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Japan's invasion of China
Japan invades Manchuria to takee China's vast natural resources -
Germany invades Poland
Beginiing of WWII where Germnay seeked to regain their lost territory and rule Poland -
Battle of Britain
Turning point of WWII when British air forces defeated German Air Forces -
Tripartite Pact
Also known as the Berlin Pact, Germany, Italy, and Germany form the Axis Powers -
Lend-Lease Act
Principal means for providing US aid to foreign countires in WWII -
Leningrad blockade
Brutal seige that lasted over 900 days and resulted in over 1 million civilian deaths. In the end, the Red Army were able to drive the Germans back. -
German Blitzkrieg on Soviet Union
Germany's failed invasion of Soviet Union which is where many historians believed the tides turned in WWII -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Japanese attack on US naval base that led to the US entering WWII -
Wannsee Conference
Conference in Berlin suburb where Nazi officals and German government officals came together to discuss the "Final Solutionof the Jewish Question" which was the annihliation of European Jews. -
Battle of Midway
One of the most decisive naval battles of WWII where the US defeated Japan -
D-Day
Battle at Normandy that let the Allied troops begin their travels across Europe to defeat Htiler -
Yalta Conference
Conference in Crimea where Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill decided to shift focus to the Pacific. -
Iwo Jima/Okinawa
Last battles between the US and Japan where the last Japanese soldiers were captured or killed -
Hitler's suicide
Hitler kills himself in his underground bunker by swalloing a cynaide capsule and shooting himself with a pistol -
VE Day
Great Britain and the US celebrate their victory in Europe -
Potsdam Conference
Last of the Big Three meetings during WWII -
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
First atomic bomb dropppings in history that led to the unconditional surrender of Japan -
VJ Day
Formal surrender ceremony by Japan that ended WWII. Held in Tokyo Bay abroad the USS Missouri. -
Formation of the U.N.
Improved version of League of Naatons after WWII whose goal is "to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security." -
Truman Doctrine
President Truman establishes that the US will provide assistance to all democratic nations under threat from authoritarian forces. -
Marshall Plan
Plan by US to aid Europe's economy. US gave 13 billion dollars to help rebuild Europe's economy -
NATO
Intergovernmental military aliiance between US, Canada, and Western Europe to provide collective security against USSR -
Mao Zedong & People's Rebuplic of China
Mao was a communist Chinese revolutionary who formed the People's Rebuplic of China. -
Korean War
First military action of the Cold War when North Korean soldiers crossed the 38th Parallel. War ended in a stalemate -
Stalin’s death; Khrushchev
With Stalin's death, there was a huge hole in the Soviet Union leadership but his death paved the way to Krushchev rise to power -
Warsaw Pact
Soviet Union and 7 other Eastern European countries sign a treaty that established a mutual defense organization in reaction to NATO -
Vietnam War
Ended with the US forces withdrawing in 1973 and the unification of Vietnam under Communist control in 1975 -
Sputnik
First artifical Earth satellite launched into a low elliptical orbit by the Soviet Union -
Bay of Pigs
Unsucessful US invasion of Cuba where the invaders surrendered in less than 24 hours -
Berlin Wall
Symbol of Cold War that represented the divide between democracy and communism -
Cuban Missile Crisis
13 day military and politcal standoff between US and USSR over the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba -
Soviet Union Fallls
The Soviet flag is lowered for the last timme over the Kremlin as Gorbachev resigned as president of Soviet Union and Yeltsin became preisdent of a new independent Russian state -
Gorbachev
Last leader of the Communist Party for the Soviet Union
