February 1943, the United States and its Pacific Allies fought a brutally hard air-sea-land campaign against the Japanese for possession of the previously-obscure island of Guadalcanal. The Allies' first major offensive action of the Pacific War, the contest began as a risky enterprise since Japan still maintained a significant naval superiority in the Pacific ocean. -
stralingrad
On June 22, 1941, the German Army poured across the borders of the Soviet Union, initiating nearly 4 years of the most savage and brutal warfare humanity ever experienced. Three Army Groups penetrated Russia on a front extending from the Baltic coast to the Black Sea. One and a half million soldiers of the Wehrmacht obeyed the Fuehrer's directive to destroy the Red Army and the Soviet Union. -
d day
The Battle of El Alamein, fought in the deserts of North Africa, is seen as one of the decisive victories of World War Two. The Battle of El Alamein was primarily fought between two of the outstanding commanders of World War Two, Montgomery, who succeeded the dismissed Auchinleck, and Rommel. The Allied victory at El Alamein lead to the retreat of the Afrika Korps and the German surrender in North Africa in May 1943. -
philippines (battle of manila)
(May 1, 1898), defeat of the Spanish Pacific fleet by the U.S. Navy, resulting in the fall of the Philippines and contributing to the final U.S. victory in the Spanish–American War. After the United States had declared war (April 25), its Asiatic squadron was ordered from Hong Kong to “capture or destroy the Spanish fleet” then in Philippine waters. The U.S. Navy was well trained and well supplied, largely through the energetic efforts of the young assistant secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roose -
yalta conference
In February, 1945, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met again. This time the conference was held in Yalta in the Crimea. With Soviet troops in most of Eastern Europe, Stalin was in a strong negotiating position. Roosevelt and Churchill tried hard to restrict post-war influence in this area but the only concession they could obtain was a promise that free elections would be held in these countries. -
the end of war in europe
In early 1945, it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before Germany collapsed under the combined assault of allied forces. The US Army faced a monumental challenge -
dropping of atomic bomb on hiroshima
Reconstruction under a comprehensive city-planning scheme was begun about 1950 with the rebuilding of the Inari Bridge. Now the largest industrial city in that section of Japan encompassed by the Chūgoku (western Honshu) and Shikoku regions, Hiroshima contains many administrative offices, public-utility centres, and colleges and universities. Industries produce steel, automobiles, rubber, chemicals, ships, and transport machinery. The city is Japan’s major needle producer. -
dropping of atomic bomb on nagaski
The atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 represents arguably the most important and most sinister development in warfare in the 20th century. By the early 1940s scientists in Britain and the USA were rapidly developing the technology that would lead to an atomic weapon. -
the end of the war in asia
The first such commemoration was declared 60 years ago today, after Japan unconditionally surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as VJ Day in the Allies. In Japan it is called "Commemoration Day of the End of the War". In Korea, one of former colonies of Japan, it has been celebrated as Independence Day, -
nurembverg trials
Twenty-four major political and military leaders of Nazi Germany, indicted for aggressive war, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, were brought to trial before the International Military Tribunal. More than 100 additional defendants, representing many sectors of German society, were tried before the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals in a series of 12 trials which awas called “Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings.”
