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Japanese Invasion of China
In July 1937 Japan claimed that they were fired on while crossing the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing. Japan used this as an excuse to mobilize troops and invade China using its territory in Manchuria as a base of operations. The Japanese forces used brutal tactics to demoralize the Chinese, including an infamous event refered to as "The Rape of Nanjing (Nanking)" -
Germany invades Poland
Adolf Hitler mobilizes his armies and invades Poland using the "blitzkrieg" strategy, which included fast and effective bombing in order to destroy strategic locations such as railroads and communications lines. This bombing was typically followed by a swift land invasion involving a large number of troops. -
Battle of Britain
Germany begins the bombardment of England through the use of aircraft, targeting communications bases, radar centers, and other British-airforce related locations. After roughly 3 months, the British prevailed due to German inefficiency and superior weaponry. -
Tripartite Pact
The Tripartite Pact was essentially an alliance against Allied countries in WWII, as it included Germany, Italy, and Japan, and eventually joined by Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia. -
Lend-Lease Act
The Lend-Lease Act was a form of U.S. support through the supply of weapons, food, and other basic needs of war for its allies participating in the war. In return, these countries such as Britain were to pay in cash, but some countries were inable to continue the payment in cash due to war strains. -
German Blitzkrieg on Soviet Union
The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, a.k.a. Operation Barbarossa, began on June 22, 1941. The Germans used a war strategy they called Blitzkrieg, which basically involved the primary bombing of supply lines and communication systems folowed by a massive land invasion. -
Leningrad Blockade
The Leningrad Blockade, also known as the siege on Leningrad, was a drawn-out military operation by Germany in an attempt to capture present-day St. Petersburg. The unsuccessful siege lasted 872 days, with the residents of Leningrad struggling to survive due to German shelling, disease, and exposure. However, the Germans were eventually driven out of Leningrad after nearly 900 days of fighting. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, a Japanese aerial attack on the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This attack would eventually lead to U.S. involvement in WWII, the process of freezing Japanese assets in the U.S., and prejudice against Japanese-American citizens. Over 2,000 Americans at the base were killed and almost the same number were injured during the attack. -
Formation of U.N.
The Declaration by United Nations was a declaration of war aims by Allied powers, and it would become the foundation for the current-day United Nations. It was signed by "The Big Three" leaders Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt. -
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of Nazi leaders in order to decide what they thought the solution was to their "Jew Question." Their final solution was to round up all Jewish people in Europe and organize them into "labor gangs" in which many would perish due to working/living conditions. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle fought almost entirely with aircraft. Lasting 3 days, the majority of Japanese naval power along with its best trained pilots were destroyed in this battle, assuring a Japanese invasion via the Pacific Ocean was no longer a possibility. -
D-Day
D-Day, or the Normandy Landings, were a series of landing operations in Normandy, France, that eventually lead to the freedom of France from Nazi control. It was the largest seaborne invasion in history, employing the use of over 156,000 troops throughout the invasion. -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was a conference between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt , British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin in order to decide basically what to do with what remained of the defeated Nazi Germany. -
Iwo Jima
The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima began on February 19, 1945, as U.S. forces searched for a location to stage operations against Japan. However, the goal of the invasion eventually became the capture of a runway for B-29 bombers which would allow the bombing of Japan without the need to fly extreme distances. -
Okinawa
The invasion of Okinawa in April 1945 was one of the largest amphibious invasions seen in the Pacific War during WWII. This, along with the atomic bombings in Japan, prompted the surrender of Japan in WWII. -
Adolf Hitler commits suicide
Adolf Hiter, hiding in a bunker along with his wife Eva Braun, commited suicide as his third reich crumbled around him. The =y both swallowed poison, then used a pistol to end their lives. -
VE Day
VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, is the official day of the acceptance of the surrender of Germany and the end of the European War. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was an Allied Powers conference in Berlin including U.S. President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin. The prime concerns during the conference were how to deal with the defeated Germany, the borders of Poland, and other results of the war affiliated with land ownership and occupation. -
Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6, 1945, the world's first nuclear bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima in Japan.The destruction was nearly immeasureable, completely destroying everything within roughly 4 miles. This was similar to the atomic bombing of Nagasaki 3 days later, as the city was obliterated by a force equivalent to 15000 tons of TNT. The results of these two bombings was the surrender of Japan and the end of the Pacific War. -
VJ Day
VJ Day, or "Victory over Japan" Day, was the day that in which Japan ceased fighting in WWII.This surrender was fueled by the two atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine, signed by President Harry Truman, was an act allocating financial and military aid to the countries of Greece and Turkey in order to repress the potential spread of communism. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was a U.S. program designed to aid the economies of 17 western and southern European countries and promote the growth of democracies in these countries in fear of communist growth due to the stresses of the declining economies. It was signed into action on April 3, 1948, and would continuously aid economies for the next 4 years. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was large military alliance established among Allied and non-Soviet powers in Europe and North America in order to provide adequate protection from post-WWII Soviet Armies. -
Mao Zedong and People's Republic of China
Mao Zedong was the leader of the Chinese Communist party from 1935 until his death. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong announced the People's Republic of China, and over the next couple years he attempted to revolutionize China, giving land back to the people, promoting the status of women, improving literacy. However, not many in China were fond of the changes made by Mao, and he eventually was forced to imprison any that stood against him. -
Korean War
The Korean War began when 75000 North Korean troops crossed the boundary between North and South Korea, and the U.S. immediately responded by backing up South Korea with troops, seeing this as a literal fight against communism. The war would last over 3 years, with the North Korean army being subdued and over 5 million military and civilian lives lost in the perpetual fight against communism. -
Stalin’s death; Khrushchev
Joseph Stalin died on March 5, 1953, after having a stroke. 5 years after his death, Nikita Krushchev began leading the Soviet Union and denounced much of what Stalin had applied, several times publicly accusing Stalin of the poor state of the Soviet Union. These attacks on the memory of Stalin resulted in the abandonment of Stalin's following and belief along with the changes of nomenclature of certain places such as Stalingrad. -
The Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was basically a mutual defense treaty among several communist states in Europe during the Cold War. These states included USSR, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia , the German Democratic Republic, Poland, and Hungary. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a war in which North Vietnam sought to unite South Vietnam and themselves into one communist country modeled after other communist countries such as China and Russia. The U.S. supported South Vietnam, as they aimed to prevent any spreading of communism that they could. The war lasted roughly 20 yearsr, with over 3 million civilian and military casualties. -
Sputnik
Sputnik was the name of the first ever satellite launched by man, and its launch on October 4, 1957, began the Space Age. After its launch by the Soviet Union, it stayed in orbit for several months until its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Several other Sputnik missions were launched, carrying various animals and taking various measurements during their time outside of Earth. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
On August 20, 1960, President John F. Kennedy placed a naval "quarantine" on Cuba due to the recently discovered information that the Soviet Union were shipping missiles to Cuba that, if launched, could have reached U.S. soil within minutes. The U.S. and Soviet Union seemed to be on the brink of a nuclear war, but eventually reached an agreement to avoid an extrememly destructive nuclear war. -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs invasion was a failed military invasion of Cuba due to the recent rise of dictator Fidel Castro. The invasion, conducted by a military force called Brigade 2506, was sponsored by the CIA using over 13,000,000 dollars given by President Eisenhower. The troops were intially successful, but were eventually overcome and were forced to surrender, all but deteriorating Cuban-U.S. relations. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a wall separating East and West Germany to prevent the emigration of East Germans to West Germany. After construction of the primary wall was completed by the morning of August 13, 1961, it would stand as a barrier until its deconstruction ion November 9, 1989. -
Fall of Soviet Union
The Soviet Union slowly collapsed due to recessions of states who one-at-a-time declared independence from the Soviet Union. Many of these recessions were due to the radical changes imposed on the Soviet Union by their leader Mikhail Gorbachev. After Christmas, Gorbachev resigned as leader of the Soviet Union, marking its official downfall. -
Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev was the first ever Soviet Union president from 1990-91. Although his efforts to democratize his country and decentralize his economy earned him a Nobel Peace Prize, his radical and swift attempts to change the ways that the Soviet Union works lead to the downfall of the Soviet Union. He would go on to resign on December 25, 1991.
