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Japan's Invasion of Cina
Japanese claimed they were fired on by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing.They used this as an excuse to have a full-scale invasion of China and conquer Manchuria also. -
Germany invades Poland
All at the same time at about 4:45 am on September 1, 1939, German Luftwafte bombed Polish airfields,German soldiers invaded Polish borders, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Poland declared war on Germany two days later, starting the beginning of World War II. -
Battle of Britain
This is a long series of bombing raids against Great Britain, lasting about three months. Britain saw Germany take control of France and knew it wasn't before long that they would look for more land over the English Channel. German was attempting to gain air superiority and failed. -
Tripartite Pact
This established the Axis powers of World War II and it was signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan. -
Lend-Lease Act
This was the priciple means for the United States to provide military aid to foreign countries during WWII. -
Germany takes Leningrad
Germany tried but failed to take Leningrad and attempted to siege it and seperate it from the rest of Russia. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Around 8 a.m. on December 7th, 1941 Japanese fighter planes attacked Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. They destroyed about 20 American ships and planes. They also killed 2,000 American soldiers and wounded 1,000. The day after the attack FDR asked congress to declare war on Japan. After the war had already been going on for two years, America had finally joined the war. -
Wannsee Conference
The Nazi Party gathered to discuss the "final solution", which was the code name for the annhilation of the European Jews. -
Battle of Midway
This was the turning point in the war of the Pacific War between Japan and the US. Japan was leading the war and after this war they were essentially equals. -
D-Day
Also known as Codename Operation Overlord, D-Day was the beginning of the end of the war in Europe. This is when about 156,000 America, British, and Canadian soldiers landed on the coast of Normandy as a surprise to the Germans. This battle led to the capture of France from the Germans by the Allied forces. -
Yalta Conference
This was the second meeting between Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt. The three leaders decided to make Germany surrender at this meeting. -
Iwo Jima/Okinawa
The United States needed Japan to surrender and they wouldn't budge, even after their defeat in the Pacific war. They decided to use nuclear weapons and bomb Japan. After its stubbornness after the first bomb in Iwo Jima, the United States tried again in Okinawa and later Japan surrendered. -
Hitler's Suicide
Hitler was warned that Russia ws taking over in two or so days and he reacted in swallowing cyanide capsuls with his wife Eva, then shooting himself. -
VE Day
VE Day, also known as Victory in Europe Day, was first celebrated when Germany finally surrendered in World War II on May 7th, 1945. -
Potsdam Conference
Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman met in Potsdam to negotiate the terms of the end of Worl War II. -
Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
The first bomb by the American military was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. A second was droopped at Nagasaki on August 9th due to Japan's stubbornness and unwillingness to surrender. -
VJ Day
Abbreviated for Victory over Japan Day, VJ Day is celebrated on the day that Japan officially surrendered on U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. They announced their surrender unofficially on August 14th and 15th after the atomic bombs were dropped. -
Formation of the U.N.
This started as a pledge of 26 countries to continue fighting with each other against the Axis powers in World War II. Representatives of 50 countries met together in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference on International Organization to create the United Nations Charter. This charter was ratified by China, the Soviet Union, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States on October 24, 1945. -
Truman Doctrine
Given by Harry S. Truman, this speech ensured that all democratic nations would recieve support from the United States if they were being attacked by an outside force. -
Marshall Plan
Shared first as a speech by George Marshall, the European Recovery Program aka Marshall Plan was designed to rebuild the economies and spirits of western Europe. Sixteen nations, including Germany became part of the program. -
NATO
In abbreaviation for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO was created in response to a threat by the Soviet Union, to encourage political European integration -
Mao Zedong & People's Rebulic of China
When the China Communist Party defeated Guomindang in a civil war in China, communism took power and Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China. He planned to reshape Chinese society. Industry went under state ownership along with the organization of farmers into collectives. Opposition to his ruling was strictly forbidden. -
Korean War
The war began when the North Korean People's Army crossed the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet supported Poeple's Republic Korea in the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea in the south. America entered the war for the South Koreans and the fighting continued until it ended in July 1953. Korea is still divided today. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War wwas a conflict between the communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam and their allies, the United States. The US went and helped South Vietnam, but ended withdrawing from the war and killing more than 3,000,000 people. -
Stalin's Death; Khrushchev
After the death of Stalin on March 5th, Khrushchev rose to power as one of the five men selected to be in the Secretariat of the Communist Party in Russia. His rise to power created a "peaceful coexistence" between Russia and the United States for a period of time. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven other countries signed a treaty at Warsaw stating that they would come to the defense if an outside country attacked any member states. This was put into place mainly because of Germany's remilitarization. -
Sputnik
This is the world's first artificial satellite launched into space by Russia on October 4th, 1957. This started the Space Race. -
Bay of Pigs
On April 17th 1400 Cuban exiles launched an invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban goverment lead by Fidel Castro. The attack was a failure. -
Berlin Wall
The Communist government began to build a barbed wire and conrete wall between East and West Germany. The purpose was to keep Western fascists out of East Germany and unermining the socialist state. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
There were tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union over Cuba adn they got increasingly worse since the Bay of Pigs invasion. This is where the Soviet Union and the US got closest to having a nuclear war. The Soviet Union wanted to put missiles in Cuba because the US had missiles in Turkey. -
Gorbachev
Elected as General Secretary by the Congress of People's Deputies in 1985, Gorbachev worked hard to open up political processes, eliminated the monopoly of power communism parties had, and established the Congress of People's Deputies. By the time he was elected president in 1990, his power went sour, where he threatened Congress by resignation if they didn't give him the two-thirds vote. He won by a mere 46 votes as president, but he faced economic problems and complaints on his reform agenda. -
Soviet Union Falls
This ended the Cold War and the Soviet Union split into fifteen different countries. -
German Blitzkrieg on Soviet Union
Also known as the Lightning War, Blitskrieg was Germany's tactics in the beginning of WWII. This focused mainly on offensive weapons on a narrow front to eliminate opponents quickly. They swept through most of Europe in just two years with this strategy.
