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Czar Nicholas II Becames the Leader of Russia
His reign saw Imperial Russia go from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. -
Kuomintang was Created
The name literally means the Chinese National People's Party, but is more often translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party. -
Russian Marxists Split into Mensheviks & Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. -
Russo-Japanese War Began
A military conflict in which a victorious Japan forced Russia to abandon its expansionist policy in the Far East, becoming the first Asian power in modern times to defeat a European power. -
Bloody Sunday in Russia
Where unarmed demonstrators marching to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard, approaching the city center and the Winter Palace from several gathering points. -
Sun Yixian Became President of China
On December 25, Sun Yat-sen, the spearhead behind the revolution, returned to China after sixteen years of exile to join the meetings. Four days later, he was elected the provisional president of the Republic of China. -
May Fourth Movement Began
At the end of the First World War, in 1918, China was convinced it would be able to reclaim the territories occupied by the Germans in present-day Shandong Province. -
Trans-Siberian Railway Built
As soon as the Trans-Siberian was built, it began to have a significant impact on economic development, and contributed to the acceleration and growth of the circulation of goods. -
March Revolution in Russia
March 1917 saw major changes in Russia. Rasputin was dead and Lenin was out of the country. By the start of 1917, the people of Russia were very angry. -
March Revolution in Russia
Is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Russian SFSR -
Czar Nicholas II Abdicated
Nicholas II of Russia abdicated the throne, thus ending the Romanov dynasty. -
New Economic Policy Enforced in Russia
The New Economic Policy was introduced to replace the failed policy of War Communism. -
Vladimir Lenin became the leader of Russia
The Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War ended with Vladimir Lenin in power and the country renamed the USSR. -
The Bolshevik Revolution
The country of Russia was in ruins, ripe for revolution. -
Russian Civil War Began
A multi-party war in the former Russian Empire fought between the Bolshevik Red Army and the White Army, the loosely allied anti-Bolshevik forces. -
Treaty of BRest-Litovsk
treaties of Brest-Litovsk, peace treaties signed at Brest-Litovsk by the Central Powers with the Ukrainian Republic and with Soviet Russia, which concluded hostilities between those countries during World War I. -
Weimar Republic Established in Germany
The Weimar Ruplblic became the new government in Germany which was weak and not trusted. -
The League of Nations was Created
The League of Nations was an international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, created after the First World War to provide a forum for resolving international disputes. -
Albert Einstein Developed the Theory of Relativity
The term "theory of relativity" was based on the expression "relative theory." -
Russia Became the USSR
Communism was the new political system in the USSR. -
Adlof Hitler Became the Leader of the Nazi Party
The committee was dissolved, and Hitler was granted nearly absolute powers as the party's sole leader. -
Washington Conference
Washington Conference, also called Washington Naval Conference, international conference called by the United States to limit the naval arms race and to work out security agreements in the Pacific area. Held in Washington, D.C., the conference resulted in the drafting and signing of several major and minor treaty agreements. -
Benito Mussolini Became the Leader of Italy
Mussolini assembled the Fascist Party conference earlier in October, and he was sworn in as Prime Minister on October 31. -
General MacArthur Returned to the Phillippines (Leyte Gulf)
After advancing island by island across the Pacific Ocean, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur wades ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte, fulfilling his promise to return to the area he was forced to flee in 1942. -
Dawes Plan Started
Charles G. Dawes came up with a plan so that Germany's annual reparation payments would be reduced, increasing over time as its economy improved; the full amount to be paid was not yet determined. -
Jiang Jieshi Became the leader of the Kuomintang
Jiang Jieshi was an influential member of the Chinese Nationalist Party, Kuomintang, and was a close ally of Sun Yat-Sen. -
Adolf Hitler Wrote Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is an autobiographical manifesto by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, in which he outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germany. -
Hitohito Became the Emperor of Japan
Hirohito became the Emperor of Japan after his fathers death in 1926. -
Civil War in China Began
Because of a difference in thinking between the Communist Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT), there was a fight for legitimacy as the government of China. -
Charles Lindbergh's Solo Flight Across the Atlantic
The Spirit of St. Louis carried Charles Lindbergh from New York to Paris in 33 and a half hours, the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. -
Five-Year Plan Began
The plans were developed by a state planning committee based on the Theory of Productive Forces that was part of the general guidelines of the Communist Party for economic development. -
Kellogg-Briand Pact Signed
The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed whereby countries agreed not to use military force for aggressive ends. -
Joseph Stalin became the Leader of the USSR
After Lenin died in 1924, Stalin eventually outmaneuvered his rivals and won the power struggle for control of the Communist Party. By the late 1920s, he had become dictator of the Soviet Union. -
Great Depression Began
On October 29, 1929 the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began. -
Stock Market Crashed in the U.S.
Black Tuesday hit Wall Street as investors traded some 16 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors. -
Japan invaded Manchuria
Japan launched an attack on Manchuria. Within a few days Japanese armed forces had occupied several strategic points in South Manchuria. -
The Holocaust Began
Jews in Europe were subjected to progressively harsher persecution that ultimately led to the murder of 6,000,000 Jews and the destruction of 5,000 Jewish communities. -
Adolf Hitler Became the Chancellor of Germany
President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt became the President of the U.S.
On the eve of his inauguration he inspired confidence with the people when he told them " The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." -
The Great Purge Began
The Great Purge was a campaign of political repression in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin from 1934 to 1939. -
The Long March
It took the Red Army 40 days to get through the blockhouses surrounding Jiangxi but no sooner had they done this than they were attacked at Xiang by the Guomindang. -
Adolf Hitler Defied the Treaty of Versailles
Hitler began a period of aggression and appeasement when he denouned the Treaty of Versailles. -
U.S. Congress Passed the Neutrality Acts
Roosevelt invoked the act after Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in October 1935, preventing all arms and ammunition shipments to both countries. -
Italy invaded Ethiopia
During this period of threatening hostilities the League of Nations was endeavoring to prevent the outbreak of war; the Italian Government, however, refused to be deterred from carrying out its plan for conquest. -
Germany Reoccupied the Rhineland
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles and the Locarno Pact by sending German military forces into the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone along the Rhine Riverin western Germany. -
Rome-Berlin Axis
Rome-Berlin Axis, Coalition formed in 1936 between Italy and Germany. An agreement formulated by Italy’s foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano informally linking the two fascist countries. -
Japan Invaded China
The Japanese invaded China proper, launching the Second Sino-Japanese War. -
Rape of Nanking
The brutality of the Japanese soldiers toward the Chinese occurred during the Rpae of Nanking. -
Anschluss
A political union of Austria with Germany, achieved through annexation by Adolf Hitler in 1938. -
Adolf Hitler took the Sudetenland
The German occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, known collectively as the Sudetenland, under terms outlined by the Munich Agreement. -
Hitler Hosted the Munich Conference
Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sign the Munich Pact, which seals the fate of Czechoslovakia, virtually handing it over to Germany in the name of peace. -
Kristallnact Began
The Nazis staged violent pogroms—state sanctioned, anti-Jewish riots—against the Jewish communities of Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact Signed
This non-aggression pact stated that neither country would attack the other for 10 years. -
Germany Invaded Poland (Blitzkrieg)
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, the Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. -
Sitzkrieg Began
A phase early in World War II that was marked by a lack of major military operations by the Western Allies (the United Kingdom and France) against the German Reich. -
Auschwitz Death Camp Opened
This camp housed prisoners, was the location of medical experiments, and the site of Block 11 (a place of severe torture) and the Black Wall (a place of execution). -
Winston Churchill Became the Prime Minister of Great Britain
Winston Churchill was in office from May 10, 1940 until July 26, 1945. -
Allies Evacuate Dunkirk
The evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 27 May and 4 June 1940. -
Vichy Governmanet Established in France
The Franco-German Armistice of June 22, 1940, divided France into two zones: one to be under German military occupation and one to be left to the French in full sovereignty. -
Battle of Britain
After the success of Blitzkrieg, the evacuation of Dunkirk and the surrender of France, Britain was by herself. The Battle of Britain remains one of the most famous battles of World War Two. -
Tripartite Pact Signed
This Pact established the Axis Powers in World War II. -
Lend-Lease Act
The Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. -
Operation Barbarossa
The code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. -
Hitler enacted the Final Solution
After the Nazi party rise to power, state-enforced racism resulted in anti-Jewish legislation, boycotts, "Aryanization," and finally the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom, all of which aimed to remove the Jews from German society. -
Atlantic Charter
It was a pivotal policy statement issued in August 14,1941 that, early in World War II, defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. -
Manhattan Project Began
The Manhattan Project was the code name to build the atomic bomb. -
Chelmno Concentration Camp Opened
The estimated number of deaths is 150-300,000, mainly Jews. -
Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor
After the U.S. declared war on Japan, ermany declared war on the U.S. -
The United States Declared War on Japan
President Franklin Roosevelt requests, and receives, a declaration of war against Japan. -
Nesei were Interned in Relocation Centers in the U.S.
President Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, signed Executive Order 9066, giving the secretary of war the power to designate military areas from which “any or all persons may be excluded” and authorized military commanders to initiate orders they deemed advisable to enforce such action. -
Bataan Death March
The Japanese assembled about 78,000 prisoners (12,000 U.S. and 66,000 Filipino). They began marching up the east coast of Bataan. Although they didn't know it, their destination was Camp O'Donnell. -
Doolittle Raids Over Japan
These raids demonstrated that Japan itself was vulnerable to American air attack, was retaliation for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, provided an important boost to U.S. morale, and damaged Japanese morale. -
Battle of the Coral Sea
The Japanese were prevented from taking Australia. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is considered the turning point of the war in the Pacific. -
Battle of El Alamein
This battle was fought for control of North Africa and the Suez Canal. It's considered the turning point in the war in Africa. -
Battle of Guadalcanal
A military campaign on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre of World War II. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Known as the turning point in the war in Europe. -
Kamikaze Pilots Appear in the Pacific
The majority of kamikaze pilots were young noncommissioned or petty officers, that is graduates of Navy and Army junior flight training schools. -
Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the name given to the Allied invasion of French North Africa in November 1942. Operation Torch was the first time the British and Americans had jointly worked on an invasion plan together. -
Casablanca Conference
Winston Churchill and FKR attended and made an agreement to only accept an unconditional surrender in Europe. -
Allies Landed in Sicily
The Allies decided to move next against Italy, hoping an Allied invasion would remove that fascist regime from the war, secure the central Mediterranean and divert German divisions from the northwest coast of France where the Allies planned to attack in the near future. -
Island Hopping Campaign
The island-hopping campaign essentially refers to the effort mounted by the United States in the Central Pacific; it also began with the capture of Tarawa. -
Tehran Conference
First meeting of the Big 3, and the D-Day Invasion was planned here. -
Operation Overlord (D Day)
June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. -
Battle of the Bulge
The last German offensive in teh war was the Battle of the Bulge. -
Yalta Conference
Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan within 3 months after Germany surrendered, also a decision was made to create the United Nations. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
A major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. -
Battle of Okinawa
The capture of Okinawa was part of a three-point plan the Americans had for winning the war in the Far East. -
Mussolini was Executed
During the last days of the war in Italy, Dictator Benito Mussolini attempted to escape the advancing Allied Army by hiding in a German convoy headed toward the Alps. -
Hitler Committed Suicide
That afternoon, in accordance with Hitler's prior instructions, their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker. -
Germany Surrendered
Three days after Adolf Hitler committed suicide Germany surrendered. -
V-E Day
The public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
Potsdam Conference
Truman made the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima
Instantly, 70,000 Japanese citizens were vaporized when the bomb was dropped. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Nagasaki
This bomb had a core of plutonium 239, was 3.5 meters in length by 1.5 meters in diameter, and it weighed 4.5 tons. Its plutonium core was surrounded by 64 explosive charges arranged in an inner and outer shell. -
V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day)
Victory over Japan Day is a name chosen for the day on which Japan surrendered, in effect ending World War II. -
Japan Surrendered
By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent. -
Nuremberg Trials
After the war, 24 high ranking Nazis were put on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials. -
The New Deal Started
The programs were in response to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": Relief, Recovery, and Reform. -
Francisco Franco Led a Fascist Revolt in Spain
The revolt was fought between the Republicans, who were loyal to the democratically elected Spanish Republic, and the Nationalists, a rebel group led by General Francisco Franco.
