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Japenese invade China
The Japanese invaded Manchuria with all of their force which was the unofficial declaration of war from Japan to China. They began to move south towards the capital at Nanjing as naval forces bombed many cities including Shanghai and killed thousands of people. -
Germany invades Poland
Germany invaded Poland as result from an agreement with Soviet Union agreeing that they would split the land in half. They did not announce a declaration of war but used their air force to come by surprise and take over the western half while Soviet took the Eastern half. -
Battle of Britain
This battle stared because Germany wanted to prove air force superiority over Britain and wanted to gain control over the English Channel. Germany was let down when their Blitzkeig tactics did not work when Germany lost nearly 2000 aircrafts. -
Tripartite Act signed
This military alliance was signed by Italy, Japan, and Germany (and later Hungary) to ensure that if one country is attacked by a country that stated it was neutral, the others would have to come and fight with them. This was directly aimed at the United States because they were neutral at the time it was signed and was used as a threat towards the US. -
Lend Lease Act signed
By signing this act, the United States was able to send weapons and military aid to countries during the war. Because they were not fighting or directly sending money, they could still technically remain neutral. They also did not have to worry about debt after the war because they did not lend money. -
German Blitzkrieg on Soviet Union
Germany took the biggest army and the most equipment that they could take and along with Hungary, Finland, and Romania, they invaded Soviet Union. It surprised the Red Army but they had a large reserve force to counter attack. -
Beggining of Leningrad Blockade
A couple months after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, they captured the city of Leningrad which was considered the heartland of the Soviet Union. The Germans surrounded it and cut it off from the rest of the country so no person or resources could go in or out. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Japan decided it would be better to attack the US than to follow the demands they had given them. By bombing Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean, they destroyed the United States naval supplies. -
Formation of the UN
The UN was formed by the 26 nations that were in World War 2 and were against the Axis powers, By signing up for the UN, countries pleadged to use all of the resources they could to fight against the Axis powers in the war. -
Wannsee Conference starts
The conference was held by German government leaders in Wannsee, a small suburb in Berlin. The purpose of the conference was to find the “final solution” to what to do with Jews living in Germany and areas that they had over taken. In this meeting, the ideas of concentration camps and ghettos were decided and put into action. -
Beggining of Battle of Midway
This battle began as a result of the United States intercepting and deciphering a planned ambush from the Japanese that was designed to attack the American Naval fleets that escaped Pearl Harbor. This battle severely hurt Japan’s naval fleets and put America in the Lead. -
D-Day
D-day was the day that the United States launched an invasion in France’s Normandy region. This was a large blow to the Germans and him Nazi government. It put the Allies ahead of Germany’s powers and eventually led to the surrender of Germany. -
Yalta Conference begins
This was the meeting between Stalin, President Roosevelt, and UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They convinced Soviet Union to fight with them against Japan, decided that all fallen European countries should restart with elections and free will of the people, and they discussed that all war criminals would be tried on an international court. -
Beggining of Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima is on the coast of Japan. America decided to invade at Iwo Jima in order to have a naval and air base near the coast. After much fighting over the well defended coast, the United States was able to capture the island. -
HItler Commits Suicide
Hitler receives word from his officers that the Russians are in his home town and will be near his giant palace (where he rarely left and where he committed suicide) in less than a day. He was begged to flee, but he and his wife instead took cyanide pills and then Hitler shot himself in the head. -
VE Day
The Germans all across Europe had laid down their arms in a cease fire on this day and did the same one day later in Soviet Union territory. British prisoners of war were released and sent home and many Germans were taken as prisoners by the Soviet Union. -
Mao Zedong
This is the day Mao Zedong came into office. He was a CHinese communist reformist and is considered the "father of the Republic of China."He discovered Marxism when he was a college student after growing up as a poor peasent. He found the ideas very appealing and worked to bring them into the governemnt of China. -
Potsdam Confrence
This was another meeting of the Allied leaders in which they discussed control over Germany, occupation Austria, and how Poland would start back up with new borders and a democratic government. -
Bombing of Hiroshima
The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It immediately killed 90% of the city and many died later due to the exposure. The United States dropped a bomb 3 days later on the city of Nagasaki and the Emperor announced his surrender. -
VJ Day
Following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the surrender of Germany, Japan announced its defeat. This announcement of surrender officially ended World War 2. -
Truman Doctrine
This was the enunciation that the United States viewed people as free with democratic governments of enslaved by communist governments. In the doctrine, it is outlined that the United States will fight against the Communist governments so all people can enjoy a democracy. -
Marshall Plan Announced
Proposed by the United States government, the European Recovery Plan (aka Marshall Plan) was designed to give money to rebuild European economies that fell during the war. In doing this, the United States hoped it would prevent communism from spreading even more. -
NATO Agreement Signed
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a regional military alliance against Soviet powers. The goal was to maintain the peace in Europe after World War 2 by all being against the Soviets. -
Korean War Begins
The army of North Korea crosses over the 38 parallel and invades South Korea. The United States get involved and fights for South Korea and against the communist North Korea. -
Death of Stalin
As Stalin was growing older, his doctors told him he needed to take his life easier. Stalin didn’t like this advice, so he had all of his doctors arrested. One morning Stalin had a massive stroke, but because all of his colleagues were scared of him, no one went to his room to check on him until the evening, where they found him paralyzed. A doctor reported that he had had a massive stroke and Stalin later died. -
Warsaw Pact
Coming to be after the NATO agreement allowed West Germany to have their arms back, the Warsaw pact was signed by 7 Communist countries. The Warsaw pact perfectly contrasted NATO and challenged nearly every point. -
Vietnam War begins
The Vietnam war was against Northern Vietnam who was communist against South Vietnam who was backed by the United States. United States armies were not prepared for the Vietnam terrain and the war was unpopular on the United States home front. For these reasons, the United States pulled their troops out and left South Vietnam to fall under unification with the communist North. -
Sputnik
During Russia and America’s race in the space age, Russia launched the first artificial satellite. It was called ‘Sputnik’ for the Russian word for satellite. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
As a result of Castro coming to power and over throwing American supporter Batista, the United States wanted to push Castro from power. They developed a plan in which they would destroy Castro’s air force and invade while keeping it a secret. However Castro knew about the invasion and moved his air force and when invaded, it was broadcasted all over Cuba and did not stay a secret. Over a hundred fighters were killed and a thousand were taken prisoner. -
Berlin Wall
On this date, construction of the Berlin Wall begins. The Berlin wall was built to separate East Berlin from West Berlin. The main purpose was to keep the Communist or “Fascist” West Berlin from penetrating the Eastern side where the Eastern government thought they would corrupt the people. -
Gorbachev
This day is the day Mikhail Gorbachev is overthrown. Elected President a year before the fall of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev was not liked by either communist or reformers who wanted a new government. He was overthrown by the people which led to the fall of the Soviet Union. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
This is the first date of the 14 day crisis.When Fidel Castro came into power, he aligned himself with the Soviet Union and against America. An American spy plane spotted a missile being assembled in Cuba and, if fired, would devastate the Eastern side of the United States. A deal was reached where Soviet Union would remove their missiles from Cuba if America removed theirs from Turkey and did not invade Cuba. -
Soviet Union falls
Apart from the countries that already claimed their independence from the Soviet Union, the rest of the 11 territories had announced that they would no longer be a part of the Soviet Union. A main cause of this was the radical reforms put in place by Gorbachev
