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Gorbachev
The general secretary of the Communist Party of Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. -
Japan invades Manchuria
Japan launched an attack on Manchuria.They occupied several strategic points in south Manchuria. -
Germany invades Poland
The polish army was defeated. German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive attack. -
Soviet Union Falls
Germany directly annexed those former Polish territories along German's eastern border: West Prussia, Poznan, Upper Silesia, and the former Free City of Danzig -
Battle of Britain
German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom. This is a significant turning point in World War II. -
The Tripartite Pact
The Axis powers are formed as Germany, Italy, and Japan become allies with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. -
Lend-Lease Act
The principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foregn nations during World War II. -
German Blitzkreig on Soviet Union
At first, the German Blitzkrieg, lightning war, seemed to succeed. Soviet forces were driven back more than 600 miles to the gates of Moscow, with staggering losses. -
Gerrmany takes Leningrad
By the end of the siege, some 632,000 people are thought to have died with nearly 4,000 people from Leningrad starving to death on Christmas Day, 1941. The first German artillery shell fell on Leningrad on September 1st, 1941. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. -
Formation of U.N
Representatives of 26 nations at war with the Axis powers met in Washington to sign the Declaration of the United Nations endorsing the Atlantic Charter, pledging to use their full resources against the Axis and agreeing not to make a separate peace. -
Wannsee Conference
High-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway, fought over and near the tiny U.S. mid-Pacific base at Midway atoll, represents the strategic high water mark of Japan's Pacific Ocean war. -
D-Day
Over 156,000 American, British, and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile strecth of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference took place in a Russian resort town in the Crimea from February 4–11, 1945, during World War II. They made important decisions regarding the future progress of the war and the postwar world. -
Battle of Iwo Jima/Okinawa
The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign. -
Hitler's Suicide
Warned by officers that the Russians were only a day or so from overtaking the chancellery and urged to escape to Berchtesgarden, where Hitler owned a home, he instead chose suicide. -
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day, VE Day, was on May 8th 1945. VE Day officially announced the end of World War II in Europe. -
Postdam Conference
The last of the World War II heads of state conferences, President Truman, Soviet Premier Stalin and British Prime Ministers Churchill and Atlee discussed post-war arrangements in Europe, -
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
The United States used a massive, atomic weapon against Hiroshima, Japan. While Japan was still trying to comprehend this devastation three days later, the United States struck again, this time, on Nagasaki. -
V-J Day
Also known as "Victoryover Japan Day", V-J Day was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. -
Truman Doctrine
Truman asked Congress to support the Greek Government against the Communists. -
Marshall Plan
Also known as the European Recovery Program, the marshall Plan successfully sparked economy recovery of Europe between 1948 and 1951. -
NATO
NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of the Western Hemisphere. -
Mao Zedong & People's Republic of China
Naming himself head of state, communist revolutionary Mao Zedong officially proclaims the existence of the People's Republic of China. -
Korean War
the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. -
Stalin's Death
Died by a heart attack. He is remembered to this day as the man who helped save his nation from Nazi domination. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. -
Warsaw Pact
Signed in Warsaw, the Warsaw Pact included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members. It called on the member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by an outside force and it set up a unified military command. -
Sputnik
The Soviets accelerated far beyond the scientific word with the lauching of Sputnik. Although it was kept a secret, it was one of the most notable things in scientific history. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs invasion begins when a CIA-financed and -trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro. The attack was an utter failure. -
Berlin Wall
The Communist government of the East Germany began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany -
Cuban Missile Crisis
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, leaders of the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores.
