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Japan's invasion of China
Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident -
Germany invades Poland
An invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the beginning of World War II in Europe. -
Period: to
Battle of Britian
First major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces -
Tripartite Pact
Pact that established the Axis Powers of World War II. -
Lend Lease Act
Program under which the United States supplied Great Britain, the USSR, Free France, the Republic of China, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and August 1945. -
Germany takes Leningrad
Prolonged military operation undertaken by the German Army Group North against Leningrad—historically and currently known as Saint Petersburg—in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. -
Formation of the UN
Representatives of 26 nations pledged their Governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers -
Wannsee Conference
Meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway in the Pacific Theater of Operations was one of the most important naval battles of World War II. -
D-Day
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 -
Yalta Conference
The World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Premier Joseph Stalin, respectively, for the purpose of discussing Europe's post-war reorganization. -
Iwo Jima/Okinawa
By February 1945, the United States had turned back the Japanese advance in the Pacific and had re-taken a sweeping arc of islands that surrounded the enemy nation. -
Hitler's Suicide
Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin. -
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day -
Potsdam Conference
The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. -
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
The United States used a massive, atomic weapon against Hiroshima, Japan -
VJ Day
Name chosen for the day on which Japan surrendered, in effect ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. -
Truman Doctrine
International relations policy set forth by the U.S. President Harry Truman in a speech. -
Marshall Plan
The American initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty -
Period: to
Korean War
War between the Republic of Korea (South Korea), supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), at one time supported by China and the Soviet Union -
Stalin's Death
He died. -
Warsaw Pact
Collective defense treaty among eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War -
Sputnik
First artificial Earth satellite -
Bay of Pigs
Failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA-sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other side -
Soviet union Falls
The Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries
