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MaoZedong heads Long March
Jiang gathered an army of 700,000 nationalist men to drive the communists out of China. So Jiang's army surrounded the Communists' mountain stronghold and since the Communists were outnumbered. 100,000 Communists fled on to a 6,000 mile long journey called the Long March and only 7 or 8 thousand Communist survivors settled in caves in northwestern China. -
Germany invades Poland; France and Great Britain declare war on Germany
Hitler and Stalin signed a ten-year nonaggression pact with Hitler and they secretly decided that they would divide Poland and that the USSR could take over Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. THen Hiler attacked Poland and his tanks and troops came over the border and started bombing Warsaw. France and Britain declared war on Germany and Poland fell so Germany annexed the Western half of Poland. -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
Isoroku Yamamoto called for an attack on the US fleet in Hawaii. American sailors at pearl harbor awoke to the roar of explosives and a Japanese attack was underway and the US knew that one would come but not when. Japanese sunk or damaged 19 ships and 2,300 Americans were killed. December 7,1941 was a date that will live in infamy and Roosevelt declared war on Japan and its allies. -
United Nations formed
In June 1945, the US and the Soviet union temporarily set aside their differences so they joined 48 other countries in forming the United Nations. The organization was intended to protect the members against aggression. There was an established large body called he General Assembly and a UN member could cast its vote on a broad range of issuses. The security council had the real power to investigate and settle disputes. -
Germany surrenders
After the Battle of the Bulge the Allies rolled across the Rhine River into Germany. In April a noose was closing around Berlin and three million Allied soldiers approached Berlin from the southwest. Another six million Soviet troops approached from the east and were pounding the city with artillery fire. While Soviet shells burst over Berlin, Hitler married Eva Braun and then committed suicide. General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the German military. -
Allies use atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
An atomic bomb was developed by the top secret Manhattan Project headed by Leslie Groves and Robert Oppenheimer. President Truman made the decision to drop it even though it would cost the Allies half a million lives. Truman warned the Japanese about the bomb but they did not reply so they dropped it on Hiroshima on a city of 350,000 people. Three days later a second bomb was dropped on Negasaki and the Japanese surrendered to MacArthur in September.
